My family had the honor of joining President Obama for lunch in the State Dining Room at The White House June 14, 2013 for a Father’s Day Celebration. To say that we were excited would be an understatement. My husband Jeff  and I have spent the last seventeen years working hard building our life together. We live in a small town in South Carolina, where we have a very small LGBT community and even fewer LGBT parents. We spent years trying to become fathers before we finally welcomed our daughter Carrigan into the world in 2006. Our dream of becoming fathers came true for a second time when we welcomed our son Braxton just two months ago. The privilege of being parents was enough for us but to have that recognized by The President of The United States in The White House during Father’s Day was over the top! Jeff and I wrote a poem and stenciled it in our daughter’s room before she was born. The poem reads, “Your daddies had a dream, and along came you...you are living proof, our fairytale came true.” We never imagined our reality would be so much better than any fairytale we could have dreamed.

It should come as no surprise that the Supreme Court did not issue rulings this week on two critical gay rights cases, Hollingsworth v. Perry and U.S. v. Windsor. According to the bible for Supreme Court junkies, SCOTUS Blog, landmark decisions require greater deliberation and tend to come out during the final day(s) of the court's session -- which this year is "penciled in" as June 24.

Make no mistake: Gay D-Day is coming soon to a theater near you, its release inexorably and poetically linked with New York City's Pride celebrations. When the decisions come down, any progress will likely be tempered with disappointment that more sweeping change didn't take place. And this shouldn't surprise anyone either.

It was a school project that became a teachable moment about being proud of your family- not just for my kids, but also for me.

My daughter, a second-grader, came home with instructions to create a family timeline.  In the past, every school project that even hinted at family – a family tree, a family photo project, Mother’s day cards, Father’s day cards – created some anxiety for me.   

Will my two daughters feel comfortable talking about adoption?  Will they get questions about where their mom is? How do they explain that they have biological siblings who don’t live with us?

Currently, there are more than 400,000 youth in the U.S. foster care system, 104,000 of whom are available for adoption. Children end up in foster care for various reasons, but generally speaking, it's because something tragic has happened in their families of origin, such as abuse, neglect, homelessness or domestic violence. After a difficult start in life, the longer kids remain in care, the less likely they are to get their lives back on track. Each year, about 26,000 youth age out of the foster care system without ever finding a family to call their own, which puts them at significantly higher risk for poverty, homelessness, incarceration and early pregnancy.

It's Memorial Day weekend and I spent the drizzly, grey morning on a hike in the woods of Western Massachusetts with my twin 5-year old boys. We found a bright orange salamander slinking across the trail and threw moss-covered sticks into the rushing brook, watching them race downstream and over the cascades. We explored the forlorn stone chimney that is all that remains of a cabin that once stood on an island in the middle of the river, a site now marked with a ring of rocks surrounding damp charcoaled logs of a campfire. It was a perfect outdoor day with my kids. We live in Brooklyn, New York, but I try to take them into the woods at every opportunity; to give them the chance to climb rocks, pick up spiders, identify wildflowers, and just be, away from the cars and buildings and rush of the city.

STATEMENT FROM FAMILY EQUALITY COUNCIL REGARDING BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA VOTE

 Contact: Steve Majors | Communications Director| 202.664.0079 |smajors@familyequality.org

Washington, DC - (May 23, 2013) - Family Equality Council, the national organization that connects, supports and represents the three million parents in our country who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and their six million children today issued the following statement following a decision by the Boy Scouts of America to end their long-standing ban on gay youth, but continue to ban gay leaders including parents.

"Every Boy Scout, on their honor, first pledges to do their best,” said Family Equality Council Spokesman Steve Majors. “This is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the best the Boy Scouts can do. The Boy Scouts of America have sent a hurtful message to Scouts with LGBT parents that their moms and dads are not welcome as leaders alongside other parents. As a father of two girl scouts and the proud partner of an Eagle Scout, I know that Scouting has a long tradition of being a family activity and the Boy Scouts should be open to all our families.”

“Let’s also not forget this decision also affects gay Scouts who will be prevented from serving as adult leaders,” added Majors. “There is nothing honorable about discriminating against Scouts after they reach a certain age. Family Equality Council remains proud of the work that Zach Wahls, our Outspoken Generation co-chair, and parents like Jennifer Tyrrell have done to change the hearts and minds of the Boy Scouts on this issue. We look forward to the day when Scouting becomes an institution equally open to all Americans.”

Contact: Steve Majors | Communications Director 202.664.0079 | smajors@familyequality.org

Family Equality Council Statement on Immigration Reform: “Our Families Are Devastated”

Washington DC- (May 21, 2013) – Family Equality Council which connects, supports and represents the three million parents in our country who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and their six million children today called on lawmakers to explain to LGBT immigrant families why they won’t be included in Comprehensive Immigration Reform and treated equally under the law.

 “Immigration reform is not comprehensive if it leaves some families behind,” said Emily Hecht-McGowan, Family Equality Council Director of Public Policy. “Our families are absolutely devastated to learn that two amendments to the immigration bill that would have included protections for their families are being left out."

 “There are 36,000 binational couples in our country and almost half of them are raising children," added Hecht-McGowan. “Tonight as they look into the eyes of their children, they will know that despite the strong leadership of Chairman Leahy, other politicians in Washington made a politically expedient decision that could separate them from their kids, exile them from their country and make their entire future unstable. Shame on any lawmaker who feels they can play politics with the lives of our families. We’ll continue to work on behalf of those families and demand that Congress and the courts ensure they are respected and protected.”

This morning Family Equality Council and the Center for American Progress published a guide on how couples and parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, can access health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, or ACA. The Affordable Care Act and LGBT Families: Everything You Need to Know is a comprehensive guide that will introduce families to the intricacies of enrollment, tax credits, shared responsibility payments, Health Insurance Marketplaces, and Navigators. 

“While the Affordable Care Act will make health insurance affordable for millions more Americans, including families with parents who are LGBT,” said Heron Greenesmith, Legislative Counsel for Family Equality Council, “LGBT families will face specific obstacles to accessing coverage because of the patchwork of federal and state laws governing health insurance.” Currently, the ACA prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and many states will be offering family plans that include same-sex parents and their children. But while the Defense of Marriage Act remains federal law, families with same-sex parents will have to apply for tax credits separately instead of as a family.

“We hope this guide will serve as a basic intro to affordable health care,” said Greenesmith. Family Equality Council and the Center for American Progress have been working closely to ensure the inclusive implementation of the Affordable Care Act and will continue to advocate for and educate the LGBT community as the ACA comes into full implementation in January, 2014.