June 08, 2018
PHILADELPHIA – The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion in federal court today to intervene in a pending lawsuit brought by Catholic Social Services (CSS) against the city of Philadelphia over its policy barring agencies from discriminating against same-sex couples. The ACLU represents the Support Center for Child Advocates, a nonprofit organization that provides legal representation and services to children in the foster care system, and Philadelphia Family Pride (PFP), a membership organization of LGBTQ parents and prospective parents. Earlier this year, the city ended its practice of referring foster children to CSS because the agency refuses to license qualified same-sex couples to be foster parents or to place children with same-sex couples, which prompted CSS to respond with its lawsuit in the federal district court. The ACLU’s motion to intervene argues that the children and families served by Child Advocates and PFP would be harmed if CSS is successful in its lawsuit and asks the court for permission to participate in the lawsuit. “The heart of this case is what is in the best interests of children,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “Loving, supportive same-sex couples are willing to open their homes to kids in need, but CSS’s policy gives them one less avenue to make that happen. It would be a tremendous loss for our children if agencies were permitted to turn away good families based on failure to meet religious criteria.” A motion to intervene allows someone who could be directly impacted by its outcome to join the lawsuit as a party. If the court grants the motion, the ACLU will be able to argue in court on behalf of Child Advocates and PFP to explain why a ruling in favor of CSS would harm children in the foster care system and prospective families who seek to care for them. “Children in foster care in Philadelphia need every possible family that is ready, willing, and able to care for them,” said Frank Cervone, executive director of the Support Center for Child Advocates. “The Support Center for Child Advocates is entering the case to advocate for the best interests of all of Philadelphia’s children. We are in this for the kids. They need a voice in this dispute.” CSS has asked the court for a preliminary injunction directing the city to continue to refer kids to CSS while the litigation proceeds. A hearing on CSS’s request for a preliminary injunction is currently scheduled for June 18. “When families make the decision to open their hearts and homes to a child in need, they should not have to face discrimination by the child placing agencies,” said Stephanie Haynes, executive director of Philadelphia Family Pride. “Families that are prepared to help a child should be welcomed and supported, not turned away based on an agency’s religious disapproval.” “When governments contract with private agencies to provide public child welfare services and pay them taxpayer dollars to do it, they may not permit them to turn away qualified families based on religious objections to those families,” said Leslie Cooper of the ACLU’s LGBT and HIV Project. “That would violate the constitution.” The Support Center for Child Advocates and Philadelphia Family Pride are represented by Leslie Cooper of the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, Mary Catherine Roper and Molly Tack-Hooper of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Fred T. Magaziner and Catherine V. Wigglesworth of Dechert LLP, and Frank P. Cervone of the Support Center for Child Advocates. A copy of the motion filed today by the ACLU is available at this link.
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by Lee Carpenter
wedding cakeThis week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. That’s the famous “gay wedding cake” case, in which a very religious baker refused to bake a wedding cake for a Colorado same-sex couple.The couple filed a complaint with the state agency responsible for enforcing Colorado’s LGBT-inclusive anti-discrimination law. They won, and the baker appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that his right to the free exercise of his religion had been violated by the state. So the baker won. And unfortunately, that’s led to a lot of folks on both sides claiming that all of America’s haters now have a “license to discriminate” as long as they cloak their animosity towards us in religious clothing. That’s just not true. In fact, this ruling resolved none of the major issues in the case. We didn’t know before this opinion whether a religious baker could refuse to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. We still don’t. We didn’t know whether baking a cake is the kind of artistic expression that makes it protected by the First Amendment. We still don’t know the answer to that either, because the Supreme Court didn’t rule on those things. All the opinion said was that in this case, some officials sounded like they were being disrespectful and dismissive of the baker’s religious belief, and that that was unacceptable. All of the big issues in this case will have to be resolved at some point, but for now, the Court has decided that this isn’t the right case to make big, bold pronouncements about how the balance between religion and LGBT civil rights gets resolved. So for now, go about your business, and go to whatever business you like. Lee Carpenter is a Temple University Law School Professor. She and her partner Tiffany Palmer live in Mt. Airy with their 11 year-old kid. Lots going on in June 2018 in Philadelphia to celebrate LGBTQ Pride Month. We’ve included both events that we are organizing (the picnic on the 23rd!) and others that are in the community that we are planning to attend. Hope you can make it to some or all of them!
Pride Month Kickoff and Pride in the Plaza Celebration – Thursday, June 7th 5-8pm Join the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs as we celebrate Pride Month with a City Hall flag raising ceremony and kickoff party on June 7th! The official City of Philadelphia flag raising with the Mayor and City Council will occur from 5-6 pm followed by a huge party in the City Hall courtyard 6-8pm featuring food trucks, live performances, DJs, dancing as well as HIV testing, voter registration and legal expungement services! Family Festival Pride Celebration at the Please Touch Museum – Saturday, June 9th, 9am The Please Touch Museum is holding their first ever Pride event. Meet up with other PFP families at the torch in the main hall at 9am. RSVP on the Facebook event so we know to look for you! Families needing financial assistance to attend should reach out to stephanie@phillyfamilypride.org for discounted tickets. 20th Annual Philadelphia Dyke March – Saturday, June 9th, 3pm Rally: Kicking it off at 3:00 pm at Kahn Park (11th and Pine streets); Free iced coffee will be available thanks to our friends at Good Karma! March: Step off and take to the damn streets promptly at 4:00 pm! After march: Chill in the park and have some free water ice as Philly’s Dyke performers rock the mic for the rest of the day! As always, PDM brings you electrifying speakers and performers, awesome entertainment and of course an opportunity to take over Philly’s streets! Philly Pride Run 5k and 1.5 miler – Sunday, June 10th, 10:30am Celebrate Philly Pride 2018 with Philly’s inaugural Philly Pride Run 5K Race AND the original 1.5 miler Fun Run down the historic Pride Parade route in Center City Philadelphia! Click the link for more details. The 1.5 mile race leads the Pride Parade! Philly Pride Parade & Festival – Sunday, June 10th, 10am-4pm March with PFP in the Philly Pride parade. Meet up in the area of 13th and Locust at 10:30am. March steps off at 11:30am. Look for the PFP banner and be sure to RSVP on the Facebook event or email us so we know to look for you. The parade route is 1.3 miles long and ends at Penn’s Landing (where you can take public transit or walk back to the beginning or continue into the festival.) PFP will also again host the Family Zone at the Pride Festival at Penn’s Landing with crafts, books and blocks for kids and a place to rest for adults. Volunteer with PFP to get free admission to the festival! This year’s headline entertainer is Margaret Cho! Email stephanie@phillyfamilypride.org to volunteer. Drag Queen Story Time – Tuesday, June 12th, 4:30pm Join the Free Library of Philadelphia for one of their many Pride events in June for a drag queen story time at the Fumo Library in South Philly with Brittany Lynn. See the full list of Free Library Events around the city for Pride. Intergenerational Panel – Wednesday, June 19th, 6pm This is not to be missed! Hosted at the main branch of the Free Library in the Skyline room, this event will be a discussion on LGBTQIA+ community, history, identity, and what Pride means to folx from a multitude of generations. See the list of other Pride Month events from the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs. Family Pride Picnic and Arts Festival – Saturday, June 23rd, 11am-4pm, Lovett Park Join hosts Philly Family Pride, Mt. Airy Art Garage and the Mayor’s Office for LGBT Affairs for a picnic and arts festival in the newly renovated Lovett Park on Germantown Ave. in Mt. Airy as we celebrate pride with crafts, entertainers, FOOD TRUCKS, games, art and more. Special guests include Mayor Kenney, LGBT Affairs Director Amber Hikes, members of City Council and more to be announced. Rain date June 30th. More. Phillies Pride Night – Thursday, June 28th, 7pm This year’s Pride Night at Citizen’s Bank Park will take place in a game vs. the Washington Nationals and is sponsored by Giant Food Stores. The first 1,500 fans who purchase tickets to this event will receive a coupon for a Phillies rainbow flag. Click the link above for tickets. PFP families who want to sit together/meet up should email stephanie@phillyfamilypride.org. Tickets are discounted $4 when using promo code PRIDE. Philadelphia Family Pride denounces the hateful rhetoric targeting our families in Representative Daryl
Metcalfe’s letter to Governor Tom Wolf in January 2018. Rep. Metcalfe’s demand, signed on to by 24 of his colleagues, that birth certificates issued by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania be changed to specify “Mother” and “Father” instead of the current “Parent/Parent” language serves no practical purpose other than to discriminate against families such as those that comprise Philadelphia Family Pride and other families around the commonwealth. Birth certificates play a central role in identifying and recognizing who has the legal rights to make decisions for a child and U.S. Supreme Court decisions clearly establish that same-sex couples have equal rights with respect to their children’s birth certificates as opposite-sex couples. Insisting that gendered terminology be used to describe those parents is a waste of the Commonwealth’s time and resources. Our families are diverse and varied, and the birth certificates of their children should reflect that what matters to our children is the love and support that are what truly makes a family, not the gender of their parents. Philadelphia Family Pride calls on Governor Wolf and other representatives to speak out against these attacks on our families and our children and applauds the steps already taken to ensure that our families are recognized on these important legal documents. You can find your state representatives here. Contact Gov. Wolf here. The list below is an addendum to the “Queer Parenting 101” session facilitated by Philly Family Pride at the Creating Change 2018 Conference in Washington, DC. For suggestions, please comment below or email Stephanie Haynes at stephanie@phillyfamilypride.org.
Click this link to download a PDF of the transcribed questions/discussion topics from the session: Queer Parenting 101 Butcher Block Post-It Note Questions PERSONAL STORIES 18 Lesbian Moms We Love on Instagram A Womb of Their Own Biff and Trystan Building Blocks – Interactive Conversations with LGBTQ families Dad, Daddy & Kids Darrow Brown and Juan Calvo – Story Corps The F-Word: A Foster-to-Adopt Story Family Focus: Jem, Michael and Tia Fostering Hopes Gay Parent Magazine Gayby Maybe Epic Queer Parenting Round Table Gays with Kids Julie Chu and Caroline Ouellette welcome baby to family Kordale & Kaleb Love Comes First YouTube Channel My Coming-Out Story: Out and Proud as a Bisexual Mother New Film Shows Lesbian Families’ Struggles and Resilience in the South Sandy & Denise This Amazing Trans Couple Defied The Odds—And Their Doctor—To Conceive A Child Tess and Nikina’s Story BOOKS 9 New LGBT Children’s Books Every Kid Should Read Jan. 2018 A Holiday Guide to 2017’s LGBTQ Family Books Yes, There Are Queer-Positive Children’s Books That Are Actually Good and Not Horribly Depressing Corey Silverberg’s Books Flamingo Rampant The Book Nook – Family Equality Council FINDING YOUR PEOPLE Camp Highlight COLAGE Family Equality Council Gay Parent Magazine List of Support Groups Gay Fathers Facebook Group Queer Mamas* Facebook Group Transgender Parenting Facebook Group FINANCIAL HELP Financial Assistance for LGBT Parents to Be The Ultimate Gay Men’s Guide to Crowdfunding for Surrogacy or Adoption LEGAL RESOURCES ACLU – LGBT Parenting Legal Recognition of LGBT Families – National Center for Lesbian Rights State LGBT Family Law Guides – National Center for Lesbian Rights Families – National Center for Transgender Equality Protecting Your Children – Lambda Legal Know Your Rights – Transgender Parenting OTHER RESOURCES How Can Midwives Help Queer and Trans Families Feel Safe? What Do Kids Call Their LGBTQ Parents? Welcoming Schools by PFP parent Leigh Braden On September 21, 2017 I attended a foster parent recruitment meeting at the William Way Center co-hosted by the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs and Philly Family Pride. This meeting was held to recruit potential foster parents from the LGBTQ community who would provide loving homes to LGBTQ youth. I attended as a representative of A Second Chance Inc., an organization I work with that specializes in kinship care. The organizers of the meeting had asked a panel of folks to speak about their experiences and share resources with the group – a foster care agency, LGBTQ foster parents and an 18-year old LGBT-identified youth named Frank. The room fell silent to hear this soft-spoken, sweet, sad kid talk about how hard it had been for him in foster care, how he came to America from Indonesia fleeing persecution for being gay and how he had no family and wanted to be in a family. He talked about his love for music and how he had to sell his keyboard when he went into care and how he missed feeling comfortable and affirmed. I could feel tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat. I approached Frank after the meeting and asked if we could have lunch together suggesting that maybe I could help him with this situation and find hiim a better home. Frank agreed and that same week we met. He told me more of his story and how he was in an accelerated high school program in Indonesia and graduated from school early, about the circumstances he lived in while in Indonesia and the kind of fear and discrimination he felt as a sexual minority. His father died when he was 4 years old and his mother plummeted into poverty and could not take care of her children any more. We talk for a long time. By the end of the lunch, I knew that we were the foster family that Frank needed. I knew that we could give him an affirming home. My wife Sophie and I talked to our 8 year-old son who loved the idea of having a big brother. We had Frank over for dinner and the decision was made to offer to be his foster family. He said yes and I sprang into action. We were certified in a month to be foster parents for Frank. This is very fast, but as a person who works in the field I knew exactly what we needed to do and how to get it done quickly. Frank moved into our home October 27, 2017. He has integrated into our family and we care about him. He is neither soft-spoken nor sad anymore. He is a teenager, which is fun and frustrating all at the same time. Frank is applying to colleges for the fall of 2018. I am teaching him how to drive, and Sophie and I are learning how to parent a teenager. Every day Frank sits at the piano in our home and makes beautiful music. We have high hopes for him and his future. If you live in Pennsylvania and are interested in becoming a foster parent for LGBTQ youth, contact Leigh at leighb@asecondchance-kinship.com. On Thursday, March 30, Philadelphia City Council unanimously passed a resolution declaring March 31st Transgender Day of Visibility in the city. “WHEREAS, One million Americans are transgender and have bravely overcome significant hardships to build vibrant and thriving communities, often in the face of systemic and interpersonal prejudice, discrimination, and violence; and WHEREAS, We cannot simply celebrate visibility without also recognizing that it does not always equal justice; still far too many Trans people, in particular Trans women of color, continue to face profound threats to their safety and wellbeing; and WHEREAS, Already this year we know of eight Trans women of color who were murdered — Jaquarrius Holland, 18 years old; Ciara McElveen, 21 years old; Chyna Gibson, 31 years old; Keke Collier, 24 years old; JoJo Striker, 23 years old; Mesha Caldwell, 41 years old; Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, 28 years old; and Alphonza Watson, 38 years old — for each Trans person killed or lost this year and in years past we mourn, we honor, and we say their names; and WHEREAS, We also celebrate the beauty and resilience of Trans people through history and of those who are with us today, and we recognize that Trans people have contributed and continue to contribute in myriad ways to the betterment of our society and our city, often working at the forefront of social justice activism and human rights work; and WHEREAS, Trans people, and in particular Trans women of color including Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, and Marsha P. Johnson, were instrumental in the creation of the modern gay rights movement in the United States, from the 1965 Dewey lunch counter protests in Philadelphia to the Stonewall riots in 1969 to the creation of radical new civil rights organizations;…” Read the full resolution here. (PDF) Thanks to the hard work of Philadelphia Office of LGBT Affairs, Councilwoman Helen Gym and City Council to speak out, advocate, and support this resolution. Transgender Day of Visibility is another step towards ensuring the equal protection, safety, and full dignity of our transgender friends and neighbors. Here is a transgender and gender nonconforming reading list of books for all ages. Pictured is the group at the City Council press conference on March 30th after the passage of the resolution. While learning about the history of black and brown people shouldn’t just be relegated to one month a year, PFP wanted to take this opportunity to offer some book lists, an upcoming event and a couple of new books for Black History Month.
First, be sure to check out The 25th Annual African-American Children’s Book Fair this Saturday, February 4th at the Community College of Philadelphia from 1-4pm. The fair is one of the oldest and largest single-day events for African American children’s books in the country. On average, over 3,500 people from across the nation attend.Now for some relevant book lists: Brown Sugar & Spice Books Elementary School Collection Free Library of Philadelphia: Black Lives Matter, Elementary School Free Library of Philadelphia: Martin Luther King, Books for Children GoodReads Civil Rights Books for Children GoodReads Picture Books for Black History Month See below for a couple of books that are new. If you have other favorites, please join our Facebook group and make your suggestions to this list on there. March by John Lewis March, a graphic novel trilogy, is a vivid first-hand account of Georgia Congressman John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement. The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, a Young Civil Rights Activist, by Cynthia Levinson Audrey was just 9 years old in 1963, during the civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., but that didn’t stop her from standing up and speaking out against racial segregation. Learn how her confidence and bravery made a difference. Finally, if you plan to purchase these books, please consider doing so locally at bookstores such as Bindlestiff or Big Blue Marble. If you order on Amazon, please select Philadelphia Family Pride as your Amazon Smile organization. Thank you! Philadelphia Family Pride, a local nonprofit group for LGBTQ parents, prospective parents, grandparents and their children, expanded the board of directors for 2017 from 10 to 16 members at a meeting in late December. The new board was elected at the group’s annual New Year’s Day Brunch at Congregation Mishkan Shalom on January 2. The new board held its first meeting on January 29 and discussed goals and plans for the year.
Kelly Durand is in her second year as Board Chair. Vice-Chair Sandra Telep in her fourth year in that role All of the 2016 board members carried over into 2017 including Gina Cline, who will now be the group’s Secretary, Sandy DiBerardino who will remain as Treasurer and commitee chairs Gregory Hedler (Membership) and Paula Estornell (Education and Advocacy). Other board members staying on will be in “Member at Large” slots, including Bryan Berchok, Gregory Yorgey-Girdy, Joel Nichols and Nijah Newton-Famous. The board has six new members for this year: Phyllis Chamberlain, Events Planning Committee Chair, Terinae Holland, Fundraising Committee Chair and Members at Large Adam Podowitz-Thomas, Angel Brice, Ruby Augustus and Tariem Burroughs. “With 100% retention from 2016 and more people interested in joining the board, we wanted to expand the number of board members. This will also allow PFP to hold more events and reach more LGBTQ parent communities in 2017,” commented Board Chair Kelly Durand. For more information and a schedule of upcoming events, please visit www.phillyfamilypride.org and look for us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Welcome to all the folks visiting Philadelphia this week for Creating Change 2017! If you brought your kids, Philly Family Pride, the regional LGBTQ parents group, has a few tips for you on where to take the little (and not so little) ones. All are LGBTQ-parent friendly. First we’ll go through 5 indoor places for those under five and then five places for the older kids.
Feel free to email PFP director Stephanie Haynes with questions at stephanie@phillyfamilypride.org. 5 places for under the under 5 set It’s chilly, so we’re starting with three indoor places to keep warm and have fun.
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