Let’s look at this from a step back, shall we?

Family Pride is working VERY hard for LGBT families. They made a mistake in a statement, which was corrected.

Now, we can continue to use our energy to rally against those who are fighting the same battles or we can use our energy to work against those would tell us that we’re wrong and that any child born into an LGBT family is going to miss out on a “normal” family experience.

As queerspawn, I am a bit surprised at the vehemence that’s shown toward a group that is working toward a better world for LGBT parents. As children of those very parents, maybe cutting a little slack wouldn’t be too out of line.

Kudos, gratitude, and thanks to the Family Pride staff and other LGBTQ organizations for working so tirelessly to secure equality for my family.

In San Francisco I was guilty of that when we started doing COLAGE groups in 1994, until one of the group facilitators pointed out to me that she had been in a group for colagers in the mid 80’s. And of course here in SF there have been out queers choosing to parent as out queers since the 70’s at least, and organizing conferences. Same in NYC and other places.

We have such a tenuous relationship to our own history, unfortunately.

stefan

I know back in “the day” (when we communicated with tin cans and a string and walked 18 miles to school), it was sometimes hard to find others that might of started similar events or communities, but hell, a lot of us queerspawn managed to find each other then! Nowadays, I imagine a half-decent google search would help people find that similar things have happened in the past, but I guess that ain’t true. Maybe someone needs to make some Wikipedia entries soon. And the FPC needs to learn to do some research. Of their own stuff, too.

Dan
SG oldster

What Family Pride should have done in their original post is highlight that this was the first time a gay family was included in a general segment of families, signaling a more mainstream acceptance of gay families or whatever they think it means.

Instead, they said: first time an LGBT family on a show generally about families=first positive portrayal of gay families. A total nonsequitur.

On top of which they are now basically blaming either a. the Oprah producer or b. the Sutherland-Travino family for their faux pas by saying that the family was responsible for relaying the information from the producer from which they made a totally erroneous extrapolation.

Again, outrageous from a PR point of view. The right thing to do here was to say “mea culpa” and move on.

Family Pride’s reasoning for the initial claim is based on several nuanced technicalities that I don’t totally follow, and I certainly wouldn’t expect that new visitors to Family Pride’s site nor the casual Oprah-watcher would take the time to deconstruct such particulars.

Thank you so much for making this point. We have changed the language in our blog to be more accurate.

The initial reason for posting this as the first positive portrayal was due to the fact that one of the producers on the show told the Sutherland-Trevino family that it was the first time an LGBT family was included in a general storyline about families. Rather than be a show dedicated to gay families, this episode is about extraordinary families, and we think that is a huge step in the fight for equality. It was never our intention to make other LBGT families feel as if their appearance on the show had been portrayed negatively.

Thanks again, Abigail. Your post was a good reminder about the importance in carefully choosing language.