Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere
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Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere (COLAGE) is an organization, created in 1990 by the children of several lesbians and gay men who felt a need for support. Though its membership is not necessarily LGBT-identified, COLAGE's focus on the issues of LGBT parents' families makes it a de facto part of the LGBT community. There are 52 COLAGE chapters in the United States of America, 2 chapters in Canada, and one European chapter.
COLAGE teams each summer with Family Pride and holds it's annual Family Week in Provincetown on Cape Cod. There hundreds of gay families come to enjoy the summer and the kids attend COLAGE meetings and workshops.
COLAGE is based out of Oakland, California and has small paid staff. It's Executive Director is Beth Teper who has two moms and today is an advocate for childern who have same sex parents.
[edit] COLAGE History
In 1988 a number of teens and young adults in their 20s gay parents went to a conference in Boston, organized by the Family Pride Coalition (then known as the Gay and Lesbian Parents Coalition International). This was one of the first times a group of people with lesbian and gay parents had ever been brought together and it was a powerful and transformative experience for the youth involved.
At the conference in 1989, the parents organized a number of workshops for both returning and new youth attendees, and though the parents get full credit for trying...they didn't go over very well. A group of two dozen of the kids at the conference got together half way through to discuss their problems with the workshops. That group selected spokespeople to approach the Board of the Family Pride Coalition about taking over the conference for youth in the future.
The Board agreed, and the group got back together to pick the organizers who would produce next year's conference. That new Steering Committee of six young adults became the very first leaders of COLAGE:
Hope Berry Manley Emily Gmerek Donna Ippolito Ali Nickel-Dubin Molly Heller Megan Waterman. At the same time, the Steering Committee approached a gay dad, Ed Lamano, and his daughter who had been producing a periodic newsletter for kids with gay parents for a couple of years. It was agreed that the group would take over the newsletter, and that they would take on the name of it, Just For Us. { Just For Us } Additionally, many of the existing groups around the US for kids with gay parents took on that name. During its first year of operation, the original Just For Us mailing list had fewer than 200 people.
In 1990, Just For Us ran the youth conference and produced the newsletter, adding kids to their mailing list, learning a lot about organizing and leadership. By 1991 there were 6 chapters of Just For Us around the country and a growing number of youth with LGBT parents attended the annual conferences. At each conference, the members of Just For Us held elections to fill the positions on its Steering Committee which included a Chair and coordinators for the newsletter, media, conference and fund-raising.
In January of 1992, the Steering Committee met in Connecticut for a three day meeting, the first time the group had met outside of the annual conference. During this watermark meeting, Just For Us adopted the organization's first mission statement as well as laid out some of their first programs and long-term goals.
COLAGE's First Mission Statement : To foster the growth of daughters and sons of lesbian and gay parents by providing education, support and community on local and international levels, to advocate for our rights and those of our families, and to promote acceptance and awareness in society that love makes a family.
At the 1993 conference in Orlando, Florida, the sixty or so youth participants decided to change the name of the organization from Just For Us to Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), this reflected an increasing desire to be proactive and public. COLAGE's newsletter kept the name Just For Us. At that time the mailing list included about 500 families.
In January, 1995, COLAGE opened a national office located in San Francisco, run by a volunteer Director, Stefan Lynch, and a number of other volunteers. COLAGE began providing support for local groups for kids around the US, and technical assistance to people wanting to start their own groups.
With its San Francisco base, the national office divided its time between local organizing in the SF Bay Area, including producing two plays and a family brunch for over 500 people, and international outreach and advocacy, for instance collecting testimony from 30 kids in the American South on behalf of Sharon Bottoms and her son Tyler, who was removed from her care by the Virginia courts because Sharon is a lesbian, and organizing a national speaker's bureau.
In 1995, COLAGE also added children of bisexual and transgender parents to its mission statement. After much discussion, the group decided to keep its name, COLAGE, due to strong feelings about the affirmative nature of our acronym. Some suggested that we change the name of the organization to "Kids Of Queers" but to be honest, the acronym deterred us. We see COLAGE (and collage) as a metaphor that reflects the diversity of our community while the "everywhere" in our name reminds and reaffirms the power of our presence in the world as well as the true fact that people with LGBT parents are, indeed, everywhere.
As COLAGE began to incorporate the experiences and perspectives of children of bisexual and transgender parents into its mission and work, several steps were taken to ensure that the needs of these communities were actively addressed and reflected in our work. COLAGE assembled one of the first-ever resources lists for kids of TG parents as well as facilitating one of the only groups in the world that is specifically for youth with transgender and gender-variant parents. Through our publications, resources, website and workshops we strive to actively determine and address the needs of kids with Bi and TG parents. If you have one or more bisexual or transgender parents, we'd particularly love to hear what you have to say about your experiences and how COLAGE can continue to work with you to address your needs. Contact us >
In January, 1997, COLAGE hired its first paid Director, Felicia Park-Rogers. Through her leadership, COLAGE incorporated into an independent 501c3 organization in 1999. At this time the Steering Committee transitioned into a national Board of Directors which remains the governing body of COLAGE today.
As an independent organization, COLAGE has become the main voice for children of LGBT parents in the United States as well as around the world. The organization continues many of the earliest programs of the group such as our Just For Us { Just For Us } publication, our work with the media to promote awareness and acceptance for us and our families, and our support of local and regional groups or chapters around the country. In addition, COLAGE has expanded its diverse array of programming to include increased programming at national and regional events around the country {national events under programs}, created several online communities for COLAGErs of all ages {online communities}, increased advocacy and activism {advocacy} and much more.
Through the leadership of our board, staff, youth leaders, members and volunteers, COLAGE has built a diverse base of support from foundations, companies, families and individuals whose generous contributions enable COLAGE to continue to grow and strengthen our many programs and services.
As of Spring 2005, COLAGE supports a staff of four full-time positions: an Executive Director, a Program Director, a Membership Coordinator and a Bay Area Program Coordinator. They maintain a strong base of volunteers all around the country who assist in a variety of crucial ways.
[edit] Queerspawn
Queerspawn is a term that was first termed by the author Abigail Garner. Abigail is a child of a two dad family and she wrote the popular book, "Families Like Mine". Abigail termed the named Queerspawn to identify kids with same sex parents. The name was quickly was embraced by COLAGE kids around the globe. T-shirt are worn with the word QUEERSPAWN imprinted on them and worn proudly by kids who have same sex parents.
