More importantly, this reminds us that our movement, the LGBTQ movement, is about social justice, and as such, it is inextricably linked to and embedded in the legacy the NAACP.  Urvashi Vaid recently published a piece describing a schism in the framing of the LGBTQ movement as being either for social justice, or for equal rights.  COLAGE is a social justice organization.  COLAGE believes that civil rights are part of our path to social justice, but that social justice is a longer road, and it’s one we’re walking on with our allies in all oppressed and minority communities.  We are not just walking this road with them, we are also standing on their shoulders, walking paths they’ve paved ahead of us.

The NAACP’s platform is for broad and sweeping change toward social justice, not just equal rights, and we commend that long-sighted vision.  COLAGE stands with the NAACP in the fight for an end to legalized and institutionalized racial profiling, we stand with the NAACP in the fight for better access to healthcare and nutrition for all Americans, we stand with the NAACP in fighting for access to high quality schools that are not re-segregated thanks to white flight, we stand with the NAACP in fighting for reproductive rights, we stand with the NAACP in the fight for voter rights, and we stand with the NAACP in the belief that the civil right to marriage should be afforded to all Americans.

Our movement and our work will not end with marriage equality, and that is because it is only the most privileged among the LGBTQ community who will then have full access to what they need to thrive.  Social justice is more abstract, more intangible, and yes, harder to campaign and fundraise for, but it is what we are working towards.  We, as people of color and as white people, as the children of LGBTQ parents, as people who are straight, queer, trans, gender-variant, and gender conforming, as people with and without economic, social, and racial privilege have always stood together as COLAGErs for social justice for all as a higher (and harder) goal than equal rights, and we stand with the NAACP in the pursuit of equal rights as an important step toward our other shared goals of social justice.

We thank and congratulate Ben Jealous and the NAACP for their work for all of us, and we are committed to continuing our work with them and countless other social justice and civil rights organizations.

After all, I was already a very unlikely child. Born to a drug-addicted mother who was pregnant with me while she was in prison, I was saved by her inability to feed her addiction behind bars. She had already been through five abortions and the doctors did not think her womb could support life. But I was a “fighting fetus.” I was determined to get born! Once I was, I was adopted by my father and his partner. Their families shunned me initially because of my race and difficult background. My father thought about how—with a story like that—I had enough challenges in store for me, and he did not want me to have to answer for his sexuality too. Deep down though, the pit in his stomach told him that it was inevitable.

When asked who our heroes are, many of us mention one or both of our parents. For me, this question and my answer to it take on a deeper meaning given my life circumstances. My father and his partner rescued me from being another abortion or another statistic in the streets. Despite the clouds gathered around my initial entrance into this world, they gave me a wonderful childhood. I learned my numbers on the cash register working in our family store–my first job. I played baseball and climbed trees. I became student council president in high school. And I did what no one in our family had done before: I graduated from college. All the while I was taught by them to persevere and move beyond the discrimination we faced as a family. I never had a community like COLAGE growing up and our work now is to ensure that children with LGBTQ parents who are isolated, as I was, realize that they are supported by a strong and vibrant community of peers.

Thursday
I had another meeting about our new Sacramento chapter with Alisha Tomita, the adult COLAGEr who facilitates the meetings. Alisha and I had spoken on the phone and exchanged countless emails, but meeting in person was really different, and really powerful. I got to hear about Alisha’s personal story in much more depth than I had heard it over the phone, and really got a better sense of the amazing experience and strength she is bringing to COLAGE as a facilitator and leader. What stood out to me the most is how much Alisha cares about creating COLAGE space and community for our youth. To have a facilitator who never had COLAGE for themselves as a young person be so invested in offering it to youth and creating it for them is such an incredible resource, the commitment and passion Alisha brings to the youth in the Sacramento chapter is something they will probably never get anywhere else, and she will undoubtedly change lives. It is so inspiring to see my peers bring that love and passion to this work.

Seattle
On Thursday night I flew from San Francisco to Seattle where we have a large and growing community of adult COLAGErs. I was very lucky to meet with Michael Beebe when I got here; Michael was involved in COLAGE as a board member very early on in COLAGE’s existence. He also founded and ran a COLAGE chapter in Seattle, and the more I heard about it, the more it sounds like the direction we are hoping to go with our chapters in the future. It’s always neat to realize that someone was about 15 years ahead of their time! The chapter Michael ran in Seattle gathered youth to train them on public speaking, and most of the work they did was going out to schools and service providers to train them on how to create inclusive, safe space for COLAGErs. Michael has remained active in the youth activist and grass-roots organizing community in Seattle and was able to give me a wealth of ideas and resources that I can share with our new Seattle chapter leaders to help give them a solid start in the area. I’m always grateful to be standing on the shoulders of COLAGErs and organizers who’ve laid strong roots in their communities – we are building from a strong legacy of thoughtful and passionate organizing, and tapping into that history is invaluable for our chapters.
Seattle is also where four adult COLAGErs have moved over the last year or so, and they are coming together to start a chapter. I met with one of them, Lydia Katz, as well as a local parent who is invested in helping the chapter for brunch. Again, the passion and excitement that adult COLAGErs bring to this work is nothing short of inspiring to me. It seems that for many of us, not having had COLAGE community until our adulthood is something we regret, and that lack is something we want to ensure youth don’t have to endure. So many adult COLAGErs tell me that they can’t express enough to the youth in their chapters how lucky they are to have something like COLAGE in their lives, and how different they think their lives would have been if they’d had this during their childhood and adolescence. This certainly came across in my conversation with Lydia, and that motivation is going to be what drives this chapter and makes me certain it will be a success!