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.

In honor of my daughter’s birth, I’m joining forces with fellow COLAGE supporters Adam Berman and Alex Scotta to make a challenge gift totaling six thousand dollars ($6,000) for the Voices Raised! Leadership Summit. Your donation to COLAGE today will be matched – dollar for dollar.

On April 13th, I welcomed Roque Carrillo Rowe into the world. Roque is my daughter through donor insemination. As the son of lesbians who had me through donor insemination, I was honored when a very good friend of mine, a single queer Chicana, asked me to donate to her so that she could have a child. I am proud and awed to have been part of bringing this new life into the world, and look forward to having an amazing relationship with Roque as her known donor-dad.

Please join me in celebrating the birth of my daughter with a donation to COLAGE.

The upcoming Voices Raised! Leadership Summit (5/28-5/30) is the first conference ever designed for people of color with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer parents. The weekend conference will focus on the intersections of our different identities, how those have shaped who we are, and how we use our voices to make change in the world. The summit will offer workshops on written story telling, using social media, and advocating for what matters most to our families. Your support for this summit is crucial.

Will you join me, Adam and Alex, and donate a matched donation of $250, $100, or $25 in support of Voices Raised?

COLAGE is the only national, youth-driven network that connects people with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or queer parent to a community of peers. COLAGE helps us create a space just for us to learn from and empower each other. People of color with LGBTQ parents also need this space – to share our experiences not only as people with LGBTQ parents, but also as people of color. Sponsor a young person of color with a LGBTQ parent to attend this Leadership Summit and your donation will be matched.

Your support of COLAGE is important, not just to me, but for COLAGErs like Roque.Thank you.

In solidarity,
Aaron Sachs
Chair, Board of Directors
COLAGE

p.s. There is still time to donate AND your donation counts double through our dollar for dollar match. Adam, Alex and I will match any donation in honor of Roque or in support of COLAGE’s Voices Raised! Leadership Summit until May 31st, when Roque turns 6 weeks old. Act now!

Join the COLAGE Board of Directors, a diverse and talented group of dedicated volunteers that includes youth and adults with LGBTQ parents, LGBTQ parents, and allies from across the United States! The Board convenes for in-person meetings twice annually in addition to participating in ongoing conference calls and committee meetings. The Board provides crucial guidance and oversight for COLAGE while performing important fundraising and governance duties.

Application Deadline: Wednesday, March 30th, 2011

Apply now, learn more and spread the word!

COLAGE Seeks Spring & Summer Interns (Paid!)

Want to make a difference in the lives of people with LGBTQ parents? Want to learn about working in a grassroots nonprofit organization? Apply now to work in the national headquarters of COLAGE this summer! Spring and Summer Interns help produce LGBTQ family events; conduct education and outreach via phone, email and social media; design and lead workshops for youth ages 8-18; and help improve the policies that shape our families day-to-day lives.

Application Deadlines:
Spring: Friday, February 18th, 2011
Summer: Friday, April 8th, 2011

Apply now, learn more and spread the word!

COLAGE Seeks Skilled and Passionate Leaders to Join National Board of Directors!

• Download this announcement
• Download the application (.pdf)  (.doc)
• Apply online now!

COLAGE (www.colage.org) is the only national, youth-driven network of people with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer (LGBTQ) parent. By connecting with others who share our experience, COLAGE helps us come to the realization that our difference is our strength. With this realization, we become leaders and advocates for the policies that matter most to LGBTQ families.

COLAGE offers an integrated array of local, regional and national programs. With nearly 20,000 member contacts, a network of chapters across the U.S, and over 20 years of expertise in youth empowerment and LGBTQ family matters, COLAGE helps children of LGBTQ parents gain the rights, recognition and respect that all families deserve.

The COLAGE Board of Directors is an multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-talented group of dedicated volunteers that includes youth and adults with LGBTQ parents, LGBTQ parents, and allies from across the United States. The Board convenes for in-person meetings twice annually in addition to participating in ongoing conference calls and committee meetings. The Board provides crucial guidance and oversight for COLAGE while performing important fundraising and governance duties.

This is your opportunity to join COLAGE’s Board of Directors during a very exciting time for the organization! COLAGE is looking for strategic, passionate and active leaders to join the Board of Directors and help take the organization to its the next level of development and impact. 

To ensure that all organizational decisions and actions are guided by and reflect COLAGE’s diverse membership and constituencies, we are currently seeking people who have one or more of the following backgrounds or identities to apply:

• Do you have one or more transgender parent(s) and/or identify as trans?
• Are you a person of color and/or active in communities of color?
• Are you from/Do you reside in the Midwest or a rural area of the U.S.? Or from the  cities of NYC, DC, or LA?
• Are you male-identified?
• Are you between the ages of 15 and 18?  Or 30-45?

COLAGE especially seeks dedicated board members with skills and experience in:

• public relations, marketing, media communications, and e-communications;
• financial management, investment & oversight or non-profit accounting;
• fundraising, especially event planning and individual donor program development

BASIC REQUIREMENTS:

• Uphold COLAGE’s mission, vision, values, and methodology
• Commit to a two year term starting in May/June 2011
• Volunteer average of 10-20 hours per month (some months more, some less)
• Attend in-person three-day meetings twice per year. Spring meeting is in SF Bay Area, Fall meeting location rotates. This fall the meeting over a weekend in October 2011 and a spring board meeting in March or April 2012
• Participate in all-board conference calls every 6 weeks
• Actively participate on at least one board committee, including monthly calls
• Make a personally significant annual financial contribution to the organization and actively participate in fundraising
• Be an ambassador for COLAGE and LGBTQ families, including being publicly ‘out’ about your family, in your community
• Have a deep understanding of COLAGEs stance on issues of oppression and feel comfortable having conversations about difference, commonalities and a diverse range of identities. (see social justice statement below and visit our website www.colage.org)

APPLICATIONS DUE: Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Committee Interview, April 2011

Board Votes, May 2011

New Board Members start, June/July 2011

FIRST IN PERSON BOARD MEETING FOR NEW RECRUITS

FALL 2011 (October, Location: TBD)

TO APPLY:

Please submit completed COLAGE Board Application Form to COLAGE Board Development Committee via nominations@colage.org

Find Application Form here -  http://www.colage.org/about/board.htm

When your application is received, you will be notified and may be asked to participate in an interview with one of our current Board members or Executive Director.

QUESTIONS?

Email our Board Development Committee at nominations @ colage.org, the Committe Chair, Crystallee.crain@gmail.com or contact Beth Teper, Executive Director at 415-861-5437 or director@colage.org.

SOCIAL JUSTICE STATEMENT

COLAGE is committed to the justice and liberation of all people. We realize that families with LGBTQ parents and guardians are diverse and multifaceted and we celebrate every person and family’s right to express and explore their differences freely. Just as we view our families’ differences as our greatest strength, so too do we recognize our community’s diversity, richness, and uniqueness as a wonderful and important part of COLAGE’s work.

Because of this understanding, COLAGE believes that all forms of oppression and injustice are connected and systematic and is committed to addressing discrimination in all its forms. We understand that in order to create justice for all of our families, it is necessary for our board of directors to to actively include and seek to understand the different identities, cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds of our constituents. We seek not only to fully include and engage people from all races, social and economic classes, gender identities, sexual orientations, gender identities, ages, and abilities but to also work as an organization to dismantle and eliminate oppression on the basis of any of the above.

Implicit in this commitment is the understanding that all leadership roles with COLAGE, including board members, will share these same values and goals.  Board members, once accepted, must continuously expand and increase their knowledge and understanding of power, privilege and oppression.

Thank you!