Following in the footsteps of the lesbian moms of the 90s and the gayby boom of the 2000s, today about three-quarters of LGBTQ millennials are already parenting or plan to become parents. Ironically, as the number of LGBTQ people raising children grows, the legal environment in many parts of the country may make parenting more challenging. This November, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which will determine whether foster care agencies can refuse to serve LGBTQ families based on their religious objections. If Judge Amy Coney Barrett is elevated to the Supreme Court, the path ahead for many LGBTQ parents will become even more difficult.
LGBTQ Parenting 2020: Lessons from the Front Lines and the Challenges Ahead
61 min
October 28, 2020
Moderator
Gary Bailey
Gary Bailey, DHL, MSW, ACSW is the Assistant Dean for Community Engagement and Social Justice in the College of Social Sciences, Policy and Practice (CSSPP) at Simmons University. He holds the rank of a Professor of Practice at the Simmons University School of Social Work and has a secondary appointment at the Simmons University School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Professor Bailey is currently the president, Board of Directors of the National Association of Social Workers.
Panelists
Kerith Conron
Kerith Conron is the Blachford-Cooper Distinguished Scholar and Research Director at the Williams Institute. She is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist whose work focuses on documenting and reducing inequities that impact sexual and gender minority populations. Kerith is also the mother of an exceptional 8-year-old.
Michelle Garcia
Michelle Garcia is an attorney with New Mexico Legal Aid. She manages the LGBTQ+ legal access program, Safe to Be You, which focuses on civil rights litigation in rural and indigenous communities in New Mexico. Garcia previously worked as a Senior Trial Prosecutor for a Special Victim’s Unit (SVU) in northern New Mexico. She and her wife are foster parents for the State of New Mexico.
Alex Gomez
Alexandra-Grissell (Alex) Gomez is the a former project coordinator for the Pathways to Justice Project at the Williams Institute. She is a curandera-scholar-activist whose writing and research centers queer mothering, healing, and reproductive justice. For fun, Alex enjoys writing pleasure reports on the everyday joys and pleasures of mothering her 3-year old.
Asha Leong
Asha Leong is a healer, coach and trainer focused on helping queer, trans, people of color heal from trauma and thrive, create relationships, and build queer family. She is the founder of Dreaming Desires and the Sexual Liberation Collective. Asha has held leadership positions with the National Youth Advocacy Coalition, Youth Pride, and Lambda Legal, and has served on the boards of COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance. She is the mother of a five-year-old boy.
Victor Self (left) and Chris Fraley (right)
Victor Self is Vice President of Diversity Inclusion and Belonging for Barry’s, a global group fitness company. Chris Fraley is Chief Investment Officer of Realty Mogul, an on–line real estate investment company. Victor and Chris live with their daughters Coco (age 10) and Kiki (age 8) in Los Angeles.
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