News from our Families

Chavez's talk about "News from our Families: at the Borders Talk" featured Dr. Daniel Brauer, Dr. Charles Morris. This talk addressed the LGBT adoption, sexual orientation, military service; hate crime law, call for immigration equality, a change in anti-discrimination laws against LGBT people and also a call for coalition. These speakers were able to discuss the pain and oppression faced by gay, lesbians, and undocumented workers by presenting stories regarding HIV positive born child with two gay parents, military services against homosexuality, and so on. For instance, Dr. Morris was able to discuss this hardship in details sharing with us a news story that featured a boy born with HIV with two gay men as parents. With this story, he was able to discuss the rejections faced by these two gay men to serve as a parent and how it eventually became a positive influence on the community after the child died. These speakers were also able to discuss how homosexuality is viewed as a degrading act among military men and women. Also how they viewed homosexuality as an act that would create an acceptable risk to the high standard of moral and discipline that are the essence of military capability.
At the end of their talks, they were able to call for a need for belonging that "calls us to reckon with the ways in which we are oppressed so that we may place ourselves where we can have an impact and where we can share experience". They discussed a need for a "change for legalization not acceptance". They also encouraged the audience to share their stories because "our lives and stories serve as a tool for political change".