rainbow families conference
A few months ago, my friend told me about an opportunity to make some money working with little kids. Just from that, I was hooked, but she went on to explain that it was at a conference for GLBT families. After that, I became even more interested. The organization responsible for the event is Rainbow Families, which is one of the largest regional lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender parent organizations in the country. On the application, I had to fill out what experience I had working with children, what activities I had planned for them, and lastly, my reasons for wanting to work at this conference. I think that this organization is super important in supporting a community that generally receives negative attention, and I wanted to help by spreading the positive message.
The mission statement for the organization is as follows:
“Rainbow Families works to build a safe, just, and affirming world for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parents and their children” (rainbowfamilies.org).
For the past twelve years, Rainbow Families has held a daylong conference for the whole family, and the event is the largest of its kind in the entire nation. This year it was held at the Bryn Mawr Elementary School in Minneapolis on April 21 from 8:30 to 4:30. There was a wide range of activities for both children and parents. The children were grouped by age and placed with a pair of teachers (aka babysitters involved in playtime), while the parents did more fun adult things. They were allowed to choose three workshops to participate in, which ranged from a variety of topics concerning familial topics such as legal and financial issues, social justice, school, and general parenting. Abigail Garner, author of Families Like Mine, was the keynote speaker, and according to the Rainbow Families website, she "has been on the forefront of nurturing dialogue and increasing visibility for LGBT families in both queer and mainstream communities". My fellow teacher and I were assigned eleven first graders and given a schedule for the day. The most important part of our job was to provide the kids with a supportive environment where they could have fun and enjoy themselves. This was one of the only spaces in their lives where they didn't have to deal with questioning from other children about their nonnormative families and they could easily feel comfortable and proud of their parents. These children came from families with two daddies or two mommies or perhaps they were raised by grandparents or other such situations but we as supervisors were instructed to never refer to them as their "mom and dad", simply as "parents", because we didn't want to exclude anyone based on their personal experiences. My partner wanted to teach the kids some lessons throughout the day and she was very adamant that they know that it's okay to be different, it's okay to be yourself, and you have to respect everyone even if they are different from you, and you still have to be nice. At random points during the day, we would ask them what they had learned and it was really powerful to listen to them spout off these lessons in their own little kid ways. They were very smart and perceptive and aware. With all of the children present at the conference, there was a parade with musical instruments and we all sang "it's a small world after all" and marched through the auditorium where all of their parents were listening to a speaker. There was storytime with variations on the typical family children's books. The first one we read was titled "and tango makes three", which featured two male penguins at the central park zoo that want to start a family like the other heteronormative couples and they raise a little girl. The other story, "king and king", is about a prince whose mother tells him he must marry, who in reply tells his mother that he never cared much for princesses and ends up living happily ever after with another prince. At one point during the day, I witnessed a scene that was reminiscent of what I imagine children like Noah from Middlesexes go through on a daily basis. There was a little girl in my group who had long dark hair but was wearing a spiderman tshirt, and one of the other children asked her if she was a boy or a girl because she wasn't dressed stereotypically as a girl should be. Unfortunately, I didn't eavesdrop well enough to hear her answer. Overall, this was a really enjoyable experience. The little kids were really sweet, well behaved, interesting individuals. I'm glad I got to participate in an event that benefited others and I was able to support the GLBT community.