ORLANDO GAY PARENTS

 In the beginning (or so it seems), TV shows such as Will and Grace showed the single, child-free of life of gay men.  Then movies such as Birdcage or the original La Cage Aux Follies brought children into the storyline.  Now we have gay couples on TV adopting or partnering via a surrogate birth in shows such as Modern Family and The New Normal.  All of the sudden, gay parenting has exploded all across the country and Orlando is no exception.

Over the past year we have had many requests concerning information about a gay parents group.  The Center is excited to include the Orlando Gay Parents group on our website and will provide a list of their events on our calendar.  Their mission statement is simple but wide ranged.   To quote their MS:

We are a gay and lesbian group of parents, expecting parents, and aspiring parents.   Our mission is:

1)     To offer our kids the opportunity to get to know children from similar families

2)     To exchange insight and advice from personal experiences in various situations such as adoption and other legal procedures, pregnancy, and child-rearing.

3)     To provide a social atmosphere for non-traditional families to get together and have fun.

Orlando Gay Parents offer a variety of activates from children’s play dates to parent’s night out.  They are also a good source of information concerning lawyers and adoption agencies. Their group is representative of families from all over Central Florida.

For more information contact the Group Administrator, Bobby-Jo Cameron at rjcameron24@yahoo.com or find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/orlandogay parents.

“You need to stop lying. I’m not going anywhere, but I really need you to stop lying,” I told Alan, my partner of 11 years, while he sat in a lawn chair in our downtown backyard.

“Would you please just take the dogs and go inside?” was his slurred reply.

It was Easter Sunday, 2012. I had spent the afternoon in Clermont visiting family. When I arrived home, Alan was visibly drunk. His eyes were glazed, and his smile was cocked. He’d been suffering from intense depression and anxiety for a long time, but lately things had been steering toward an abyss.

Still, I didn’t think too much about the exchange. It wasn’t that unusual. I allowed the adrenaline of a drunken squabble to carry me (and the dogs) through the back door and onto a laptop in the back bedroom. I posted a song – a classic Eurythmics antipathy seethe, “Don’t Ask Me Why” – on my Facebook page, anticipating another evening of matrimonial acrimony, soundtracked.

Just as I hit play, at 9:08 p.m., I heard a loud pop, the unmistakable sound of a gunpowder thrust that would change my life forever. The dogs screamed. I jumped up in a panic.

I ran outside to find Alan on his back. His pistol was on the ground about five feet away. There was a gaping hole in his chest. Instinctively, I wrapped my whole body around him, pressing my hand as hard as possible against the wound. Blood rushed through my fingers. I screamed as loud as my constricting throat would allow. Somebody from a neighboring party jumped over my fence and tried to help. I breathed into Alan’s mouth, trying to keep a conversation going all the while.

I could hear him moaning into my ear, but there were no words.

“I love you!” I sobbed. “Please don’t leave me! Please hang on!”

It was only seconds before I had a 911 operator on the phone and the dogs secured. In a few minutes, the police were at my house, yellow crime tape forming a perimeter of doubt. Questions were flying. What happened? Was he breathing? I was pulled out onto the front curb on East Concord Street – left there, listless and on my own, while the paramedics did their best in the backyard. A friend happened to ride by on a scooter; the neighbors came out with bottles of water; the entire Orlando Weekly editorial staff and their respective partners caught wind and began to form a vigil as we awaited the inevitable. I was questioned by an Orlando police officer. My hands were photographed for gunpowder. I was asked to give a statement. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want it to be final.

Also, ironically perhaps, I didn’t want it in the news.

“He was drunk. He’s been sick. He killed himself,” is what I forced out.

“Were you on Orlando’s domestic-partnership registry?” the officer asked.

“No. We hadn’t had the chance.” The registry had only been around for three months.

After three hours, the tape started coming down, and the gurney, with a blanket pulled over Alan’s face, was rolled from the backyard into an ambulance.

Read The Full Story At: http://orlandoweekly.com/news/39-til-death-do-us-part-1.1470451

(TALLAHASSEE)  Moments ago the Florida Senate Committee on Children, Families and Elder Affairs passed the “Families First” bill (SB 196).

By a margin of 5 to 4, the Senate committee voted to move closer to creating a statewide domestic partnership registry (DPR) that would provide essential legal protections for unmarried couples including hospital visitation, correctional facility visitation, end of life decision making and burial arrangements.

A majority of Floridians already live in a local community that has a domestic partnership registry. Places like Pinellas County, Volusia County, Orange County, Broward County, Miami-Dade County, Key West, Tampa, Orlando, Gainesville, Tavares, Clearwater and North Miami already have registries. The Families First bill would eliminate the patchwork of policies and allow people to have important legal protections for their family, no matter where they live.

“The bill passed with support from both Democrats and Republicans together with bipartisan sponsorship of the Florida Competitive Workforce Act signals a new day in Florida,” said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. “This is a reflection of the change in public opinion favoring legal equality for all Florida couples. Our political leaders are finally listening to the pain inflicted on couples who are treated as legal strangers. And they are listening to the growing voice of business leaders who are calling for statewide protections that will help them attract and retain a diverse workforce.”

Local Domestic Partnership Registries now protect roughly 50% of Florida’s population. The protections are vital especially since the state has a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality.

Senator Sobel has championed this bill and told her fellow committee members “Today we made history.” The bill now moves on to the next committee.

Equality Florida is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Press Release

For Immediate Release (April 1, 2013)

Contact:  Mallory Wells, Public Policy Director, (407) 617-6682

via “Families First” Bill Moves Domestic Partnership Forward | Equality Florida.

[LETTER] DP Registry v Useless forms | Equality Florida.

From Mary Meeks, the attorney who testified at the Hillsborough County Commission hearing on Domestic Partner Registries (DPR).

Dear Commissioner Higginbotham,

I direct this letter to you and your 3 colleagues who voted on Wednesday to betray your obligation to care for and represent ALL of your constituents. As you know, I spoke at the Commission hearing on March 20 at the invitation of Commissioner Beckner, as an attorney with extensive experience in drafting “protective documentation” for gay and unmarried couples, who has consulted with numerous Florida municipalities regarding their consideration of a domestic partnership registry. I was specifically asked to advise the Board of my opinion and experiences concerning the very real limitations of the legal documents that you propose as a substitute for the inherent rights granted by a Domestic Partner Registry. I was extremely disappointed that you clearly did not want to hear my comments, and that you once again voted against any consideration of a DPR for Hillsborough County, and instead proceeded with your sham proposal to pass out some forms that are already available, and which will do virtually nothing to provide the protections needed by domestic partners for their families. Your proposal ignores the fact that the very reason that DPRs were designed in the first place is because these forms DO NOT provide the necessary protections to families. Every other city and county that has looked at this issue has reached the same obvious conclusion. I could tell you story after story of couples who have executed these forms, who have still been denied the right to be together and make decisions for each other in times of medical crisis. A DPR would fix that -giving people forms they have already executed will not. What do you say to those people? Why don’t they matter to you? 

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