LATER THIS MONTH, ABOUT 100 to 150 gay and lesbian-led families are set to gather in Tybee Island, Ga., for three days of infant-toddler parties, family dances, picnics, and a kind of fellowship most of the children attending have never experienced.
“I hear more and more from families that their kids don’t know any other families like theirs,” says Kathy Kelly, executive director of the MEGA Family Project, which hosts its first ever MEGA Family Vacation July 21-23.
“It’s mostly for the kids,” Kelly says of the retreat. “It helps them not feel alone and realize that their family isn’t the only family like theirs.”
Families that are parented by gay men and lesbians who are members of the MEGA Family Project now have even more peers and role models to look to for support, after the organization teamed up with Family Pride of the South to create a single organization dedicated to gay families.
“The primary thinking behind the joining of forces was that we are one community, we all have similar interests, and I think that a joint force will better serve our community than having two separate organizations,” says Kim Finnegan, who served as board chair of Family Pride of the South before it was integrated into MEGA Family Project.
With the fusion of organizations, MEGA Family Project’s membership grows by about 350 families, to 3,350.
FAMILY PRIDE OF THE SOUTH was essentially operating hand-to-mouth since its inception as a social organization in July 2001, so its contribution to MEGA Family Project’s $30,000 annual budget is expected to be “very, very little,” Finnegan says.
“Basically, the Family Pride budget has been [that] we’ve hoped each event we’ve held would generate enough to pay for itself, and give us a bit of a head start for the next event,” she says.
Family Pride was conceived by Lisa Prince and Deidre McCalla, who passed out fliers during Gay Pride 2001 inviting “anyone who had a kid” to join their organization. Having started as a discussion group on Yahoo, Family Pride grew into a non-profit social group that hosted about four events each year.
Last fall, Family Pride board members were reviewing the organization’s mission statement and objective, and there was strong support for the group expanding its activities beyond regular social events like spring carnivals, August picnics and Halloween parties.
“But it was clear we didn’t have the internal resources to do that,” Finnegan says. “There had been a much greater emphasis on the social events, probably because of the limited resources of the organization at the time.”
Come spring, Family Pride board members began meeting with leaders from the MEGA Family Project, which began as a political organization in 2004 to fight Georgia’s proposed constitutional amendment against marriage by same-sex partners, to brainstorm how the groups could work together. It soon became clear how compatible the mission of the two organizations were, Kelly says.
“By the end of the talk, we were asking ourselves, ‘Is it really necessary to have two separate organizations?’” Kelly remembers. “We just decided we have such a large community of gay and lesbian families that it didn’t make sense to send resources to two organizations, and some of the stuff we were doing was duplication.”
Before a final decision was made to become a single entity, the two groups collaborated on their respective events, cross-promoting and supporting the MEGA Family Picnic in April, and the annual Family Pride Spring Fling carnival in May.
“Seeing the success of that that cross-promoting I think really drove home the logic behind putting the two groups together,” Finnegan says.
Family Pride of the South plans to dissolve its 501c3 non-profit status by the end of the summer, Kelly says.
SINCE ITS INCEPTION, FAMILY PRIDE offered voluntary annual memberships at $35 per family, but Finnegan says plans were underway to make paid memberships mandatory as of July 1. Any families who already purchased a Family Pride membership have the option of getting a refund, or transferring their membership to the MEGA Family Project, whose annual membership costs $50 per family.
Over the last two years, MEGA Family Project broadened its scope to include social events, but it maintains its political advocacy around issues that most directly effect gay families, Kelly says.
“Our goal has always been to educate families and get them involved in the political process,” Kelly says. “The most important thing here with us joining together is we will have a stronger voice at the table for families, and I think that that’s lacking in our community.”
But with MEGA hosting about the same number of social events as Family Pride, both Kelly and Finnegan say the combining of organizations won’t diminish the lighthearted activities of Family Pride.
“I think there are a good handful of Family Pride members who will really welcome the availability and opportunity for some political advocacy,” Finnegan says. “Having said that, no one has to participate in any political activities, and we will be hosting certainly as many — and as planned, quite a few more — social activities as we have been.”
