Uncategorized Archives - Page 3 of 5

Adoption Info Night

November 28, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

November is National Adoption Month! Join Rainbow Families on for Adoption Information Night for LGBTQ+ prospective parents. This event starts at 7 PM at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. Thanks to the wonderful folks at the DC Center for hosting this annual event.

If you have considered parenthood, and have thought about adoption as a path-to-parenthood, then this event is for you! Come learn about domestic infant adoption, older child adoption, and foster-to-adopt. Meet other LGBTQ+ parents who are going through the adoption process. FREE information and inspiration! No commitment necessary!

New! Legal news column!

October 18, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Rainbow Families is committed to providing our community with a wide variety of services – including support, advocacy, education and information. Along these lines, we identified a need for some legal perspective on issues that affect our LGBTQ+ family community.

(CLICK THE TOPIC HEADER TO READ MORE)

Michele Zavos, long-standing LGBTQ+ activist and attorney, will be providing a twice-monthly legal column for Rainbow Families.

Read her introduction here.

Thoughts from Michele

Hello all – This is the first installment of my bi-weekly legal column for Rainbow Families. For those of you who don’t know me, I am an attorney who has been working in and for our community for almost 40 years. My firm, Zavos Juncker Law Group, PLLC, practices in MD, DC and VA. I started the first Maybe Baby group with my then partner in 1982 and our daughter was born in 1985. I built the second-parent adoption practice in DC and MD in 1994, when these adoptions were first allowed. I have done over 1000 adoptions in those two jurisdictions, and my firm does so called
“step-parent “ adoptions in Virginia. I helped the DC City Council change laws to benefit our community with regard to divorce and adoption, and I have represented thousands of clients in my career, many of them in our community. My passion has always been our families.

In this column I intend to keep you up-to-date on the law, where I see it going, and how you and your family can protect yourselves in this dangerous political environment.

Stay tuned! Michele

Mass. Supreme Judicial Court: Parenting Rights Extend Even if Couple Unmarried

October 10, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Since the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2015 that brought Marriage Equality to the entire United States, numerous cases have been brought and heard before courts at all levels throughout the country with implications for LGBTQ parents and their children.

On Oct. 4, 2016, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest court, ruled, “The parenting rights of a mother in a same-sex relationship extends even when the couple is unmarried and the mother has no biological connection to the children.”

From an article in the Boston Globe, “Partanen and legal analysts said the ruling extends her parental rights while protecting her children’s rights to claim two parents, regardless of their marital status. It will allow Partanen to claim the children on legal paperwork, such as for insurance benefits, and it means she will be required to pay child support. It will also allow her to be listed on the children’s birth certificates.”

CLICK HERE to read an article on the Court’s ruling and HERE.

CLICK HERE to read the Full Decision from the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Child Placements for LGBT parents – Supreme Court

September 6, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Supreme Court rebuffs Catholic agency seeking to reject LGBT couples

August 31, 2018 at 1:41 pm EDT | by Chris Johnson Reposted from Washington Blade

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take action in a case in which a taxpayer-funded Catholic adoption agency is seeking a First Amendment right to deny child placement to LGBT homes for religious reasons.

In an order handed down Thursday in the case of Fulton v. Philadelphia, the court announced it wouldn’t grant injunctive relief to Catholic Social Services, which is contesting a Philadelphia policy barring anti-LGBT discrimination among adoption agencies.

Read full article

New Support Group Program Offered

August 22, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Rainbow Families is delighted to announce a regular support group for LGBTQ+ people investigating Assisted Reproductive Technology as part of their family planning process.

For more info, dates, times, and to register….Please see “Upcoming Events” or click here!

FREE tickets to Kennedy Center’s Opera in the Outfield

July 31, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Opera in the Outfield is a FREE family-friendly event that the entire DC and surrounding community will enjoy. The event takes place on Saturday, September 29 at Nationals Park, and will broadcast the Washington National Opera performing The Barber of Seville, along with pre-opera activities that include a costume shop, instrument meet and greet, and more. Tickets are first come, first served….find more information here

Discovering Gender Project

July 31, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

The Discovering Gender Project based in Virginia is currently shooting a visual story-telling project to highlight (and advocate for) the humanity of gender non-conforming/transgender individuals through a combination of photography and personal narrative. They are currently recruiting gender non-conforming (in identity/presentation) individuals that are interested in helping educate, empower, and encourage others by sharing their own unique stories and images across a variety of digital and/or print platforms. It is the mission of the Discovering Gender Project to showcase gender non-conforming/transgender individuals from all walks of life in a positive, humanizing, and uplifting way.

Click to find out more about they are and what they do

Opportunity to Attend a Movie Premier Aug 6 2018

July 23, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Rainbow Families have been offered a great opportunity to attend the DC Premiere of The Miseducation of Cameron Post

FilmRise, ProSocial, and Born Perfect invite you to the Washington, D.C. premiere of THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, starring Chloë Grace Moretz as a teenage girl who is forced into conversion therapy by her conservative family. Post-screening Q&A with Chloë Grace Moretz, director Desiree Akhavan, and Mathew Shurka, conversion therapy survivor and co-founder of the Born Perfect campaign.

Monday, August 6
6:30 p.m. – Doors Open | 7:00 p.m. – Film Begins | 8:30 p.m. – Discussion / Q&A

Landmark E Street Cinema

This invitation is non-transferable. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis and subject to theater capacity. For questions, email jake@prosocialconsulting.com

RSVP HERE

Visit the Newseum for Free!

July 20, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Visit the Newseum for Free

Museum Day is an annual celebration of boundless curiosity hosted by Smithsonian magazine. Participating museums and cultural institutions across the country provide free entry to anyone presenting a Museum Day ticket. The Museum Day ticket provides free admission for two people on Saturday, September 22, 2018.

Tickets will be available for the public to download beginning at midnight on August 15, 2018.

The Newseum is open from 9:00 to 5:00 and participants are free to arrive and depart whenever they like.

Don’t Miss Out! PEP Classes at the Rainbow Families Conference

March 20, 2018/in Uncategorized/by rfactualize

Don’t Miss Out! PEP Classes at the Rainbow Families Conference

Rainbow Families is proud to be partnering with the Parenting Encouragement Program (PEP) to bring several of their parenting classes to our 2018 Conference for LBGTQ+ Families. PEP sessions will include the following:

Power Tools for Power Struggles

Frequent power struggles, whether between adults or between parents and children, impact relationships. Learn what happens when a conflict develops and gain some insights into redirecting that energy in ways that tend to solve problems and bring people closer.

Good Fences: Happy Families: Limit Setting for Young Children

Behavioral limits help young children learn to go to bed on time, pick up after themselves and get along with others. Limits also provide security, order and an understanding of the way the world works. Learn techniques to build and uphold firm and friendly boundaries.

Raising I Can Kids

A child’s “I Can Quotient” is Betty Lou Bettner and Amy Lew’s term for a more useful measure than the traditional IQ. It includes the qualities that predict a child’s ability to thrive in life. Learn strategies to increase your child’s sense of feeling connected, capable, competent and courageous.

Positive Discipline

Move away from punishment and toward using encouragement, consequences, limits and agreements, for an approach to discipline that stimulates cooperation and self-restraint.

Problem Solving with Teens

Sometimes guiding our teens can seem like a wrestling match, with both parent and teen feeling like losers. Gain the necessary skills to help your teen discuss and solve problems in a positive way by focusing on long-term goals, determining who owns the problem and encouraging resilience.

Managing Stress and Pressure

With so much to do, achieve and accomplish, children of all ages can get squeezed out of spontaneous play, exploration and daydreaming. And parents wonder how to keep their family connections strong and vital when schedules are packed and downtime is scarce. Examine common stress triggers and learn strategies to lower the pressure and help children achieve balance.

These are just some of the workshop sessions you have to look forward to at our 2018 Family Conference for LBGTQ+ parents and prospective parents. Learn more about PEP by CLICKING HERE.

MORE WORKSHOP SESSIONS WILL BE ANNOUNCED SOON!

REGISTER TODAY BY CLICKING HERE

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