Posted on 01/20/2006 2:35:05 PM PST by notes2005
NEW YORK - Three months before the annual Easter egg roll at the White House, the usually festive event is already taking on a divisive edge because of plans by gay- and lesbian-led families to turn out en masse in hopes of raising their public profile.
The Family Pride Coalition and other organizers envision the April 17 action as a celebration that will earn good will and showcase their families engaging in the annual tradition.
"It's important for our families to be seen participating in all aspects of American life," said Family Pride executive director Jennifer Chrisler.
Yet some conservatives, alerted to the plans this week, accuse gay activists of trying to "crash" an event for children and turn it into forum for ideological politicking. Some groups are discussing ways to respond.
"It's improper to use the egg roll for political purposes," said Mark Tooley of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy. Tooley wrote a critical article this week in the Weekly Standard magazine about the planned event that has circulated widely on conservative Web sites.
Since the article appeared Tuesday, Chrisler said Family Pride has received "a flood of hate-filled, venomous messages telling us that our families aren't welcome."
"It's not surprising that the right would be against it," Chrisler said. "They are very clear about wanting to make our families invisible."
The issue was raised at a White House news briefing Wednesday when spokesman Mark McClellan was asked if President Bush would seek to prevent the gay families' action.
"This event is a time to celebrate Easter and to have a good family celebration here at the White House," McClellan replied. "In terms of any other details about it, I think it's still a few months off, so we'll talk about it as we get closer."
On conservative chat rooms, some critics of Family Pride suggested the White House could make the egg roll an invitation-only event, as it did in 2003 when attendance was limited to military families. Other critics said conservatives should mobilize to outnumber gay families at the egg roll.
Susan Whitson, press secretary to first lady Laura Bush, indicated the White House was unlikely to restrict admission to the egg roll.
"All families are really welcome to attend," she told The Associated Press on Friday, provided they comply with rules that each family group have no more than two adults and include at least one child under 8.
Chrisler, who raises twin boys with a spouse she married in Massachusetts in 2004, intends to bring her family to the egg roll. She said organizers were intent on proceeding despite any criticism, but that plans might change if, closer to Easter, confrontations seemed possible.
"I'm a parent first I would never want to put my child, or anyone else's child, in harm's way," she said. "If we get any intelligence about that happening, we'll make a decision."
Family Pride has been recruiting participants for several months. Chrisler said more than 100 families had signed up thus far and hopes at least 400 eventually enlist.
"Religious and political extremists who oppose our equality have targeted our planned participation in this event, saying we have no right to 'crash' the White House Egg Roll," Chrisler wrote to supporters Thursday.
"That's not our goal," she said. "We simply want our children and our families to be able to fully participate in an event generations of children have enjoyed."
Free tickets to the egg roll will be distributed first-come, first-served starting at 7:30 a.m. on April 15 two days before the event. Family Pride has urged its supporters to be in line the night before so their families can be among the first on the White House lawn.
To ensure visibility for the action, Family Pride will issue T-shirts to participants, bearing a "nonpolitical message" that would identify them as gay and lesbian families. Chrisler said the T-shirt theme would be "Love makes a family."
Co-sponsors of the effort include Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and Soulforce, a national interfaith group.
The egg roll, in which children use spoons to push dyed eggs through the grass in a race, has been a Washington tradition since the mid-19th century. Last year, 16,000 tickets were issued.
you think it will be OK if the fags show up in drag for EASTER !
I think if they're old enough to know they're homosexuals, they're too old for an Easter egg roll! Why don't they try going to a ball game?
My thoughts exactly!!
Be careful what you suggest. Gays have a different notion of "taking the kids to a ball game" than you do.
What a lie "it's just about what two people do in the privacy of their own bedroom" turned out to be.
No, but if they want to make jerks out of themselves, they will earn the scorn of most of the nation. That's why:
1. I think they won't.
2. They'll regret it if they do. Ruining children's events is not the way to get sympathy for your cause.
Should we tell little five year-old Suzie that she can't participate because her mother is lesbian?
You do that, you lose the propaganda war. You ignore it and let the gays and lesbians make fools out of themselves if they so choose, you win the propaganda war.
Maybe they should allow only one parent per household to attend. At least the little tots won't be getting an eyeful of who knows what.
For three years Jennifer Chrisler was a stay-at-home mom for her twin sons, but now she and her partner, Cheryl Jacques, are sharing more child-rearing duties as they both pursue high-profile careers.
We have become a two-parent working household, said Chrisler, who was recently appointed executive director for the Family Pride Coalition.
Jacques, who is a former president of the Human Rights Campaign and a state senator for Massachusetts, will not assume the duties of primary care giver for their twin boys, Tommy and Timmy, ages 3, Chrisler said. The lesbian activists work speaking and writing on the issues of gay rights and politics consumes her workdays since she left the national gay rights groups employment last year, she said.
snip
Chrisler said that she had worked as a freelance money-raiser and volunteer for political campaigns and other projects before, but she was always able to spend a significant amount of time at home to take care of their sons. That will change when she begins work at the Family Pride Coalitions offices in Washington, D.C. in April.
snip
What I want to do as the new executive director is to build on the very strong foundation that has been laid, Chrisler said. We need to make sure that our community is aware of the programming we provide to best go about bringing equality to our families.
Chrisler said she believes that when other American citizens come to realize that most members of the GLBT community share common concerns, equality will soon be achieved.
snip
Chrisler said. That bridge to the larger American community is really happening so strongly through GLBT families.
snip
Jacques said. She is going to take this organization to new heights.
Why not make the event for orphan kids anyway. It seems like everyone wins that way.
Oh, you are sooooo funny. Ha ha ha ha
I suppose you think the WH should invite NAMBLA, since there will be lots of kids there.
After a busy day of registration and orientation on Saturday, we screened the just-released transparent, a documentary about female-to-male transgender parents who had given birth to their children.
On Sunday, our annual Family Parade was a sight to see beautiful children and parents with their wonderful signs processed down Commercial Street, and circled back down Bradford, concluding at Bas Relief Park for an impromptu rally led by Family Prides Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler.
Jacques, 42, and her partner of nearly seven years, Jennifer Chrisler, 33, were married in a Boston hotel in a ceremony presided over by sister-in-law Katherine Jacques, a justice of the peace, and their friend, the Rev. Miriam Gelfer, an Episcopal priest. The happy couple were walked down the aisle by their twin sons, Timmy and Tommy, 2, and Jacques's father, Norman
Photo at link below
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38137-2004Aug3.html
Love does NOT make a family.
GOD makes a family, as described in His Word.
So therefore let them come to the easter egg roll. Hand out copies of the Ten Commandments, Bibles, Jesus loves you and died for you stickers. Include handout tracts with scriptures that condemn sexual perversion and homosexuality. No fuss or muss....love em, let em roll the eggs and let God's word do the talking. Game over.
Jacques was just the second out gay or lesbian candidate to run for an open congressional seat in Massachusetts, following in the footsteps of Susan Tracy, who made an unsuccessful bid to succeed Joe Kennedy in the Eighth District in 1998. (Barney Frank and the now-retired Gerry Studds came out only after they had been in office for several terms.) Moreover, by giving her partner, Jennifer Chrisler, such a visible role, Jacques broke ground by offering an image of gay family life as one of her political bona fides. It wasnt just that Jacques introduced Chrisler at her announcement or hired her to be her finance director. There was the annual Pride parade, held just before the congressional race, in which Jacques the grand marshal rode with Chrisler in a convertible and waved. There have also been the neighborhood meet-and-greets, at which Jacques and Chrisler, according to witnesses, worked the crowds like an old married couple.
snip
the only time Jacquess personal life became an issue was when the media, led by the Boston Herald, reported that Chrislers salary had risen by 92 percent during the four and a half years she had worked in Jacquess office, and that Chrisler and Jacquess brother Tom had lived for a time in a below-market-rate apartment for senior citizens.
http://tinyurl.com/dmjqr
Chrisler said some fringe groups have attacked them. The right always gets very concerned when LGBT parents show up with their children, she said. The more we are the same, the less potent the arguments are for discriminating against us.
To sign up for the egg roll visit www.familypride.org/eggroll.
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