On May 10, Family Matters hosted a successful fundraiser for the Family Pride Coalition, a national gay parenting organization formerly based in San Diego, now based out of Washington, D.C. Over 100 people attended, raising more than $15,000. As the local host of the event, Family Matters will receive 10 percent of the amount raised, which will be used for general programs, childcare at events and the parenting conference and classes. The remainder will go to the Family Pride Coalition to use in their work at the national level.

Family Matters vice president Anthony Jones said fundraisers such as this are important for GLBT families both at a local and a national level — Family Matters focuses on education and socialization at the local level, while the Family Pride Coalition focuses on legislation nationwide.

“Locally they’re important because there are a ton of people in San Diego County who need an informational resource to go to at various stages in developing their families,” Jones told the Gay and Lesbian Times. “For instance, if they’re … considering starting a family … they need resources, and the money raised at these fundraisers helps us provide seminars about adoption, surrogacy, in vitro fertilization and all those different ways of starting a family…. [GLBT families] also need a social outlet … not only for the parents, but also for the children. Children need to grow up not feeling isolated — they need to know that there are other kids out there with gay and lesbian parents.

“Family Pride performs a function that Family Matters generally does not,” Jones continued. “They … [use] the funds they get through fundraising to help influence legislation that revolves around gay and lesbian adoption and foster care. They just had tremendous success in Texas, defeating a bill that would have banned gays and lesbians from adopting.”

Between them, the two organizations have had a positive effect on many GLBT families’ lives.

“Whenever there’s an organization that I think is going to help further the cause and make our daughter’s life better, and make people understand how our family is just like any other family.… I think it’s money well spent for me to support an organization like that,” said Family Matters member Jon Bailey. “My partner and I try to attend as many functions as possible and support them whenever we can with our money and our time because … it’s important to have somebody standing up for [GLBT families’] rights so we don’t have to do it alone. And it’s been wildly successful. I have to say that I have never — and my daughter is 16 months old now — encountered any negativity from anyone in the San Diego community about our family. I think that’s due to the hard work of organizations like Family Matters and people like Michael Portantino who had that vision years ago and founded [events] like this just for that purpose. I think it’s important to support them so that work continues and spreads, but also for San Diego to be a model for how organizations like this should and can be successful in other cities across the country.”

Family Matters president Marci Bair was very pleased with the event, noting that they had surpassed their fundraising goal of $15,000.

“Thank you to everyone that came,” she said. “We’ll continue to have events throughout the year to offer support on the local level — from informal picnics to parenting classes and conferences.”

For more information on Family Matters, call (619) 298-5431 or go to www.sdfamilymatters.org. For more information on the Family Pride Coalition, call (202) 331-5015 or go to www.familypride.com.