We partnered with creative agencies TBWA\Chiat\Day New York, Furlined and Directors Will Speck and Josh Gordon to cinematically showcase the complicated path to parenthood for the LGBTQ+ community through the lens of one child’s fathers
At Family Equality, we believe that every LGBTQ+ person should have the right and opportunity to form and sustain a loving family—and we’re calling on Americans to join us.
With 63% of North American LGBTQ+ millennials considering becoming parents for the first time or having more children, the preconceived notion of what a family looks like in America is continuing to evolve as the country moves forward. But, the LGBTQ+ path to parenthood is still full of undue complications and discrimination; for example, 11 states have laws allowing adoption and foster care agencies to turn away qualified LGBTQ+ parents.
Following the recent six-year anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges U.S. Supreme Court decision resulting in the right to marry nationwide, we’re setting our sights on our next mission: helping the LGBTQ+ community navigate the journey to parenthood. This starts with bills like The Equality Act and the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act—two critical pieces of LGBTQ+ legislation that would remove barriers to the LGBTQ+ community’s path to parenthood.
Developed alongside creative agenciesTBWA\Chiat\Day New YorkandFurlined, Love, Lawyers & The Government is a warm and endearing short film intended to serve as a catalyst for this continued movement. Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory, The Switch, Office Christmas Party, Distant), the film uses a memorable and engaging approach to explain the obstacles LGBTQ+ people and couples go through to build a family. Will Speck is part of a same-sex couple and an adoptive family, himself, making this film and message particularly important.
Stacey Stevenson, Family Equality Chief Executive Officer, notes, “Throughout the adoption process, people in the LGBTQ+ community face state-endorsed legal obstacles, colossal financial burdens, and discrimination that the majority of straight parents do not. It takes time, money, and energy for members of this community to become parents. But, most of all, it takes courage.
It’s our hope that Love, Lawyers & The Government will shed further light on the inequities of the journey to parenthood in America. It’s a monumental struggle for these parents-to-be. But it’s a struggle many are simply not aware of,” continued Stevenson.
Join us!
There is an urgent need for comprehensive, explicit nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people and their families. Urge your Senators to support equality for our families by passing the Equality Act and the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act today!