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The Family Equality Council, a national organization supporting same-sex parents and their children, announced on Wednesday the launch of the "Snap It & Send It Campaign," aimed to draw attention to a lack of recognition for LGBT families.
FEC's new project sets out to ask LGBT-helmed families to take snapshots of forms and contracts that still, in 2012, play into the outdated heteronormative binary system by only offering "mother/father" "husband/wife" selections. With the submissions, the FEC hopes to form a snapshot of the lack of inclusion that modern day families still face.
“If you are an LGBT parent, chances are you have been frustrated by the forms your family is asked to fill out, maybe at your doctor’s office or at your child’s school,” said Family Equality Council Executive Director Jennifer Chrisler. “Typically these are forms that have only a place for one mother or one father and don’t reflect the composition of our families. What this says to our families is that we are invisible and that the diversity of our families is not recognized.”
Chrisler has offered examples of how the non-inclusive forms harm same-sex couples ad their children:
The parent fields on these forms pose significant challenges for the millions of Americans with two mothers or two fathers.
They wrongly suggest to individuals filling out the forms, as well as those processing them, that only individuals with different-sex parents are eligible to file the form.
They cause tangible harm through processing delays and denials.
They send a hurtful message of symbolic exclusion from American life to the millions of children and adults with same-sex parents.
For more on the Snap It & Send It campaign, head to familyequality.org
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