If you think you don’t have any gay neighbors, think again. Same-sex couples are registered in 98 of 100 southeastern Wisconsin Zip codes. And if you think that gay families are different than heterosexual families, you’re in for a surprise.
The Cream City Foundation is launching a new “Gay Neighbor” public awareness campaign that will feature images of Milwaukee and Waukesha residents on billboards and at bus shelters. The campaign hopes to dispel myths about gay couples and families and build more awareness about the realities of “gay neighbors.”
“We have common ground,” said Tim Clark, president of the Cream City Foundation. “We have families. We are positive, loving, happy people.”
Jennifer, who is raising five children with her partner, said that she hopes the campaign will help to show that gay singles, couples and families live in every neighborhood. “The best counter to discrimination is for us to come out and be visible,” she said.
Thor, who is raising an adoptive daughter with his partner, said his experiences as a parent of a two-year-old are no different than any other dad’s. “I hope that people will begin to consider that gay families are as strong as their own,” Thor said. “Many times we are taking in children who are not biologically ours and given the task of raising them in a society that would otherwise have rejected them.”
In addition to the billboards, the Web site www.gayneighbor.org will allow members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to add their stories and photos.
The campaign is supported by the Joseph R. Pabst LGBT Infrastructure Fund, the Robert. H. Andrews Memorial Fund of the Tides Foundation and numerous other donors.
