Last August, Colorado’s Mesa County Library exhibited works from the traveling Love Makes A Family show. Sponsored in part by Western Equality and other gay rights activists, the installation pictures gay couples and their children in an effort to broaden people’s horizons on the definition of the definitive family. Offended by the display, an organization called Christians for Healthy Families had posted a reactionary protest show. While on the surface this just seems to be a case of ideological disagreement, there are – as always – bigger questions lurking down below.
First let’s take a brief second to examine last year’s show: Love Makes A Family. Featuring the photography of Gigi Kaeser and interviews by Peggy Gillespie, the traveling exhibition describes its mission thus:
Through first-person accounts and positive images, this exhibit seeks to challenge and change damaging myths and stereotypes about LGBT people and their families. At the most basic level, Love Makes A Family combats homophobia by breaking silence and making the invisible visible. By encouraging people of all ages – beginning in early childhood – to affirm and appreciate diversity, this traveling rental exhibit contributes to the process of dismantling the destructive power of prejudice and intolerance, thereby making the world a safer place for all families.
Alright. Sounds pretty straight-forward – families need safety, the show wants to promote said safety. Pretty cut and dry, right? Not according to the people who put up the current show.
Opening with the daunting question, “Do you want God’s protection?”, the new display has been broken into two main components. The first section features gendered bowls of paint: pink and blue representing women and men, respectively. As we all know from pre-school, when mixed together, the colors take on a purple hue, which, despite lavender’s association with faggotry, represents marriage. The other section has bowls of similarly colored paint, representing same-sex lovers. Mix ’em together and what do you get? The same color, of course: the group’s not-so-clever dig at the so-called unproductive gay union.
Of the protest, organizer Carol Anderson tells The Mesa County Sentinel:
How about we take this to the next level?
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I got the idea after the homosexual display… They ha a pro-homosexual display at the library, which I didn’t feel was appropriate because I’m Christian. Thank goodness free speech goes both ways.
Is she trying to be ironic with that last statement? If so, our hats are off to you, Ms. Anderson.
Speaking of free speech, we’re sure you’re wondering what the gay rights gurus have to say about all of this. Well, Love Makes a Family sponsor, Jeff Barringer‘s not down. He tells The Sentinel:
The content is offensive to me while recognizing that they deeply believe in what they’re putting out there. It’s alienating and offensive to single parents, to divorced individuals, obviously to gays and lesbians. To me, it is fueling ideological conflict rather than creating a conversation.
That’s certainly true, but couldn’t the same argument be made about the Love Makes a Family display?
Sure, we’re playing devil’s advocate on this one, but if you one’s truly looking for a conversation, one would have exhibited pictures of all kinds of families. For example, Kaeser and Gillespie (plus some more interviews from Rebecca Boyd) have organized a similar show entitled In Our Family. Also a traveling exhibit, the show describes itself:
In Our Family is a museum-quality traveling photo-text exhibit about twenty families representing a breadth of diversity and family configurations… The positive and realistic photographs, along with the candid interviews with family members of all ages, affirm an inclusive and expansive vision of family life today.
It seems to us that this show’s more conversation worthy than Love Makes Family, the show that’s exclusively about homo couples.
Sure, it’s nice to see images of happy gay families and all that, but if Barringer were truly concerned about conversation, rather than controversy, he would have sponsored the more inclusive show and spared Anderson and her Bible thumping pals the effort. And, perhaps, made more of a difference than a discontent.
But that’s just our opinion. What say you, our loyal, clever and opinionated readers?
Mark
I couldn’t agree more with Queerty. Real progress in our fight for equality requires astute political as well as ideological prowess.
marty
I applaud the Mesa County Library’s attempt at fostering some kind of awareness of LGBT families in this goofy part of Colorado.
That said, creating this sort of hoo-hah by hosting such an exclusive exhibit only serves to rile up all the Christian extremists that haunt Western Colorado. I wonder who the library district will blame next time their funding measure fails at the ballot box?
We can be supportive of queer families even in backwater Colorado, but it does take a bit of tact if a public institution wants to speak out by hosting such a show. Queerty is 100% correct.
David
I’m with Queerty too. If love really does make a family, include everyone. Heterosexuals and their children, some same and differently sexed couples without children. Maybe some couples with their extended families. They all count.
Kate
I’m from Wisconsin (lame and cold, I know), but if you want to hear some really shocking stuff about what conservatives and the oober-Christians who shake their puppet strings have done, check out recent events here.
Not only did our last election determine that marriage was between a man and a woman only (while abolishing common-law marriage, something all the homophobic crazies overlooked), but now the aptly mis-named Family Research Institute of WI is trying to outlaw no-fault divorces. That means any two people who wanted to divorce because of irreconcilable differences wouldn’t be able to. Only in cases where one spouse cheated, etc.
You know. For the Children.
One of the most infuriating parts about this is the organization. They are a common lobbying group to our state’s gov’t. And that’s a scary thought.
On the plus side, if the religious fanatics keep it up, they’ll be the only one’s who still want to get married. The rest of us will be like, Fuuuuuuuuck that.
Ben
Add multiple bowls of blue with one pink if you really want to have fun! Making different shades of purple in this way can be even more productive and kinky!
Robguy
I feel so sorry for the poor persecuted 80% magority Xians in the US. The Love Makes a Family exhibit simply displayed their message with positive examples. The allegedly offended Xians felt they needed to attack others. That is the difference.
Sure the LMaF could have included different sexed couples, they could have included families from different animal species as well. Once you dilute the message enough, you risk losing the message. The point of the exhibit wasn’t simply to have a warm fuzzy feeling about generic families – g/l families are being attacked, lied about, and denied the same rights that other families enjoy.
Peggy Gillespie
Hello, I was just made aware of this controversial exhibit attacking gay families. As one of the creators of LOVE MAKES A FAMILY (interviewer) and co-director of Family Diversity Projects, I thought I’d say a few words. I do think that our LOVE MAKES A FAMILY exhibit is designed to help educate people about the variety and health of the many GLBT families we met during the creation of the exhibit. It is a way for people to “meet” openly gay people and hear the words of their children, with the hope that it will diminish prejudice. It is an important topic in a country where equal rights are not given to GLBT people except in our state of MA where gay people are allowed the full privileges of marriage. We created IN OUR FAMILY: Portraits of All Kinds of Families in order to get this dialogue put in the context of the full range of diversity, and we love this exhibit, too. It is important to see that there are many kinds of families, all of them part of the human family. Neither exhibit, however, attacks anyone else. Even though most child abuse and sexual abuse happens in heterosexual families, no one says anything to attack heterosexual people or their families. In Love Makes a Family, people are just talking about their lives, their love, the prejudice they face. This is important and distinguishes it from the anti-gay exhibit put on to counteract Love Makes a Family. Whichever exhibit Western Equality had shown, I imagine the inclusion of GLBT people would have provoked this response in someone who equates Christianity and God with anti-gay beliefs. Fortunately, there are many Christians in this country who find that their hearts embrace all kinds of people. And I hope that this debate will lead more viewers to realize the necessity for education and the opening of minds about appreciating diversity. All kinds of diversity. Conservative Christians and gays alike.