workshop: Empowering our children to navigate the straight world
LGBT parents are very aware of their responsibility for the well-being of their children. However, prospective parents often find themselves confronted with less than optimal legal and social conditions when planning their families. This often leads to parent’s concerns about how everything is going to work out, how to best protect their child from homophobia and how to prepare their children for handling heteronormative society. Even though life as a LGBT family turns out to be easier than expected, explaining the family’s structure to the environment and family visibility remain an ongoing issue. How can we best prepare our children to navigate the waters of heterosexual society? This workshop supports participants in this task. A first step lies in reflecting on our own coping strategies in order to empower our children. In a second step concrete strategies for empowering our children will be developed.
workshop leader: Lisa Green
Dr. Lisa Green, originally from the US, came to Germany in 1991 to be with her lesbian partner and founded a family with her and experienced first-hand the hurdles of non-recognition for bi-national couples, discrimination against lesbians in reproductive medicine and, 20 years later, lesbian divorce. She conducted research on lesbian family planning, authored broshures for teachers, a children’s book and scientific articles as well as developed workshops for rainbow families. She has been active in regional, national and international LGBT organizations and is current vice-president of NELFA. Dr. Green has a private family therapy practise and lives with her partner and three children, 19, 15, 13 years, in Konstanz, Germany.