Political action – Board of Directors

As a group, the Lesbian Mothers Association continues to grow and thrive. More and more people and organizations have become aware of our existence and thus our role has broadened to one not only of support and information exchange, but also to one of social activism.

Members of our Board of Directors work on four dossiers of interest to lesbian mothers:

• adoption rights,
• access to public fertility clinics,
• same-sex marriage, and
• homophobia in the schools.
  

As lesbian parents, many challenges lie ahead of us in terms of the social recognition of our families. The media has become increasingly focused on alternative families, as adoption and same-sex marriage have become "hot" gay and lesbian issues.

But even as we have increasingly gained legal recognition, society’s institutions still remain closed to our families and ignorant of our particular needs. Social service employees, as well as health care practitioners, must be made aware of the diversity of family structures. Combating homophobia in Quebec’s primary and secondary schools is another area where we need to apply our efforts. We must also continue to educate the general population about the fact that our children do as well as those raised with heterosexual parents.

In order to meet these goals, collaboration with other community organizations is critical. We are thus active members and sit on the committees of groups such as

• CCGLM (Centre communautaire des gais et lesbiennes de Montréal
• TCLGQ (Table de concertation des lesbiennes et gais du Québec)
• La Coalition québécoise pour le mariage civil des couples de même sexe
• La Coalition jeunesse montréalaise de lutte à l’homophobie
  
• World OutGames/ Outgames mondiaux Montreal 2006
• Association des lesbiennes et gais sur l’Internet (ALGI)

Members of the Board also administrate the Association itself. Members are elected once a year at our Annual General Meeting, which takes place in March. The Board meets 3-4 times a year, but is often in contact as the need arises via telephone and e-mail, thus a certain commitment and expenditure of time is necessary. Although we sometimes find ourselves very busy with work and family commitments, our efforts make an important difference.

If you would like to get involved, please e-mail us at: info@aml-lma.org