The Morris County Gay/Straight Parents Alliance Mission Statement

By Heather Turnbull

The Gay/Straight Parents Alliance (GSPA) is an initiative of The Morris County Chapter of the National Organization For Women (NOW) and Chapter’s Mothers’ and Caregivers’ Economic Task Force. The GSPA’s goal is to advocate for and raise public awareness about policies that promote stability and security for all families. With 25% of gay couples raising children, the time has come for such an alliance that can reach out to the Morris County community at large to help them better understand the important issues facing all of today's families.

Our hope is to form a coalition of different advocacy groups with similar goals to stand together for economic equality for mothers and caregivers, marriage equality for all persons and safe and secure schools for all children.

The economic policies of this country should promote family stability. That is why this alliance would advocate for among other things paid family leave, social security credits for at-home parents, national health plan and affordable, quality child care.

Marriage, with all the civil rights and responsibilities it encompasses, promotes family stability and security. This alliance will advocate for marriage equality for all persons. This advocacy may be through education of the public and local politicians for legislative change or by opposition to any constitutional amendment that would deny marriage equality to the people of New Jersey.

Our children must be able to attend schools where they feel accepted and do no fear for their safety because of the nature of their family structure. The public school environment should promote the ideas that not all families "look" the same and that students from all backgrounds have the right to feel included and accepted. This alliance will advocate to ensure that anti-bullying policies be established and enforced in our public schools and that such policies acknowledge sexual orientation and gender identity or expression as areas of particular sensitivity.