LGBTQ2IA+ Families Then and Now 2024

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We are excited to open registration for our 2024 LGBTQ2IA+ Families Then and Now series. Through conversations with a diverse range of parents who identify as LGBTQ2IA+ at different stages of family life, this free webinar series explores the changing landscape of LGBTQ2IA+ parenting.

Together, we discussed the experiences of families living in a diverse range of social contexts. By listening to the stories of each family, we hope to broaden and deepen our vision of family to be far more inclusive and to embrace the diversity of who families truly are in America today.

The five-part series began on Monday, May 6, 2024, and continued through July 1, 2024. Each webinar is 1 hour followed by a 30-minute Q&A session with our diverse range of panelists. All webinars feature live Spanish language translation and closed captioning.

Here are some of the topics these conversations explore:

• Impact of policy and law on families’ lives, children’s literature, and educational settings
• LQBTQ2IA+ family formation and gendered notions of parenting
• Generational and evolving perspectives on gender, sexuality, and identity
• Two-spirit experiences and perspectives
• Ethnic and racial diversity in LGBTQ2IA+ families
• Representation of diverse family forms in literature and other media

This series is part of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center’s Family-to-Family Real Talk conversation series.

This series is moderated by Laura Benkov, PhD, a clinical psychologist and neuropsychologist who has worked with children, adults, couples, and families for decades in a variety of community mental health, private practice, school, and hospital settings, providing supervision/training, psychotherapy, and psychological/neuropsychological evaluations.

She is the author of one of the first books (and several subsequent articles) on the subject of lesbian and gay parenthood, Reinventing the Family: The Emerging Story of Lesbian and Gay Parents (Crown, 1994). She has been on staff at Boston Children’s Hospital and is formerly the Clinic Director at Think: Kids at Massachusetts General Hospital. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, she worked at Fenway Community Health Center in Boston, focusing on HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ family formation.

Episode 1: Maya Gonzalez

Monday, May 6, 2024, 3 – 4:30 PM ET/ 12 – 1:30 PM PT

Maya Gonzalez

Children’s book artist, activist, and Co-founder of Reflection Press

Maya Gonzalez is an award-winning children’s book artist, author, activist, and progressive educator. Maya’s work addresses systemic inequity in relation to race/ethnicity, sexism, and cissexism using children’s books as radical agents of change and healing, both personally and culturally. Maya co-founded Reflection Press, a POC, queer, and trans-owned independent publishing house that uses holistic, nature-based, and anti-oppression frameworks in their books and materials for kids and grown-ups. Maya is also the creator of the Gender Wheel, an approach to gender and body diversity that is nature-based, decolonized, and holistic and provides lectures and workshops to educators, parents, and caregivers.

Episode 2: Alphonso Mills & Ja’Mel Ashely Ware

Monday, May 13, 2024, 3 – 4:30 PM ET/ 12 – 1:30 PM PT

Alphonso Mills

Executive Director of This Is Your Moment (TIYM) Network

Alphonso Mills is the Executive Director of This Is Your Moment (TIYM) Network, a media organization that promotes awareness and education about HIV advancements, prevention, and social determinants of health. He has an extensive background in the HIV field and is currently the Community Engagement Strategist for an AIDS Service Organization in Atlanta, helping to advance the cause. Alphonso has achieved impressive results since the pilot release of TIYM in 2021 and is partnering with the Emory School of Public Health to develop a media intervention program to pilot in sexual health clinics around Atlanta. Alphonso is a Black Gender Nonconforming person who grew up in a military family and obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Morehouse College. With his dedication to the HIV field, Alphonso is a leader in advancing awareness and education about HIV and promoting health equity for all. Alphonso is the partner of Ja’Mel Ware and the parent of Sea Cannon.

Ja’Mel Ashely Ware

Entertainer, entrepreneur, educator, and cofounder of Intellectual Ratchet (IR)

Ja’Mel Ashely Ware is a multifaceted individual known for his contributions as an entertainer, entrepreneur, and educator. His remarkable work in entrepreneurship, HIV awareness, and reproductive health within the LGBQ and Trans community has garnered widespread recognition. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Social Work, Ja’Mel ventured into entrepreneurship by founding Intellectual Ratchet (IR), a Diversity and Inclusion Entertainment brand. He is pursuing an MBA at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School to further his expertise. Dedicated to supporting young Black queer entrepreneurs, Ja’Mel leads Project Innovate, a micro-grant program affiliated with THRIVE SS. Ja’Mel lives by the motto, “Live Life Whole. Be your complete self and embrace life to the fullest,” embodying these values in his endeavors while inspiring the next generation of thinkers and doers. He is a proud partner to Alphonso Mills and a seahorse dad to Sea Cannon. 

Episode 3: Wendy Kramer & Ryan Kramer

Monday, June 3, 2024, 3 – 4:30 PM ET/ 12 – 1:30 PM PT

Wendy Kramer

Co-Founder and Director of the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR)

Wendy is the Co-Founder and Director of the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR). The DSR was founded in 2000 with her donor-conceived son Ryan to assist individuals conceived as a result of sperm, egg, or embryo donation who are seeking to make mutually desired contact with others with whom they share genetic ties. With more than 92,000 members in 105 countries, the DSR has helped connect more than 25,600 of them with their half-siblings and/or their biological parents. Wendy has listened to, advised/consulted, and researched thousands of these parents, donors, donor-conceived people, and other donor family members.

Wendy has conducted and presented many research studies on all donor family members and is co-author on dozens of resulting peer-reviewed papers published in Social Science and Medicine, Human Reproduction, Reproductive BioMedicine & Society, Facts, Views & Vision in OB/GYN, Reproductive BioMedicine Online (RBMOnline), Advances in Reproductive Sciences, Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Fertility and Sterility, The Journal of Family Issues, Children and Society, The Journal of Law and the Biosciences, and more. She has contributed chapters to several books on donor conception, has reviewed abstracts for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, and has been a peer reviewer for the journals Human Reproduction, Reproductive Health, RBMOnline, Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, and The Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. Wendy is a Review Editor for the journal Frontiers in Reproductive Health – Assisted Reproduction.

Wendy was an Associate Producer for the 2011 Emmy-nominated documentary Sperm Donor and on the 2013 MTV News & Docs, six-part docu-series called Generation Cryo. She published the book Counseling Donor Family Members: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals and has conducted related training for counselors and psychology organizations in the US, Canada, Europe, and Argentina. She co-wrote the book Finding Our Families: A First-of-Its-Kind Book for Donor-Conceived People and Their

Ryan Kramer

Ryan Kramer, a 34-year-old donor-conceived person, co-manages the DSR with his mother Wendy. Ryan is a product manager with a background in engineering and technology, having worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Apple, and Google. Ryan was the first donor-conceived person to find his biological father (donor) via a commercial DNA test, in 2005. He has 29 known half-siblings — so far.

Episode 4: Koreen McQuilton, Ryann Stilton and Halle McQuilton

Monday, June 17, 2024, 3 – 4:30 PM ET/ 12 – 1:30 PM PT

Koreen McQuilton

Director of Communications and Marketing at Belmont Day School

Koreen McQuilton is the mother of two donor-conceived daughters, Ryann Stilton and Halle McQuilton. When Ryann and Halle were teenagers, they became interested in learning more about their biological fathers and the potential for connecting with half-siblings with the help of the Donor Sibling Registry. Over the years, they have connected with dozens of half-siblings and each of their donors. Koreen is the director of communications and marketing at Belmont Day School, an independent elementary and middle school in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Ryann Stilton

Ryann Stilton was donor-conceived and grew up in the Boston area with lesbian moms and her younger sister, Halle. As a young adult, she met her donor and many of her half-siblings via the Donor Sibling Registry and through DNA testing. Today Ryann works as a software engineer and lives in Ireland with her wife and cats. 

Halle McQuilton

Halle McQuilton is donor-conceived and was raised by 2 moms in the Boston area. Inspired by her sister Ryann’s experience, she has connected with her sperm donor as well as a number of half siblings through the Donor Sibling Registry (the count is now 30+). Halle currently works in the Privacy field with experience in the crypto, web3, and fintech spaces.

Episode 5: Senator Julian Cyr, Polly Crozier, Denise Webb, Thera Webb & Denise Duclos

Monday, July 1, 2024, 3 – 4:30 PM ET/ 12 – 1:30 PM PT

Senator Julian Cyr

Massachusetts Senator representing Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket.

Julian Cyr (pronouns he/him/his) serves in the Massachusetts Senate representing Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. First elected to the State Senate in November 2016, Senator Cyr is now serving in his fourth term and is among the youngest senators in the 40-member body. He serves as the Senate Assistant Majority Whip, Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Health, Vice Chair of the Joint Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use, and Recovery, and on committees with oversight of health care financing, housing, elder affairs, telecommunications, utilities and energy, and racial equity and inclusion.

Senator Cyr graduated with a degree in public policy and community health from New York University and from the David Bohnett Leaders Fellowship at Harvard Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program, but he will tell you that he learned many of the skills he uses daily from waiting tables and cooking behind the line for 14 seasons at his family’s restaurant in Truro. 

Patience “Polly” Crozier

Director of Family Advocacy, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders

Patience “Polly” Crozier (she/her/hers) joined GLAD in October 2016. Polly came to GLAD from private practice where her work focused on LGBTQ probate and family law, including adoption, divorce, dissolution, guardianship, paternity, parentage, name changes, gender marker changes, and assisted reproduction issues. Polly has engaged in cutting-edge trial court and appellate litigation involving assisted reproduction and parentage including Hunter v. Rose (2012), Adoption of a Minor (2015), Partanen v. Gallagher (2016), Adoption of Daphne (2020), and J.M. v. C.G. (2023).

Polly’s work focuses on youth and family issues, including parentage protections, adoption, access to fertility healthcare, transgender family law, juvenile justice, and child welfare, and work at the intersection of LGBTQ and reproductive rights.  Most recently, she has successfully worked to help pass statutory family law reforms in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Michigan, as well as health care provider shield laws in Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island.

Denise Webb

Home Visitor/Trainer

Ms. Webb received a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Anthropology from Wesleyan University and worked as an early childhood educator for many years, prior to returning to school for Nursing. In 2002, she completed her certification as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and received a Master of Science in Nursing from Yale University. In 2015, she earned the CT Association for Infant Mental Health Endorsement in Infant Mental Health (IMH).

Denise has been actively involved in the MTB (Minding the Baby) Program since its inception and takes an active role on the MTB training team in Denmark. She worked with the MTB team to develop an introductory training on clinical approaches for reflective parenting programs that has drawn participants from around the world. Denise also serves as a consultant for a similar home visitation program in Florida and was an integral part of the Yale consult team for the MTB program replication efforts in the United Kingdom and Florida.

Ms. Webb was born in 1954. As a young child she wished to send a letter to John Lennon asking if he thought men could marry men and women marry women. After being told in a kindly but definite way that ‘we don’t talk about such things,’ this thought was buried for a number of years. Ms. Webb met Ms. Duclos through work in early childhood education when her daughter was 2 years old. Despite challenges related to the beliefs of the time, in particular around lesbians being parents and working with young children, we have been together for 41 years, raising our child together. In 2005 we had a Civil Union in the state of Connecticut and later married in 2010. Denise Webb and Denise DuClos are the mothers of Thera Webb.

Thera Webb

Women@MIT Project Archivist

Thera Webb was raised by lesbian moms, Denise Webb and Denise DuClos. She works as the Women@MIT Project Archivist focusing on the history of women in STEM, and serves on the COLAGE International Retro Advisory Board working on preserving the history of queerspawn. She is also active in social justice and freedom movements and community organizing. Thera has an MLIS in Archives and Cultural Heritage from Simmons University, and an MFA in poetry from UNC Greensboro. She is the author of two chapbooks, On the Shoulders of the Bear (Fractious Press) and Reality Asylum (H_ngm_n). Her first full-length collection The Witch, A Play is forthcoming from White Stag Publishing in 2025.

Denise Duclos

Retired from the field of Early Childhood Education

Denise Duclos is retired from the field of early childhood education where she spent nearly fifty years in various roles as a teacher and director of early childhood non-profit child care centers.  For the 25 years before retiring, Denise was the Project Director for the City of New Haven CT’s state-funded School Readiness Program, a state grant-funded initiative that contracted with local early childhood programs to better serve families with preschool children of low and moderate-income.  Approximately 1000 children were enrolled annually.

Denise has been with her life partner, Denise Webb, for the past 41 years.  They have one daughter, Thera Webb, now 44 years old. 

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