by Lynette Alice

Created on: February 10, 2009

COLAGE (Children Of Lesbians And Gays Everywhere) is a national organization with the aim of making the lives of kids with gay or transgender parents better by providing support on a multitude of levels. COLAGE is unique in that although it is administratively operated by adults, kids are a driving force when it comes to determining what type of support they need. Who better to ask than the people you are going help?

As of 2008 COLAGE had a membership of better than ten million kids. Each child is empowered by being able to voice their opinion and to a certain degree be a leader. One of the main focuses of COLAGE is to put kids together that understand each other. As means of doing this have things like pen pal programs and chapters spread across the country where kids can come together and meet with one another. They make friends and get a chance to talk about their families and some of the challenges they face openly and honestly with peers that get what they are dealing with and saying.

For kids that are looking for other avenues to be involved the Youth Leadership Program is a model of advocacy in action. This program teaches kids that they have a voice and can make a difference by teaching and the empowering them to teach others about social justice and what it takes to make the world a better place. Developing skills like these serves those involved throughout their lives. The leadership program benefits everyone because it reaches out to the entire world not just the LGBT community and spreads a positive peaceful message of tolerance and equality.

COLAGE also offers training and panels that reach out into the community to educate people of all ages and stations in life. A panel of both youth and adults may be formed to visit anything from a community center or school to the conference room of a major corporation to educate people on any number of issues which impact the gay community. Most commonly, workshops and panels are held at schools, especially those where there have been problems with relations to LGBT kids or the children of LGBT kids. A visit to a school for example will generally open with a brief address about what being LGBT is and how having a parent that may fall under the rainbow doesn't necessarily mean their children will also. A movie like "That's A Family" may follow which gives examples of the many types of families out there and how although they may different, they are still families. Following that some of the youth and adults on the panel may share testimonials before moving into a question and answer session. A program like this helps put real faces on the issues, and as they say it's harder to hate a person you know and understand than one you don't.

COLAGE reaches out beyond that offering academic programs, internships, and scholarships for the children of LGBT parents. While many organizations focus on LGBT adults or LGBT youth, COLAGE is the only one that solely focuses on the children of these people who are predominantly heterosexual. They are a part of the gay community, but beyond that they are our family. For them to have an organization such as COLAGE which focuses on them as people and addresses their needs is a phenomenal thing. For anyone that is the child of an LGBT person or knows someone who is, make them aware of COLAGE and all the unique opportunities and support it has to offer to them.

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