The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Family Equality Council, CenterLink, and The National Coalition for LGBT Health, are all working in coalition as the Partnership for Family Inclusion researching how “family” is defined in regulations and where these definitions are located, and specifically how this may apply to health care reform. The Partnership believes that families are formed and flourish in many different ways in our communities, and that broad definitions of family are an area of common ground between LGBT rights, immigrants’ rights, women of color, economic justice, and other social justice advocates and organizations. The Partnership recently presented a workshop at The National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce’s 2010 conference Creating Change which focused on broadening the definitions of family and how to create diverse coalitions based on a shared definition of family.

Since 2008 NARAL Pro-Choice Texas and ALLGO have worked together on the Healthy Women, Healthy Families (HWHF) coalition. Representatives from ALLGO and NARAL had emailed before then but actually met in person for the first time at the 2008 CIC conference. HWHF is a statewide survey and story-sharing project that aims to collect data and stories from Texas women and families about health challenges they face in order to use them for policy work, public education and media awareness. The survey includes questions about reproductive health services, such as access to birth control and abortion, as well as issues more relevant to queer women and families, such as the need for healthcare providers who understand the culture of the patient (including sexual orientation, gender expression/identity, etc), and services for women and their partners who want to have a child (such as artificial insemination, adoption services, etc). In addition to ALLGO, NARAL has also built relationships with other LGBT Texas organizations through this coalition, including Transgender Education Network of Texas, and Rio Grande Adelante in El Paso. More information on HWHF, including the survey and a report analyzing the results of the first year, can be found at www.healthywomenhealthyfamilies.org.

Planned Parenthood of South Central Michigan is still working on their coalition, namely the Calhoun County Coalition for Inclusion (3Ci), which strives to reduce the risk factors of LGBT youth in their community. Such risk factors include: teen pregnancy, suicide, bullying, substance abuse, etc. Attending the annual CiC national meetings has helped Planned Parenthood of South Central Michigan network on a national level and gave representatives a common language to use in their community. For more information, please visit: http://ppscm3ci.org/.

The LGBT Community Center in New Orleans has continued to provide sexual health education and support their community in partnership with Planned Parenthood and the New Orleans AIDS Taskforce. The New Orleans Center is currently in a rebuilding process and is beginning to organize workshops and youth support groups that will provide sexual health educational materials to the community. Through their LGBT Helath Care Alliance the Center has continued to provide meeting spaces for the community, advocacy, references, resources and referrals for those seeking sexual health and reproductive services.

SisterLove is working at the intersection of HIV and stigma in different communities through their Health Education, Advocacy, and Prevention Program. Through their prevention program SisterLove’s Healthy Love Party does outreach to women in diverse ethnic, racial, LGBT, and age groups in order to provide workshops on HIV education and prevention. They have collaborated with several other organizations such as AID Atlanta, Emory Univerisity, and NAESM, Inc.. SisterLove is also starting a new HIV Testing and Counseling Program. For more information, please visit: http://sisterlove.org/our-work/hiv-testing-counseling-program/.

Political Research Associates (PRA) is a multi-issue think-tank that attempts to advance progressive thinking and action by providing research-based information, analysis, and referrals specifically focusing on the right-wing agenda and tactics. PRA works with several activists, scholars, and journalists to make connections between reproductive justice and the LGBT Liberation movements by provide educational materials regarding the arguments of the right-wing and our common enemies. PRA presented a workshop at The National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce’s 2010 conference Creating Change which provided LGBT activists with information on the right-wing backlash and the recent rise of the Tea Party movement in order to help them understand the formation of this rising movement. PRA will also be presenting this workshop at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Reproductive Justice Conference in April 2010.

Jamie Todd-Gher of the Center for Reproductive Rights is currently in the process of developing a panel presentation – in collaboration with two other CiC contacts, Corinna Yazbek of the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College and Pooja Gehi from the Sylvia Rivera Law Project – entitled Policing Space/Policing Bodies: Liberation through Broad Cross-Movement Initiatives, to be presented at the National LGBT Bar Association's Lavender Law Conference in August 2010 http://www.lgbtbar.org/annual/. The two other panelists are from the academy - Prof. Kim Buchanan of the USC Gould School of Law and Pamela Bridgewater of American University, Washington College of Law. The panel will highlight the transformative potential of cross-movement initiatives to shift the analytical lens beyond sexuality and gender identity to develop cutting-edge advocacy strategies that address multiple levels of oppression. For example, panelists will provide an overview of global sexuality rights initiatives, efforts to challenge the Prison Industrial Complex through cross-movement community organizing, and critical examinations of hate crime legislation. Through this thought-provoking discussion, the panelists hope to underscore the importance of advocacy at the intersections of individuals' lived experiences and the necessity of cross-movement collaboration to obtain equality and liberation for the full spectrum of our diverse community(ies).

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