BTL Staff
LANSING – For the first time, the nationally acclaimed "Love Makes a Family" photo exhibit will come to Michigan and will be on display in the State Capitol Building.
The exhibit is called "A Celebration of Diversity Across Michigan: Love Makes A Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay Bisexual & Transgender People and Their Families." Michigan also observes April as The Month of the Young Child.
Triangle Foundation and organizer Shannon Cuttle are bringing the exhibit to Michigan. Opening April 4 with a gala fundraising reception at the University of Michigan, the exhibit will then travel to seven major universities around Michigan with a stop at the Detroit Public Library's Main Branch.
The Love Makes a Family exhibit will be on display in the State Capitol on April 19, the day after the Coalition for Adoption Rights Equality's Family Lobby Day, in the South Wing on the first floor.
"It is very exciting to have this exhibit in Michigan, and especially to have it displayed in our State Capitol," said Cuttle, exhibit organizer and director of the Lavender Playhouse, an LGBT family organization.
"Gay families seem invisible to most people and that needs to change," said Sean Kosofsky, director of policy for Triangle Foundation. "Most people know someone who is gay, but they are not familiar with our families. In order to protect our families we need to introduce ourselves."
Program sponsors include Triangle, Coalition for Adoption Rights Equality, Michigan State University, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network and other pro-equality groups and educational organizations.
The Michigan Capitol exhibition marks the second time that "Love Makes A Family" will be exhibited in a statehouse, with the first such exhibit having been hung in Sacramento, California. "Diversity Across Michigan," which highlights families as seen through the eyes of local LGBT artists and youth, will be displayed concurrently with the "Love Makes A Family" exhibit.
Love Makes A Family exhibit schedule:
April 4: Opening Night Fundraiser Gala at UofM, Michigan League 6:30-8 p.m.
April 5-7: UofM
April 10-11: Oakland University
April 13-14: Grand Valley State University
April 17-18: Michigan State University
April 19: State Capitol, Lansing
April 20: Central Michigan University
April 25: Eastern Michigan University
April 27-29: Detroit Public Library Main Branch
For more information about the historic viewing day at the Capitol and the traveling photo exhibit contact Shannon Cuttle at [email protected] or 586-530-5704 or visit http://www.tri.org.
For more information on Family Lobby Day contact Penny Gardner at [email protected].
April 4 fundraiser to support "Love Makes A Family" exhibit.
The "Love Makes A Family" exhibit celebrating LGBT families will open with a fundraising event at the University of Michigan's Michigan League from 6:30-8 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door. A strolling buffet will be served, and all proceeds will go toward supporting the exhibit as it travels through the state.
