Do you want to have a child?
PRESENTED BY:
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South Florida’s LGBT |
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About the Panel Moderators and Experts:
Elizabeth Schwartz
, Esq.
Florida attorney specializing in gay & lesbian family law.
Elizabeth Schwartz established her solo law practice in 2001 and is entering her second decade as an attorney. Liz’s practice focuses on representing the gay community in family formation and she lectures locally and nationally about the importance of gay couples protecting
their loved ones through estate planning and contract. Also a certified family mediator, her firm treats the law as a therapeutic profession, helping clients protect their families and facilitating relationship dissolution with minimal investment of emotional and financial resources. She is the Co-Chair of the National Center for Lesbian Rights National Family Law Advisory Council and the Miami Beach Bar Association. A native of Miami Beach, she received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania
in 1993. She received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Miami, in 1997. She and her partner, Lydia Martin and their dog, Buttercup, live in downtown Miami's urban core.
John Weltman, Esq.
President / Founder, Circle Surrogacy. Ltd., and a legal specialist in assisted reproduction laws.
John and his partner of
25 years (now husband!) began their surrogacy journey in 1991 and had two boys, now 13 and 12, through the same surrogate. In 1995 John founded Circle Surrogacy, now the nation's oldest full service gay owned and gay focused surrogate-parenting agency, serving clients from around the USA and 25 countries worldwide. Since 1995, Circle Surrogacy has helped bring to the world over 225 babies, with unmatched success rates of close to 100% in clients becoming parents through egg donor surrogacy. Circle
Surrogacy provides a
choice of specialized clinics at locations throughout the country, a large selection of egg donors, swift matching with
carefully screened surrogates, and a variety of flexible programs and financial options. As a widely considered expert in surrogacy for gay men John was interviewed and appeared in numerous publications, TV programs, and conferences throughout the USA, Europe, Canada, and Israel. John
was educated at Yale, Oxford and the University of Virginia and holds a masters degree in history and a JD in law.
Join us for
Building and
Extending Families
for Florida LGBT Couples and Singles
• Insight into various parenting options including domestic or foreign adoption, alternate insemination and surrogacy.
• Support and guidance from experienced gay and lesbian parents.
• Advice from legal professionals who work with gay and lesbian families to facilitate adoptions and biological parenting.
• A full day of conversation, support and fun with GLBT parents and their children
This Special program is part of the
5th Annual Valuing Our Families Day
Saturday, March 29, 2008
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Sunshine Cathedral MCC Campus
1480 SW 9th Avenue
Ft Lauderdale, Florida [map]
Admission is $30 per person ($35 after March 20th).
Click here for online registration.
More information:
www.sunserve.org/vof2008.html
954-764-5557 / Info@SunServe.org
IN THE PROGRAM:
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10:00 – 10:30 |
Registration |
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10:30 – 12:00 |
Workshop Session I: Family Building Options |
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12:00 – 1:00 |
Lunch |
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1:00 – 2:30 |
Workshop Session II: Protecting Your Family - A Legal Guide |
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2:45 – 3:45 |
General Session: Across the Generations |
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4:00 – 6:00 |
Family Picnic and Carnival |
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The Building and Extending Families program is for conference participants who either are planning to have a first child or are considering bringing a new child into their family. Session I - Family building Options: An overview of the options available for Florida LGBT people who want to have children. We will then break into a series of work groups to pursue each options in depth:
These groups are set up with special attention to the different backgrounds, needs and family goals of the participants, both men and women. Session II - Protecting Your Family - A Legal Guide: Key issues and challenges that emerge for gay and lesbian couples (or single individuals) who choose to have a family in Florida. You will hear from one of Florida’s most accomplished GLBT family attorneys about strategies and practical steps for protecting your new (or existing) family. . As this program is part of the Valuing Our Families conference (VOF 2008), participants are encouraged to join the afternoon programs that will follow the workshops: General Session: "Across the Generations" - An update on GLTB family issues in Florida, presentation of the 2008 Valuing Our Families Community Award, and a time for sharing across the generations. Children from gay and lesbian headed households will gather with GLBTQ teens and their friends as well as gay and lesbian parents to share their stories of struggles, challenges, hopes and love across the generations. This is the only event of its kind anywhere! GLBT teens will see models of how to be gay parents. Gay and lesbian parents will experience what it is like to mentor a new generation of GLBT youth. Children from GLBT households will have the chance to tell their own stories. Family Picnic and Carnival: • Food! • Games! • Raffles! • Fun activities for young and not so young! • Prizes! • Music and laughter! The 5th annual Valuing Our Families conference (VOF 2008) is a day full of events for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (glbt) youth, families, partners and parents, allies and friends at the Sunshine Cathedral MCC, Fort Lauderdale. Designed for all who value the LGBT contribution to the American family in all its diversity and held in the Spring of each year, this innovative annual conference proudly raises up our own family values for all to see, whether it is our family of origin, our partners and children, or the deep and familial bonds of friendship that is often so powerfully supportive in the gay community. We honor those who value our families in their many forms, who advocate for our families and who celebrate the values that make our families strong in the midst of adversity of all kinds. Valuing Our Families is a program of SunServe, South Florida’s GLBT social service agency and South Florida Family Pride, a membership organization of gay and lesbian households. |
•Parenting Law •Assisted Reproduction •Surrogacy
•Personal Stories •Expert Advice •Practical Tools