El Amor Fortalece Familias: Gay Neighbor Campaign Announces Spanish Billboard and Website: MiVecinoGay.orgOnce again the Milwaukee Gay Neighbor will launch an educational campaign to put real faces and stories to what a gay family looks like, but this year one of the billboards will be translated with a Spanish slogan. El Amor Fortalece Familias: MiVecinoGay.org will appear on a freeway digital billboard near downtown, then it will change to the English translation: Family. It's all about LOVE!

Press Release, Sept. 14th, 2009

Betty, 24 appears with her parents, Gloria and Oscar, as well as her brother Jonathan 13, sister Omara 22, and her three year old neice Timara.

"We only know of the Proposition 8 campaign in California featuring a Spanish component to their campaign," says Maria Cadenas, Executive Director of the Cream City Foundation, the organization sponsoring the campaign.

The billboards direct people to the website GayNeighbor.org where people are encouraged to learn more about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues and to read stories of everyday people who are or who love someone LGBT. Allies from the community are encouraged to sign on to show their support. Commuter freeway routes in Milwaukee as well as the suburbs of Ozaukee, Waukesha, and Racine Counties are included in the Wisconsin billboard and bus ad educational campaign.

Gloria encourages others parents: "My husband and I encourage other parents to show up for events or shows or outings just like you would another child. Your gay or transgender child will teach you about things you never dreamed you would learn about and you will be better for it."

Gloria goes on to say, "Our family is from Puerto Rico and all of Puerto Rico is proud of Betty being chosen to be a part of the Gay Neighbor project. None of our family or neighbors have ever given us trouble for having a gay or transgender child."

Betty explains her path to knowing her true self: "When I was younger I thought I was gay. That was hard to accept but overtime, I realized I was really a woman. I knew in my heart that I am a woman and I believe god intended me to be a woman. It has been a process of coming to my senses and finding myself."

Gloria sums up the goals of the campaign when she says: "I worry about seeing gay people attacked and harassed. I think we all need to get to know our neighbors in a very warm and welcoming way. I think we need to reach out, be closer, hug one another and have more communication. That will lead to understanding more than anything else. I want to see all neighbors be closer, get to know one another and put aside our differences."

Cream City Foundation serves as a catalyst for social change on behalf of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender communities in southeastern Wisconsin. Their work includes strategic grant making, education, and media outreach.