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Serendipitydodah for Moms – Home of the Mama Bears is a private Facebook group exclusively for moms of LGBTQ kids. The official motto is “Better Together” and the members call themselves “Mama Bears”

The group supports, educates and empowers mothers of LGBTQ kids.

The group is private so only members can see who is in the group and what is posted in the group. It was started in June 2014 and as of August 2019 has more than 7,000 members. For more info about the private Facebook group email lizdyer55@gmail.com

 

This post is a contribution to the 10th annual Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day.

Love Makes A Family

In 2014 I started a private Facebook support group for Moms of LGBTQ kids.

The group is set up so only members can see who is in the group and what is posted there.

I created the space for open minded Christian moms who have LGBTQ kids and want to develop and maintain healthy, loving, authentic relationships with their LGBTQ kids. The name of the group is Serendipitydodah for Moms. It is my hope that those who join the group will discover something unexpected there … some piece of information – a friend or two – some helpful resources – a different perspective – love and grace – a new way – or something I can’t even imagine that will be helpful and hopeful in their quest to love their kids well.

If that happens … that’s a serendipitydodah moment!

We do a lot of things in the group to help us learn and grow together but one thing that is very popular are our special guest events. Each month we add a special guest to the group for 2 or 3 days. The guest answers questions and shares information and ideas they believe will be helpful to the members of our group.

In the last year our guests have included John Pavlovitz, Richard James, Jim Palmer, Bill Prickett, John Shore, Tim Rymel, John Smid, Michael Bussee, David Gushee, Ken Wilson, Emily Swan, Lisa Salazar, Natasha Magness, Ben Moberg, Missa Borah, Brian G Murphy, Fr. Shannon T. L. Kearns, Matthew Vines, Caleb Woods, Danielle McClure.

Over and over again the guests tell me they love the group and also learn from the moms in the group.

We also do special activities to help us heal and invite members to share their stories about their own experiences. For example, we held a Walking Wounded event in the group and invited members to share their stories of how they were wounded by the church. I believe that telling your story in the presence of those who are caring and compassionate is a powerful source of healing.

Members of the group also get together with those who live in their local area for coffee or lunch and we have weekend gatherings from time to time where 20 to 30 show up and spend the weekend together hanging out, sharing meals and getting to know one another better.

And just for fun we presently have three journals that are being passed around from member to member. The project is called “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Journal” and when a member receives the journal she has two pages to herself. When she has filled in her two pages with anything she wants … her thoughts, a favorite quote, pictures, an encouragement etc. etc. … she sends it off the the next person on the list. It’s just one more way for us to stay connected.

In addition to bonding with each other we also share a strong love for each other’s kids. We celebrated pride month last year by inviting members to post pictures of their kids and share why their kids are their pride and joy and we are doing it again this year.

One of the other members and myself even took it to another level during the holidays last year and did a public campaign called Pride and Joy. The campaign worked to raise awareness about the obstacles that LGBTQ people still face, educate parents of LGBTQ kids and raise money for The Trevor Project.

My greatest passion is to help make the world a kinder, safer, more loving place for all LGBTQ people to live therefore I get very excited when I hear about all the things that the members of Serendipitydodah for Moms are doing in their own local communities … starting local PFLAG chapters, challenging their local churches, creating safer schools by getting anti-bullying programs in place, educating their neighbors and local officials, working to get non-discrimination laws for LGBTQ people put into place in their community, starting support groups in their local church for parents of LGBTQ kids, letting LGBTQ kids who have been kicked out of their home come and live with them, reaching out and helping LGBTQ kids who are in crisis, telling their story in order to inform and educate and so much more.

From what I am witnessing it seems like moms of LGBTQ kids are playing a big part in making the world a kinder, safer, more loving place for all LGBTQ people.

If anyone is interested in joining the group they can email me at lizdyer55@gmail.com and put “Mom’s Facebook Group” as the subject.

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Go here for a list of all the posts submitted for the 10th annual Blogging for LGBTQ Families Day.