Intergenerational COLAGErs: A Panel

This event is open to the whole community!

Come witness conversations between our teenagers on the Youth Action Board and COLAGErs who were involved in the early 2000s. You’ll hear about how the experience of being raised by LGBTQ+ parents changes with the generations and also how there are timeless similarities in our stories. Meet the panelists below:

Elior Zaremba:

Elior (he/him) is a junior in high school and lives in Massachusetts. Elior has two dads and one brother. He has attended Family Week since 2017 and has really enjoyed being around other families that are similar to his. Some of his goals have been to help educate others on different types of family structures and their variations.

Bailey Kauffman:

Bailey lives in Northern California, is a junior in high school has a queer mom and a younger brother. In his spare time, Bailey enjoys reading, biking, cooking and baking vegan recipes, and taking care of his many plants. He also leaps at the opportunity to take road trips and hike with his family. Bailey is interested in being more engaged by taking action in his community, especially raising awareness about climate change. He became more involved with the LGBTQ community while participating in drama activities in high school. Bailey loves meeting new people and strives to be an ally to others.

Delia Erb-Wagner:

Delia (she/her) is a junior living in New Jersey. She has 2 lesbian moms and 3 sisters. Delia has been attending family week every year since she was born, with the exception of a few recent years with covid. She hopes to use the COLAGE youth action board as a way to continue to share her voice and continue to advocate for different family structures.

Sekai Lyles-Parks:

Sekai Lyles-Parks (she/her) lives in Oakland, California and is currently in her senior year of high school. She has two lesbian mothers and identifies as bisexual. Sekai has helped lead panels discussing her experience growing up in a queer family and volunteers as a CIT at a sleep away camp for queer families over the summer. She is honored to be working with COLAGE and can’t wait to get to know more people in the community!

Lily Cordon Siskind:

Lily (she/her) is a junior in high school and lives with her 2 moms and older brother in New York City. Growing up she attended family week in Provincetown every summer, and is so grateful to have found a community like COLAGE. As a member of the Youth Action Board, Lily hopes to work towards making every place safe for LGBTQ+ families.

Sarah Russell-Isaacs:

Sarah Russell-Isaacs (she/her) is currently a sophomore in high school in Los Angeles, CA. She lives with her two dads and twin brother. She is a member of the Youth Leadership Team for the CAN Coalition at the Los Angeles LGBT Center and is a passionate advocate for the LGBTQ+ community.

Sarah Anderegg:

Sarah Anderegg, nee Sarah Gogin, was born and raised in San Francisco by her two gay dads, Kevin Gogin and Dan McPherson. Sarah has been a member of COLAGE since the 1990s and a COLAGE public speaker from 2002 to 2013. She graduated Cum Laude with a BA in Communications from Loyola Marymount University in 2006 and with an MS in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco in 2012. Currently, Sarah is the Executive Assistant to the Vice President of Student Learning and Success at the College of Marin and most importantly she is full-time mommy to her 5-going-on-15 year old Gabriella.

Darnell Witt:

Darnell lives in Sebastopol CA with two magical cats, Twinkle & Luigi. He’s the only child or two lesbian moms (now separated) and a donor dad who conceived back in 1981 — without a playbook, blazing their own trail. He came out as bi (now pansexual) in his early teens, was president of his high school’s GSA, and has long been an advocate for bi/pan/queer/queerspawn visibility. Darnell works in tech and is passionate about generative and sustainable business practice. He lived in NY much of his adult life and volunteered for the NYC COLAGE chapter in the early 2000s. The healing arts are his driving passion and he remains active in a community that does somatic and yoga-based group healing work..

Aaron Sachowitz:

Aaron is an ambiguously brown, white privileged/passing Jew with lesbian mothers and a gay donor. A donor/father himself, Aaron has twin 5 year old girls with his wife and a 12 year old daughter that lives with her lesbian mom in LA. Aaron got involved with COLAGE in 2008 after marching with a COLAGE contingent in NYC Pride before getting recruited to join as a Provincetown Family Week volunteer program facilitator. In addition to returning to Family Week for four additional years, Aaron spent 6 years serving on the COLAGE board, including two as the Chair. He is Professor of Media Technologies and Culture at Saint Mary’s College of California in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Jeff DeGroot:

Raised in Corvallis, Oregon by his two moms, Jeff worked as a fellow for COLAGE in 2009-10 and authored (with lots of help!) the COLAGE Donor Insemination Guide. Jeff is currently an attorney at the law firm DLA Piper LLP and resides in Seattle, Washington with his wife and two daughters.

Elizabeth Castellana:

Elizabeth is a single queer mom to two elementary-aged queerspawn and works as a middle school vice principal near Boston.  She grew up in Massachusetts with a closeted gay dad who came out when she was a teenager.  Elizabeth became involved in COLAGE in 2003 during graduate school when reviving the Boston chapter and has attended all but one Family Week since.  She has served as a volunteer, National Program Director and Interim Executive Director for COLAGE.  This summer her daughter will be participating in COLAGE programs at Family Week as a COLAGEr and a GOLAGEr.