{"id":2452545,"date":"2019-12-23T21:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318166"},"modified":"2019-12-23T21:15:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T04:15:00","slug":"aspen-gay-ski-week-to-welcome-families-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-gay-ski-week-to-welcome-families-next-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Gay Ski Week to welcome families next month"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The legalization of gay marriage more than four years ago has led to a rise in more gay families in the United States, according to the owner of a gay-focused travel company.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more people in the community are having kids,\u201d said Gregg Kaminsky, one of the founding partners of R Family Vacations. \u201cWe wanted an option for them to keep coming to Aspen (for Gay Ski Week).\u201d<\/p>\n

So as part of next month\u2019s 43rd annual Aspen Gay Ski Week, organizers have created a long weekend in Snowmass Village at the end of the week\u2019s festivities specifically geared toward gay couples with children.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, they don\u2019t grow up with other LGBTQ families,\u201d Kaminsky said. \u201cNow they can all come to Snowmass and see families that look like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event \u2014 which will take place Jan. 17 to 19 \u2014 is a partnership between Kaminsky\u2019s company, Family Equality, an advocacy group for gay families, and AspenOUT, the nonprofit that puts on Gay Ski Week.<\/p>\n

Kevin McManamon, director of AspenOUT, adopted two children more than two decades ago, and said that back then he was pretty much on his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I adopted my kids 23 and 21 years ago, there was no support group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A handful of gay families with children young enough not to be in school yet have attended Gay Ski Week \u2014 scheduled for Jan. 12 to 19 \u2014 but there\u2019s never been a concerted effort to plan an event for them, McManamon said. He said he\u2019s been trying to plan a family-centric event for the past three or four years, but the circumstances weren\u2019t right.<\/p>\n

Now the promotional backing provided by the partnership with R Family Vacations and Family Equality, coupled with the fact that next year\u2019s ski week ends on the Martin Luther King three-day weekend, it was clear the 2020 Aspen Gay Ski Week was the time to try it, McManamon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt it was important to be on the forefront of LGBTQ family events,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition, McManamon would like to make Aspen a destination for gay travelers and families alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as an LBGTQ mountain destination resort,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of (gay) beach destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaminsky said 25 families have signed up to participate in the events next month, which will include Friday Ullr Night at Elk Camp, a party for parents only Saturday and a kids swimming party at the Aspen Recreation Center on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Also, organizers are looking to create an LGBTQ event in Snowmass Village in the summer, which may happen in the summer of 2021, Kaminsky said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have started the conversation and they are very, very receptive,\u201d he said. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t have been more welcome to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Stookey Sanchez, public relations manager at Snowmass Tourism, said next month\u2019s event fits perfectly with Snowmass Village.<\/p>\n

\u201cSnowmass is a natural fit because we have families here of all kinds,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to welcoming them.\u201d<\/p>\n

jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The legalization of gay marriage more than four years ago has led to a rise in more gay families in the United States, according to the owner of a gay-focused travel company. \u201cMore and more people in the community are having kids,\u201d said Gregg Kaminsky, one of the founding partners of R Family Vacations. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 00:52:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}