Our Mission
Everyone deserves to live in the embrace of a loving family.
The Chosen Family Project™️ explores the diverse and vibrant Chosen Families of the LGBTQ+ community. Through books, photographs, film, and social action campaigns, we will revere, honor, and celebrate what it means to be a family.
The Chosen Family Project™️ is a call to action! To counter the onslaught of legislation and discrimination that threatens LGBTQ+ families.
Our foundation supports organizations that improve the quality of life for the many disenfranchised individuals who no longer have a relationship with their biological families.
Through heartbreaking and inspiring personal stories, we will learn how members of the LGBTQ+ community found their Chosen Families, what makes their family special, and the beloved traditions they celebrate, both old and new. The book will feature stunning, thought-provoking artwork representing Chosen Family traditions throughout the country – all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds.
Following the film and book's releases, our social justice campaign will kick off. Screenings of the film, the book tour, and a series of podcasts will take us even deeper behind the scenes as we hear from the founders, photographers and celebrity guests who have their own stories of Chosen Family. A multi-city art exhibit will feature photographs of Chosen Families gathered in celebration to serve the same mission: To educate, bring awareness, build community, and provide information about resources.
Tell Your Story
Do you have a beautiful, funny, messy, unforgettable story about your Chosen Family? We want to hear it.
The Chosen Family Project™ mission is to advocate for, protect and advance the health, safety, and well-being of LGBTQ+ Chosen families – families that are not defined by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, parental status, or the partners they love, but the people they’ve chosen to walk with through life’s journey. We celebrate, protect, and give voice to the diverse, loving, and joyful people we in the LGBTQ+ community call “family.”
In the face of today’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, we aim to memorialize our history, while other forces are trying to erase it.
We want to hear from you, whether it’s a short story about your Chosen Family, or a few lines about what “family” means to you.
If your story is selected for publication on our website or our upcoming book, you will have an opportunity to work with our editors and photographers to bring your story to life. The primary focus of this project is on the Chosen Family you have created since coming out. Your story will not be published online or in our book without your written permission once we are through with the editing process.
Please consider these questions within the story you submit:
Introduce yourself and your Chosen Family. How, specifically, does your Chosen Family give you a sense of belonging, warmth, and recognition of who you are?
Do you have a favorite tradition for a family celebration? Explain its significance.
Please keep your story to 300 – 1200 words. If you are more comfortable recording your story than writing it, we are happy to accept audio files. We also welcome photos of your Chosen Family that you would like to share. Want to send a photo without a story – that also works!
We welcome anonymous stories if you prefer not to share your identity.
Thank you! We can’t wait to read your story!
For questions: Please email Steven@TheChosenFamilyProject.org
With gratitude,
The Chosen Family Project
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch so we can start working together.
Who We Are
We are The Chosen Family Project™, a nonprofit organization to celebrate, protect, and give voice to the diverse, loving, and joyful people we in the LGBTQ+ community call “family." The Chosen Family Project™ seeks to redefine the notion of the traditional nuclear family by recognizing that our families are not defined by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, parental status, nor the partners we love, but by the people we’ve chosen to walk with through life’s journey.
