Im the guy who stopped by your office last weekend with my little girl inquiring about hooking up with other gay parents in Rehoboth.
I really appreciated your taking the time to chat with me, as it gave me hope that I would someday find the seemingly elusive "gay people with kids" scene in Rehoboth. (By the way, I thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the back issues of LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth from this past yearyou are doing a first-rate job!)
My partner Rick and I have been coming to Rehoboth for the past few years with our daughter Diana, and each time we come we are faced with the challenge of how to integrate a gay social life with events and places that are "kid-friendly." Just to give you an idea of the challenges, here are some vignettes of past trips:
We phone a popular gay guest house and confirm they have rooms available on the dates we want to visit Rehoboth. We ask about a rollaway for our little girl, at which point we are told: "We have nude hottub bathing here which might not be suitable for a child." (We agreed and found another place to stay, without the hot tub scene!)
We go to a "popular" gay restaurant, but when we ask for a "kid-size portion" of a menu itemthey look at us like we are nuts. (Implication: No kids ever come here.)
We go to Poodle Beachwhere (sadly) there are no kids to be foundand our little girl loudly declareswithin earshot of many people"Why are all these people asleep?" (After we stopped laughing, we explained that everyone wasnt asleepbut to a little kid that was tough to believe!)
We go to a very popular pizza place, which our little girl loves, and afterwards discover, via word-of-mouth, that it is a very homophobic establishment. (Oh, oh! Now what? Pizza is a little kids life at the beach!)
Not to give the impression that we havent found kid-friendly places in Rehoboth: Pam at Caf Teria gives "extra chips" to our little girl; Peter at Gourmet by the Sea is very engaging with our daughter; Barry at Lambda Rising helped us find the kids-book section and then brought us next door so we could talk to you! Steve and Wayne at The Coffee Mill always give an extra smile to our girl, and Steve and Rick at Subway are always friendlyand the list could go on.
In general, I guess what I want to ask is: Do any of your readers have good ideas for ways to get us gay parents together with our kids and for integrating our gay side with our parent side? Im sure someone out there has figured this all out. If they would be ever so kind as to share their secrets with us, we would be eternally grateful. We can be reached at RHKoonce@aol.com or (703) 237-6387.
If you could publish some ideas in your magazine that would be great. Who knows, maybe LETTERS from CAMP Rehoboth will have a "kids column" someday to help steer us in the right direction on future vacation trips.
Thanks again for your time and for producing such a superb publication.
Sincerely,
John Galligan and Richard Koonce and Diana (Big girl: age 6)
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10/17/97 Issue. Copyright 1997 by CAMP Rehoboth, Inc. All rights reserved.