LGBT Parents in Provincetown: 'It's a Gift to Be Surrounded by a Community That Celebrates Your Family'

For a lesbian family living in a small Midwestern farming town — West Point, Indiana, population 594 — the Buckles-Rausch clan is extremely fortunate: They have a close group of friends, supportive families, non-discriminatory work environments, and an open and affirming church, where moms Angie Buckles and Annie Rausch were just married, on July 11, in front of 150 loved ones. Still, the women and their two children, Isabelle, 9, and Isaac, 7, were compelled to make the 1,000-mile pilgrimage to Provincetown, Mass., one of the gayest zip codes in America, for Family Week — which bills itself as “the largest annual gathering of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified parents and their families in the world.” Here, they join more than 500 other families from around the country and the world (some coming from as far as Italy and England) for a lineup of massive play dates, group meals, workshops, and beach parties — and the emotionally powerful realization that, for a full seven days, families like theirs were in the majority.