Approximately 175 at-home dads from around the country will meet in Raleigh, N.C., the weekend of Oct. 7 for its 21st annual convention. The event is aimed at connecting these fathers and enhancing their parenting skills.
HomeDadCon 2016, also known as the annual At-Home Dads Convention and organized by the nonprofit National At-Home Dad Network, will feature traditional sessions on discipline, financial planning and marriage along with more topical panels on gun safety and issues facing the LGBT community. The latter is significant in light of controversial legislation passed in North Carolina earlier this year over gay and transgender discrimination.
According to a Sept. 23 Facebook post from NAHDN President Chris Routly, several sponsors and past attendees pulled out from this year’s at-home dads conference in protest of the House Bill 2, which removes anti-discrimination protections for gay and transgender individuals and requires transgender people to use the bathrooms in public buildings that correspond to their birth gender. As relocating the HomeDadCon was not possible, Routly asked supporters and boycotters to consider donating to North Carolina organizations working to repeal the legislation.
“I’m also really proud that, with the controversy surrounding the HB2 legislation in North Carolina, we as an organization made the decision to shine some light on the subject, and will be for the first time featuring a large panel discussion on LGBT issues,” he told City Dads Group.
(Disclosure: City Dads Group is a sponsor of the at-home dads conference. Routly is organizer of the Portland Dads Group.)
Those who do attend will be in for many treats, including an exclusive private screening of the movie The Big Flip, a documentary about changing gender roles in modern families, and a keynote from Brian Gordon, the cartoonist behind the popular online parenting comic strip “Fowl Language.”
For more information or to register to attend the conference, visit the NAHDN web site.
You guys are progressive in the most positive sense of the word. This looks like a great conference. I’m in UK, so can’t make it, however great work for putting this on. I’m interested in campaigning for men’s mental health, so any organisation that is positive towards men is fantastic. Thanks, Mike. (@menhealuk on Twitter)