Arts & Entertainment
Resources and events for gay parents
Rainbow Families, COLAGE, others offer trips, fun days and more

The Moosa family has launched a new product. Inspired by their own travails, Baby Change-N-Go allows parents to change diapers safely and cleanly anywhere there’s a door to hang it on. (Photo courtesy Brenda Moosa)
Rainbow Families D.C. has its Fall Family Camp Weekend Oct. 14-16 at Camp Tockwogh (24370 Still Pond Neck Rd., Worton, Md.), about a two-hour drive from Washington. Camp Tockwogh is a 300-plus-acre campground on the Chesapeake Bay. The weekend provides LGBT families a chance to interact with arts and crafts, hikes, ice cream socials, a talent show, campfire, kickball and more.
Registration fees range from $110-155 per person based on housing selection and include two-night accommodations, activities and five meals. Children under age 3 are free. Full details at rainbowfamilies.org.
The following weekend from Oct. 20-23, Rainbow Families will have a Family & Friends Weekend at Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Va., a weekend full of “splashes, slideboards and hot springs.” The weekend offers changes for miniature gold, bolwing, amusement rides, cooking demonstrations, Halloween activities, spas, salons and access to a water park which comes with room reservation. Great Wolf Lodge is about 45 minutes from Richmond. Details at everyq.com.
The group also continues its “Maybe Baby” fall classes and conception support group throughout the coming months. Full information at rainbowfamilies.org.
November is national adoption month. Join Rainbow Families D.C. and the D.C. Center on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. for an adoption information night that will provide details on becoming a host, foster, respite or foster-to-adopt family in Washington. Other LGBT parents who are going through the adoption process will be present. It’s free and will be held at the D.C. Center (2000 14th St., N.W., suite 105). Details at thedccenter.org.
Want a big gay family-affirming road trip next summer? COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) and Family Equality Council have their Family Week every summer (usually around the third week of July) in Provincetown, Mass. Check back later at colage.org for details on the 2017 event.
Family Equality Council will have its Family Weekend in D.C. event April 15-17 next year. It’s for LGBT parents, children, extended families and friends and is an annual event. Check later at familyequality.org for details.
A Richmond-based lesbian family has started Baby Change-N-Go, a new product that offers parents a safe and clean place to change diapers anywhere on the go. Baby Change-N-Go hangs on a door and unfolds to include a flat, secure place to place babies and change them efficiently. They were tired of not being able to find clean baby changing stations and decided to do something about it.
It took Brenda and Mahnaz Moosa, parents of 2-year-old twin boys, about a year and a half to take the product from the idea phase to the market and it’s just about ready. Orders are being taken now at babychangengo.com. The product is available for $99 in pink, blue and gray and can be personalized. Delivery will come in November.

The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)








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The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)









Books
Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?
‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia
‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages
Mom called you in a panic the other day.
She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.
These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.
You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?
Chin says maybe, yes.
He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.
Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.
Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.
Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.
Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”
Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.
Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.
Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.
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