Mignon Moore, UCLA associate professor of sociology, and her spouse, Elaine Harley, received the LGBT Heritage Award from the Los Angeles City Council. The award was presented by Mayor Eric Garcetti on May 30.
The award recognizes Moore and Harley's advocacy efforts for marriage equality as well their outreach to same-sex couples and LGBT people seeking to build families. They have launched the social network, "Persuasion," for women of color; created "Chocolate & Wine Upscale Events for Women," bringing together lesbian, bisexual and same-gender-loving women; and worked with organizations such as Southern California Foster Family and Adoption Agency and RaiseAChild.US, which provides support and information for prospective adoptive parents. Their efforts were recently highlighted in the Huffington Post.
Moore is a family sociologist whose research examines within-group variation in processes and outcomes among disadvantaged groups. Her book, “Invisible Families: Gay Identities, Relationships and Motherhood among Black Women,” won the 2012 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Book Award from the Sex andGender Section of the American Sociological Association. The book explores how initial self-understandings based on race influence subsequent practice of same-sex desire; processes of union formation; routes to motherhood; and the enactment of gendered power relations in families headed by two women.
