Cole and Dayna Reed, owners of GreenHaus Gallery and Boutique on Roosevelt Row, will close their doors for the last time Feb. 11 following their last First Friday Feb. 6 before the couple moves to Portland, Ore., a state with more parentage rights protection.
Although Arizona now recognizes the Reeds’ New York marriage, it still does not recognize both as the mother of their son expected to arrive March 14, 2015.
“Vote. Make the change, because so many of our politicians talk about family values, that’s all families, mine included,” Cole said. “A lot of people say that our system is broken, but it’s our system. So you have to work within the system and attempt to utilize the system to the best of your ability; VOTE.”
Dayna said that it is unfortunate they have to leave, but change needs to happen.
“We have an opportunity here to not be the last on the human-rights train,” said Dayna, which she suggests is done by making a stand and voting, a sentiment that her wife shares with her by emphasizing, and urging Arizonans, to make the right vote.
“So far our politicians have appeared to be moving in those directions kicking and screaming, but they are not leading the charge, they are doing what they have to.”
The new battle the LGBT community is heading into is parentage rights, with the main concern being verbiage on birth certificates indicating a couple both as the parent of a child birthed from one partner or a surrogate.
Arizona laws are unclear about same-sex parentage rights. Current laws only state that a married couple can adopt a child, but there is no verbiage for children who are born via surrogacy or in-vitro fertilization to a same-sex couple, and because Arizona does not have state laws mandating legal adoption policies and practices for same-sex partners each adoption case is treated as a case-by-case basis. And the court may rule any adoption to not be in the “best interest of the child.”
If the Reeds were to have their child in Arizona only Dayna, who is carrying their child, will appear on their son’s birth certificate. When they deliver in Oregon they will both be listed as mothers to their son.
Oregon’s law, called Registered Domestic Partnership, allows for both people in a lesbian couple to be listed as the mothers of their child, because one partner presumably carries the child, but because gay male couples have to use surrogacy they must go through the legal courts of adoption. At this time these laws are unique to Oregon, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., with few states recognizing both their marriage and parentage rights of their child.
Dayna and Cole both plan to take maternity leave to bond with their baby when he arrives after they settle in at Portland. “All this move is about this little person we are welcoming into the world,” Cole said.
Cole wants to stress that all families are alike, whether it’s a mom and a dad, two moms or two dads, and that all parents want the same for their children: equal protection under the law.
“I think there’s a big difference between empathy and sympathy but we all need a little bit of both,” Cole said, “(Arizona) can’t have our tax dollars if you’re not going to give us the same rights as everyone else.”
Dayna wants people who may not understand their lives to have open minds with direct interaction.
“People need to stop being afraid of what you don’t know or having preconceived notions about what that is,” Dayna said. “I‘m happy to talk to anyone about what it means to have a wife, what it means to be in a multi-ethnic relationship. Rather than judge why not have a conversation?”
Dayna and Cole, self-proclaimed “die-hard Phoenicians,” want art-goers, art clients and their community to know where their hearts are after this difficult decision to leave Phoenix.
In the opening speech for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture’s ‘Places, Spaces and Faces’ event Sunday, Dayna and Cole addressed their move from Phoenix to Portland and thanked the community for its support.
“We are not leaving because we don’t like Phoenix; we are not leaving because we don’t love our neighbors,” Cole said at the event, held at GreenHaus Gallery and Boutique. “We are leaving our close-knit bubble in downtown Phoenix that we love, adore and are rooted in because Arizona doesn’t support our family.”
Dayna said Cole’s ambitions in opening GreenHaus and contributions to Roosevelt Row has inspired and shown her that “a rising tide floats all boats.”
Kara Roshei, from the Arizona chapter of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, said that Dayna and Cole completely embody the organization’s core philosophies. “Cole’s current (art) piece ‘WE’ completely embraces what we stand for,” Roshei said. “It’s ‘We the People,’ which means all of the people.”
Cole’s current piece ‘WE,” a follow-up to her ‘American Me’ piece last year, is a multimedia metal sculpture, with photos Cole posed of people with real signs from segregation days. It represents an all-inclusiveness of every person, not just a selection of a few or exclusion of others.
“These are real signs about color that say, ‘No Colored Allowed’, and ‘Colored Entrance Only,’” Cole said. “Throughout our history we have just changed the words. Racism, sexism, all of those things reflect all of us.”
Muralist Lauren Lee’s first mural was “Three Birds,” painted on GreenHaus’s exterior. Lee attributes her success to Dayna and Cole.
“Their contributions, faith and vitality for the arts, and women in the arts are unparalleled,” Lee said. “We will be losing huge advocates for a vibrant and diverse arts experience in their leaving but equally we have been blessed by their time here.”
The Reeds supported and participated in “all things Roosevelt Row” including Artlink, First Fridays, Third Fridays and in the promotion of local artists, said Nicole Royse, curator for Shade Projects at the MonOrchird gallery next door.
“They have been a wonderful addition to the unique and creative spirit that is Roosevelt Row and will be missed,” Royse said.
Contact the reporter at amcclel1@asu.edu
