(N&O) – There is Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, and now in North Carolina, a day to celebrate parents who fall outside that gender binary. A state lawmaker is working to make North Carolina, once known nationally for HB2, more inclusive. Rep. Vernetta Alston, a Durham Democrat, is one of few openly LGBTQ members of the General Assembly. She and her wife, Courtney, have two small children.

Gov. Roy Cooper signed a proclamation Friday that makes Dec. 6 Gender Expansive Parents’ Day. Alston submitted the formal proclamation process this summer. The Dec. 6 date was chosen because it does not conflict with any other commemoration. And also, Alston “wanted to bring a little joy to 2020.”

Making it an official day shows support for the LGBTQ community generally, she said in a phone interview Friday, but it also is about “recognizing we’re a community that’s diverse and … to recognize specifically this subset of parents that can get lost in conversations about parenting.”

Alston’s children are three months old and 3 years old. “I identify as female, but for me, in our life, for our kids, my wife is their mom,” Alston said, so Mother’s Day applies to her wife. Their family celebrates Alston on a different day in May. “Why should I, or anyone situated similarly, celebrate in isolation?” she said. Now folks who don’t fit into a gender binary, which means classifying everyone as female or male, can celebrate on the same day, she said. READ MORE