More than 200 people attend LGBT Families Expo in Hauppauge

The LGBT Network hosted its first Families Expo on Saturday for same-sex couples looking to start or expand their families, attracting more than 200 people who want to explore parenthood and connect with others from similar backgrounds.

“Today is about exploring all the options ... and fulfilling the dreams and hopes of having a family,” said David Kilmnick, founder and president of the nonprofit. “Today when people leave here, they are going to see that the dream is possible and that they are leaving here with greater hope than what they came in with.”

The expo was hosted in the organization’s new 15,000-square-foot center in Hauppauge, featuring workshops and providers that offer services in such areas as foster care, adoption, and in vitro fertilization.

“There’s still a feeling out there that maybe it’s not something possible for them,” Kilmnick said. “That’s why this expo is important because it shows there are different ways to build a family and it’s possible.”

For couples like Anthony and Paul DiDio of Bellerose, the event was a chance to befriend other same-sex parents and connect with the larger LGBT community.

“What brought us here is to find a community for us outside our family,” said Anthony DiDio, who teaches nursing part time at Adelphi University. "Families like us."

The 38-year-old father said he anticipates that his 2-year-old twin boys would encounter other children in the school system who may not be familiar with the concept of having two dads.

“We knew that the boys would grow up possibly with some questions,” Anthony DiDio said, noting he believes it will “help them realize that they are not alone" when they have the support of families like theirs.

Charissa Naul, 51, and her wife, of Coram, brought their two adopted daughters to the expo to meet other families and see old friends they knew through adoption services.

“Sometimes you feel different, you know, than everybody else,” Naul said, standing next to her 15-year-old daughter Michele Coddington Sugarman. “There’s not a whole lot of kids in her school with two moms or two dads. Sometimes it’s awkward. Sometimes it’s cool.”

Coddington Sugarman, who was adopted in 2018, said she sees her family not as different but unique.

“We have a story that not a lot of people have,” the teen said. “We are not different from other families, but we have different stories.”