You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's Mariel.

I feel fortunate to have a lot of loving people in my life. People who brought

over soup when I was sick or gone with me to important doctor's appointments.

People who have traveled with, who I've had sleepovers with, people whose kids I adore.

Many of these people are related to me, but also many are not.

They're what you might call chosen family. This is something Daniel Blevins

thinks about a lot, especially during family-centric times, holidays, birthdays,

weddings. Daniel is the founder of a group called Stand In Pride.

It started as a group that connects members of the LGBTQ plus community with other members

and allies for emotional support or to stand in at life events such

as weddings or graduations. This all started with a Tik-Tok video he posted in

2021.

I made a video for TikTok offering to stand in as a dad for couples whose parents

wouldn't attend or couldn't because sometimes they have passed away.

After the video a lot of people told him how badly they needed this kind of chosen family,

especially queer and trans folks who were cut off from their parents or grandparents or siblings. So Daniel started this group.

We had a thousand members in our first Facebook group

within the first 24 hours.

And just seeing people connect in the group, people, you know, getting to know each other and asking questions.

It was almost immediate that I knew that this was something that our community really needed.

And he says that happens a lot in the group.

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