Executive Board

Margarida Lima de Faria – President

Sociologist. Mother of two daughters, one lesbian. Founder and president of the association of parents of LGBTI people of Portugal lAMPLOS – from 2009 to 2019. Margarida has been actively supporting, accompanying and advising Portuguese families of LGBTI people and advocating for LGBTI rights since 2009. Also advocating for LGBTI+ rights in Portugal with important legal results (same-sex marriage, co-adoption bill, gender identity and sexual characteristics law and protection of trans* children at schools). Vice-president of the Latin-American and Iberian network of parents organizations from 23 countries – FDS – Familias por la Diversidad Sexual – from 2013 to 2016. Board member from 2010 to 2016 Member of ENP board since 2016.

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Roberta Bagnasco – Vice President

Roberta was born in 1959 in Genoa, Italy.
 
She is the happy mother to two lovely sons, the elder a gay person, and to two cats, probably straight, but who might know.
 
She is a teacher of English in lower secondary schools, and promotes LGBT+ education and awareness at school, whenever she can.
 
She has been part of AGEDO, the association of LGBT+ parents, in Italy for several years now, and she is the President of the local Agedo Novara branch.
A convinced atheist, she praises the efforts of all religious people to tackle the LGBT+ cause and support it. LGBT+ rights are human rights, no matter what.
 
Her happiest moments are marching at Pride shows with her sons, friends and pupils.
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Anne Rigney (Ireland) General Secretary.

Anne is a member of Tuismitheoiri le Cheile (parents together) Support group for parents of LGBTI+ children, Roscommon, Ireland. Anne believes in equality for all and firmly believes that one person can make a difference by speaking out against discrimination of any kind. She has two children, a son, and a daughter. Her son came out as gay when he was 16. Anne actively campaigned in the Irish referendum for marriage equality in 2015.  She wrote a poem called ”Imagine it’s your child” which connected to the hearts of the Irish people. The poem was used by the votewithus.org and was even reached Australia where the marriage equality vote was being debated.  In her interview with the Australian Telegraph, Anne appealed to Australian parents to support their gay children.

  “Talk to your politicians. Hold rallies. Write letters to papers. Do not stand idly by. Your children need you”. Anne has been a member of ENP for since 2017.   

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Joseanne Peregin – Malta
Joseanne Peregin is a Maltese Catholic mother of three, one of whom is gay.  She has been a voice for parents of LGBTI+ children who feel wounded by the Church or experience social stigma and prejudice, both locally and abroad. https://waysoflove.wordpress.com/2014/10/03/joseanne-peregin-fears-and-hopes-as-a-catholic-mother-of-a-gay-son-a-parents-perspective/ As a life-long member of the Christian Life Community (CLC)  http://www.cvx-clc.net/l-en/aboutUs.html she also served as President of CLC Malta between 2008-2014 and believes in building bridges with the hierarchy, to protect and affirm LGBTI+ Persons. She is a co-founder of three organisations: Drachma Parents’ Group Malta; the European Network of Parents of LGBTI+ Persons (ENP); and the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC). She has been active in promoting acceptance of LGBTIQ people both in the Church and in society. https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20160517/opinion/Radiating-joy-hope-and-love.612311She speaks publicly about the open dialogue held with the Maltese bishops and invites church leaders to accompany parents in their acceptance journey. She was instrumental in influencing public opinion in Malta regarding social acceptance and family reconciliation, during the legislative improvements that Malta undertook, taking it to the top of the ILGA-Europe Rainbow Index. She presented a book, Uliedna Rigal (Our children as gift) produced by Drachma, to the local authorities. Written in Maltese, it contains 50 frequently asked questions plus testimonies and the Archbishop purchased 100 copies to give one to each parish, finding it to be a good pastoral tool. She is a member of Malta’s LGBTIQ Consultative Council and participates regularly in seminars and conferences advocating for LGBTIQ wellbeing and building safe spaces for dialogue and LGBTI+ affirmation.  She is married to Joseph Peregin for over thirty–five years and has two sons and one daughter.

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Sven Stabroth (Germany) – Fund Officer

worked for more than a decade in the Non-Profit-Sector between Germany and Eastern Europe, especially the Russian Federation.

Infectious Diseases, Public and Mental Health were of main interest until he started working in the development cooperation in Ukraine. And, in a way that is closely related to this, he supported and consulted the Ukrainian Parents Initiative TERGO to build the organization and forming a network of parents of LGBT children. Besides that he is curator of exhibition projects, which dealing with heteronormativity in our societies.

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Marisol Ortiz (Spain) – Public Relations
 
Marisol is married and the proud mother of two daughters, the elder one is an LGBT person. 
 
Since 2017, Marisol is AMPGYL representative at ENP and she collaborated with ENP board. AMPGYL, the Spanish association of parents of LGBT people ( families against gender intolerance) is one of the founding members of ENP.
 
In the eighties, Marisol joined the Christian Life Community (CVX.- CLC), an international association of lay Christian who have adopted an Ignatian model of spiritual life. Focused on the family pastoral care, she is nowadays in charge of the CVX Family mission team. 
 
She says that her activism consists of building rainbow bridges between people, society and religion. 
 
She has an MBA in business administration and she is working in the financial department of a publishing company.
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