Next Meeting - October 19, 2008Get Ready, the Election is Coming PFLAG will look at Democratic , Republican and Independent party platforms on issues that impact on the GLBT community. As a 501C/3 organization, we, of course, will not take sides on candidates in these parties. It IS important to examine all party platforms to learn what the candidates of those platforms represent. To be an informed electorate, we need to hear from you and share information our members and attendees have read and can lead us all to good, well documented information. There is no doubt this election can be pivotal to the GLBT community. Come and share in the discussion. Joann Elder will briefly summarize party platforms, and cite articles relevant to our discussion. |
The famous Madison Farmers' Market has started and runs every Saturday morning until early November. We staff a table at the South Hamilton corner of the capital square in 2 shifts: 8-10 and 10-12. Jo Elder brings and takes the table and all materials, so volunteers just need to sit there, look pretty, enjoy the weather and people watching, eat pastry, and give out our booklets and answer questions from the walkers. Kay does all the scheduling, so contact us for more information or to sign up.
by Kay Heggestad
Minneapolis was the place; education, advocacy and support were the topics and participants came from Minne-sota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Iowa. The Twin Cities’ PFLAG hosted "Links to the Future", their first re-gional conference, on September 27, 2008. TC president Gretchen Murr and Jody Huckaby, Executive Director of National PFLAG, welcomed the group. He included the story of the first PFLAG parent in his remarks.
The participants rotated through a wide variety of excellent workshops and ate large quantities of food at the brunch, dinner and snack periods. Knowledgeable people tended the exhibition tables, passing out reference materials along with good advice.
Three from our Madison chapter attended, Paul Wertsch, Diane Wensel and me. I especially liked the work-shop on project 515 in Minnesota. The work group found 515 Minnesota statutes that discriminate against same sex couples and their families. They use these statutes to frame the debate on discrimination. (See http://www.project515.org).
The evening’s entertainment included an excellent choral group, One Voice, and then a two woman talk called "Gay Into Straight America". See http://www.gayintostraightamerica.com to learn about these wonderful women and their inspiring trip. The evening ended with karaoke, but some of us were not able to stay up that late. The Twin Cities group packed an amazing amount of information into a single day and made it fun to do. Our turn is next, maybe in 2010, and we will have to work hard to equal their conference.
PFLAG Update and Jody Huckaby recommend the following book:
Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America!
Mitchell Gold, founder of Faith in America, has released Crisis, featuring stories of lesbian and gay Americans who have faced obstacles and overcome barriers in their own coming out journeys. Crisis features PFLAG's Jody Huckaby along with other well-known LGBT faces, including Ari Gold, Nate Berkus, Candance Gingrich, Billy Bean. Mitchell has given enormous amounts of time and money to battle the anti-LGBT forces, but his latest project, a book compilation entitled Crisis, is also a gift to the broader community... a soaring and moving testament to the struggles of LGBT people- and an often wrenching account of the obstacles and hate that so many people overcome to live authentically.
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Early this morning, the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted 25-9 to create a countywide domestic partner registry and to require that county contractors offer the same health and other benefits to domestic partners of their employees, as they offer to spouses. Ordinance Amendment 13, introduced by Supervisors Chuck Erickson and Kyle Richmond and Board Chair Scott McDonell, makes Dane County the first county in Wisconsin to enact such an ordinance. This ordinance covers all qualified domestic partners, but is particularly important to many lesbian and gay couples who could not otherwise obtain health coverage for their loved one.
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Planning a vacation? Fly on American Airlines and support the preferred airline of PFLAG National. PFLAG national staff gets free miles (and you do NOT lose any bonus miles). When booking on http://www.AA.com, follow these instructions: Step One - Choose your travel dates and your best flight option. Step Two - Login. (If you have an AAdvantage Number and a password, key it in. If not, click "continue" without logging in.) Step Three - Confirm your itinerary and complete passenger details LAST STEP - Important! - Key in PFLAG's Business ExtrAA Account Number (527590).
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