Next Meeting - December 21, 2008Holiday Party Our meeting on December 21, 2-4 pm, will be our annual holiday party. No particular topic is planned for this meeting and the floor will be open to discuss any issues the group would like to discuss. Bring a bit of food or drink to share if you would like to do so. |
Farmers' Market: Kay would like to thank all of you who worked so hard on the market this past summer. Jo Elder schlepped the market set back and forth nearly every Saturday and others were great at pitching in and sitting at the market and helping with the supplies to the market. This is one of the more visible important things we do and I hope more of you will participate next year.
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Our December meeting plans:
1. 2 pm eat/drink/socialize
2. 2:45 or so: sharing circle (depending on size of group...so maybe not)
3. If time left after that, I can tell you what's new at national or we can discuss topics, eg, speakers bureau, bus boards, book reports, plans for next meetings topics etc etc. Let me know if you have a topic you would really like to get into. Or, if giant group, just continue to socialize till the food is gone.
FOR THE POT LUCK:
Due to my legendary cooking abilities, I will bring: paper plates, plastic "silver wear", table cloth, napkins, enough for everyone and everything.
YOU can bring whatever you want...if you bring a liquid, please bring the cups for it and bring your own serving spoons. If your dish needs salt/pepper/sugar, please bring that too.
People generally bring too much, so if you can't bring something, that is OK or you can donate a buck or two to the kitty if you want.
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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 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).
President Diane donated a signed copy of "Are There Closets in Heaven?" by Carol Curoe and Robert Curoe.
The authors are a daughter and father from the Dubuque, IA area.
As the book opens, Carol and her life partner have been a couple for several years, though their families think them to be good friends who shared an apartment and then purchased a house together in Arizona. With Mom and Dad planning to visit "the girls" in a few months at Christmas, Carol has made the decision that it is time her parents know the truth about their lesbian relationship. Even more so now as they are seeking to enlarge their family unit to include children.
Dad and daughter alternate chapters in this book, allowing the reader each author's first person account of this coming out process in the Curoe family. Dad Robert's feelings as he learns his daughter is lesbian will be familiar to most every PFLAG parent......grief, denial, bargaining, and beyond. Carol's fears of hurting her parents with such unexpected news is legion.
The Catholic church is strong in the Curoe family. Parents and daughter manage to balance their Catholic upbringing with their current lives. It is an interesting read to learn how they manage this.
This book will be available for check out at the November PFLAG meeting.
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A new DVD, "Testimony Time", has also been added to our library. Sub-titled "A Positive Perspective on Homosexuality", this disk features Pastor Lowell O. Erdahl in a Sunday Forum sponsored by the Hospitaliy Plus Committee of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Minnesota. Pastor Erdahl is Bishop Emeritus of the St. Paul Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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The only same-sex marriage lawsuit currently pending before any court in the country took the seven justices of the Iowa Supreme Court through a dizzying tour of what have become classic same-sex marriage legal debates. During oral arguments Tuesday, December 9, their questions, and the attorneys' answers, covered nearly everything from procreation to polygamy, the upbringing of children to the downfall of civilization, and Brown v. Board of Education to Bowers v. Hardwick and beyond.
The case:
The case, Varnum v. O'Brien, originated with six same-sex couples in Polk County, Iowa – including Kate and Trish Varnum – who sought but were denied marriage licenses by the county registrar, Tim O’Brien. The lawsuit, filed in 2005 by Lambda Legal, challenged a 1988 state law banning same-sex marriage.
A state district court judge ruled on behalf of the couples last year but delayed enforcement of the ruling until the state Supreme Court weighed in. (One gay male couple was able to obtain a marriage license before that suspension went into effect.)
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