Next Meeting - January 18, 2009 "Paragraph 175" - A movie about the Holocaust and LGBT people will be shown with discussion to follow.

January 2009 Board Minutes

Present: Paul Wertsch, Kay Heggestad, Joe Elder , Joann Elder and Diane Wensel
Absent: Karen Preston, Harriet Bruyn, Patrick Farrabaugh and Rich Upsel

Hot line Coverage: Diane will be emailing a list of months yet to covered.

PFLAG Diversity Grant: Ken will be applying for a Diversity Grant for reaching out to people in the rural areas in our district.

PFLAG Scholarships: The deadline for submitting a request is March 13, 2009. Kay will send out a list of schools in our area via for people to choose which school(s) you would like to contact. Contact may be made in person or by telephone.

Wisconsin Capital Pride: Diane will keep everyone up-to-date by attending meetings. This year’s PRIDE parade and picnic will be held on August 17th and 18th at Willow island. The parade will be up State St. to the Capitol.

PFLAG Bookstore is now available on line. From the main page for that store:
To start all you have to do is visit our new store and click "Are you a new user?" and enter your chapter information! From there, you can begin shopping! "Shop PFLAG" will take you to our publications catalog and our stationary. "PFLAG Branded Merchandise" will take you to our Cafe Press store featuring mugs, t-shirts, and other merchandise. Get started today and visit the new PFLAG Online Bookstore!

(Note that the paragraph above implies chapter identification is needed. I tried to access the bookstore with my PFLAG user-id and logon and the store didn’t recognize it. - Jim)

Topics for future meetings are as follows:

January: Paragraph 175 gays in the Holocaust
February: Couples - Diane
March: Gays in the Fire Department
April: Gay Adoption - Kay
May: Proud Theater – Ken

========================

From Other Publications

Prayers (from the January PFLAG Update)

Prayers, which debuts January 24 on Lifetime, tells the true story of Mary Griffith, the mother of a gay son, and her journey toward embracing the LGBT community following his tragic suicide.  Based on the novel by Leroy Aarons, Prayers highlights the important role PFLAG played in Mary's experience and empowers families to embrace their LGBT loved ones.

========================

Book and Other Media Reviews

Chapter 24 of the book Whitecoat Wisdom (Steven Busalacchi) entitled ‘Homophobia and Health’ is an interview with Paul Wertsch. It begins as follows:

“Republicans across the country are on a quest to outlaw gay marriage through constitutional amendments. What they don't realize, don't believe or just don't care about is that changing the law may create tremendous health care hurdles by invalidating insurance coverage for gay partners and children.

That's the message Paul Wertsch, MD, is trying to get out to the public in Wisconsin, and across the country. In his early 60s, he is chair of an advisory committee to the American Medical Association's Board of Directors regarding gay, lesbian and transgender issues.”

The interview proceeds to cover a wide range of health and other GLTB related issues.

==================

 

Kay received this as an email, and suggested it was worth including:

10 reasons why gay marriage is wrong...

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.
2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.
3. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.
4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.
5. Straight marriage would be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.
6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.
7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.
8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.
9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.
10. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract..

Joan R. Saks Berman, Ph.D.     Albuquerque, NM
www.joanberman.com (coaching/counseling)

 

==================

American Airlines’ Deal for PFLAG

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).

==================

Farmers’ Market

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 email us for more information or to sign up.