PFLAG Alamance Monthly Meeting
Welcoming new people and old friends
October 12, 2021
7:00 p.m.
Community Life Center
Elon Community Church UCC
271 N. Williamson Ave.
Elon, NC
Welcome to PFLAG Alamance. We offer a safe, confidential space in which to explore our feelings and under-standings about the LGBTQIA+ experience, especially "coming out" and what this means to families and other loved ones. Listen and share as much or as little as you feel comfortable with, knowing that others can understand.
We will continue to follow Covid protocols and Elon Community Church policies.
- Vaccinations recommended, but not required.
- Masks are required in the building now.
- Social distancing will be practiced.
Please enter the building through the covered walk behind the sanctuary.
Plenty of parking there.
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October is the Beginning of a New PFLAG Year
WILL YOU JOIN PFLAG 2021-2022? Membership is never a requirement for attending and participating in our Chapter meetings and activities. Your $25 dues do help us with our local materials and is a measure of your involvement in our goal to be a force for LGBTQIA issues in Alamance County. A portion of that is also sent as your membership in PFLAG National to support the work that you can read about at the website, PFLAG.org. Check it out!
Bring or send your $25 check (payable to PFLAG Alamance) to PO Box 623, Elon, NC 27244. Include your name, address, phone and email address.
By acting now you will save us the cost of postage to make out invitation.
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From the Washington Post . . .
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis marries longtime partner Marlon Reis
September 17, 2021 at 12:30 p.m. EDT
Gov. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), the first openly gay man elected governor, married his longtime partner, Marlon Reis, Wednesday on the 18th anniversary of their first date.
The traditional Jewish ceremony — which took place in Boulder, Colo., the birthplace of the governor — was the country’s first same-sex wedding for a sitting governor.
Polis released a statement Thursday following his wedding that he said was attended by “family and a few close friends.” “We are both excited for this new chapter in our lives together, and our hearts are full with the blessings of health, love, and family,” he said.
Polis, a former lawmaker, was elected governor in 2018 along when a record number of LGBT officials were elected to office. Gov. Kate Brown (D-Ore.), a bisexual woman, became the first openly LGBT person elected governor in 2016.
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Announcing The New Equality NC Endorsed Candidates
We just released our list of endorsed candidates for NC’s 2021 municipal elections---and we're excited to share them with you! The whole list of candidates is available at our PAC site.
A Note on our Endorsement Process
On August 23, ENC launched our endorsement form, inviting candidates to apply by September 8. The questionnaire covers questions on LGBTQ issues, including healthcare, public education, economic justice, preemption, gun violence prevention, immigration, democratic ideals, and policing.
After submission, ENC invited candidates to schedule interviews, where candidates were given the opportunity to clarify responses on the questionnaire and speak to other issues crucial to their communities. The Equality NC PAC subsequently reviewed all the information and voted on who to endorse. Any candidate that did not complete the two-step process was automatically not endorsed.
This is not the exhaustive list of LGBTQ+ or pro-equality candidates running in this election. We have many, many more allies during the work of supporting our communities. We, at Equality North Carolina, intend to work with all pro-equality candidates and officials, whether or not we chose to endorse them and whether or not they applied. Equality North Carolina will always be a resource and support to any candidate looking to learn, grow and make a positive impact for marginalized North Carolinians.
Another note from Equality NC . . . .
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We’re hoping you’re having a wonderful Latinx Heritage Month!
This week Equality NC is highlighting Jennicet Gutiérrez, who’s best known for interrupting President Obama’s speech on LGBTQ issues with an important statement about the situation of trans incarcerated people at the U.S.-Mexico border. Gutiérrez, an undocumented trans woman who was invited to the White House, felt compelled to take a stand around the brutality facing LGBTQ people in detention.
She said in a statement afterwards: “I was fortunate to be invited to the White House to listen to President Obama’s speech recognizing the LGBTQ community and the progress being made. But while he spoke of ‘trans women of color being targeted,’ his administration holds LGBTQ and trans immigrants in detention. I spoke out because our issues and struggles can no longer be ignored.”
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From the NBC Out . . .
Denver husbands are 'a perfect match' in love — and kidneys
“A part of him will always be with me,” Reid Alexander, 24, said of Rafael Díaz, his husband and organ donor.
Sept. 23, 2021, 4:30 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 23, 2021, 7:23 AM EDT
By Dan Avery
Plenty of couples think they’re made for each other, but Denver husbands Reid Alexander and Rafael Díaz have medical proof. When Alexander, 24, needed a new kidney, Díaz, 28, turned out to be an ideal donor for the lifesaving organ. “It just feels like it was meant to be,” Díaz said.
Alexander had been diagnosed at 17 with Alport syndrome, a genetic condition that scars the kidneys and eventually leads to renal failure. “It was definitely scary,” Alexander said of “being a teenager and thinking your kidneys are going to fail someday. I had to mature really fast and be focused on staying healthy.”
Alport syndrome is relatively rare, affecting 1 in every 5,000 to 10,000 people, or between 30,000 and 60,000 people in the United States, according to the Alport Syndrome Foundation. It can also cause vision and hearing loss. As a result, Alexander has worn hearing aids since his senior year of high school.
After his diagnosis, he moved forward with his life — pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in fitness and wellness from Indiana University in Bloomington.
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Something to Think About . . .
by Cindy Davis
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My Grief May Not Be Your Grief |
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At our PFLAG meeting last month (September), there was a common thread being shared amongst the group. On some level, many of us expressed anger, or disappointment or sadness. Not all of us spoke out loud, but I watched as others nodded their heads up and down, or side to side, projecting a measure of consensus. A variety of issues were on the table, and there was a palpable sense of unrest, of not-quite-rightness in the room. We talked about vaccines and masks, about family members and friends, about being gay and transgender. a out organizing a long overdue memorial for a friend who passed during COVID-19. In summary, we visited an assortment of concerns of importance to those in our midst.
Since our meeting, I have reflected with closer inspection my own feelings, and realize that I am grieving. This took me by surprise because nobody close to me has died. I am, however, dealing with loss. The pandemic was supposed to be over by now. I’d been relying on this to be true and was shocked to discover how thoroughly upset I am about the latest Delta variant and all that it has summoned. A setback. Hello again, Zoom. Be sure to keep a mask handy – never, ever know when I’ll need it. Still have friends who won’t get the vaccine. Am I terrified? Yes! Why? Because what happens if they get sick and…I must continue to remind myself that there is nothing I can do about this. Nothing! And this exhausts me. And at this juncture, I become aware that I’ve begun to catastrophize. I know I need a “thought intervention."
My favorite author on grief, Megan Devine, wrote a book titled “It’s OK That You’re Not OK” that sheds light on “discerning between wellness thoughts and worseness thoughts. Worseness thoughts take your pain and grind more stress into it, increasing your suffering. You’re going to have your own particular way of mentally tormenting yourself, but it’s really just a manufactured anxiety about what might happen in the future, or stressing about what happened in the past. Wellness thoughts have the opposite effect – your pain still exists, but your sense of calmness or stillness is increased. Wellness thoughts are the stories, ideas and inner images that bring you closer to yourself. They bring you the tiniest sense of peace or rootedness. They do not increase your suffering.”
The worst thing I can do is beat myself up because I’m hurting. When I minimize how I am feeling, when I take a cue from those around me that my distress is marginal, that my challenges are small, I lay the ground for “worseness thoughts”. By allowing myself to acknowledge my turmoil and legitimize my sorrow, I am being genuine, gentle with myself, while I simultaneously experience my grief. I make the shift from irrepressible loss to embracing loss, from unmanageable to manageable. Who knew that being OK with not being OK could be so OK?
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Cindy Davis is a retired Licensed Professional Counselor.
She was an advice columnist for the Times-News, and is also a PFLAG Board Member.
Watch for Cindy's column each month on our Newsletter
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From CNN . . .
Liz Cheney says she 'was wrong' to oppose same-sex marriage in wide-ranging interview
Updated 3:49 PM ET, Mon September 27, 2021
Washington (CNN) Rep. Liz Cheney said she had been "wrong" to oppose same-sex marriage as she reflected on the stance that sparked an open rift with her sister during her unsuccessful Senate bid in 2013.
"I was wrong. I was wrong. I love my sister very much. I love her family very much. And I was wrong," the Wyoming Republican told CBS News' "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired Sunday. "It's a very personal issue -- and very personal for my family. I believe that my dad was right. And my sister and I have had that conversation."
Mary Cheney, who is a lesbian, took to Facebook in 2013 to object to her sister's opposition to same-sex marriage after she called it "just an issue in which we disagree" during an interview with Fox News. The dispute prompted their parents to weigh in, saying they were "pained" to see the sisters battle over a private matter in full view of the news media.
While Liz Cheney has conceded in recent years that same-sex marriage is settled law, her new comments represent the clearest indication yet that her stance has evolved.
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PPFLAG ALAMANCE HAS A NUMBER OF RESOURCE BOOKS AND MATERIALS THAT WE ARE ABLE TO OFFER FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE SEEKING EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL.
BOOKS ARE OFFERED TO BE USED AS LONG AS NEEDED, AND BOOKLETS FROM PFLAG NATIONAL ARE YOURS TO KEEP.
ATTEND OUR MEETING OR CONTACT US AT THE LINKS BELOW AND WE'LL GET THEM TO YOU.
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Email
info@pflagalamance.org
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P.O. Box 623,
Elon, NC 27244
Phone Number:
+1 336-584-8722
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