PFLAG Alamance Monthly Meeting 
Welcoming new people and old friends

Just a reminder that this is our
anual Holiday Pot Luck Dinner
(Same meeting place, but different date and time than usual)

Tuesday, December 7, 2021
6:00 - 7:30 p.m.

We're providing chicken, turkey and ice Cream
Bring whatever you choose to add to the table

Community Life Center
Elon Community Church UCC
271 N. Williamson Ave. 
Elon, NC

We will continue to follow Covid protocols and Elon Community Church policies.

  • Vaccinations recommended, but not required.
  • Masks are required in the building now except when eating.
  • Social distancing will be practiced safely at each table.

Please enter the building through the covered walk behind the sanctuary. 
Plenty of parking there.

A Triute to one of our PFLAG Alamance founders . . .

Eleanor Helm Ketcham

1928 - 2021

Ellie devoted her life to family and community and everyone who met her immediately felt valued and loved. If the world were full of people like her, our problems would shrink dramatically in scale and challenge.

In Elon, Ellie had her most significant professional experience as the District Administrator for the Guardian Ad Litem program, an organization that represented the interests of abused and neglected children in Juvenile Court.

While she was extremely proud of her work with Guardian Ad Litem, she was perhaps more proud of her work establishing a PFLAG (parents, family and friends of lesbian and gays) chapter in Alamance County. She never stopped her involvement with PFLAG, happily attending our September meeting.


PFLAG National's New Year began in October
Annual Dues are just $25.00

WILL YOU JOIN PFLAG 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 send out invitations.


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Going Home for the Holidays - or Any Day

About 4.5% of Americans identify as LGBTQ+ -- meaning more than 11 million people in the country, and being accepted and affirmed (or not) plays a big role in their well-being. This all really comes into play at holiday time, or any time an LGBTQ+ person might be headed home.

While for some LGBTQ+ people holidays mean celebration, joy, family, and togetherness, for others, it can mean a time of stress, difficulty, and even sadness or depression...especially if one feels that they aren’t able to come out or are not out to everyone in the family. No matter what, PFLAG National is here to help provide you support and information for the holidays, or any time of year that folks are headed home.

Sitting through a family meal, or visiting through an entire weekend or week, can be challenging enough, but what happens if you are not yet our or in a position to be out as you make your way through the meal or the week?


Something to Think About . . .
by Cindy Davis
Different Kinds of Friends
 In Memory of my friend Ellie Kethcham
Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. What could be better than eating a feast with people you love, and taking the time to express your gratitude? For many years, my small family has been spread out over three states. We don’t convene for Thanksgiving, so it has become a ritual for my partner and I to break bread with friends whom we consider to be family. It is always a heartfelt and gratifying experience.
 
When I was a kid I used to feel incredibly special, based on how many friends I had. I’m not sure exactly where this idea came from. I always tried to have at least five or six, and I considered them all to be my best friends. The life expectancy of these liaisons ranged from a couple of weeks, through an entire school year. I remember loving it when I could race home to tell my mom about my latest buddy. She was both patient and kind, and didn’t try to use the opportunity as a teaching moment. She listened to me and allowed room for the innocent joy that I felt.
 
As I grew older, it was useful for me to learn that life is filled with numerous types of friendships, each offering us different elements, equally valuable. There is a richness, a fullness to be had in the experience of diversity amongst friends. Because of the work of Terry Gorski, whom I was fortunate enough to see in person in the 1980’s, I was exposed to new perspectives about friendship and acquaintances. At first I found some of his views to be distasteful, if not altogether rude. It was from Gorski’s presentation that I discovered several clarifying and wise distinctions. 
 
We all have acquaintances with whom we have honest, yet superficial relationships, such as with a waiter or waitress or someone we work with. We may enjoy the familiarity these relationships provide, such as when we go to our favorite restaurant and the server greets us by name, or when a co-worker remembers our birthday.
 
Companions are people we share activities with. If we call a companion and invite them to join us to go to a movie, and they are not interested, we might call someone else who is interested in the movie. In this case, the activity is more important than the person.
 
Friends are people who are more important than the activity. If we call them about seeing a movie and they don’t want to go, we opt for changing the activity because we want to be with our friend. We may go out for dinner instead. Friends are people we trust, people in whom we confide and perhaps seek advice.
 
Intimate friends are partners whom we trust deeply. We may share physical affection and sex in these relationships; typically these people become our partners, our boyfriends, our girlfriends, our husbands or wives.
 
It takes more than one person to meet all of our needs. It is rich and fulfilling to explore all that others offer. Enjoy the buffet!
 _Cindy Davis is a retired Licensed Professional Counselor. 
She was an advice columnist for the Times-News, and is also a PFLAG Board Member.

Cindy can be contacted at cbdpflag@gmail.com

Watch for Cindy's column each month on our Newsletter
From LGBTQ Nation . .

Amy Schneider changes the game by qualifying for Jeopardy’s “Tournament of Champions”

She becomes the first out trans contestant to qualify by winning over five games in a row. And she's already earned close to $300k.

After winning and becoming the defending championship during Transgender Awareness Week, trans woman and Jeopardy! contestant Amy Schneider has successfully defended her title five episodes in a row — meaning she now qualifies to compete in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, a yearly tournament between the show’s 15 contestants that won in the most episodes.

Schneider is defending her championship in the episodes that are currently airing, the most recent one being on Black Friday, her eighth straight victory. She’s earned $295,200 thus far.


An important messaage

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 and VIDEOS 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.

P.O. Box 623,
Elon, NC 27244
Phone Number:
+1 336-584-8722
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