PFLAG Alamance Monthly Meeting
Welcoming new people and old friends
Tuesday, November 8, 2022
7:00 p.m.
Welcome to PFLAG Alamance. We offer a safe, confidential space in which to explore our feelings and understandings 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 meet as usual at Elon Community Church
271 N. Williamson Ave.
Park and Enter from the rear. Plenty of parking there
SEE THE NOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS ISSUE FOR A
REMINDER ABOUT PFLAG DUES FOR 2023
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ALAMANCE PRIDE REPORT
Thanks to wonderful sunny weather, lots of friendly vendors and determination by Pride leaders, this year's Pride was a success. Pflag Alamance was there, had many who stopped to take our brochure and talk about who we are. We also had a dozen who asked to be added to our Newsletter mailing list, so welcome new subscribers!
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We are exactly 7 days away from Election Day. Do you know what's on your ballot this year? Think more what is truly at stake for your LGBTQ+ loved ones this November. Voting is a privilege, right, and responsibility for all Americans, and right now there's too much at stake for you not to cast your ballot. As a non-partisan, non-sectarian corporation in North Carolina, we won't tell you for whom you should vote , but we do hope you will cast your vote for candidates who support equality for all our citizens.
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From Equality North Carolina . . .
From all of us at Equality NC, Happy LGBTQ+ History Month! As we head into the thick of election season, we’re thrilled to bring you the incredible stories of Out Electeds – openly LGBTQ elected officials – whose work is central to building a more equitable North Carolina for us all.
Today, we’re uplighting the story of Carrboro Town Council Member Eliazar Posada, the first openly LGBTQ Latinx person elected to office in NC. He’s also a member of the Equality NC family, and we’re lucky enough to call him our Organizing Director.
“I ran for office because representation matters and our Council must be a reflection of our communities… My career has focused on ensuring historically marginalized and underrepresented communities are heard and have a seat at the table.” – Eliazar Posada
As a history-maker himself, Eliazar is now working arm-in-arm with ENC’s endorsed candidates to ensure the most vulnerable North Carolinians have allies in the NCGA. We’re only a few seats away from an anti-equality supermajority taking hold this fall and blocking all legislative efforts to create a more just and equitable North Carolina. Eliazar, and the rest of our organizing team, need your support during these final weeks.
“My mother taught my brother and me that as Latinx, immigrant and poor folks, nothing was going to be handed to us,” Eliazar told ENC. “Life is not going to be fair – at the end the day family and community come first. We fight for those folks.”
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Something to Think About . . .
by Cindy Davis
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In the past, it was not unusual for me to become a bit cranky around this time of year. It bothered me when radio stations started playing holiday music around now, and when stores began dressing their floor displays. I felt pressure to both start writing my Christmas list and to start being jolly. I would not say that turned into a Humbug, I simply didn’t want the festivities to start so soon.
This year I have immersed myself in Christmas! The CD’s are playing, the lists are made and I find myself smiling when I visit local retailers who have gone to the trouble to adorn their surroundings with Santa Claus and his reindeer. What is happening, you might ask? I am joyous! I am excited by any morsel of pleasure I can find.
It is no secret that the last several years have been difficult. It seemed that everywhere you turned there was bad news, both locally and globally. It was hard to find happiness.
Something began stirring me last month. I am not sure exactly what. I know that I felt a renewed delight for my partner and my friends. I mean, I would consciously experience gratitude while in their company. I decided to stop feeling hopeless and found things I could do to feel hopeful. I began to feel a lightness. What gladness!
A window opened and invited me to feel Christmas.
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 NBC OUT. . .
When I started growing breasts as a teen boy, I got gender-affirming care without stigma
Cisgender children seek gender-affirming care without being scrutinized endlessly and demonized. Trans kids deserve the same consideration.
By Justin T. Brown, video editor and political satirist
The trial over Arkansas' ban on gender-affirming care for trans children recently began. As vulnerable children await to hear if their bodily autonomy will be stripped away, we should remember that cisgender children seek gender-affirming care with relatively little social stigma attached.
Twenty years ago, in rural Maine, I was one of them.
As a teen boy who identified as a boy — randomly sprouting breasts really, really sucked. I hated my body, wore a shirt in the pool, dreaded the school locker room, dressed in layers and walked hunched over to hide my shape.
When I was going through puberty, my body’s hormones were firing in every direction, and I started developing breast tissue similar to a girl’s. The technical term for this condition is
gynecomastia but most of us know it as the dreaded “man-boobs.” Up to 60% of teen boys have asymptomatic gynecomastia, according to the National Institutes of Health. Adolescent symptomatic cases, like mine, are less prevalent, but it affects about 65% of adult men.
As a teen boy who identified as a boy — randomly sprouting breasts really, really sucked. I hated my body, wore a shirt in the pool, dreaded the school locker room, dressed in layers and walked hunched over to hide my shape. I lived in constant fear of nipple-grabbers at school (teen boys are weird) and being outed as a “boob-haver.” I was uncomfortable and embarrassed 24/7 and had about zero percent confidence in myself, all because of the misalignment between how I felt I should look and how I actually looked.
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A New Service of PFLAG Alamance
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Free Resouce Material . . .
PFLAG ALAMANCE HAS A NUMBER OF RESOURCE BOOKLETS THAT WE ARE ABLE TO OFFER FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE SEEKING EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL
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Through the generosity of PFLAG Alamance suporters, we can now send you these excellent publications from PFLAG National without charge:
Our Sons and Daughters
Questions and Answers for Paremts amd families of LGBTQ+ people
Our Trans Loved Ones
Questions and Answers related to Transgender and Gender Expansive persons
Supporting Your LGBTQ+ Grandchild
Your relationship can grow even closer as your work to embrace your grandchid's identity
Just contact us and we will secure the material and send it as soon as possible (allow two weeks):
Email: infopflagalamance@gmail.com
Phone: (336) 584-8722
Mail: PFLAG Alamane
PO Box 623 Elon, NC 27244
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PFLAG National's New Year begins in October
Annual Dues are just $25.00
WILL YOU JOIN PFLAG 2023? 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 their pflag.org website. 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
By acting now you will save us the cost of postage to send out invitations.
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A word to some of you we haven't seen in a while . . .
If you dont feel you need PFLAG any longer, PFLAG needs you! Your experience can make a difference.
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Email
infopflagalamance@gmail.com
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P.O. Box 623,
Elon, NC 27244
Phone Number:
336-584-8722
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