PFLAG Alamance Monthly Meeting
Welcoming new people and old friends
Tuesday, January 14, 2022
7:00 p.m.
Much as we hate to do this but due to the spread of the Omicron virus
in our area our January meeting will be held on Zoom.
If you wish to join in and haven't been with us on Zoom before, just call (336-584-8722) or email (info@pflagalamance.org), giving us your FIRST name and your email address and we will send you an invitation. This allows us to maintain secure meetings and confidentiality. Give it a try by next Tuesday. If you have previously participated in our Zoom meetings you don't have call us.
We've done this before and we leaarned tht Zoom can give us the opportunity to meet together online, time to share our needs, hurts, joys, cocneerns and any other issues you want to share in a safe, secure environment. Need help with Zoom? Give us a call!
|
|
An opportunity to share your experience . . .
Did you have any experiences during the holiday season, positive or negative with regard to your LGBTQ+ family members, friends or neighbors that have encouraged or troubled you? Did you come away with questions about how to handle those times or discoveries that helped?
Remember, this is what PFLAG is all about. No one has to share anything, but PFLAG meetings are safe, confidential and open opportunities for sharing. Your experiences may very well help others. Don't miss the special time, even on Zoom this month.
|
|
Last call for dues . . .
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.
We need your dues this month since Februaary is the deadline
for sending in membership updates to PFLAG Natsional.
Need help with dues? We ahvse scholarships for the asking
due to the generosity of some who give extra to provide them. Call!
|
|
Something to Think About . . .
by Cindy Davis
|
|
Oh no, not those again! Bah, humbug! If I see one more ad about joining a health club, or trying a new diet, or learning how to meditate, I’ll eat pizza for a week while I binge watch “Mike and Molly” on Nickelodeon. I am a firm believer that after-the-holiday blues are directly related to the pressure we put on ourselves to change for the better, all at once. OK, so maybe we did do a bit of splurging for Christmas and we’re feeling a bit stressed over that, but it’s not as if we indulge in that kind of expenditure on a regular basis. Besides, it was fun and great for the economy.
We all know how challenging the last two years have been. The pandemic continues to dictate how we live our lives. Some of our restaurants have closed, masks are now back in style, and it’s been difficult, if not impossible, to see our families. Now you’re going to pressure me into New Year’s Resolutions?
I know that I may seem like a rebel when I say this, but if I attempt to commit to all kinds of new behaviors under the guise of self-improvement in the New Year, I become defiantly opposed to sticking to any of it. And I quietly applaud myself for being independent and wise. You know, for not conforming to the crazy idea that resolutions may hold some merit. It’s all in one’s perspective.
So, I sign up for activities that I love. Volunteering my time is a huge priority and I choose an organization that aligns with my values and beliefs. Once a month, I try a new dinner recipe, which is fun because my partner really likes my cooking! When I’m in the mood to spruce up my clothing closet, I visit thrift stores in hopes of finding hidden treasures for a bargain. Weekly, before going to the grocery store, I ask my neighbor if she needs anything. Resolutions don’t need to be grand gestures. They need to be fulfilling. Simple acts of kindness qualify – towards others and towards yourself. The key is to agree to resolutions that are agreeable.
_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
|
|
From NBC Out . . .
1st U.S. gay bishop remembers Tutu’s generosity and kindness
The Right Rev. Gene Robinson
“It’s hard to remember how controversial this was, and for him to stand with me at the very time I was being excluded ... it completely floored me,” Right Rev. Gene Robinson said.
In the foreword to Robinson’s book, Tutu also apologized for the “cruelty and injustice” the LGBTQ community had suffered at the hands of fellow Anglicans.
Tutu, Robinson said, used his own experience of oppression to understand and empathize with others.
“He used that as a window into what it was like to be a woman, what it was like to be someone in a wheelchair or for someone to LGBTQ or whatever it was,” he said. “It was the thing that taught him to be compassionate.”
Robinson recalled the way Tutu’s laugh rippled across crowds of thousands as well as a private moment when they prayed together in the seminary Robinson graduated from in New York.
|
|
.
“There are people for whom this is vital and for whom this could maybe even be lifesaving,” Maia Kobabe said.
On a late night in September, nonbinary author Maia Kobabe was tagged in a viral video of a school board meeting in Fairfax County, Virginia. The clip showed a parent shouting at a panel of board members while holding Kobabe’s award-winning book, “Gender Queer: A Memoir.”
Telling Kobabe’s story from adolescence to adulthood, the 2019 fully illustrated book is a de facto guide on gender identity that grapples with the hardships of coming out, the confusion of adolescent crushes and the trauma of being nonbinary in a society that largely sees gender as limited to two categories: man and woman.
But for its handful of graphic illustrations of LGBTQ sexual experiences — out of the book’s hundreds of drawings — the parent, Stacy Langton, passionately argued that it should beremoved from school shelves.
|
|
|
|
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. THERE ARE SOME NEW BOOKS ON OUR CART.
ATTEND OUR MEETING OR CONTACT US AT THE LINKS BELOW AND WE'LL GET THEM TO YOU.
|
|
|
|
Email
info@pflagalamance.org
|
|
|
P.O. Box 623,
Elon, NC 27244
Phone Number:
+1 336-584-8722
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
