Articles From Our April, 2006 Newsletter
Elaine Meizlish LSCSW, and Alex Westerfelt, Ph.D. Will be our featured speakers at our April 9 PFLAG meeting.
Elaine has been a psychotherapist in private practice for over 20 years One of her specialties is helping adults in dealing with the coming out process. She has facilitated coming-out groups both in her private practice and at the LGCC. She currently is offering a monthly support group for women who are married/divorced and are dealing with sexual orientation issues. Elaine previously served on the board of Passages from 1995-2000. She currently is a monthly host on the Tenth Voice on KKFI FM.
Elaine will be speaking about issues women who are married deal with in coming out, and will talk about the phases of the coming-out process.
Alex Westerfelt, Ph.D. is the Director of the Healthy Living Project, an HIV prevention program serving the Greater Kansas City area. The Project includes several websites, chatroom intervention, HIV Rapid testing, support groups, and Hispanic outreach. Prior to the Project Alex taught social work at the University of Kansas and was the Evaluation Coordinator at the Kansas City Free Health Clinic. He frequently consults with nonprofits on evaluation and program design. In his spare time he studies Spanish and works on an historical novel.
This promises to be another informative and exciting meeting. Come at join us at 3p.m. at Village Presbyterian Church, 6641 Mission Road, Room 307, and enjoy great fellowship and food.
Heartland Men's Chorus
The next Heartland Men’s Chorus concert will be held on Saturday, June 10, at 8
pm at the Folly Theater.
There will be a drawing at the April PFLAG meeting for 2 tickets donated by
Randy Fowler who will be unable to attend the concert. You must be present to
win.
From Our President
Happy Spring Everybody,
I had the great pleasure of being invited to chat on KKFI’s The Tenth Voice
again last weekend. Jason, Diana and I just sat around as if we were simply
having a conversation in my living room. We touched on the many aspects of PFLAG
and what it means to our family and to the community, but because it was a show
targeting the youth, parenting issues came up as well. For instance, what advice
would I give my gay son about friendships and dating? The answer was easy—the
same advice I’d give to anyone concerning those subjects. John and I literally
had this conversation a few days ago. There are few people, he said, who come
into your life that are truly extraordinary—and you generally know it within
minutes of the first connection. I’ve had a few of those connections in my life
and my advice is to hold on to them. Those people are rare.
I met such a person on a flight last November. I was heading back to Kansas City
from Baltimore and was delighted to find myself sitting next to this amazing
woman. I found her to be charming, confident, open, engaging, warm, smart,
friendly and funny. In short, she was extraordinary. We talked about lots of
things including husbands, children, travel, wine, and great books. She was
heading to California to see one of her sons for a visit, but as I left the
plane in KC, I took with me a list of books Marian recommended and her email
address. I quickly devoured each and every book on the list and couldn’t wait to
tell her what an impact she had on my life. Will I ever see her again? Probably
not, but we have email and a connection that I won’t soon forget. I think we all
desire to have those extraordinary people in our lives-whether we’re looking for
a life partner, meeting new people, or reconnecting with treasured friends--be
open, be expectant—you never know what’s waiting for you. That’s my two cents.
Jamie Lee
AIDS WALK APRIL 22
The 18th annual AIDS WALK Kansas City, presented by the AIDS Service Foundation
of Greater Kansas City, will be held Saturday, April 22nd at Theis Park, located
at 47th and Oak just south of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Registration
opens at 8:00 a.m., with Welcoming Ceremonies commencing at 9:30 a.m. and at 10
a.m. EVERYBODY WALKS.
In lieu of paying the $250 booth fee and due to the short notice in getting a
team together, the Board has elected not to be represented this year with a
booth at AIDS walk. As was done in 2005, all meeting donations made at our April
PFLAG meeting will be given to AIDS walk rather than being added to our
treasury. Thanks to everyone who signed up to work at the booth.
UNITED METHODIST JUDICIAL COUNCIL IN KC
Join your PFLAG friends and present-and -former United Methodists in protesting
the recent unconscionable ruling which upheld a UM pastor’s right (?) to deny
membership in the church.
The matter is not as easy to rectify as one would wish because the book of laws
governing the UMC was written as a legal document, not a spiritual one. The
spiritual part is in the Social Principles which are not laws. As an advocacy
group for the civil rights of glbt persons all PFLAGERS are welcome to the
activities. Call Rosie Stoneking 913-722-6583
Here is more on the upcoming Judicial Council meeting in Kansas City and ways
that persons can be supportive.
OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS, JUDICIAL COUNCIL WITNESS APRIL 26-28
Students from Iliff School of Theology (Denver) and St. Paul School of Theology
(Kansas City), are planning their presence with RMN during the April meeting of
the Judicial Council. Two local churches, Trinity UMC and Asbury UMC have opened
their space for overnight guests bringing a sleeping bag.
Witness preparations will begin at noon on Wednesday with lunch at Asbury UMC
followed by spiritual preparation to launch the Wednesday 1:45 p.m. to Friday
1:00 p.m. presence. Asbury UMC is located at 5400 West 75th Street, Prairie
Village, KS 66208. You are invited for some or all of this prayerful presence
with a special emphasis on Wednesday’s Witness.
Wednesday
Noon, Lunch, Asbury UMC
12:30 p.m., Spiritual preparations and nonviolence training, Asbury UMC 1:45
p.m. Presence in Overland Park Embassy Suites, 10601 Metcalf Avenue @ I-435,
Overland Park, KS 66212. 7:00 p.m., Dinner, Trinity UMC; 8:00 p.m., Worship,
Trinity UMC.
Thursday
9:00 to 1:00 p.m., Witness continues in Overland Park
6:30 p.m., Dinner, Asbury UMC
Friday
9:00 to 1:00, Witness continues in Overland Park
1:00, Sending Forth
Hotel group rates are being negotiated. Stay Tuned
A Message from PFLAG's Executive Director,
Jody M. Huckaby
“I believe society’s interests are met by defining marriage as between a man and
a woman. That’s what I believe.” --- President George W. Bush
This is how President Bush responded to a reporter earlier this week when asked
his opinion on marriage equality. The reporter framed the question around the
fact that, in the absence of marriage, children with two moms or two dads don’t
have the same protections, rights and benefits as children being raised by
heterosexual couples.
But the President failed to answer the question. He must know that it would
sound much more callous to say that it’s ok to hurt the children—that he’s
willing to turn a blind eye to the real problems that children of GLBT parents
face every day – or to admit that he has not bothered to even seriously consider
the research that shows GLBT people make fine parents. We see this time and time
again with politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, religious leaders, and
community leaders who sidestep the real issues and resort to ill-informed
platitudes. Discrimination in any form is still discrimination. Discrimination
hurts adults and it hurts children. And discrimination against our GLBT loved
ones hurts all of our families.
We at PFLAG must challenge those who refuse to answer the tough questions about
GLBT discrimination. We must tell our personal stories and help people
understand why inequality is wrong. We must remind people in leadership
positions that our country was founded on the very principle that all people are
created as equals and that when we refuse to stand up for equality, we violate
the very spirit of what it means to be an American. Yes, simply put, it’s just
not “American” to be a passive bystander in the face of discrimination.
PFLAG SUPPORTS REAL FAMILY VALUES