Articles From Our June, 2007 Newsletter

PASSAGES is excited to be presenting the PFLAG program this month. Passages is an organization that is devoted to supporting LGBT youth, questioning youth, and their straight allies under the age of 21.
Passages provides our youth with five things:
Education, Community, Support, Resources, and Fun!
Every Sunday we provide an evening of educational speakers or presentations on subjects such as safer sex, gay history, healthy relationships or political issues. Many LGBT youth are either in the closet or they only have one or two LGBT peers at their school.
We provide LGBTQ youth with a close-knit community of friends that share many of the same coming out experiences and help them build self-esteem through acceptance. At Passages, youth find support, not only
from other youth, but from our adult facilitators and volunteers. We also work with other organizations and businesses to provide our at-risk youth access to resources they may not even know exist. On Wednesday we provide "Dinner and a Movie Night" when local restaurants or volunteers supply food and the youth can hang out with their friends and watch movies. And on Saturday nights we have "Club Queer" which gives youth a safe place to dance, socialize and usually even get a light meal in a drug-free, alcohol-free and hate-free environment.
Several of the youth will be present to tell their stories and to share what it means to have a place that they can call their own. Come and support these courageous young people.
Remember!! July 8, at 3pm at Village Presb. Ch., 6641 Mission Road, Room 307.

From Our President

Well, it’s summer once again in the Midwest, complete with thunderstorms, heat, humidity and PRIDE festivals all around our state and the nation.
We were watching the weather closely for days before the festival here in Kansas City. As usual, there were massive puddles, but no one seemed to be disheartened. The set-up at Liberty Memorial was larger this year and included a huge tent with sections of the AIDS quilt. People all over the grounds were laughing and talking; enjoying the music, but once inside the tent, it was as if you had entered a cathedral. The only sounds to be heard were hushed whispers and sniffling. It was a wonderful addition to the event. Our volunteers certainly had a great time and we were very happy to share our space this year with Kellie and Bill who were representing the Straight Spouse Network and COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere). I am delighted each year to see familiar faces in the crowd and continue to be amazed at the growth in the numbers of young people who attend….and by young I mean very young…as in those under 25 years of age.

New this year was a PRIDE event held on the SPRINT campus in Johnson County. A representative from their diversity group contacted PFLAG to see if we’d like to attend. She was excited to tell me that since the formation of their Pride group at the first of this year they have had 300 people join and have been challenged to have 500 by the end of the year! How incredible is that? We joined other community organizations and the Heartland Men’s Chorus for a two-hour event and were astonished by the diversity within their own LGBT community.

Don’t forget the statewide conference on the 14th—I am hoping to have news about the workshops at our next meeting. I am really looking forward to this event and hope that many of you will also be able to attend.
See you on the 8th at our next meeting.
Jamie

Mark Your Calendars!!!

The date, time & location for Missouri's statewide PFLAG meeting has been set:

July 14, 2007
10 AM - 5 PM
Rockbridge Christian Church
301 Green Meadows Road
Columbia, Missouri.

Stay tuned....More information to come!!!

 

KANSAS CITY FREE HEALTH CLINIC in collaboration with PASSAGES introduces the Mpowerment Project to the Kansas City metro area.

Mpowerment Project is a community-level program designed to educate young gay, bisexual, and curious men with the skills they need to practice safer sex, build positive, healthy social connections, and encourage their friends to have safer sex.

Guiding Principles of Mpowerment:
* Personal and community empowerment with a
social focus.
* Putting HIV prevention within the context of
other compelling issues for young gay and
bisexual men
* Encouraging new behaviors through social
networks
* Peer-influenced Community building Uses sex-
positive and gay-positive approaches

The Project is run by a Core Group of 10-20 gay and bisexual men under the guidance of an established staff member. The Core Group and other volunteers plan and carry out all Project events and activities.

M-groups are peer led, three hour meetings held once a month. In M-groups they will discuss safer sex, condom negotiation skills, dating and other social issues.
Skill building exercises empower participants and encourage them to share what they have learned with their friends.

Anyone interested in finding out more about this
project can contact Cheryl at:

816 777-2782

The clinic is located at 3515 Broadway.

 

Breaking News!! New Speakers Confirmed!!

Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson and Dear Abby to Speak at PFLAG National Convention in October.

The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, will be speaking at the 2007 PFLAG National
Convention, while the world's most widely syndicated columnist, Dear Abby, will be receiving PFLAG's first-ever Straight for Equality Award.

Robinson is the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion. However, this is only one accomplishment among many in his highly distinguished career as a religious leader. Among his many achievements are co-authoring AIDS education curricula for youth and adults as well as performing AIDS work in the United States, Uganda and South Africa. He has also been an advocate for anti-racism training in the diocese and wider Church as well as for debt relief for impoverished national and socially-responsible global investment.

As a longtime supporter of PFLAG and its mission, Dear Abby is a respected voice for equality. In the early 1980s, the world's most widely-syndicated columnist mentioned PFLAG as a resource for parents of gay children. As a result, PFLAG's National Office (the living room of then-National president Adele Starr) was flooded with more than 7,000 letters requesting information and support. This event marked an enormous turning point in PFLAG's growth and established Dear Abby as one of the most high-profile straight allies in the world. It is only fitting that she will be the first recipient of PFLAG's Straight for Equality Award at the National Gala.

There's more - come to the 2007 PFLAG National
Convention to hear plenary speakers including:

Hayley Gorenberg, Deputy Legal Director, Lambda Legal.
Harry Knox, Director, Human Rights Campaign Religion
and Faith Program. Mara Keisling, Executive Director, National Center for Transgender Equality. Lisbeth Meléndez Rivera, Development Director, National Stonewall Democrats
 

All Eyes on the Court

The PFLAG All Eyes on the Court Project has three parts. Use the resources below to get started.

EDUCATE: Get the basics in terms you can use.

The Supreme Court - What does it do? Why does it matter? Get the basics in real-world terms.
Who's on the Bench - Don't be a statistic. Who exactly are the Supreme Court justices - and what was PFLAG's position on their nominations?
The Everyman's Supreme Court Dictionary - Get the basics in everyday terms of many of the words you'll hear when it comes to the Supreme Court.
(See www.pflag.org for details)

PFLAG SUPPORTS REAL FAMILY VALUES