Articles From Our March, 2008 Newsletter
Top of the morning to all! For this month’s
meeting we are doing a little something different and hopefully, also, fun
and informational as well. PFLAG/KC has invited four speakers that
represent our community in different ways.
--Sarah Gillooly, the new Field Organizer
for PROMO
--Allen Kahn, owner and facilitator for the
LGBT Hotline
--Teddi Samuels, Executive Director of Save,
Inc.
--Leo Walters, co-chair of Out of Equal
They will each speak, briefly, about their
organizations, and we will have an opportunity to meet and chat with them.
Our own David Whitner will serve as our MC for the Guest Speakers.
So come on out and meet these folks that
work in our community, some are new faces and some are well known, and we
will give them a big PFLAG/KC welcome.
Hello again, everyone—will this weather
EVER change? We moved west when we should have moved south—really far
south! We’re not quite settled, but when you have all of your favorite
things and folks around you, it always feels like home.
One of the latest programs that PFLAG has
implemented is called Straight for Equality. I was so excited when the
national office called to say they’d be in Kansas City to do a
presentation for the local MetLife offices. They asked for my
participation as a local PFLAG/KC representative, but mostly I just
watched, listened and learned. What an exciting program. It pleases me to
say that MetLife has a great diversity vision that includes, among other
things, partner benefits. Jean Marie Navetta and Jody Huckaby presented
the program that included a wonderful role playing game and some wonderful
ways to be a straight ally. Their presentation was infused with facts and
a healthy dose of humor! What impressed me most was that out of about two
hundred MetLife employees, there were about fifty in attendance, all fully
engaged.
Coming out as a straight ally has
challenges all its own, but this brochure/program
can benefit even the most seasoned allies.
A fresh a approach never hurts.
Make sure you check it out at:
www.straightforequality.org
Food For Thought
Oxnard, Ca. Feb. 13th
2008
Lawrence King, an 8th
grade boy sits in his junior high school computer lab and is shot to death
by a 14 year old boy, Brandon McInerney, in one of the most gruesome hate
crimes that this country has ever seen. Lawrence had said publicly that he
was gay and had been harassed by a group of schoolmates, including
McInerney. If Brandon is charged as an adult he will face 52 yrs to life
in prison. Vigils were held across the nation in memorial for Lawrence. We
all , as members of PFLAG , grieve at the loss of a boy so young due to a
hate crime that we all , unfortunately , know so well. Let us all take a
moment and say a prayer to our higher power for this child and for what
our children face everyday.
We were all very saddened to learn of the passing of PFLAG supporter, Ric Weiland, in June 2006. Ric, one of the original employees of Microsoft, bequeathed $65 million dollars to a number of charitable organizations, PFLAG National among them. We will receive approximately 1.6 million dollars over 8 years (approximately 1.6 million dollars over 8 years. (approximately $200,000 per year). This represents about 7% of PFLAG's annual budget. All of us at PFLAG are grateful for Ric's gift and his appreciation for the role that PFLAG National plays in advancing GLBT equality.
Focus Group for an LGBT Retirement Community
Kansas
City LGBT community members have an opportunity to participate in a
focus group that will take the first step toward construction of a
retirement facility for our community.
Community
members who are interested in working toward this goal are invited to
come forward to participate in this very important project. As a
model, we will look at the first LGBT subsidized retirement community
in the United States, Triangle Square in Los Angeles, and hear a
presentation from Tony Salazar, of McCormack Baron Salazar, the builder
of that community. Triangle Square is a beautiful, $20 million
facility, with amenities that are found in new-construction
condominiums.
Community
members’ questions and input will be solicited. For example, questions
might be on a possible downtown location; easy access to
transportation, grocery store, entertainment, restaurants; new
construction versus a retrofitted older building. These are just
examples: Please bring your questions and input to start the process
and move it forward.
When: Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m.
Where: Broadway Church, 3931 Washington, KCMO.
The church fronts on Broadway. Use the north entrance, on 39th Terrace. Park on street, or there’s free parking in the Big Brothers & Sisters parking lot at the corner of 39th and Washington as well as in a small lot on the east side of Broadway, across the street from Vulcan’s Forge.
For more information, contact Alfredo Parra at 816-472-8495 or
.
THE
JOURNEY
HOME
Join the Heartland Men’s Chorus and their
special guests, Wichita’s Heart of America Men’s Chorus, for the Kansas
City premiere of a moving and inspirational song cycle by Robert Seeley
(composer of
Naked Man ). Weaving together their
threads of hope and new ideals with the distinctive strands of our lives
as gay men,
Exile calls us to that place where
the journey home always begins… the human heart.
PFLAG SUPPORTS REAL FAMILY VALUES