Articles From Our December, 2008 Newsletter
Happy Holidays from PFLAG/KC
As the end of the year approaches, we have our minds on Holidays and gifts and worship. We as PFLAG/KC members take this time every year to celebrate together in our annual potluck dinner. It is always a time of fellowship, fun, laughter, and a time to just enjoy one another’s company.
PFLAG/KC always provides the drinks, paper products, forks, knifes and spoons and meat trays. So please bring a side dish and/or dessert that will be enough for your own family and maybe have enough to share with a few others! If you can’t afford to bring anything, don’t worry! Please come! We always have lots of food.
Bring family and friends and come out to PFLAG/KC on December
13th at 3:00 p.m. for this special time. We have no regular meeting, just good food and family and friends to share it all with.
Look forward to seeing you and your family and friends there!
P.S. Board meeting at 1:30!
Dear PFLAG Family,
October was another busy month for your Board members. Out in Westport included a surprise visit by Brooke Smith and her partner from PFLAG National office. The first “In the Mix” networking gathering took place along with the Midwest Alternative Family Alliance fall picnic, among other events that I was unable to attend. I want to thank the members who represented PFLAG at these events. We are continuing to receive requests for speakers or panelists around the community. November brought some relief from a slow down of community activities.
As October was the start of our new year and was the annual election of Officers, I thank you for the opportunity to serve as your President and for all of you who renewed your memberships in your local Chapter. I also want to thank all of the other Board Members and Officers who were elected. The annual Treasurer’s report is available for anyone who would like to view it. Please contact me at our contact page or call 913-894-5748 to request a copy.
As noted elsewhere in this newsletter, PFLAG-KC was nominated for and was the Zoey Award recipient for Best Outreach in Kansas City . The Zoey Awards are given annually. Ballots for these are distributed in local bars and represent a cross section of the LGBT community. A complete list of Zoey Award winners can be found at Campkc.com.
December will bring our annual Holiday Pot Luck luncheon. It is amazing to me that the holidays are just around the corner. Where has this year gone?
January will bring representatives from Passages youth group. If you have an idea for a program or speaker, please contact any Board member.
I look forward to seeing all of you at the December meeting.
Thank you for all that you do within our organization and our community as a whole!
Randy
As Randy mentioned in his Presidents report, PFLAG/KC won a Zoey award. We
won the outreach award for 2008. I, personally, am so proud of this chapter
for winning the outreach award because I believe outreach is such an
important part of who we are as a chapter. For every one of us that gave of
our time to sit on a panel this year, that sat a shift on a booth for Aids
Walk or Pride or Out In Westport, or to each one of us that reached out to a
co-worker, a church member, a neighbor, a friend, and shared that we were
proud to be members of PFLAG of Kansas City and invited someone to come to a
meeting with us. WELL DONE, ALL OF US! We should be proud of this chapter.
We have done good work, but we have much more work to do! Lets keep it up
for this year!
Words for the holidays from HRC
While HRC is working on many fronts to fight California's Prop. 8 and promote marriage equality across the U.S., I have a task for you today: talk to your family and tell them why marriage equality matters to you.
The conversation may be easy, or it may be hard. But in the wake of Prop. 8, a dialogue to change hearts and minds has never been more important.
You might want to talk about the person you love. Or why it is so important for straight allies to support marriage equality.
One conversation at a time, America is changing and will continue to change. If we want equality to be the law of the land sooner rather than latter each one us – LGBT or straight- must now answer the challenge by sitting down with our family and friends. Educating them and listening to them.
Joe Solomenese, Pres. HRC
Support soulforce by shopping at amazon.com
For those of our supporters who do holiday shopping at amazon.com, soulforce will receive 4-8% of the total amount of your purchase when you use our special link. Here’s how: whenever you shop at amazon.com, first go to www.soulforce.org and under the “give” menu click “shop at amazon.com. That’s it! Now all that you purchase will earn soulforce 4-8%. Remember, you must go to amazon.com through our special link on the soulforce website in order for us to receive a percentage of your purchase.
happy holidays from soulforce!
John Koop, president of Kansas City Gay Pride, announced at the group’s Aug. 5 meeting and officer elections (see page 12) that the 2008 festival is $17,000 in the red. His solution will be to hold fundraisers like a Casino Party and Pride in December; use money raised from the Sunday show at Tootsies; and look to corporate gifts to bring the festival back to break-even status on the balance sheets.
Koop explained that the festival took a huge hit when vendors raised prices significantly due to the high cost of fuel -- from the cost of transport trucks bringing in golf carts, fencing and other materials to the costs to run the generators that powered the lighting and stage acts. For example, fuel costs for the generators, which normally average $1,200, increased to more than $4,000. Even the new venue at Penn Valley Park meant higher costs, because the extra space meant that more fencing was required. Koop also said they had less financial support from the gay bars this year and had only received support from bar Natasha, Buddies, Missie B’s, Sidekicks and Tootsies.
Kansas City Gay Pride has been in the process of applying for 501(c) (3) nonprofit status. We encourage this group to seriously examine whether privatizing the Pride organization might be the right move instead
Whatever the decision, we commend the dedicated people behind Kansas City Gay Pride for their hard work in producing the annual festival for the community.
In the next few months, let’s work hard to help them in their fundraising events to recoup the money they need to balance their books.
PFLAG SUPPORTS REAL FAMILY VALUES