A Letter From The President
From the December 2002 Newsletter
Bob Dorr, PFLAG Omaha
Posted on December 1, 2002
To hear a transgender person's story and to learn more about transgenderism, come to our Dec. 12 support meeting.
Transgender people, who make up the most targeted group in America, are included in PFLAG's mission statement, which reads in part:
"PFLAG promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends."
Transgenders are people who feel they are one gender emotionally and psychologically but have the genitalia of the other gender.
Robin Adams will be our speaker. She has been involved in the transgender community since 1988.
Robin formerly wrote a monthly column for Transgender Forum, the largest weekly transgender magazine on the Internet. She has written a number of articles for transgender publications. Outside the transgender community, Robin is heavily involved with canine sports and pet assisted therapy with her three-year-old Shetland sheepdog.
Our Dec. 12 meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. with a social half hour. Our support-sharing time will begin at 7 p.m. Robin will speak at 8 p.m. Our meeting place is Mead Hall at the west end of First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St.
Bring two dozen cookies to our December meeting for our cookie exchange. Eat what you like, and at the end of the meeting take home some cookies that others brought.
Our small library in a cabinet at our meeting place has new life. The cabinet is cleaned up. The books are better organized and more effectively displayed. Some books tell poignant stories. Others give help to people struggling with gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgender issues. We plan to add some of the best new books.
At our November meeting, we heard from five Omaha PFLAG members who attended the National PFLAG Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
I can't resist passing along a remark by one of the convention speakers, James Hormel, an openly gay man who is former ambassador to Luxembourg. The federal Defense of Marriage Act, defining marriage as a commitment between a man and a woman, was introduced by three members of Congress with a total of seven marriages among them, Hormel said.
So whose marriages really need to be defended?
Carrie Spencer, PFLAG's secretary and webmaster, attended a convention workshop on Lesbian and Gay Parents and Schools led by Amiee Gelnaw, executive director of the Family Pride Coalition. Amiee said that teachers tend to avoid GLBT subjects because they are afraid of doing anything that would be seen as promoting homosexuality. In doing that, they unknowingly make this a taboo, something to be whispered about and something a child of a GLBT person feels ashamed of.
However, Amiee said that groups such as PFLAG and GLSEN and their Safe Schools program are making inroads.
Venetia Collins, PFLAG's vice-president, said she was grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the conference and looks forward to attending many more. Board members Dave Meyer and Betty Dorr also attended. All of us returned with ideas for improving our chapter and for becoming more visible in the community.
This year's Pride Players benefit for PFLAG and GLSEN will be Friday, Jan. 31, at the Rose Theater. The Pride Players are a group of teens who help compose vignettes that tell about struggles in their lives or in the lives of GLBT young people. The students act out those vignettes.
We hope to see many of you at the Night of a Thousand Stars benefit for Nebraska AIDS Project on Saturday, Dec. 7. PFLAG will join with First United Methodist Church in sponsoring a potluck dinner before the larger dessert and entertainment event at the Regency Mall. Over the last decade this event has become one of Omaha's premiere benefits.
Bob Dorr, president
