A Letter From The President

 Bob Dorr, PFLAG Omaha

 Posted on July 22, 2004

As president of Omaha PFLAG, I can’t say “thank you” often enough.

The thank yous go to many wonderful PFLAG volunteers. They continually interrupt their lives to give time, money and energy to help people who are hurting and to do the many tasks that our multi-service organization performs.

At our mid-summer potluck in July, we honored Penny Mannel, a real estate agent and mother who edits and produces this newsletter every month. She has been newsletter editor five years. She is stepping aside because she plans to move to Colorado later this year.

Omaha PFLAG exchanges its newsletter with about a dozen other PFLAG chapters around the country. In readability and appearance, our newsletter is as good as any and better than most.

For that, Penny deserves credit. Thanks, Penny.

She will be replaced by Hap Rohwer, a veteran PFLAGer who serves on Omaha PFLAG’s board and is a phone answerer on our Help Line, and by Vicki Wiese, a newer PFLAG member.

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At our potluck, we welcomed as guests several members of our Proud Horizons youth support group. They meet each Saturday afternoon to talk over important issues in their lives and to socialize with each other in a safe place. They are led by four adult facilitators, at least two of whom are present for each meeting.

The facilitators are Dave England, Tony Vincent, Lisa Broadway and Jeremy Johnson. Thanks, Dave, Tony, Lisa and Jeremy for giving part of your Saturdays to spend time with young people who need your guidance.

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We also welcomed as potluck guests several members of Real Families, a group of same-sex couples with young children. Real Families was founded by Donna Colley and Margaux Towne-Colley, who continually are urging all of us to become more active in the political process.

The most recent example of political activity by the gay community and its allies involved the U.S. Senate debate over the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would prohibit same-sex marriages. Many of you, we hope, contacted Nebraska’s two U.S. senators, Democrat Ben Nelson and Republican Chuck Hagel, to urge them to vote against the proposed amendment.

Thankfully the Senate could muster only 48 votes of the 60 needed to end debate and move the amendment forward. Nelson and Hagel voted to end debate. But both senators said they were prepared to side with the amendment’s opponents and vote against the constitutional revision. Both believe the gay-marriage issue should be left to the states even though both oppose same-sex marriages.

So the proposed marriage ban didn’t make it to a vote—ending the issue in the Senate for now. However, the House of Representatives is expected to take up a new gay marriage ban bill within a few weeks. If you have email and you are not receiving the National PFLAG Weekly Alerts with information about political issues that need our help, please email me and I will get you on our Omaha PFLAG email forwarding list. My email: bobcdorr@cox.net

Whether gay marriage is a major issue in the minds of most Americans is debatable. In a recent CNN/Gallup poll, gay marriage was a concern of only about 1 percent of likely voters interviewed.

But our opponents still can muster considerable numbers. Hagel reported receiving communications from 11,128 Nebraskans in the 10 days before the Senate debate, and Nelson got more than 10,300 messages. The vast majority of messages came from supporters of the proposed amendment.

What is disgusting is that those who want to install a constitutional ban against same-sex marriage pushed the issue to a two-day Senate debate even though they knew they didn’t have the 67 votes required to pass it. They wanted to put senators on record and use the issue to rally social conservatives in this fall’s elections. Tony Perkins, president of the conservative Family Research Council, said, “Social conservatives are looking at this issue so we know who needs to be educated on this issue or removed if that is possible.”

Nonetheless this is a victory for those who believe that civil marriage equality is for everyone—gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight people. A huge thank you to everyone who called, wrote or emailed Hagel and Nelson to record their opposition to the misnamed Federal Marriage Amendment.

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Suzy Adams and Elizabeth Roth will form a new Omaha PFLAG Hospitality Committee to help make newcomers feel welcome at our monthly support/program meetings and to coordinate the meeting refreshments. They will take over the task now done by Roy Wright, our membership chairman. Roy leaves the Omaha PFLAG board in September after serving the maximum time allowed under our bylaws. Thanks, Roy, for your work as membership chairman.

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At our Aug. 12 meeting, we will hear from Bryn Geerdes, who is president of Heartland Gay Rodeo Association. This is an important year for Bryn and for HGRA. The International Gay Rodeo Association will hold its finals rodeo in Omaha on Oct. 14-17.

Our meeting, as usual, will start at 7 p.m. and end at 9 p.m., with the first hour devoted to sharing and support and the second hour to the program. Join us for coffee and socializing at 6:30 p.m. We meet at First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St., in Mead Hall at the building’s west end.

Bob Dorr, president