A Letter From The President
Bob Dorr, PFLAG Omaha
Posted on August 17, 2004
The 19 performers were Omaha high school students, recent high school graduates and college students back in their home city for the summer. They were current and former cast members of the Pride Players, the theatrical troupe that annually gives answers to this question: What does it mean to be a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or straight-ally teen?
One weekend in August, the group performed 22 short skits, songs and personal monologues with such titles as “Gays of our lives” and “Rosalyn and Juliet.” The production was entitled the Best of Pride Players.
As at past Pride Players shows, Betty and I were captivated by the creativity of the numbers and the energy of the young men and women.
The best-from-the-past was a special production. The annual series of Pride Players productions will resume on Sept. 30 through Oct. 3 at the small Hitchcock Theater in the Rose Blumkin Performing Arts Center, 20th and Farnam Streets. Those dates are a change from the past mid-winter performance dates.
This will be the sixth annual Pride Players series. For several years Omaha PFLAG has been involved as a benefit partner. We earn money for our organization and help introduce people to a wonderful event—a true win-win.
Our benefit will be at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1. In mid-September, you will receive a coupon in the mail to return for reservations. Our partners in the benefit are the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Proud Horizons, the youth support group sponsored by PFLAG.
The Pride Players are becoming better known regionally and nationally. They have earned a prestigious grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Recently co-directors Brian Guehring and Tracy Iwerson and five cast members made a presentation in Salt Lake City at a National American Alliance for Theater and Education meeting. They shared some of their show skits and talked about how they create the performance material by using their own life experiences.
How is this possible? “We have an incredible group of talented and passionate teens here in Omaha,” Brian Guehring says.
We will fold and stuff promotional fliers for the benefit at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 11, at our meeting place, Mead Hall at the west end of First United Methodist Church, 7020 Cass St. You are welcome to come and help.
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Omaha PFLAG members will walk to raise money for the Nebraska AIDS Project on Sunday, Sept. 12, at Elmwood Park in Omaha. Registration is at 11:30. The AIDS Walk begins at 12:30 p.m.
The registration fee is $25 and includes a free t-shirt. Walkers are encouraged to solicit donations from persons who will sponsor their walk. Amy Beth Curtis is organizing PFLAG’s walkers as well as walkers from the Imperial Court of Nebraska (ICON).
There is nothing more satisfying than walking with friends on a beautiful day for a good cause. Last year’s AIDS Walk took place on a beautiful Sunday, typical weather for late summer in Nebraska. You can find more information and register to walk on this web site: www.nap.org
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The speaker at PFLAG’s Sept. 9 meeting will be Rev. Chad Anglemyer, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church, where we hold our meetings.
I have some personal bias in writing about First United Methodist. Betty and I are members of that church, as are several other Omaha PFLAG members. Over the past decade, Omaha’s First United Methodist--unlike the United Methodist Church generally--has come a long way in support of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
In 1997 Jimmy Creech, then the church’s senior pastor, conducted a Holy Union commitment ceremony uniting two lesbians. As a result, Nebraska’s United Methodist bishop refused to reappoint Creech as pastor of First United Methodist. Creech later was stripped of his ministerial credentials in a church trial after he returned to his home in North Carolina and conducted a ceremony that united two gay men.
Meanwhile many of First United Methodist’s members left the church to express disagreement with Creech’s same-sex ceremony. However, members who stayed voted for the congregation to join the Reconciling Ministries Network, a national organization of United Methodist Churches that welcome GLBT people and advocate for their full inclusion in the church.
Come on Sept. 9 and hear Chad Anglemyer. The meeting, as always, will be from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Mead Hall, at the church’s west end.
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An event that is the World Series of the gay rodeo world will take place in Omaha from Oct. 14 to 17. It is the 18th Annual International Gay Rodeo Finals. At PFLAG’s August meeting, rodeo leader Bryn Geerdes described plans for the event.
Some 4,000 spectators are expected to attend along with 120 contestants from across the United States and Canada who qualified for the finals by winning at regional rodeos.
The rodeo will be held in a new indoor event center nearing completion 10 miles west of Omaha on West Dodge Road. The Chance Ridge Event Center is at 506 N. Skyline Road in Elkhorn.
Profits from the rodeo will benefit Child Savings Institute, Nebraska AIDS Project, Youth Emergency Services, Metropolitan Community Church Ark of Accessibility and Merlin’s Refuge, a long-term care and adoption service for domestic animals.
Tickets are $10 per day in advance or $12 per day at the gate. Children under 12 are admitted free. For more information visit HGRA’s website: www.hgra.net
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PFLAG will take part in National Coming Out Day by presenting a panel of members and supporters. The panelists will tell their stories and respond to audience questions at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at First United Methodist Church in Room 112. Enter the church on the northeast end.
The panel will be one of the activities in a week-long series of NCOD events in Omaha. In the past, the panel has fallen on PFLAG’s normal meeting night. This year it does not. PFLAG will have its monthly meeting on the regular night, Oct. 14.
Bob Dorr, president
