southwest washington chapter · 2019-07-08 · quickly turned into a larger support system and...

PFLAG Southwest Washington Newsletter-June 2019 1 | P a g e

Southwest Washington Chapter June 2019 Newsletter

Phone 360-562-0491 Email [email protected]

Website: www.pflagswwa.org WSC Website: www.pflagwsc.org

Join us at our regular meetings:

Vancouver Meeting Second Tuesday, 7pm Children’s Home Society 1112 Columbia Street, Vancouver, WA 98660 Battle Ground Meeting Third Thursday, 7pm 406 NW 5th Avenue, Building B Battle Ground, WA 98604

June 11, 7pm-9pm. Vancouver Meeting

Program: Cooper, WSC President, will speak on the topic of “Why I am Transgender.” The presentation specifically includes biological variations in sexuality.

The education session will be followed by our caring and sharing support group.

June 20, 7pm-9pm. Battle Ground Meeting

The meeting will lead off with our caring and sharing support group

2019 dates to remember:

SAVE THE DATE: Queer ‘Couve Youth Summit, June 29

July 9, 7pm Vancouver meeting

July 18, 7pm Battle Ground meeting

August 13, 7pm Vancouver meeting

August 15, 7pm Battle Ground meeting

In this issue:

Support PFLAG Southwest Washington

PFLAG Pride Packs

Upcoming LGBTQ Happenings Longview and Portland Pride Events Vancouver USA Pride (formerly Saturday in the Park)

Juneteenth Queer ‘Couve Youth Summit

Recent LGBTQ Happenings Latino Community Resource Fair Kathy Baldock Untangling the Mess Clark College Resource Fair Our Prideful Voices

Equality is Moving Forward in Battle Ground

Suicide Prevention Resources

Equality Act Passes the House+

PFLAG National Convention/Scholarships

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.pflagswwa.org/

http://www.pflagwsc.org/


Support PFLAG Southwest Washington

June 16 is Father’s Day

If you are purchasing a father’s Day gift on line, please consider using Amazon Smile. You can support our chapter by shopping with Amazon Smile

When you name PFLAG Vancouver-Sw Washington as your charity, Amazon Smile donates 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to the chapter.

Thank you to Amazon and to those who use this program.

Fred Meyer Community Rewards is an easy way for local non-profits to receive donations from Fred Meyer Stores. Customers earn these donations for their favorite nonprofits by shopping with their Rewards Card.

Here’s how it works: Link your Rewards Card to your favorite nonprofit, just log in to your online account. Whenever you use your Rewards Card when shopping at Freddy's, you’ll be helping the nonprofit

linked to your Rewards Card earn a donation from Fred Meyer. At the end of each quarter, Fred Meyer makes a donation to participating nonprofits based on the

accumulated spending of the Rewards Customers linked to each nonprofit. Fred Meyer will donate over $500k each quarter via Community Rewards!

How do I link my Rewards Card to a nonprofit? You can link your Rewards Card online, just log in or create an online account. At that point you will be able to search for your nonprofit. This is an ongoing program and you may enroll at any time.

What if I don't have a Fred Meyer Rewards Card? Applications for Rewards Cards are available at all registers or

the Customer Service Desk at any Fred Meyer store.

Our application with

Fred Myer is pending

https://www.fredmeyer.com/signin?redirectUrl=/account/communityrewards/

https://www.fredmeyer.com/signin?redirectUrl=/account/communityrewards/


PFLAG Pride Packs

In preparation for pride celebrations, PFLAG National has provided each chapter with Pride Packs that promote and explain the Equality Act. We will use the Pack items when the Chapter partipates in community events like Vancouver USA Pride and other tabling events and at our support meetings. The packs include posters, car bumper stickers, English and Spanish Equality Act pamphlets and cards, and Equality Begins with Me stickers. You can get your own Pride Pack items while supplies last at support meetings or at tabling events. .


Longview and Portland Pride Events

Portland

Longview


Vancouver USA Pride (formerly known as Saturday in the Park)

“Vancouver USA Pride is a local group dedicated to providing educational,

scholarship opportunities and support services for LGBTQ families, children, and

friends in the greater Clark County area of Washington State.

We organize a Local Gay Pride Event every year on the second Saturday in July,

raise funds for local charities, and offer a yearly scholarship for Clark County

residents.”

LGBTQ Pride in Clark County has a history. In 1993, a group met for the first time to celebrate the lives and history of the LGBTQ Community in SW Washington. As a result in 1994, Saturday in the Park was born. Our first events were held down near the Red Lion Inn at the Quay. It began with a small group of people and quickly turned into a larger support system and celebration of life.

Saturday, July 13, 2019 10 am to 5:30 pm Esther Short Park

Remember! Lyles Myles Fun Run, which benefits Martha’s Pantry, a food bank for aids/HIV patients, starts at 8:30 am at Esther Short Park.


Juneteeth Saturday, June 22

Juneteenth is the oldest annual celebration of black freedom and celebrates the end of slavery in America. The word “Juneteenth” is a 19th-century mash-up of “June 19,” the day in 1865 when Union General Gordon Granger read aloud a declaration in Galveston, Texas: “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Vancouver’s celebration will be held June 22 at Clark College, presented by the local NAACP chapter. This is the second year PFLAG has participated in the event.

Queer ‘Couve Youth Summit Saturday, June 29


Latino Community Resource Fair

PFLAG Southwest Washington participated in the annual Latino Community Resource Fair on May 11. This event focuses on making

connections, creating unity, and empowering the Latino community. PFLAGers Linda Buckley and Shirley Clukey (and Mary Wright, not pictured), spread the word about PFLAG’s mission and benefits to the fair attendees. Linda provided outreach in Spanish.

Untangling the Mess: History of the Cultural and Religious Discrimination of

the LGBTQ Community in America.

On May 19, ally, author, and public speaker Kathy Baldock presented a six-hour class that illuminated many influences on current understanding of same-sex behavior through the interconnected histories of science, government, military, law, cultural change, psychoanalysis, pastoral counseling, reparative therapy, and the merger of politics and religion. Twenty-two workshop participants gained new insights, clarity, and methods for engaging others in conversation about the intersection of faith, sexual orientation, and gender identity. PFLAGers Jessica Cole and Eunice Ingermanson organized the program. PFLAG Southwest Washington tabled at the event.

Eunice Ingermanson (L)

and Jennifer Cole (R) pose

with Kathy Baldock at the

Untangling the Mess

presentation.


Clark College Queer Penguin Resource Fair

On June 6, PFLAGers Jessica Cole (L) and Eunice Ingermanson (R) represented PFLAG Southwest Washington chapter at Clark College’s Queer Penguin Resource Fair. They shared PFLAG’s mission and the resources PFLAG provides the LGBTQ community.

Right: This was the flag pole at Clark College on June 6

Our Prideful Voices

On June 2, an audience of over 120 was treated to a program of heart-warming and life changing stories by four transgender and gender queer people. In addition all were treated to the music of Acchord, a transgender, non-binary, and non-gender a cappella choir. PFLAG Southwest Washington will be the recipient of some of the proceeds of the event. The program was produced by Paul Larrobino, director of Our Bold Voices. Below: Dale Clukey tables at the Our Prideful Voices

Prideful Voices Vancouver to tell ‘real stuff’ of coming-out journeys LGBTQ storytelling event Sunday will show ‘day-to-day humanity’

By Katie Gillespie, Columbian Education Reporter Published: June 1, 2019, 6:00 AM

Article reproduced with the permission of The Columbian

If You Go

What: Prideful Voices Vancouver, a storytelling event for LGBTQ young adults in Clark County. When: Doors open

at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, and performances start at 3 p.m. There will also be a resource fair starting at 2:30 p.m. and

following the event.Where: Unitarian Universalist Church of Vancouver, 4505 E. 18th St. Cost:$10, but organizers

are also collecting money to benefit charities supporting LGBTQ youth, as well as canned food for Martha’s Pantry.

https://www.columbian.com/author/katiegillespie


If You Go

What: Prideful Voices Vancouver, a storytelling event for LGBTQ young adults in Clark County. When: Doors open

at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, and performances start at 3 p.m. There will also be a resource fair starting at 2:30 p.m. and

following the event.Where: Unitarian Universalist Church of Vancouver, 4505 E. 18th St. Cost:$10, but organizers

are also collecting money to benefit charities supporting LGBTQ youth, as well as canned food for Martha’s Pantry.

At the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Abasi Umoh sat at the counter of an old-school diner, put on a pair of headphones, and closed their eyes.

The 22-year-old Umoh, who uses they/them pronouns, was transported back in time, to a time when their skin color would have excluded them from the diner — but when sit-in demonstrators did so anyway. The sounds of shouts and violence came through the speakers, yelling at them to leave, to get out of this public space.

Just minutes before, Umoh had watched as their “proud and strong African father” sat through the same simulation, and began to cry.

It was shortly afterward, empowered by those civil rights leaders who came before them, that Umoh decided that it was time. It was time to come out to their father as queer.

We won’t spoil the rest of the story for you. You’ll have to listen for yourself.

Umoh and three other queer and gender nonbinary Clark County residents will take to the stage at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Vancouver to share their stories of triumph and struggles on their journeys of coming out. Doors to Prideful Voices Vancouver open at 2:30 p.m. at the church, located at 4505 E. 18th St. Tickets are available on a sliding scale starting at $10, and proceeds will benefit Triple Point, Queer Youth Resource Center and PFLAG Southwest Washington, Vancouver organizations supporting LGBTQ youth. There will also be a performance by Acchord, an a capella choir group from Portland made up of transgender, nonbinary and gender nonconforming singers.

It’s the first Vancouver event for Portland-based Our Bold Voices, which organizes storytelling events — part TED Talk, part motivational speeches — throughout the metro area.

“There’s this attempt to erase or eradicate or devalue these life experiences, especially politically,” said Paul Iarrobino, artistic director and storytelling coach for Our Bold Voices. “My vision is to celebrate and create space for these stories and share that, so that we don’t forget.”

And this group of young storytellers is certainly celebrating. Their stories are bright, lively and filled with joy and humor.

“It really is sort of uplifting of voices that we don’t usually get to hear,” said Stephen Herndon, family support specialist for Triple Point.

Three of the four storytellers gathered at the Children’s Home Society to practice and put the finishing touches on their stories on a recent weekend. Quinn McCray, a 23-year-old transgender man, talked about living life as an out and proud lesbian as a teenager, only to discover his first taste of “gender euphoria” when he was fitted for a tuxedo for prom. Finally, he felt right in his skin. Joe Marshall, a 27-year-old transgender man from Camas, talked about being in awe of an early mentor of his, another transgender man, for being able to do pull-ups.

For Marshall, it was important to show the “day-to-day humanity” of trans and queer people. Sure, there’s plenty of hardship, he said. But that’s not what this event is about.

That real stuff is what’s important,” he said.

Katie Gillespie Columbian Education Reporter

360-735-4517 @newsladykatie

https://www.columbian.com/author/katiegillespie

https://twitter.com/newsladykatie


Equality is Moving Forward in Battle Ground

Equality is on the move in Battle Ground. PLAGERers Jessical Cole abd Eunice Ingernmanson spearheaded the creation of PFLAG support meetings in Battleground, championed LGBTQ rights at Battle Ground School District board meetings,

and lately arranged for Kathy Baldock to speak about Untangling the Mess: History of the Cultural and Religious Discrimination of the LGBTQ Community in America. Now, the Battle Ground City Council issued the following procalmation which welcomes and supports all people, including all sexual orientations.


Equality Act Passes the House!


All are welcome! Visit pflag.org/2019nationalconvention for more information and to register.

http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=tmLjC3IMBntNfq6AYbH3Q%2BjsY7CJtEaF

southwest washington chapter · 2019-07-08 · quickly turned into a larger support system and...

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