Due to event conflicts we have moved the Community Rummage Sale to March 27, 28 & 29th. This way people who are attending Camp Courage and other area events can still participate in the sale. Please have all donations delivered by March 25th. Email scottandhope@sbcglobal.net for more information or if you have questions. Thank you to all and may this be a huge success!
The PFLAG National blog has noted the VTD's article on our chapter, and with glowing remarks.
This morning's Visalia Times-Delta, in California, has a profile of one of PFLAG's newest chapters - PFLAG Tulare Kings County - on the front page of the paper's Living section. The article, which highlights the chapter's incredible work in the community, also profiles chapter founders Joan & Steve Palmer (pictured), who have been instrumental in the launch of two PFLAG chapters in the communities where they have lived.
Thank you Steve Ralls! Read the entire blog posting here.
Letter used offensive language about gay, lesbian people
Written by PFLAG Member
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
The following letter appears in the 2/24 print edition of the Tulare Advance-Register, and is on the Times-Delta's web site.
February 24, 2009
I am writing in response to Jewel Taylor's letter in the Tulare Advance-Register on Feb. 12. As an ordained clergy person, I was deeply disturbed by the language in reference to gay and lesbian people. The comment, "Even animals know enough to seek the appropriate gender to mate with" was not only offensive language but demonstrated a lack of judgment on the side of the editor. Would a statement this hateful toward another group of people have made the paper? My church accepts gay and lesbian people as they are and celebrates loving and committed relationships.
REV. STEPHANIE BINGHAM DOSS
Pastor/ First Congregational Church of Tulare
On the evening before the CaliforniaSupreme Court holds oral argument on the validity of Proposition 8 and whether the initiative process can be used to take away fundamental freedoms from minorities, join us for a candlelight vigil for justice and equality. Please feel free to make a simple sign or t-shirt, and click on invite more people to add the supportive people on your friends list.
This message was posted at the request and on behalf of: David Fleck, the Grassroots Organizing Coordinator with the Courage Campaign Equality Program.
That's what propelled Barack Obama into the White House and that's what it will take to restore marriage equality to
California
.
That's why we are bringing our "
Camp
Courage
" training program to
Fresno
on March 7-8. Inspired by "
Camp
Obama
,"
Camp
Courage
uses community organizing methods that have developed leaders and nurtured progressive social movements for decades.
Our first
Camp
Courage
in
Los Angeles
received phenomenal reviews from participants, with evaluations averaging 9.36 on a scale of 1 to 10. We chose
Fresno
as the next
Camp
Courage
location because we believe
Central Valley
activists are at ground zero in
California
's marriage equality movement.
Fresno
's intensive two-day training will teach participants about community organizing, empowerment, team building, leadership development, voter persuasion and more. With these tools, participants will be primed to organize their own communities, door-to-door, neighbor-to-neighbor across all 58 counties of
California
.
Who is planning and organizing
Camp
Courage
in
Fresno
? Veteran organizers like Torie Osborn, Mike Bonin and Lisa Powell.Osborn currently advises Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and has previously served as the Executive Director of the Liberty Hill Foundation and theNational Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Bonin, a longtime campaign staffer and community activist, was a regional Field Organizer for the Obama campaign. Powell is an attorney, longtime trainer, community leader, and co-founder of United Lesbians of African Heritage.
Together, Torie, Mike and Lisa are recruiting the best trainers and building a training curriculum for Camp Courage Fresno that will help activists create the kind of people-powered movement that helped Barack Obama become president and that will restore marriage equality to
California
.
What will it take to build a people-powered army to repeal Prop 8?
You. And your friends. If you know people who think grassroots community organizing is the key to restoring marriage equality to
California
, please forward this message to them right now.
Thank you for helping us serve the people and organizations building the marriage equality movement.
Rick Jacobs
Chair
.............
Courage Campaign Issues is part of the Courage Campaign's online organizing network that empowers over 600,000 grassroots and netroots activists to push for progressive change in
California
.
Here's a little introduction to what Camp Courage is all about. I will be there, I hope to see you there too! ~Brooke
Gay Fresno has been working for some time now toward becoming an
official non-profit organization. We are happy to announce that we are now in
the final process of application, and our paperwork is soon to be submitted to
the IRS for processing.
As of now, Gay Fresno will be one of the names we will be using under
our new, umbrella name of GAY CENTRAL
VALLEY. Our current Central Valley websites are Gay Fresno (www.gayfresno.com) and Gay Visalia (www.gayvisalia.com), and we will be adding more as
time goes on. Both Gay Fresno and Gay Visalia will continue to operate and
serve the community as they have in the past.
We have created this corporation to serve the LGBT communities
throughout the entire Central Valley. We are, as of today, an up and running, public
benefit corporation, formed with the intention of being accepted by the IRS as
a 501(c)(3) organization. Our bylaws have been written, approved and signed.
Our official Board Of Directors includes :
Jason Scott - President/CEO
Leah Parra - Secretary
Chris Jarvis - Treasurer/CFO
One of Gay Central Valley's efforts will be to assist those in other
towns and cities in the Central Valley in starting up their own Gay Central Valley LGBT website.
If you live in the Central Valley and are interested in a website focusing on
your community, contact us and we'll help you get up and running.
Our expansion has been made possible with the support of the LGBT
community and the financial support of The Express Nightclub (formerly Deja Vu),
and CCA (Central California Alliance), who has been financially supportive of
our organization for many years. We
would also like to extend a big thanks to the Fresno office of J. Stanley
Teixeira, Attorney At Law, for representing us and guiding us through this
process.
We look forward to serving the LGBT community in the Central Valley now
and in the future. If anyone is interested in working with Gay Central Valley
as a volunteer to help us better serve the community, please feel free to email
us with your interest (use the ABOUT US on Gay Fresno's site for contact information).
Donations in support of Gay Central Valley and our expanding efforts to
serve the LGBT community in the Central Valley can be forwarded to:
Don't forget to join the RAINBOWlers this Sunday February 22nd at Visalia Lanes. Be there a little before 6:00 to be ready to start on time. Bring the family and join us for some fun!!
In yet another spew of ignorance, Utah Senator Chris Buttars condemns us as being "probably the greatest threat to America that I know of". WOW! I think that beats out terrorists?? Really Senator!!???
Please go HERE and read more about this and what you can do to stop it! I've sent my letter, please take just a few minutes to send yours. Thank you!
It’s that time of the year! Spring into action and clean out your closets, garages, and cupboards of unused, unwanted items you don’t need or want anymore. Then donate those items to a worthy cause!
A community rummage sale is scheduled for Friday 3/6 through Sunday 3/8. All of the proceeds will benefit the PFLAG Tulare-Kings County Chapter and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation where one of your local PFLAG mom’s is riding the 545 mile trek to end AIDS.
Please contact Hope at scottandhope@sbcglobal.net or call her at 559-972-6496 to donate your items and for more information on possible volunteers needed. We must ask that items be in good condition or gently used only. If you wouldn’t want it or buy it, others probably wouldn’t either. Thank you for your understanding. All items leftover will be donated to the Visalia Rescue Mission which helps feed the homeless. So see, your selfless act is helping many causes and many people.
If you don’t happen to have anything to donate stop by anyway, you just might find something that you need or want! And if you don’t happen to find anything that strikes your fancy it would still be a good opportunity to donate a few dollars. It’s for a great cause! So please stop by the Community Rummage sale and support PFLAG and the AIDS Foundation.
Info: 3800 N. University St. in
Visalia
Friday 3/6 10:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday 3/7 8:00am – 3:00pm
Sunday 3/8 8:00am – 3:00pm
**Please note that depending on the outcome and amount of donations we receive we may hold an additional sale at a later date. We will keep you informed. Thanks!
PFLAG of Tulare-Kings Counties would like to ask the general public for donations for the production of our Pride Parade Float that will be entered at this years Fresno Rainbow Pride Parade 2009. Make the south valley’s float be the best float entered at this years Pride Parade in Fresno. Without your support or donations we will be limited to using PFLAG funds which could be used for better use like purchasing advocacy and education material for our ill-informed community. If you would like to make a donation to PFLAG Float you may write the check payable to PFLAG of Tulare-Kings Counties (Check memo PFLAG Float). Please make sure to state somewhere on your donation that it’s for PFLAG’s Float so that we know where to distribute the funds to. PFLAG appreciates any donation and your support in making this a reality for the south valley. By the way, this years theme is “Love is Greater than Hate”. We will also be making our presence at Visalia’s Pride in the Park which will be Saturday May 30, 2009. Hope to see you all there and thank you ahead of time.
Update: Fresno Pride Parade is on Saturday, June 6th. Please get all of your kind donations to PFLAG no later than the end of April. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Jesse Rodriguez, PFLAG of Tulare-Kings Counties Publicist
HERE is a list of articles that relates to the LGBTQ community, it is the Policy Matters newsletter. It has some very interesting news articles from around the US. Check it out!
The Enchanted Playhouse is hosting a special viewing of their loveable play GO! DOG! GO!. Part of the proceeds from that showing will benefit the Valley Oak SPCA. The show is this Thursday, February 19th at 7:oo pm. For more information see the flyer HERE.
Have some entertainment, have some fun and support a great cause!
As Valentines day was approaching, Jasmine decided to buy a special gift for her new girlfriend, Ruth. The couple had not been dating for very long, and so Jasmine wanted to make sure the gift was just right. Ruth was always complaining about having cold hands, and so Jasmine - after careful consideration - decided a good gift would be a nice pair of gloves.
Jasmine took her sister with herto buy the gift - she wanted another opinion. They found a nice pair of gloves at the store, and Jasmine''s sister purchased a pair of panties at the same time. Unfortunately, the sales clerk got the two items mixed up.
Jasmine mailed her Valentine''s Day gift to Ruth, accompanied by the following note:
I chose this Valentines Day gift as I noticed that you often don''t wear any when we go out in the evenings. If it had not been for my sister, I would have chosen the ones with buttons, but she prefers short ones that are much easier to remove.
These are a lovely color. The lady at the store where I bought them showed me the pair she had been wearing for the past three weeks, and they were hardly soiled at all. I had her try yours on for me and they looked quite lovely.
I wish I was there to put them on you for the first time; no doubt, other hands will come into contact with them before I have a chance to see you again. When you take them off, remember to blow on them lightly before putting them away as they will naturally be a little damp from wearing.
Just think how many times I''ll be kissing them in the future. I hope you''ll wear them Friday night for me.
Love,
Jasmine
Well.... I'd be lying if I said we had a great turnout. I wish it could have been better. But a sincere thanks to everyone who showed up and braved the sultry weather, HA!
I don't know why we had a small turnout. Was it short notice? Lack of motivation? Cosmic forces? Please give us some feedback so we can do better next time. We are gearing up for another rally in March for the Supreme Court hearing. Stay tuned for more details with that.
So here's the summary: Two separate men decided to come harass us about our sins and beastiality. It was freezing, there were lot's of middle fingers, foul language and the law! Yes, someone called the cops on us and made a complaint! Oh ya, and In & Out Burger told us to get off of their lawn, which we weren't even on, just a table was there. Guess they found the table offensive?? So all in all, we had a smashing good time!
On the flip side, we did have several people come out and stand proudly through all of it. We made the news which is great exposure to the cause. I saw some old friends and met some new ones I would like to get to know better. We did have thumbs ups, waves, and honks to show support. We also got some foot traffic that was interested in learning more about our cause. If we changed one person's mind tonight, then I say it was well worth it!
I was honored to be at your side last night and also reminded of why I was out there in the first place. Thank you.
So, onward we go towards our quest for equality. May peace be with you all.
Here is Hope's weekly update! To date she has only achieved 12% of her goal!! Please, please pitch in however you are able. Maybe you could get everyone at your work to throw in a few bucks. Every little bit helps! All proceeds go towards the fight against AIDS.
