JUNE - PRIDE MONTH, SOLSTICE, FAERY DUST and what a month we have!
June 3 - North Idaho Pride Alliance is sponsoring their Pride Festival in the Park in Coeur d’Alene.
June 6 - This month Taco Tuesday is at nYne, starting at 5pm for early birders. As a side note, Hannah of Peer Spokane, does comedy Tuesday evenings starting around 8:30 at nYne. She is part of the flourishing younger Spokane queer community.
June 10 - Spokane Pride. While we are not in the parade, we do have a booth and we do need people to staff the booth and assistance in setting up and taking down - please contact Jacki at jacki.putnam@gmail.com for information and to volunteer.
There is no potluck this month due to PRIDE and no speaker on third Friday. BUT bring your rainbow to Pride and let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
Friday zoom calls continue throughout the month at 4 pm
The Say It Out Loud Conference was held May 22 at the Spokane Grand - hundreds and hundreds of out people investigating sharing and schmoozing for the day - it was, uh, Grand. Ken and Christine have provided summaries of the sessions they attended. You can find them at OUR brand new WEBSITE https://www.lgbtqseniorsoftheinlandnorthwest.com/ please come and check it out! Again, thank you to the team spearheaded by Dan and Shanette for bringing this into existence.
Also of note, Reynaldo of SAGE spoke to us via zoom in May about the value of associating with SAGE - the recording is available by emailing Nancy. The Steering Committee would appreciate hearing your thoughts about our aligning with them. Email Nancy or Jacki with your thoughts.
Here are the conference notes from Ken Eastwell on two sessions offered at the SIOL - "Say It Out Loud" conference that was held in Spokane last week.
The session "Violence Epidemic in the Trans and LGBTQ+ Community" presented the disproportionate number of violent crimes against members of the LGBTQ+ community relative to the general population. The different forms of violence (physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, cultural and spiritual) were defined as well as how to recognize them. The participants were asked to share what they believed were the most serious forms. In witnessing an act of violence, the key element is to maintain your personal safety.; appropriate secondary responses were discussed. All of society needs to work collectively to counter the flow of misinformation and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment.
"Embracing Uncertainty in Transition" explored the difficult decisions faced by individuals contemplating transition, and the anxiety created by the unknown world after transition. Internal and external factors feed this uncertainty. Both clinical and personal consequences of this anxiety were discussed and shared by the audience. This thoughtful session concluded with a period of quiet meditation to reflect on the previous discussions.
Here are the conference notes from Mrs. Christine Lette on two sessions offered at the SIOL - "Say It Out Loud" conference that was held in Spokane last week.
I attended the morning session entitled "The Science of Gender". The presenter explained the in-utero development of sexual anatomy. We all start out the same. Sexual differentiation takes place starting at 14 weeks and it is not a simple process. Lots of genital variation results. Some people have no clearly identifiable genitals. The problems arise due to our need to define what is 'normal'. One in 1500 people have atypical genitals, often never becoming aware of it and able to lead normal sex lives. Corrective surgery at birth to 'normalize" atypical genitals used to be common decades ago, but the American Pediatric Associated now strongly discourages it.
In the afternoon I attended the panel discussion entitled "Trans, Queer and Sex Work" lead by three trans women who work in the sex trade. When asked how they got into the sex trade, the women said they left home at an early age, like 12 or 13, because their home life was unbearably abusive and toxic. As they were too young to work a normal job, they turned to the sex trade because they money was easy. Many sex workers enter the trade before they become teenagers and are unable to find a way to escape. They said prostitution is an intrinsic result of a patriarchal, capitalistic society. Such a system is based on the wealthy exploiting the poor and women having little power. In one way or another all women in our society have to prostitute themselves to some degree.
Enjoy the magic of the month everyone! your steering committee
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