Hello Members,
Just a few announcements. As our new site begins to unfold and develop new features will also be available for your use. Our latest tool is the IRC chat function. This is something that will be completely built into our site momentarily, but for now it is available by clicking here. You must enter a username, but no password is required.
An IRC chat meeting will be held next Tuesday, Feb 15, at 8pm. To join the chat, simply click the link above (or here) and enter a username. We look forward to seeing as many people as we can join. Our topic will be the future direction of the organization and what each of us can do right now to help out, including updates on the website.
There is also an "alternative" site we are working on. There is a forum discussion which anyone can sign up to use. The alternative website is available here.
Lastly, if anyone would like a username and password to help build the site let me know! This is something that, surprisingly, doesn't require much expertise and is a great way to learn how to build websites.
Stay warm!
Nicholas Kobel
on behalf of the Tawas Area LGBTQ & Ally Community
February 8, 2011
August 30, 2010
Minutes 28 August 2010
New Business
Softball tournament
- Volunteers are needed for the softball games September 11 and 12 at Dewey Durant Park. We will be working concession and picking up trash.
- What are more ways we can volunteer? How can we integrate our interests with volunteering?
- Walking dogs at animal shelter
- Ousting Invasive plant species
- Adopt a highway program
- We have the opportunity to be interviewed by the newspaper. Look for details later.
- What are sources of sustainable funding?
Old Business
Newsletter- Please provide feedback on the newsletter. What changes would you like to see? Also, one person cannot do the newsletter alone, so we need people to help out by writing articles
- T-Shirt sizes are still needed. They will be available before we volunteer at the softball league tournaments.
- We still have three positions open: President, PR Officer, and Parents’ Ally. Let us know ASAP which position you would be interested in.
- Alongside email bombardment, we will also have members of the organization talk to school officials and personally hand them information such as the SafeSpace poster.
Homework
- Start talking to people about the organization
- Continue saving and asking people for pop cans
- Write an LGBTQ-related article for the next newsletter (due October 1st)
- If you haven’t already, tell us your T-shirt size and color
August 22, 2010
Summer 2010 Newsletter Now Available
August 19, 2010
T-Shirt Logo
We're finally coming around to getting T-shirts printed. This is the semi-final design for the logo. If you would like to see any changes to the design, please let me know as soon as possible.
My cousin is able to print the T-shirts for around $10 per shirt, due around the time you receive the shirt. They shrink to be "average". The reason there is only two colors is to keep the cost down - the more colors, the more cost. The T-shirts can be printed on a black or white shirt. Let me know your size as soon as possible. We hope to get the shirts by September 10.
August 12, 2010
Minutes 12 August 2010
Discussions
How to get name out and to allow the group to grow
- Volunteer --> contact former owners of Tawas Bar, St. Joseph Hosiptal for hospice programs, get in contact with homeless and women's shelter in Oscoda
- Skype meetings
- Blogging
- Blog Talk Radio
- Website
How to get funding
- Pop can drive
- Individual donations
How to get more people to attend
- Skype for anonymity
- IRC chatting
- Talking to friends about the group
- Having less formal meetings for fun
- $5 donation in pop cans
- Write LGBTQ-related article (due 16 Aug) for newsletter
July 30, 2010
IRC Chat Instructions
We will be having bi-weekly IRC chats for everyone to join. IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and is a great way for getting a virtual group of people together to discuss a topic. Joining an IRC chat is as easy as 1, 2, 3.
- Go to https://chat.mibbit.com/
- Enter any username/nickname and type "#tawaslgbtq" (without quotes) for the channel
- Press return and enter the chat room to start chatting with other members on the given day and time
July 29, 2010
Minutes 29 July 2010
Agenda
- Introductions
- Goals & Missions
- Discussion
- Homework
Goals & Missions
Long-term goals
- Continue to promote awareness, tolerance, and acceptance of LGBTQ people
- Develop organized system for finding and employing volunteer opportunities
- Find ways for dealing with cyber bullying
- Devise way for implementing LGBTQ-inclusive sexual education in school
Short-term goals
- Develop logo
- Employ newsletter
- Initiate formal committee
- Getting the school to listen, adopt policy, and develop plans of action
- Getting people to attend meetings
- Ally training for adult members through Spectrum Center
- Find sources of funding
- Start website
School Authorities
- Contact assistant principle Kosto, principle, superintendent Vernon, the school Board of Education members, and teachers
- Contact following teachers personally
- Send representative to next board meeting
- Contact Pride to organize skit
- Train adult members to be ally trainers
- Develop idea for Safe Space and how it may be implemented in the school
Funding
- Donations
- Grants
- Pop can drive
- Need for keeping money safe as well as person or process to distribute the funds
Committee
- Need for organizing formal committee for organization
- President - self-reliant, self-motivated, committed
- Secretary - organized, efficient, computer office skills, access to computer and internet
- Public Relations - outgoing, professional,
- Parents’ Ally - adult, reliable, strong-willed
- Place ad in first newsletter
Homework
- Find two friends to come next time
- Start saving and asking people for pop cans
June 20, 2010
Spring/Summer Registry 2010
In order to receive updates, event invitations, newsletters, and other happenings via email, please fill out the spring/summer registry for 2010.
Let me repeat this... FILL OUT THE REGISTRY NOW!!!!!
Thank you.
May 29, 2009
Summer Registrar
Please click the following link and fill out the registrar for the summer part of 2009. It will help us get a good idea of when is best to meet as well as who will be attending and where to hold each meeting. The link can be found here. I hope you are enjoying your summer!
April 9, 2009
T-Shirt and Logo Design
Can we all come up with some cool t-shirt and/or logo designs for this organization? Submit your design to tawas.lgbtq@gmail.com and we will review and vote which logo is the best! You can also post your logo on the facebook T-Shirt and Logo Design discussion with a link to the picture. If you upload your image to ImageShack, all facebook users can see the image regardless if you are "friends" or not. You can use a free program called InkScape to design a nice high-resolution graphics. Or you can draw and upload it, and I will make a vector out of it from inkscape for you (because I'm just that nice.)
Here is a vector I created in just about 45 minutes. It's very simple, and I think I will work to refine it a little more (I just wanted to tease you and give you ideas).
Here is a vector I created in just about 45 minutes. It's very simple, and I think I will work to refine it a little more (I just wanted to tease you and give you ideas).
April 6, 2009
By The Way... (part 2)
Freddy Rodriguez? Gonzalez? I'm not sure what his name was exactly, but he was my roommate-to-be. I was informed of who my roommate was when I was on vacation in California with my friend Kara. I didn't want things to go awry three days into being roommates, so I decided to email Mr. Freddy and inform him that I was gay. He said he wasn't really comfortable with that. I guess I understood and forwarded the email conversation to the housing department of EMU. They said they get many emails each semester on such concerns and properly accomidate students when a situation occurs.
I was assigned a new roommate: Matt Kane. I decided to just wait to see how Matt was going to work out, and I waited to tell him my little secret so I wouldn't bother the housing department too much. I told him the third day of living together after pressing a few questions and weighing his responses. Matt was awesome. I feel like I lack any sort of support-giving capabilities when it comes to roommates because Matt had three gay uncles and was completely cool with homosexuals. I remember the night I told him as we were going to bed and trying to avoid the September heat:
Nick: I bet you miss your girlfriend right now, huh?
Matt: Yeah dude, there's so much stuff going on right now. It's totally new and I wish she was right here with me.
Nick: Yeah, I understand completely.
Matt: I don't think I asked you, but do you have a girlfriend?
Nick: Uhhh... not exactly. I have a boyfriend.
Matt: Oh really!? I didn't know you were gay. It's okay though. I'm totally cool with it.
Nick: Oh, God! I'm glad! I was so worried what was going to happen. You know, if I got one of those crazy "God hates fags" roommy, I would have shat myself.
Matt: No way man, I'm completely fine with it. I actually have three gay uncles. Haha.
How could I complain? How could anyone complain? I think this is the best roommate situation for any homosexual. Not even another gay roommate can beat that, because if you get two queens together, there will be more drama than Spanish soap operas.
There came a time, though, when I "had to tell" my newly made friends. Do I risk telling them and receiving their rejection? I sort of had an attitude that was like, "Well, if they don't like gays, then they aren't worth being friends with," and that is the attitude I still hold today. I think the first person I told (aside from a gay guy, Tyler, who knew about me before we even met via myspace) was maybe Samara. She was so funny when I layed it out in front of her. And the rest of my friends had such different reactions:
Samara: Oh, I knew you were gay. Boy, I could tell from the moment my eyes laid on you.
Kim: Really? Like... really? I can't tell at all!
Dale: Wait, you're gay, too?
Chelsea: Oh, that's all right. Like I don't care.
I think I made it a bigger deal than any of my friends ever did. I still find myself making a big deal out of it in different situations, especially when I meet someone for the first time. But the point is that no one cared. None of my friends rejected me for it, and if anything I became closer to them.
I lived in Best Hall. It was an all-guys floor and the only all-guys floor in the building. The nickname "sausage fest" was coined, obviously, since a college freshman have nothing else more intelligent to laugh at. My friend Dale, though, re-worded the statement quite well: "Ground floor Best is a sausage fest... for a reason." What exactly does that mean? It means that in my wing of the hall alone, we had 4 - 6 gay men living next to one another. Any more fags up in there and it would have been the fashion columnist team for Cosmopolitan.
In a nut-shell, my coming-out experience in college couldn't have gone any better. It seemed as if suddenly the world turned gay.
That bitch. I will always have a grudge against her. What she did was unforgivable. I don't think I can legally name her, for that may be slander, but here is where my Sunday-drive of a coming out experience in college ran right off the cliff.
Someone who went to Tawas Area High School as well as Eastern Michigan University with me, who was also a lesbian/bisexual herself betrayed my trust to such an extent that I still have dreams of physically doing harm to her (maybe I should see a shrink?) I had told her in the late, late summer since she was part of my friend group and I knew she was going to find out anyway. Later on in the fall, I told her who my boyfriend was and told her not to say a single word about who he was to anyone. He is not out and I am not out so don't do it. If you have to say something, put me first but don't say his name at any and all costs.You can see where this is going... During winter break, she went home and during a party she said to a group of friends, "OMG, did you know Erica is dating Ian? Oh, and did you also know Nick's gay and dating *INSERT BF's NAME*?"
How could someone who is a lesbian herself be so cruel and heartless? How could she just reveal something so sacred and trusted as if it was talking about the weather? I could have killed, honestly. I had it all planned out, I was going to wait at her resident hall outside her door and when she came back with her bags from break, I was going to punch her in the face and spit on her and then walk away. My friends tried to recompense what she did by telling the group that what she said isn't true, ditching her as a friend, etc. but it didn't change the fact that I was outed at that point by someone who I put so much trust into.
I don't know what the hell happened, but it didn't develop into an issue at all. No one really spread words around, and people still thought I was straight-- or at least passable as straight. I returned to EMU and cautiously lived the next semester.
I was assigned a new roommate: Matt Kane. I decided to just wait to see how Matt was going to work out, and I waited to tell him my little secret so I wouldn't bother the housing department too much. I told him the third day of living together after pressing a few questions and weighing his responses. Matt was awesome. I feel like I lack any sort of support-giving capabilities when it comes to roommates because Matt had three gay uncles and was completely cool with homosexuals. I remember the night I told him as we were going to bed and trying to avoid the September heat:
Nick: I bet you miss your girlfriend right now, huh?
Matt: Yeah dude, there's so much stuff going on right now. It's totally new and I wish she was right here with me.
Nick: Yeah, I understand completely.
Matt: I don't think I asked you, but do you have a girlfriend?
Nick: Uhhh... not exactly. I have a boyfriend.
Matt: Oh really!? I didn't know you were gay. It's okay though. I'm totally cool with it.
Nick: Oh, God! I'm glad! I was so worried what was going to happen. You know, if I got one of those crazy "God hates fags" roommy, I would have shat myself.
Matt: No way man, I'm completely fine with it. I actually have three gay uncles. Haha.
How could I complain? How could anyone complain? I think this is the best roommate situation for any homosexual. Not even another gay roommate can beat that, because if you get two queens together, there will be more drama than Spanish soap operas.
There came a time, though, when I "had to tell" my newly made friends. Do I risk telling them and receiving their rejection? I sort of had an attitude that was like, "Well, if they don't like gays, then they aren't worth being friends with," and that is the attitude I still hold today. I think the first person I told (aside from a gay guy, Tyler, who knew about me before we even met via myspace) was maybe Samara. She was so funny when I layed it out in front of her. And the rest of my friends had such different reactions:
Samara: Oh, I knew you were gay. Boy, I could tell from the moment my eyes laid on you.
Kim: Really? Like... really? I can't tell at all!
Dale: Wait, you're gay, too?
Chelsea: Oh, that's all right. Like I don't care.
I think I made it a bigger deal than any of my friends ever did. I still find myself making a big deal out of it in different situations, especially when I meet someone for the first time. But the point is that no one cared. None of my friends rejected me for it, and if anything I became closer to them.
I lived in Best Hall. It was an all-guys floor and the only all-guys floor in the building. The nickname "sausage fest" was coined, obviously, since a college freshman have nothing else more intelligent to laugh at. My friend Dale, though, re-worded the statement quite well: "Ground floor Best is a sausage fest... for a reason." What exactly does that mean? It means that in my wing of the hall alone, we had 4 - 6 gay men living next to one another. Any more fags up in there and it would have been the fashion columnist team for Cosmopolitan.
In a nut-shell, my coming-out experience in college couldn't have gone any better. It seemed as if suddenly the world turned gay.
That bitch. I will always have a grudge against her. What she did was unforgivable. I don't think I can legally name her, for that may be slander, but here is where my Sunday-drive of a coming out experience in college ran right off the cliff.
Someone who went to Tawas Area High School as well as Eastern Michigan University with me, who was also a lesbian/bisexual herself betrayed my trust to such an extent that I still have dreams of physically doing harm to her (maybe I should see a shrink?) I had told her in the late, late summer since she was part of my friend group and I knew she was going to find out anyway. Later on in the fall, I told her who my boyfriend was and told her not to say a single word about who he was to anyone. He is not out and I am not out so don't do it. If you have to say something, put me first but don't say his name at any and all costs.You can see where this is going... During winter break, she went home and during a party she said to a group of friends, "OMG, did you know Erica is dating Ian? Oh, and did you also know Nick's gay and dating *INSERT BF's NAME*?"
How could someone who is a lesbian herself be so cruel and heartless? How could she just reveal something so sacred and trusted as if it was talking about the weather? I could have killed, honestly. I had it all planned out, I was going to wait at her resident hall outside her door and when she came back with her bags from break, I was going to punch her in the face and spit on her and then walk away. My friends tried to recompense what she did by telling the group that what she said isn't true, ditching her as a friend, etc. but it didn't change the fact that I was outed at that point by someone who I put so much trust into.
I don't know what the hell happened, but it didn't develop into an issue at all. No one really spread words around, and people still thought I was straight-- or at least passable as straight. I returned to EMU and cautiously lived the next semester.
April 2, 2009
Cell-to-Cell HIV Transfer Caught On Video
Grabbed from telegraph.co.uk.
The video is apparently the first video of an infected CD4 cell attacking and infecting a healthy one. Interesting stuff!
The video is apparently the first video of an infected CD4 cell attacking and infecting a healthy one. Interesting stuff!
April 1, 2009
By The Way... (part 1)
(On the phone)...
Nick: How's Jayme doing? Has she taken Noah to the specialist?
Mom: Yeah. Yep, Jayme went with Noah to the doctor on Saturday, and they told her that when he gets lethargic like that again to take him to the emergency and have some tests done to see what it is exactly that makes him so lethargic. But until then, they can't do anything about it.
Nick: Oh, so they have to re-enact the situation and can't do anything until he gets like that again?
Mom: Right, right. Well hun, I'm going to get going. I miss you. I'm glad you called me hunny!
Nick: Alright, well I'll call again soon when I'm on the internet sometime.
Mom: Okay. I love you hunny. Talk to you later.
Nick: I love you too, Mom. Oh! By the way...
...
Mom: Yes?
Nick: I need you... to... call Jayme, and discuss the fact that... I'm gay. *click*
Everyone does it a different way: in tears, hysterically, non-chalantly, gravely, on the phone, in person, on the toilet, over the toilet, in a fight, while you're shopping... I suppose, though, hanging up on your mother after you tell her and ignoring her phone calls for a week isn't the best way of doing it, but one could say I got my point across. But then again, how else was I going to do it? I did what I thought was least stressful for me. I think I should have considered how my mother would have felt a little more, but I can only do what I am capable of. The time to do it was then, and I didn't know how else to without fainting. I was alone in Japan. There was hardly anyone I could fully put all of my emotions into and really speak to on an intimate level.
I came out to my first friend when I was 16. I remember that night, because it was quite late (or very early). My mom was sleeping and I was in my room on my spiffy new computer. I was talking to my friend, Sally-- we'll call her-- and the conversation was probably baffling for her:
(Rough transcription)...
Nick: Sally, I have to tell you something.
Sally: Yes, Nick?
Nick: Well, I’m sure you know what I’m about to tell you… I mean, I think everyone knows.
Sally: Uhh, no? Not really…
Nick: Why don’t you try to guess.
Sally: Can you give me some clues?
Nick: It’s a big secret.
Sally: You’re a Martian?
Nick: DAMN! Is it that obvious? But seriously, it’s probably my biggest secret.
Sally: Hmm. Nick, I really have no idea.
Nick: Well, do you remember that time I told you I think I might have feelings for that one guy that are a little abnormal? Well, maybe they are just normal.
Sally: Okay…
Nick: I, uhh… think I’m bi.
"Bi?" Ha!-- I don't think she believed that there was any pussy coming my way for years to come, but the point is that I could trust her. I knew exactly how I felt about my sexuality at this point. I had known and accepted it since I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. I guess feigning the I-don't-know-these-strange-feelings-I'm-feeling-type innocent character, I justified my existence a little bit more: Homosexuality (or bisexuality) happened to me-- there isn't anything I can do-- I'm just a bystander in this vicious thing called life.
I felt guilty for playing such a close friend. Why couldn't I just tell her? Why did I have to make a stage of progression from abnormal to both ways to gayer than a three dollar bill? Looking back, I regret not making a journal, for I truly don't understand my feelings at the time. I would say now, "Just come out of the clost for Christ's sake!" but that was clearly not an option at the time. I sort of regret not doing it sooner. I could have paved the way for other homosexuals to come in the halls of my high school.
I decided to tell a couple other people during high school and by the time graduation came around, I had told 5 people-- one of them was my boyfriend (an intrinsic story). The summer after graduation, the population increased by two, and I had decided to be "out" at college when I started attending.
Nick: How's Jayme doing? Has she taken Noah to the specialist?
Mom: Yeah. Yep, Jayme went with Noah to the doctor on Saturday, and they told her that when he gets lethargic like that again to take him to the emergency and have some tests done to see what it is exactly that makes him so lethargic. But until then, they can't do anything about it.
Nick: Oh, so they have to re-enact the situation and can't do anything until he gets like that again?
Mom: Right, right. Well hun, I'm going to get going. I miss you. I'm glad you called me hunny!
Nick: Alright, well I'll call again soon when I'm on the internet sometime.
Mom: Okay. I love you hunny. Talk to you later.
Nick: I love you too, Mom. Oh! By the way...
...
Mom: Yes?
Nick: I need you... to... call Jayme, and discuss the fact that... I'm gay. *click*
Everyone does it a different way: in tears, hysterically, non-chalantly, gravely, on the phone, in person, on the toilet, over the toilet, in a fight, while you're shopping... I suppose, though, hanging up on your mother after you tell her and ignoring her phone calls for a week isn't the best way of doing it, but one could say I got my point across. But then again, how else was I going to do it? I did what I thought was least stressful for me. I think I should have considered how my mother would have felt a little more, but I can only do what I am capable of. The time to do it was then, and I didn't know how else to without fainting. I was alone in Japan. There was hardly anyone I could fully put all of my emotions into and really speak to on an intimate level.
I came out to my first friend when I was 16. I remember that night, because it was quite late (or very early). My mom was sleeping and I was in my room on my spiffy new computer. I was talking to my friend, Sally-- we'll call her-- and the conversation was probably baffling for her:
(Rough transcription)...
Nick: Sally, I have to tell you something.
Sally: Yes, Nick?
Nick: Well, I’m sure you know what I’m about to tell you… I mean, I think everyone knows.
Sally: Uhh, no? Not really…
Nick: Why don’t you try to guess.
Sally: Can you give me some clues?
Nick: It’s a big secret.
Sally: You’re a Martian?
Nick: DAMN! Is it that obvious? But seriously, it’s probably my biggest secret.
Sally: Hmm. Nick, I really have no idea.
Nick: Well, do you remember that time I told you I think I might have feelings for that one guy that are a little abnormal? Well, maybe they are just normal.
Sally: Okay…
Nick: I, uhh… think I’m bi.
"Bi?" Ha!-- I don't think she believed that there was any pussy coming my way for years to come, but the point is that I could trust her. I knew exactly how I felt about my sexuality at this point. I had known and accepted it since I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. I guess feigning the I-don't-know-these-strange-feelings-I'm-feeling-type innocent character, I justified my existence a little bit more: Homosexuality (or bisexuality) happened to me-- there isn't anything I can do-- I'm just a bystander in this vicious thing called life.
I felt guilty for playing such a close friend. Why couldn't I just tell her? Why did I have to make a stage of progression from abnormal to both ways to gayer than a three dollar bill? Looking back, I regret not making a journal, for I truly don't understand my feelings at the time. I would say now, "Just come out of the clost for Christ's sake!" but that was clearly not an option at the time. I sort of regret not doing it sooner. I could have paved the way for other homosexuals to come in the halls of my high school.
I decided to tell a couple other people during high school and by the time graduation came around, I had told 5 people-- one of them was my boyfriend (an intrinsic story). The summer after graduation, the population increased by two, and I had decided to be "out" at college when I started attending.
March 29, 2009
Introduction
Tawas Bay has changed so much in the past few years. We have seemingly become an actual city, compared to the small town we were once used to. With becoming a city, one might expect a few things-- one of them is a resource community for the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, sometimes called LGBT, GLBT etc.) people in our area.
Religious and conservative homophobia and gender-phobia, together with television portrayals of homosexuals and queer people have been slowing our acceptance and integration into society.
The Tawas area, in particular, seems to have a double jeopardy for such people. The small-town traditional and conservative values are often imposed on minorities whose rights are not being adequately protected by the government.
Join the group and help douse this wildfire of hate, ignorance and fear. No matter if you're straight, gay, bisexual, lesbian, intersexual, transgendered, questioning or otherwise, hate is hate. There is no need for ignorance in this world. If you are a non-hater, human rights supporter, mother, father, sister, brother, friend, foe, employer, coworker, or a human being, join this group to help end it all.
As a note, this group is not just for Tawas Bay. The outreach includes Tawas City, East Tawas, Whittemore, Twining, Oscoda, Harrisville, Au Gres, Standish, Hale, Mio, West Branch, Rose City and anyone who may lie between.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61371858532
Religious and conservative homophobia and gender-phobia, together with television portrayals of homosexuals and queer people have been slowing our acceptance and integration into society.
The Tawas area, in particular, seems to have a double jeopardy for such people. The small-town traditional and conservative values are often imposed on minorities whose rights are not being adequately protected by the government.
Join the group and help douse this wildfire of hate, ignorance and fear. No matter if you're straight, gay, bisexual, lesbian, intersexual, transgendered, questioning or otherwise, hate is hate. There is no need for ignorance in this world. If you are a non-hater, human rights supporter, mother, father, sister, brother, friend, foe, employer, coworker, or a human being, join this group to help end it all.
As a note, this group is not just for Tawas Bay. The outreach includes Tawas City, East Tawas, Whittemore, Twining, Oscoda, Harrisville, Au Gres, Standish, Hale, Mio, West Branch, Rose City and anyone who may lie between.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=61371858532
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