Hey everybody! I am back from Washington, DC. It was an amazing week! We started off with Lobby Day on Capital Hill. Approximately 160 PFLAGers stormed the halls of Congress in support of a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act that includes transgender people. I was in a group of 8 from Oregon. We visited six Oregon lawmakers that day who were mostly on our side. What they didn't fully get is why we need and want to be fully inclusive when we can get this piece of legislation passed more easily if it didn't include transgender people. We just believe it will be much more difficult if we try later to add the transgender piece. Ironically, even in my Republican congressman's office, we encountered a staff person who has a transgender youth in her family. She was very interested in hearing what we had to say. I attended several interesting workshops with the first being called "Why Religion is Still Important: What Galileo Has to Teach the Church About its Treatment of Gays and Lesbians". This was taught by two PFLAG parents and a Southern Bapist Minister and Constitutional Lawyer who wrote the book "10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You (But Can't Because He needs his Job)". His name is the Rev. Oliver "Buzz" Thomas. The PFLAG Dad told the story of his Catholic upbringing and how he preached the "sins of homosexuality" from his kitchen table quite frequently to his adolescent children. One of his children is gay and tried to commit suicide because he was so fearful of coming out to his parents. Luckily, he survived and Dad came to realize the errors he had made. He really had the whole room in tears. Second, I attended a workshop called "The History of Marriage" which gave a timeline of how marriage has changed over the years. In other workshops I learned about the PFLAG Stay Close Campaign, and how to effectively tell my story to have the most impact. The highlights were hearing the first openly Gay Episcoplian Bishop, Gene Robinson, speak. We gave the Straight for Equality award to "Dear Abby" who came out for fully inclusive marriage equality for GLBT people this past week. We raised almost $275,000 for the newly formed PFLAG Straight for Equality program which hopes to get millions of straight allies to support GLBT rights. To top things off, I was able to take advantage of my first ever trip to my nation's capital and do some sightseeing! I shed a few tears as I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool knowing that Martin Luther King Jr. stood there when he gave his "I have a Dream" speech. My son came out on Martin Luther King Day. It was an amazing opportunity and I had a wonderful time!
thats sounds great,just makes me wish I had the chance to go!Really achieved a lot on the hill,I'm am proud of you and everyone!I'm glad you had a great time
Sounds like you had a truely wonderful time. I am so happy that things are finally moving in the right direction. (!)
glad you had a good time and tht it was so productive =] $275k shud really help the group out alot and knowing that you have supporters in washington, and for including transgenders aswell eventho its more difficult well good on you, we want equal rights for everyone not just gay/lesbian/bi ppl so tht includes transgender and ppl from different countries/religions or atleast tht is something i would love to see in my lifetime. i may of said this b4 but cud you all come to london and do the same?? there have been laws passed recently tht have made things better but stil more could be done!
if only there were more ppl like u in my country, i might have a bf rite now! btw, gud 4 u! welcum back and keep on going! PS: i think the title is shud b 'its becky, bitch'. that wud b cool
Thank god that there are amazing people like you out there who still fight for the underdogs of the world. You are truly an inspiration!
Welcome back! Your trip sounded amazing and you really accomplished a lot. Its good to see that persons agree with the rights of everyone (gay, bi, lesbian and transgender), you all did a great job but dont leave us again:tears:
