Sky Valley GLBTQ Alliance has first support meeting Saturday November 19th

How did the Monroe Monitor come to feature an article about an upcoming GLBTQ group that is starting this Saturday and wildly yet, previously post an retraction to a bias ad they accepted that was derogatory towards gays?  You would have to know Holly Teige, a true force of nature that is determined to make changes where she sees a need.  While she did not foresee her new role as an activist, I believe it suits her well as she is very passionate about her beliefs and helping others.

I met Holly a couple years ago at an event and instantly felt a kinship to her and her partner Nef!  I knew she was going to make any situation better that she was involved in and she certainly has.  Holly has found various ways to help others adding to her full family plate as she has 4 children and Nef has 2.  Activism isn't far from Holly's long term goal of working with under-served communities as an attorney and she is well on her way as a full time student currently on the Dean's list.  She will graduate in March of 2013 with a degree in Society, Ethics and Human Behavior.


Holly is starting her second group for GLBTQ and they are holding their first meeting this Saturday, November 19th.  The Monroe Monitor wrote an open article about the isolation that gays face in rural areas, the need for inclusiveness and how the area church's are opening their doors to assist.  I encourage you to read the article for yourself and to let any of your friends that live in the area to know about this meeting.  This is a great step in the right direction for our smaller community members to feel less isolation, meet like minded others and gain community.

The Sky Valley GLBTQ Alliance will be a monthly meeting with the day/time to be determined by the membership.  One estimate is that 3500 GLBTQ people live between Everett and the Pass.  Holly hopes that people that live in Everett, Granite Falls, Goldbar, Snohomish, Lake Stevens, Fulton, Startup, Index, Skykomish, and everywhere between the Highway 2 corridor will benefit from the meetings.  All are welcome and you will find future meetings on the Seattle Announcements Calendar!

This is not Holly's first effort at attempting to fill what she saw as a need that she had - and she figured others must have as well.  Holly started a Meetup group, Coming Out After 30 for folks that came out after 30 years of age.  The group celebrated their 1 year anniversary last month with almost a hundred members.  They meet on the last Saturday of every month on Capitol Hill.

The group provides more than the monthly meetings as they also help newly out members feel comfortable by attending social events together such as Inferno Hotflash Dances.  While Inferno Hotflash Dances are known for being more welcoming than most bar dances, they attend as a cohesive group so women will feel even more comfortable at their first (possible) bar experience in their new "out" identity.  The group though is open to all genders and orientations and currently has trans, bi, lesbian, gay, and asexuals ranging in age from 20's to 60's.

Although the members may identify differently from each other Holly "honors that coming out is ongoing" and believes there are the same social reactions to the different phases of the process.  Members often have the similar theme of "a lack of family support" which presents different challenges that talking to others in the same situation helps with.  You can reach Holly at holly.teige@gmail.com.


 

Saturday, November 19th
Sky Valley GLBTQ Alliance
11am to 1pm 
Monroe Public Library

1070 Village Way
Monroe, WA 98272
(360) 794-7851
Refreshments will be provided.  

Attend the monthly Coming Out After 30 Meet Up Group on the last Saturday of the month at:
DeLuxe Bar and Grill
625 Broadway Ave. East
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 324-9697

Merideth Baxter - Walk a mile in her birkenstocks

When I turned on the View a couple weeks ago to catch up on the important news in the world and heard that Merideth Baxter had come out as a lesbian I admit...I felt a moment of titillation.  Trying to figure out why is a question I will not bother to get a therapist for as it is not a top 10 puzzle AND I get weirdly shy discussing my fantasies with a therapist.  What followed in the discussion on the View though could drive me to drink.  I will share with you what I am sure has damaged my ever so refined, delicate and now fragile queer self image.   

Bill Getty, producer of the View asked the asinine question that must be on some Americans mind.  He wanted to know if the reason all these women that were coming out later in life were doing so because of the lack of available men?  Thank heavens Whoopi is on the panel and seems to come close to knowing where our team sits on the bench.  Some days I feel hit by a bat and this was one of them!  Whoopi denied this idiotic premise but I thought I should break it down for those in search of a village (of course, they aren't reading this as they are hitting the brush).

It appears that some peoples illogical logic has to be that we homo female types:
a) are too butt ugly (unattractive) to catch a man or
b) there is not enough eligible bald pot bellied men of a certain age so we have no choice but to turn to eat our own!

There were the usual jokes or concerns [on the View] about how Merideth's poor husbands must feel about her coming out.  They might feel like they did something wrong to make their ex wives get with a woman butcher than them.  This begs the question of whether a person can be 'made to be gay'.  There certainly seems to be a weird sense of responsibility that people take on for anothers' sexuality that I find off base and icky.

I remember in high school I knew a guy who had 2 or 3 girlfriends who came out after being with him.   Yes, he did get teased a bit but he played it up because he liked the idea of going where 'no man had gone before or after'.  Mind you, it was the Star Trek era.  Now, did he turn them queer or did he happen to be attracted to lesbians?  I doubt he chased them out of the closet with his penis.  He also LOVED telling people he had been with real lesbians (vs fake ones I guess?).  I believe people get to know themselves and gain a comfort level in their own time with who they are and it is unlikely in most cases to have anything to do with a current or ex spousal unit. 


Yes, men seem to be treated in conversation as if something has happened to them by their EX, mind you many years divorced EX WIFE coming out as I saw in Merideth's case.  A woman's internal feelings become about a man in our ego sideways male driven society.  Interesting how a woman once again is referenced in terms of her [ex] husband instead of her own accord.  This is not unusual in other countries at all but here we think we are so evolved.  

Sometimes I thing things are as simple as people are attracted to who they are attracted to.  Isn't that profound?  Maybe some women are coming out later in life because they finally have the opportunity to pay attention to their own wants, needs, desires and who they actually are versus who they have been told they should be their entire lives.  Perhaps after years of taking care of others they are looking inward and deciding it is time to take care of themselves.  Whatever the reason, I applaud, encourage and respect women to find their voice and come out in whatever way feels right for their individual path. After all, they are the ones that have to walk in their birkenstocks.

Ms T



Disclaimer:  if you need to read this disclaimer to realize this is written in the style of satire then I am glad I made you put on your glasses.  I only intended to offend people with no sense of humor or lack of style shown by wearing polyester seersucker clothing.

Satire definition according to Dictionary.com:

1.     the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.
2.     a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.