TSA News July 2017 Volume 35 Issue 7
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TSA News July 2017 Volume 35 Issue 7 Volunteer Meetings Scheduled After Successful Pride Month! The Tri-State Alliance had great Pride events in Evansville, Henderson and Owensboro this year. Volunteer meetings have been scheduled to expand our events and services for next year’s Pride and throughout the year. Please attend one of our up- coming meetings (there will be free pizza at all of these meetings): Owensboro Pride & Youth Group volunteer meeting, Wednesday, July 26, 6pm, Mellow Mush- room Meeting Room, 101 W. 2nd Street. AIDS Holiday Project Volunteers, Thursday, July 27, 5:30pm, TSA Offices, 501 John St. Suite 5. TSA Pride & Steering Committee, Monday, July 31, 5:30pm, Central Library Browning Room B, 200 SE Martin L. King Jr. Blvd., Evansville. Singer Jeffrey Bowen, former- ly of Owensboro and Equals Bar, will be the featured per- former at the 10th annual TSA Celebrity Dinner being held on Sunday, Aug. 13. This is the re- gion’s largest and most successful HIV charity benefit. See additional details about Jeff and about this benefit inside the newsletter. TSA Steering / Pridefest Volunteer Committee Monday, July 31, 5:30pm Central Library Browning Room B Help TSA plan special events, educational TSA LGBTQ Film Series outreach projects and services, INCLUDING 6:30pm on Monday, July 31, 2017 a June 2018 Pride Festival! Evansville Central Library’s Browning Room B 200 SE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Downtown Evansville Owensboro Pride Volunteer Meeting Wednesday, July 26, 6pm Mellow Mushroom Meeting Room 101 W. 2nd Street, Owensboro Help plan Owensboro Pride 2017 Help plan TSA Owensboro Youth Group Help plan other special events INCLUDING the Owens- boro AIDS Walk Free Pizza & Soft Drinks 2pm Sundays TSA Thanks Henderson Zion UCC & Bridge for Hosting Orlando Memorial Service TSA Thanks Henderson Zion UCC & Bridge for Hosting Orlando Memorial Service Several attend Tri-State service to remember Pulse nightclub victims Monday, June 12th 2017, 9:21 pm CDTThursday, June 22nd 2017, 9:29 pm CDT By Brandon Bartlett, Anchor/Reporter, 14news.com HENDERSON, KY (WFIE) - Services of remembrance were held all across the country on Monday. What happened in Orlando has touched many people, including many in the Tri-State, who say they feel a connection to those who lost their lives one year ago. As "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" played on the pipe organ, the sanctuary of Zion United Church of Christ in Henderson filled up. For many, the Pulse Nightclub massacre is still a fresh wound. "The Pulse shooting is definitely something that's been weighing over Pride month this entire time for us, for everyone in the community I think," said Trevin Jones who attended the service. Jones is the same age as some of those who lost their lives in Orlando. He says now more than ever the community needs to stand together. "We feel a very close connection to one another right now because we live in troubled times and we need to be together if we don't want to be driven apart," said Jones. "That was heartbreaking," said Amanda Melberg, who attended the service. "It was a senseless act." Like most at the ceremony, Melberg can't make sense of what happened one year ago or why there's so much hatred targeted toward the gay community. "There's senseless acts of violence everywhere but togeth- er we're going to work through this and keep going and work for equal rights for everyone," said Melberg. Among the songs sung and the message delivered the theme was standing united. "That's probably the biggest message is unity and we're going to stand together because people can try to keep us down but we deserve the same rights and respect as every- body else, whether you're gay, straight, bisexual, transgender," said Melberg. "Every human being deserves to be treated with respect." Henderson Community Remembers Pulse Nightclub Victims By Chelsea Koerbler, 44news.wevv.com The Henderson community comes together to remember the lives lost a year ago, in the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting. One year ago, Zion UCC in Henderson held a service to remember the 49 people killed in the nightclub shooting. Now, a year later, they’re looking back hoping people can come together to prevent another tragedy from happening. The shooting was a powerful event nationwide, especially in the LGBT community. A year ago, Zion UCC was packed, filled with raw emotions. Monday, the church was still filled, but the service wasn’t just to remember those who lost their lives at Pulse, but to discuss what can be done to move forward. Lasting a little longer than an hour, it was broken into two parts, ‘We Remem- ber’ and ‘We Resist.’ “You can’t dampen people’s spirit, you can’t. No longer can you tear a commu- nity apart by committing an act of vio- lence,” said Kelley Coures, guest speaker. “What that does is bring those communities together and that’s what was demonstrated here tonight [Monday.]” The pastor of Zion UCC wanted the event to also bring awareness to racial, domestic, and religious violence. WEBB: Year after Pulse, LGBT advocate sees local progress By Jon Webb, courierpress.com Just another part of American history. That’s how Joshua Moore, a Kentucky man vacationing in Florida in 2016, said people would remember the Pulse Nightclub shooting once time passed. “I don’t see Florida becoming this terrible place where this terrible thing happened,” he told a USA Today reporter. It was only a day after Omar Mateen walked into the popular Orlando gay club with a semiautomatic rifle and 9 mm Glock and started picking off revelers one by one. By the time he was finished, 49 people were dead – all for the crime of going out on a Saturday night. Mateen, a man from Hyde Park, New York, who claimed allegiance with ISIS, was killed in a shootout with police. MORE: Monday marks one year since Mateen’s massacre, and boy does Moore look prophetic. A lot of us likely pushed the Pulse shooting to the basement of our brains, leaving it to fester with the rest of the hor- rors the news burps forth every day. They call it a “newsfeed,” but it’s more like a rotting buffet. It feels like you unhinge your jaw like a snake and just sit there while some faceless goon stuffs the entire de- pressing world down your gullet. When I mentioned the anniversary to a friend of mine, he said “Mateen. Is that Pulse or Fort Hood?” My reply: Which Fort Hood shooting? 2009 or 2014? “I think sometimes as Americans we get numb because the amount of violence in the U.S. and around the world,” said Wally Paynter, president of the Tri-State Alliance. “But for the LGBT community, the (Pulse shooting) stands out.” Paynter will help organize a Pulse memorial service on Monday at 7 p.m. at Henderson Zion United Church of Christ. Several community groups came together to stage a heavily attended vigil at Temple B’Nai Israel last year, just days after the shooting. People of all faiths, orientations and creeds were represented, and similar rallies cropped up across the country. A year later, Paynter has seen strides locally. He praised Vanderburgh County Commissioners, who in March adopted an ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on age, sexual orientation or gender identity, even though the move doesn't require accused organizations to comply with investigations. The county's vote came about a year after the City Council voted to strengthen LGBT protections as well, and area organizations have met with EVSC officials to try to bolster protections for gay or transgendered students in schools. Developments are easier closer to home because they’re no longer some vague fodder for polls and stump speeches. Instead, the issues become branded with the faces of our friends and family. “Locally we know each other. And people do talk across party lines,” Paynter said. “The local ordinance would not have happened without Republican and Democrat support. When people get closer to the local level, people can see the benefits, and it’s not entirely a conversation of ‘how can this benefit my party?’” On a national level? Not so much. After Pulse, we did what we always do after a disaster: we came together and almost immediately started arguing. About LBGT rights. Gun control. How to fight home- grown terrorism. And as usual, those arguments got us nowhere. “On the state level and national levels, everything is at a standstill,” Paynter said. “And actually we are taking some steps back. I have not seen Donald Trump do anything anti-LGBT overtly, but all the people around him seem inclined to do that.” He cited the example of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who said recently said discrimination in schools based on sexu- al orientation is “unsettled law.” She also refused to say whether she supported state funding for a Bloomington character school that bans students who come from LGBT families. And of course there’s Vice President Mike Pence – the gay community’s congenial boogeyman. “On the international level, Mike Pence might be a steadier hand (than Trump),” Paynter said. “But when it comes to do- mestic policy, he’s horrible.” Even if the Trump administration wanted to attempt some kind of mass reversion of LGBT rights, the public may not stand for it. According to Gallup, 61 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage. That’s up from 27 percent in 1996. But there are still people like Mateen – disturbed individuals determined to squelch anything they don’t believe in.