Dear LGBTQ and Friends Community,

Hello everyone! This is our end-of-season e-mail. This e-mail is going to everyone who signed up to be on our e-mail list for LGBTQ and Friends at Chautauqua. It details LGBTQ and Friends activities and events in 2022.

Oh my! We did a lot this year!

This was our 6th year of Marvelous Meet and Greets every Sunday at 6:30 on the porch of the Atheneum. A great big thank you to Karen James for organizing the hosts, and to all of the hosts for hosting! We averaged about 85 people each week, which is a lot.

Fabulous Brown Bag Discussion Groups with great themes on Tuesdays at 12:15. Thank you Catie Miller for once again doing a great job. We averaged about 30 people each week.

Community Activity Fairs on Sundays from noon to 2:00 in Bestor Plaza. Thank you, Bree Dietly for organizing the volunteers, and a big thank you to all the people who sat at our table, answered questions, sold tickets to the drag show, and gave away taffy. Visibility makes a difference.

Artists in Residence Reception Saturday July 2 in collaboration with the African American Heritage House. This amazing welcoming event for Artists in Residence was held at McNight Hall. Thank you, Barbara Britton and Karen James, and all the volunteers who helped make it a success. 33 Drag Show tickets were donated by AAHH and then raffled off by Mama Naytch.

Pride on The Belle Wednesday, July 6. Thank you, Tim Jefferson and DeDe Hughes! This was new this year, and a really fun event that sold out at 65 tickets. We made about $240 on this event.

Gloria Swansong Lecture (Drag as Performance Art), Monday, August 1, 12:15 at Smith Wilkes. First of all, a huge thank you to Amit Taneja for doing absolutely everything to make this happen. Contracting with Gloria through the Institution, procuring the venue, arranging travel, and just generally managing her visit. Also big thanks to Justin Schmitz who, through his personal friendship with Gloria, was able to recommend her to do this event. Through this event, in particular, we moved the needle at Chautauqua in terms of education, and the potential to welcome diversity, not just tolerate diversity. About 500 people were in attendance, standing room only. And everybody loved Gloria.

From Mama with Love Drag Show, August 1, at Norton Hall. Whooo Boy! What an event this was! This was definitely the most time consuming and challenging event we sponsored this year, and many would say the most rewarding. Huge kudos to Justin Schmitz, Kendra Green, CeCe Hill and all the performers for putting on a fabulous and unforgettable show. And a great big thank you to Amit Taneja who worked very hard to provide a seamless interface with the Institution. And thank you to Bob Jeffrey, Barbara Britton, DeDe Hughes and all of our fabulous volunteers that worked the door. We sold out at 500 tickets. And oddly enough, after all the push back and nattery grumpiness last year, we heard nothing but positive feedback this year.

Intermezzo Gathering after Theater, Thursday, August 4. This was also brand new this year and was the brainchild of Terry Horner. The idea was for LGBTQ and Friends members to attend a theater event (Animals Out of Paper) and then gather afterwards at Intermezzo to meet the cast and crew, and share food and drink. Thank you, Terry for thinking it up, organizing it, marketing it, and picking up the tab. It was so fun, and we sure hope to do it again next year.

AAHH-LGBTQ Collaborative Movie Night, Tuesday, August 9, Visual Arts Facility. The movie was “Tangerine.” Thank you to Barbara Britton and Forrest Lawson for organizing!

All in all, we sponsored 30 events over 9 weeks in 2022. It was a lot, but also a lot of fun!

I also want to send a special shout-out to Sarah James, who provided such lovely music and ambiance at 3 Taps and at 2 Ames. She created environments for many of us to gather and get to know each other in smaller, more informal groups. In addition, Sarah donated all the tips from her Week 10 performance to LGBTQ and Friends. Thank you!

And also, I want to give a special thank you to Nick Giancola and everyone at Spruce for selling tickets to the Drag Show at the shop and for having our business cards at the counter and encouraging people to check out our website and events.

The Website and Event Brite – Thank you so much to Barbara Britton for making our website fabulous and getting us set up on Event Brite! And thanks to Karen Schiovone for setting up our new Facebook Page!

And finally, many thanks to those of you who wrote us checks to cover various expenses. We took in $1,650 in Donations from our members. And we had 42 volunteers, with some participating in several (or all!) of the events. LGBTQ and Friends is totally self-funded and we appreciate any donations you can make to the group to help fund our continuing activities as well as our website maintenance costs. Donations to LGBTQ and Friends at Chautauqua are not tax-deductible. If you would like to donate, please make out your check to:

LGBTQ and Friends at Chautauqua

And then mail the check to:
Hughes/Britton
300 Carlsbad Village Drive
Suite 108A-359
Carlsbad, CA 92008

We hope everyone has a lovely fall and winter. We are so looking forward to seeing you all in 2023! Keep an eye on our website lgbtqchq.com to see what events we will be sponsoring next year.

Thank you! And until next year --

LGBTQ and Friends at Chautauqua