Newsletter

2024 End-of-Season Newsletter

Dear LGBTQ+ and Friends Community,

Hello everyone! This is our end-of-season newsletter. 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 2024.

Wow! This was a busy summer!

This was our 8th 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 had between 90 and 130 people each week, which is a lot. Something special we did this year was to give Progress Pride rainbow lanyards to anyone who donated $25 or more to LGBTQ+ and Friends as a token of our gratitude for helping to offset the porch rental. Many thanks to Terry Horner for providing the lanyards and organizing it all.

Fabulous Lunch Time Discussion Groups with great themes on Tuesdays at 12:15 at the Literary Arts Center Garden Room. 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 1:30 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, and gave away taffy. Visibility makes a difference.

Intermezzo Gathering after Theater, Saturday, June 29. This was the 3rd year of doing this event and is the brainchild of Terry Horner. Many members of LGBTQ+ and Friends attended a theater event (New Play Workshop of “Tell Me You’re Dying (or the trial of millicent bonhomme)" and then gathered afterwards at Intermezzo to meet the cast and crew, and share food and drink. Thank you Terry for thinking it up, organizing it, and marketing it. It was so fun, and it is definitely in our plans for next year!

Pride on The Belle Cancelled this year due to weather. But Bree Dietly and Paul Hagman stepped up and arranged for 2 smaller alternate venues where everyone who had bought a ticket could gather for a party anyway. Thank you Bree and Paul!!

Pop up Reception for Chasten Buttigieg after his Master Class. Wednesday, July 17. A bunch of us took the Master Class (Chasten Buttigieg in Conversation with Michael Hill) which was fantastic! And then we all met up at Intermezzo for food and drink. Call me starstruck, but it was just the best!! Thank you DeDe Hughes and Barbara Britton for organizing it.

Panel: What does it mean to be an ally and how do you become one?Wednesday, July 24 at Smith-Wilkes. This was a very topical and thoughtful panel discussion and Q&A about what it means to be an ally and how to become one, to both the LGBTQ+ and Black communities. A great big thank you goes out to MJ and Steve Rozner for organizing the event and to our panelists: MJ Johnston, Olivia Hill of the African American Heritage House, Bethany Robson of PFLAG, and Sandra Quick of Ashland Seminary. It was professionally recorded by John Viehe (thank you John!) and it will be on our website.

Lecture: Chosen Family Band: An Exploration of the History and Modern Themes of Queer Country Music Wednesday, July 31 at Smith-Wilkes. This was a moderated conversation between Justin Hiltner and Christopher Griffith with integrated song performances by Justin Hiltner on the banjo. It was followed by an open mic Q&A. It was a blast! So good. Thank you to Christopher Griffith and Dillon Lewis for organizing this for us to enjoy!

LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua History Project. Mollie Merchant, Deb Manzella, and Jack Kenny, are leading a project to record our history at Chautauqua through telling our stories. If you would like to participate in this project, contact Mollie at Lesbians on the Lake and she will give you the details.

All in all, we sponsored 30 events over 9 weeks in 2024. It was a lot, but also a lot of fun! And we are so grateful that so many more members of our community are stepping up into leadership roles.

I also want to send a special shout-out to Sarah James, who provided such lovely music and ambiance at 3 Taps. She creates a great environment for many of us to gather and get to know each other in smaller, more informal groups. Thank you!

Also, thank you so very, very much to MJ and Barbara Britton for managing changes/additions to our website and Facebook page.

And finally, many thanks to those of you who wrote us checks and sent Venmo donations to cover all of our various expenses this summer. We also had many volunteers, with some participating in several or many(!) 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

Alternatively, you can now donate through Venmo! If you have a Venmo account, you can send money a few different ways. Our username is @lgbtq-chq. Or you can use our e-mail address which is lgbtqchq@gmail.com. Or you can use our Venmo QR code which is on our website LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua. Click the "Donate" tab at the top.

We hope everyone has a lovely fall and winter. We are so looking forward to seeing you all in 2025! Keep an eye on our website to see what events we will be sponsoring next year.

Thank you! And until next year --

LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua