Inside: Your Three-Page Gift Guide to the Best in Music 2010! "Dancing to Architecture", p. 13
CHALLENGE The Newsletter of the Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County – Serving New Jersey’s GLBTI Communities Since 1972
Volume 36, Issue 10, Winter 2010
So Long, Farewell... by Andy Skurna
This is my last “From the Chair” article, at least for a while. By the time the next issue of Challenge is published, GAAMC will have a new president. I would like to thank each and every member, guest, and supporter of GAAMC for their contributions to the amazing journey that has been the past two years. I would like to thank my fellow Board Trustees for their trust and support. My friends, together we have seen many changes, suffered some losses and even enjoyed some advances. We have lost some dear GAAMC members, like David, Doug, and Carol. We have gained some new friends and members, too. Back in the early 2009 we had only one discussion group, Circles. Today we have Circles, OpenTalk, Mature Men’s Group, and a brand new Spirituality Group. We have had guest speakers, performers and educators from all walks of life. We’ve hosted about 18 socials, with probably 900 or more guests – that’s a lot of brownies. We’ve hosted fundraisers and produced concerts, live readings, and shows big and small. At Garden State Equality’s Legends Dinner in February, 2009, we heard Governor Corzine promise marriage equality only to have this basic human right denied us in January of 2010. President Obama’s term as president began about 2 weeks after mine. Our country and a few others were giddy with a sense of hope for a change in direction. 18 or 20 months later, it seemed too many had become impatient with the leader of the free world. Let us all pray that the pendulum that was swung with such force on November 2nd, doesn’t wipe out the advances we have made in the past two years. There are also many people to thank for helping me through some major changes in my personal life. Since early 2009, I have ended the longest relationship of my life. I lost the briefest, but most passionate of loves, the one I thought was “the one.” The friends and other connections I made through GAAMC literally saved my life. And I hope and pray that I am now at a place where I can begin anew. Speaking of new beginnings, we’re at the dawn of a new year, with its promise of a new Board of Trustees. We are already lining up resources to launch a Youth Support Project, which may be the first in a series. Someone has expressed an interest in leading a w o m e n ’s d i s c u s s i o n group. We have already chosen our focus and started soliciting articles for Pride Guide 2011-2012. Our Program Committee is scheduling January and February programs.
Our nation has a new Congress. Members of our community in some states and some nations have new access to rights the rest of their societies have enjoyed. Right here, in NJ, we have a new law regarding anti-bullying policies at colleges and universities, created in memory of Tyler Clementi, the young man whose suicide focused our nation’s attention on torment our youth have endured so long. In November 2009’s New England Journal of Medicine results of a test were published showing that HIV negative men who took daily antiretroviral medications, normally prescribed to HIV/AIDS patients, showed a 90% reduction in the number of HIV infections. Our neighbors in New York have a governor who promised to bring marriage equality to the Empire State. Right here at home, Lambda Legal and many others continue the battle to see to fruition our Supreme Court’s ruling that same-sex couples get all the rights of different-sex couples. Please join me in thanking the members and supporters who have kept GAAMC dynamic for the past two years. Please offer your support to those who have stepped up to volunteer their service for the next one or two years. We will hold elections on December 13, 2010. Here is the prospective list of Trustees for 2011: President, Mickey; Treasurer, Andy; Secretary, Gordon; Community Trustee (one year term), Kerry, Marty, Mitch; and Community Trustee (two year term), Alexa, Claire, Sean.
Inside Challenge Challenge Information................. page 2 GAAMC Events........................... page 2 The Bulletin Board..................... page 3 This Month's Contributors............. page 3 Gleanings................................. page 4 Letter to the Editor .................... page 5 SHADOWS.................................page 5 Calendar .................................. page 7 My Son Was Gay....................... page 11 A Message of Hope for LGBT Youth from LEAGUE......................... page 11 New Bisexual Social Support Group .......................................... page 12 Dancing to Architecture............. page 13 GAAMC Information................... page 16