News &Views Vol. 2 Issue 19 July

July Vol.2 Issue 19

News & Views

The Monthly Newsletter of PFLAG Beaumont

Bob’s Blurbs

Insights

Anecdotes and Opinions

By Clavis Jorden PFLAG Beaumont Treasurer

What a month it has been! The preparations for the Debutante Ball were just a foreshadowing of the tremendous efforts to bring off Pride Fest. I was so impressed with the commitment, passion and joyful unselfishness of the debs, the performers and all of the volunteers. They decorated, ran errands, rounded up sponsors, encouraged one another, picked up trash — doing whatever was necessary — and the end result was a pair of truly amazing events.

I happened to be interviewed by local news media during Pride Fest. I’ve never been able to just express my thoughts on the spur of the moment, so it wasn’t until several hours later that the words formed that I should have said: “Looking out at the love and acceptance displayed on every face walking by this day, I’m convinced that THIS is the way - the only way - to ‘Make America Great Again’. I wish our leaders could see this, and understand the possibilities of this Continued in 2 as Insights

By Bob Meier PFLAG Beaumont Hospitality Chair

The Beaumont Pride Fest was a great Saturday event, beginning with a march on the sidewalk at the Civic Center and ending to the Crocket Street Complex.

The weather started with 90 degree hot and humid temperatures and ending with 80 degree temperatures and rain. Those who waited out the rain, were able to chose from two stages each with performers. The afterparty for staff and volunteers began at 10:30 p.m. at The LogOn Cafe.

I was able to see my first drag performer which was a pleasant event and not frightening in the least. For those who were a bit uncomfortable at the festival, you might check with therapists Penelope Butler LPC, Lisa Black LPC, Larneka Lavalai LPC,

Christy Williams LPC, Dr. Cate Carabelle, or Dr. Bob Meier.

These people have lots of experience with the LGBTQiA+ community including both transgender and non-transgender folks, including the process of change.

Another great resource for the LGBTQiA community and allies is our monthly education and support meeting. This month, it will be held on Sunday, June 17 (third Sunday of the month) from 2 to 4 p.m. It is our regular PFLAG Meeting at the Legacy Health Care Clinic on 11th Street.

This month’s meeting includes 10 minutes of information concerning religion, 40 minutes of Father’s Day talk, with a break including snacks followed by 60 minutes of confidential group talk.

We hope to see you there!

More Insights

power.” Of course, the eloquence, or lack there of, cannot enhance or detract from the pure beauty of the occasion.

Beaumont is better off because of these two events.

Monthly Movie Pick:‘Beach Rats’

By Jerry Thacker PFLAG Beaumont Vice President

I first heard of Beach Rats while on vacation, although I opted to see another movie which played the Beach Rats preview.

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I should have seen Beach Rats instead of the horrible movie who’s title i cant even remember. Beach Rats is the story of Frankie ( Harrison Dickinson).

Continued as Rats Inside

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Rats

Frankie is a typical teen that runs with his buddies.

Frankie’s buddies in the movie look like they came right out of Jersey, although their main hangout is Coney Island. Frankie and his friends spend most their time goofing around, doing drugs and hanging out at Coney Island. Frankie has a past time that his friends aren’t aware of. Frankie hooks up with older men online to score drugs and have sex. Frankie is shy when he begins to look for men online, but becomes comfortable rather quickly. Frankie doesn’t feel he is gay and even brings a girl home. It doesn’t end well. He can’t perform sexually and then mocks the girl. She leaves in a hurry, very upset. The next day he goes to her job and apologizes.

They try to start dating, but Simone ( Madeline Weinstein) can see that Frankie isn’t ready for a relationship.

Things begin to pick up in the movie as Frankie’s friends discover a gay pick-up site on his computer. He tells them that’s how he gets drugs. The friends are ready to try, but things go horribly wrong.

Near the end of the movie Frankie is coming to grips with what happened during the drug deal and how he will move forward. The director infers that Frankie is heading in the right direction. Director Eliza Hittman sets the tone of the movie with diffused light and muted tones that gives the viewer a sensation of being in a warm and sticky climate. Beach Rats isn’t a thriller, but it will capture your attention as the small decisions made by Frankie snowball into situations he didn’t expect.

Inside

Monty Book Pick: ‘The Gender Affirmative Model’ This warm and timely book provides mental health professionals with a guide to the Gender Affirmative Model, the leading approach for working with transgender and gender expansive children and their families.

Using an easy-to-follow framework, readers will learn how to facilitate and enable children to live in their authentic gender with necessary social supports.

The authors describe how to address distress and build resilience within children and families, while also strengthening awareness of the complex interplay of cultural factors with gender. They also address the complex psychological, social and community challenges faced by transgender and gender expansive children, as well as the potential mental health struggles that can arise as a result of bullying and more subtle forms of societal discrimination.

Colt Keo-Meier, PhD, is a clinical psychologist whose expertise is in clinical work, research, and training in the health of transgender people of all ages.

He is an assistant professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Baylor College of Medicine, lecturer and researcher at the University of Houston, and is completing his MD at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he is a student scholar in the John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine.

Keo-Meier is a cofounder and board member of Gender Infinity, an organization dedicated to promoting justice, hope, and equity through the advancement of relationships, knowledge, and resources that empower transgender and gender expansive individuals. He helped develop the National Association for School Psychologists’ and APA’s joint Resolution on Gender and Sexual Orientation Diversity in Children and Adolescents in Schools, the NASP Position Statement on Safe Schools for Transgender and Gender Diverse Students, and the APA and Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s report on Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth.

He is a chapter work group member for the hormone therapy chapter for adolescents and adults of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care Version 8.

His research has focused on mental health effects of hormone therapy and the

experiences of parents of young transgender people. Keo-Meier is a transgenderqueer man.

Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, is a developmental and clinical psychologist, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of California San Francisco, and director of mental health of the Child and Adolescent Gender Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.

She specializes in research, clinical work, training, and consultation related to gender expansive children, and she publishes and lectures nationally and internationally on this topic, as well as making media appearances.

Dr. Ehrensaft is presently coinvestigator in a four-site National Institutes of Health grant studying the effects of puberty blockers and masculinizing and feminizing hormones in gender expansive and transgender youth. In addition to being the coeditor of this volume, she is the author of The Gender Creative Child; Gender Born, Gender Made; Mommies, Daddies, Donors, Surrogates; Building a Home Within (coedited with Toni Heineman); Spoiling Childhood; Parenting Together.

She is a chapter work group member for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care Version 8 and also is on the board of directors of Gender Spectrum, an organization providing education, advocacy, and support to families, schools, and community to build gender inclusively.

Ehrensaft is a founding member, board member, and senior clinician of A Home Within, a national organization that offers pro bono psychotherapy and serves the emotional needs of youth in foster care.

What’s Happening Thank you to all our volunteers, sponsors, vendors and talent.

More events coming soon!