News & Views
Volume 1, Issue 12 December 2017
Insights B o b’s Bl u r b s
Anecdotes and Opinions
Gender Infinity: A Place for Professionals, Families
On the occasion of my 50th high school reunion, as we talked about the quality of our education and what lessons served us best in the intervening decades, most of us agreed that what was most valuable was critical thinking: learning to support a proposition with reasoned discourse, with tolerance and openness to other viewpoints. Watching the “popular kids” on stage again, I was reminded of another lesson we all learned. A cheerleader became pregnant, and it came to light that there was a sex club involving her and several football players. No announcement was made, no newspaper articles, no special assemblies or seminars, nothing but gossip. The girl left school in disgrace and got an abortion. The football players got detention. The lesson learned? “Boys will be boys, and girls must be careful”. Probably not what the school board intended us to learn, but the message was very clear. Now, here we are five decades later. Power-
I have been lucky enough to attend the Gender Infinity conference for several years. Since not all of us— professionals and parents alike— are all so lucky, I would like to share more tips I learned at this year’s con-
By Calvin Jorden PFLAG Beaumont Treasurer
Cont. Inside as Insights
By Bob Meier PFLAG Beaumont Secretary
ference in Houston, October 13 and 14, 2017 I had a hard time picking between 70 different conferences presented in two days on trans related topics. The Houston based conference had 7-8 different meetings going at the same time. Here is a brief summary of Cont. Inside as Blurbs
‘Pride’ Subcommittee Created
PFLAG Beaumont now has Pride Fest co-chairs Amanda Turner and Nathaniel Griffin to head up a “Pride Fest” subcomittee after the successs of June 2017’s Equality Fest. “The Golden Triangle community came together and put on a celebration for approximately 700 people with about a month’s preparation,”
Monthly Movie Pick: ‘Handsome Devil’
The 2016 Irish dramedy, “Handsome devil” follows Ned and Conor as they are forced to share a bedroom at their boarding school. The loner, Ned, was forced by his absent parents to go to the boarding school where he was quickly dubbed gay by his schoolmates. The boys take an instant dislike to each other, and Ned and Conor seem destined to remain enemies until an English teacher, Mr. Sherry (Sherlock), begins to drill into them the value of finding one's own voice. Soon, the discipline problem and star athlete, Conor develop an unlikely friendship. “Handsome Devil” is simply a tale of two boys navigating their teen age years. It was dubbed, “The rugby buddy movie that tackles homophobia with a laugh,” by The Guardian. This film is great for families with teenagers and preteens. It is safe for work and isn’t Disney-esque.
Griffin said. “I was asked by members of the community to step forward then and we wanted to make a more organized effort moving forward, so PFLAG organized a subcommittee and the gracious board appointed me and Amanda to head it Cont. Inside as Pride