Happy Aromantic Awareness Week everyone!
We’re starting something new that’s been discussed off and on for a while, but hasn’t really had anything come of it before… a newsletter! The goal is to have one of these monthly with general updates. If you’re interested in writing these in the future, let us know at a meeting!
Pride
- Twin Cities Pride is June 22-23. St. Cloud Pride is September 21. Rochester Pride is September 28.
- We have registered for a booth for Twin Cities Pride. It looks like our fee waver was accepted, which means we’ll get the booth for free!
- Only a few people are interested in marching in the parade so we are not planning on registering for it. If we did have a critical mass of people interested, we would need to figure out how to address the racial implications of marching in a parade that many people of color have boycotted or protested against due to the police presence and discrimination at Pride.
- We will have a Pride meeting to plan more specifics such as what we want to hand out at our booth (stickers? buttons? pamphlets? business cards?) as we get closer to the event.
Mental Health and Advocacy
- There is increasing interest and energy around advocating for Ace inclusive healthcare, especially for mental health. Right now our goal is to find other individuals and groups who are already working on LGBTQ issues in mental health and partner with them. For example, can we offer information and resources to groups who do training for mental health providers? Can we send an ace person to be part of a panel discussion? Can we have a table or give a presentation at a conference? If you would like to help research different options or have ideas of groups or events we could partner with, please let us know.
- Becoming a 501(c)3 non-profit will help us do more advocacy work. We may look at accomplishing this in the next 3 years. For now we will table this issue until after Pride.
Website
- We are looking for volunteers to write about news and updates after our discussions so we can post them on our website. If you are interested, just go ahead and volunteer at the beginning of the discussion. Please know that our discussions are a safe space and we will never publish personal information or details online.
- We are also looking for volunteers to work on a new page of our website that would be resources and information for mental health professionals. If you are interested, please let us know!
Upcoming Events
- Riddle MIA This rescheduled to March 1
- Meetup.com is the best place to find out about events!