There Is Still Time to Apply For Scholarships

The March 30th deadline to apply for the 2021 PFLAG SDC Scholarships is coming soon. Please help us advertise by sharing on social media using the link below or by contacting LGBTQ+ young people you know directly who could use a little extra money for college.

Scholarships are available to San Diego County LGBTQ+ high school seniors and full-time undergraduate/graduate students. Half-time applicants will be considered with an explanation of the circumstances that prevents them from attending full-time. A minimum of 11 scholarships will be awarded in the amounts of $2,000 or more.

The application, requirements, and other scholarship-related info are all on our website at www.pflag.com/scholarships.

As announced last month, there is a new scholarship, the Gary A. Marcus Scholarship for the Fine and Applied Arts that is open to students who are continuing their education in the fine and applied arts, which includes art programs, theatre, literature, and music. We also have three STEM scholarships being awarded.

As we promote the scholarships, we are also requesting donations that go directly toward the scholarships and are 100% tax deductible.

Due to the current health restrictions, we plan to award the scholarships virtually on June 5, 2021.

For questions, contact scholarships@pflag.com.

Calling All Youth LGBTQIA+ Artists and Performers!

Although the March 1 deadline is around the corner, any youth who would like their artistic or performing talents displayed is encouraged to participate in the 2021 Youth Art Show: Queer Resilience is Resistance. Talents include all art mediums including dance, poetry, crochet, pottery, video. etc. Contact youth@sdpride.org to participate.

The Youth Art Show, with all these wonderful young talents, will take place on Saturday, March 13 from 5:00-6:00 pm online at sdpride.org/live, Facebook, and YouTube. Don’t miss this showcase of budding artists and performers.

Get in The Membership Spirit!

Thank you to those members who have renewed their membership for 2021. We are looking forward to receiving more renewals or first-time members.   These donations are used to provide support, education, and advocacy on behalf of our LGBTQ+ community, their families, and friends. They enable us to provide monthly support group meetings (when they return), an info line, newsletters, scholarships, educational brochures, and tabling events, to name a few.

Please renew your memberships with PFLAG San Diego County instead of through PFLAG National. If you renew locally,  $15 of it is sent to PFLAG National, but if you renew at the national level, there is no benefit for our San Diego County chapter.

The membership registration is on our website, https//www.pflag.com/membership/. We accept PayPal or credit cards for your convenience. If you prefer, you may pay by check,  made payable to: PFLAG San Diego County, P.O. Box 82762, San Diego, CA 92138. All donations and memberships are tax deductible.

Asexuality, the “A” in LGBTQIA+


Asexuality is an often-misunderstood aspect of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum, but it is starting to be talked about more and more. The February 11 edition of PFLAG National’s weekly Something to Talk About … Live! webinar series was a conversation with Angela Chen, author of the new book ACE: What Asexuality reveals about desire, society, and the meaning of sex. This 30-minute conversation included so much good information, but here are a few takeaways.

  1. Although an asexual person is generally described as a person who does not experience sexual attraction, asexuality, like most aspects of sexuality, exists on a spectrum and is also intersectional. This means there is no one way to “be asexual,” and that an asexual identity may also intersect with other identities relating to romantic orientation, gender identity, etc.
  2. Asexuality is an orientation that is separate from how an individual chooses to behave in the world. A person who is asexual may still choose to engage in sexual activity for a variety of different reasons, just as someone who is gay or straight may choose to engage or not engage in sexual activity for their own reasons. All are valid ways of being.
  3. People who are asexual are often marginalized or erased from conversations by the assumption that everyone experiences sexual attraction and that if you don’t, there must be something wrong with you. Asexuality is often medicalized or pathologized when in reality it is just another variant on the spectrum of human sexuality.

The talk also included suggestions for ways to create more inclusive spaces for people who are asexual or aromantic, and specific things that people who want to be allies can start or stop doing in order to validate and support the asexual/ACE community.

Here are two other asexuality resources: 

A Groovy Moovie Revioo…

By Vicki Luna (She, Her, Hers)

The Prom
Netflix…Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman

They cancelled prom just to keep her out. But now the dance is getting a big Broadway makeover and everyone’s invited!
Emma and Alyssa just wanted to go to prom like the other kids with their special someones.
Broadway stars rally to support and affirm them and change a little Indiana town forever…

We LOVED this flick!! Full of great music, dance and SO fun and funny!! The ultimate in inspiration and hope for all of us under the Rainbow!

Queer Spaces in the Times of Covid-19 – One Queer’s Perspective

By Olivia Ottone (they/them)

To date, every close queer friend I have in Philadelphia (where I live) can be traced to a single interface – Tinder. Like many in the queer community, Tinder, bars, organized meetups, and parties are spaces I relied on pre-2020 to meet other queer-identifying individuals. The pandemic has rightfully throttled, if not ablated, our interactions with these spaces, causing real senses of disconnect within the queer community.

Beyond the individual scope, community hubs are struggling. In the entire country, few lesbian bars remain; and as of this month, there is one less, with the closing of Philadelphia’s Toasted Walnut. The city’s only leather bar, Bike Stop, is surviving through a GoFundMe page and other local fundraising efforts. These are not simply bars – they are reliably safe places for queer folx, and places like Bike Stop are where generations within the community collide.

Philadelphia is a small city exemplifying some of the broader consequences of the past year for the LGBTQ+ community. While bars, parties, and casual meetups may sound superficial or things everyone—not just queer folx—misses, I contend that suspending activity in these spaces has more lasting consequences for the queer community. I guarantee cis-het-identifying individuals will readily find places to safely meet and interact with other cis-het-identifying individuals post-pandemic. More importantly, their history, culture, and visibility do not fade with closure of a bar or two.

Olivia is currently a PhD candidate at Thomas Jefferson University. Their family joined the PFLAG family when they came out during their senior year at Carlsbad High School in 2011. The last 10 years have been ones of immense growth, and being queer is one of the things Olivia loves most about themself.

Olivia Ottone

Thank You to Our Donors

Thanks to the following who have donated to our general fund since last newsletter:
  • Maria Al-Shamma
  • Terrie Billuni
  • Kurt Dearie
  • Stephen Miller
  • Maureen Steiner
  • Michael Wasilewski

Support Groups

Individual support groups will continue to meet virtually, as well as the monthly virtual Countywide Support Group meeting. We encourage you to contact your support group facilitator at any time, as they will remain excellent resources for information. The support group locations, dates, and times will continue to be posted on the PFLAG San Diego County Facebook page. You can join in any of the digital meetings. For Zoom links, contact each support group.

Do You Shop On Amazon?

If you have an account with Amazon, you can help our chapter every time you shop. Go to smile.Amazon.com and search for PFLAG San Diego County. For every purchase, our chapter will receive .05% of the dollar amount of the order. This may not sound like a lot, but it adds up with the more people we have participating. Now that more of us are ordering online than ever due to the pandemic, it’s the perfect time to use Amazon Smile to support PFLAG.

Our Vision
PFLAG envisions a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected, valued, and affirmed inclusive of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression

Our Mission
By meeting people where they are and collaborating with others, PFLAG realizes its vision through: Support for families, allies and people who are LGBTQ; Education for ourselves and others about the unique issues and challenges facing people who are LGBTQ; Advocacy in our communities to change attitudes and create policies and laws that achieve full equality for people who are LGBTQ.