Happy Holidays & Good Luck with Finals

Introductions

Best part of Pride this semester?
What would you like to see next semester?
Suggestions for improvement?

Upcoming Events:

• No trip to see Santa Claus is Coming Out
• Trenton lobby days
• Last support group tonight!!! (9:30pm... meditation!)

Discussion:

Turkey & Time to Stress

Introductions

Icebreaker (Corey)

OUT for the Holidays Committees!, Garden State Equality Lobby Days, Final Ganel

Upcoming Events:

• GAAMC Collegiate Conference: Activism & Higher Education (Monday 11/30, Morristown, NJ)
• AIDS Quilt (Friend's Hall 12/1 - 12/3)
• World AIDS Day Benefit Concert (Tuesday 12/1, 7pm)
• World AIDS Day Keynote Speaker (Thursday 12/3, 1pm)
• OUT for the Holidays (Thursday 12/3, 6pm, Pavilion Room 1)

**Confidential Support Group meets Mondays at 9:30pm in the Women's Center**

Discussion:

Welcome our guest speakers:
Miki Cammarata, Pat Chang,
and President Mercer!

----

Introductions

Icebreaker (Corey)

OUT for the Holidays Committees

Upcoming Events:

• GAAMC Collegiate Conference: Activism & Higher Education (Monday 11/30, Morristown, NJ)
• AIDS Quilt (Friend's Hall 12/1 - 12/3)
• World AIDS Day Benefit Concert (Tuesday 12/1, 7pm)
• World AIDS Day Keynote Speaker (Thursday 12/3, 1pm)
• OUT for the Holidays (Thursday 12/3, 6pm, Pavilion Room 1)

**Confidential Support Group meets Mondays at 9:30pm in the Women's Center**

Discussion:

NO PLACE FOR HATE

Introductions

Icebreaker (Christian)

Last Ganel rescheduled, Santa Claus is Coming Out, OUT for the Holidays Committees

Upcoming Events:

• Gay Marriage Debate (Tuesday 11/17, A105, 1pm)
• A Night OUT: Trans-Remembrance & Candlelight Vigil (Wed 11/18, J.Lee's, Speakers 8:30pm, Rally 10pm)
• Candlelight March & Vigil for NJ Marriage Equality (Saturday 11/21, Montclair, NJ)
• GAAMC Collegiate Conference: Activism & Higher Education (Monday 11/30, Morristown, NJ)
• AIDS Quilt (Friend's Hall 12/1 - 12/3)
  
• World AIDS Day Benefit Concert (Tuesday 12/1, 1pm)
• World AIDS Day Keynote Speaker (Thursday 12/3, 1pm)
• OUT for the Holidays (Thursday 12/3, 6pm, Pavilion Room 1)

**Confidential Support Group meets Mondays at 9:30pm in the Women's Center**

Discussion:

LGBTQ Conference

Last Thursday some of us attended the LGBTQ conference held at William Paterson University. It was a great success. We had representatives present from Ramapo, William Paterson, Montclair, Jersey City, and East Stroudsburg. The conference started out with an amazing guest speaker who had a lot of passion for the queer community and really got through to all of us, I think. He was really good. Then we broke off into 3 different workshops: a more fun one about sex, a more serious one about networking with different queer groups, and one about transgendered issues. They all went very well, and then we all met back up for lunch after about 2 hours. During lunch, we had another speaker, a grad student from Montclair. She showed a movie about some of the history of the queer community. Then we broke up again into 3 more workshops. We had a really fun and informative day. And, we got to network with some other schools' GSAs and plan on staying in contact and attending each other's events for support. We will keep you guys posted on when we will be coordinating trips.

Welcome Pride Friends!

Introductions... and Friends!

Icebreaker (Pinto)

Ganels, LGBTQA Conference ideas/thoughts?

Upcoming Events:

• Candlight Vigil: No Place for Hate (TBA -- soon!)
• A Night OUT: Trans-Remembrance (11/18)
• OUT for the Holidays (12/3)

Discussion:

Get Well Cards & November Nonsense

How was everyone's Halloween???

Introductions

Icebreaker -- Card Making for Jack Price

Ganels, Blog, Leadership Conference, others?

Upcoming Events:

• LGBTQA Conference (11/5)
• Bring A Friend to Pride (11/9)
• No Place For Hate Candlelight Vigil (TBA)
• A Night OUT: Trans-Remembrance (11/18)
• OUT for the Holidays (12/3)

Discussion:

Tricks, Treats and TranssssssRemembrance (almost)

Welcome back!!!!

Introductions

Icebreaker (Christian)

Ganels, Blog, Upcoming Gubernatorial Election

Upcoming Events:

• A Funky Night OUT (10/28)
• LGBTQA Leadership Conference (11/5)
• Out in the Third World Film Screening (TBA)
• A Night Out: Trans Remembrance (11/18)
• OUT for the Holidays (12/3)

Discussion:

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/video?id=7062457

Equality March in DC

Early morning on n October 10, 2009, we left Ramapo College, with so much excitment and headed to Washington DC. On our six hour drive, we had all the attention on our vans because we decorated them with signs and people honked for us. We finally arrived at the hotel, checked in, ate dinner, made signs for the march the next day, and went to sleep. Early in the morning we were so eager to get to the march. When we finally arrived in DC, everyones eyes lit up when we stepped out and saw the thousands of people there standing up for their rights. We marched from the White House to the Capitol, demanding that President Barack Obama keeps his promises to allow gays to marry and end discrimination against them. People were chanting and singing all the way along the march, taking pictures, and enjoying the experiance. It was amazing to see how many people there were and how much energy people had. When we arrived at the capitol, there were several speeches made my important people and their words really touched us.

Thank you to everyone that supported us there and it was one of the most amazing experiances in my life.

Feel free to comment this post and tell your thoughts and feelings on your trip to DC :)


To listen to all of the speakers in case you missed them, they are on this website :
http://equalityacrossamerica.org/blog/?page_id=19

Monica Dillon

On October 5, 2009 Ramapo College was kind enough to invite Monica Dillon, a talented woman to share her thoughts and memories through music and words with Ramapo College students. Monica Dillon is an african american female speaker, oringally from New Orleans. She is an amazing artist, performer, musician, speaker, and even an independent film composer. As soon as it was time for the event to start, she had all of us engaged the very first mintue she began to sing. Monica shared her memories with us as she played the piano and sang, along with a slideshow, including real pictures of her and her family, that was very touching to us. Monica Dillon speaks through her music and really gets her message she wants to send across the world. We were very lucky for her to she share her thoughts and perspective in subjects such as politics, health, education, self motivation, environmental issues, LGBT and gender issues, and violence against women.

I want to thank you for those who were able to attend this event, and if anyone would like to learn more about Monica Dillon or listen to her music, you can go to this website below:

http://monicadillonmusic.com/blog/

Also, here is her facebook page so you can become a fan!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/All-I-Have-Is-A-Moment-Monica-Dillon-Music/15190248558

Monica Dillon, Queer History Month, and the D.C. March

Welcome back!

Introductions

Icebreaker -- 2 Truths and a Lie (Corey)

Ganels, Blog, D.C. March, & Monica Dillon

Upcoming Events:

• Leviticus Who? (Thursday 10/15)
• LGBT Walking Tour (Saturday 10/17)
• National Coming Out Day (Monday 10/19) WEAR YOUR TEE SHIRTS!!!!
• A Funky Night Out (Wednesday 10/28)

Discussion:

Goodbye September...

Welcome to Pride!!!

Introductions

Icebreaker (Lauren Pinto)

Orgsync, Panels, Feedback

Upcoming Events:

• Test Your Gaydar (Tuesday 9/29)
• Walk A Mile in Her Shoes (9/29)
• Queer History Month (October)
• Take Back the Night (10/1)
• I Now Pronounce You Equal Citizens (10/3)
• Pride Hike (10/4) -- rescheduled
• March for Equality in D.C. (10/10 - 10/11)
  

Discussion:

Welcome back!

Icebreaker -- How were you involved in High School?

Ganels, Orgsync

Upcoming Events to keep in mind:

• A Night OUT: Queer Coffeehouse (Wednesday 9/23)
• Pride Hike (Sunday 9/27)
• Test Your Gaydar (Tuesday 9/29)
• Walk A Mile in Her Shoes (9/29)
  
• Queer History Month (October)
• Take Back the Night (10/1)
• I Now Pronounce You Equal Citizens (10/3)
  

Sirius Radio Interview with Pastor Steven L. Anderson

I urge all of you to watch this video. The Pastor being interviewed has many radical views of our President, abortion doctors, and ourselves as a Queer Community. I applaud the man interviewing him for his calm reactions to the Pastor's claims, as well as his handling of such lewd accusations toward him.

Watch for yourself.

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to Pride's first meeting of the semester!!! We have a few things to cover, both business and fun!

Introductions

Icebreaker

Important Information

Upcoming Events to keep in mind:

• Coming Out to Your Roommate (Monday 9/14)
  
• Women's Center Open House (Tuesday 9/15)
  
• OUT at Night: Six Flags (Friday 9/18)
  
• Women's Center Volunteer Training (Sunday 9/20)
  
• A Night OUT: Queer Coffeehouse (Wednesday 9/23)
  
• Pride Hike (Sunday 9/27)
  
• Test Your Gaydar (TBA)
  

Discussion Topic: Caster Semenya

OUT RAGE

Hey I just thought this would be an awesome thing for everyone to check out. A new documentary about politicians leading double lives as gay men while rallying against LGBT rights and AIDS research. Can't wait til it comes out!

In the Final Throes..

Welcome, welcome.

Intros..?

Hi/Lows for the semester

Hi/Lows for Pride Prom

What do you hope to see next year in Pride?



Dicussion:


Lessons of Hate in the Bible Belt from Stuart Productions on Vimeo.

Interview with Pascack Valley HS

so this is a shout OUT to the amazing students i worked with today from pvhs...

so thanks again for having me for the interview today...it was totally a good time
 
 i attached a ramapo pride flyer (like the one i gave out today) and a pride prom flyer to this (see below)
 
 so tell all your friends:

 pride prom 2009: gender bender edition

 (drag's not required, but it sure would be fun)

 friday, april 24th from 8pm to 12am

 in pavilion (located on the left side of campus by oak and maple dorms, the volley ball court and across from the giant business school)

 tickets are FREE (we're asking for a $2 - $5 donation to the TruthAIDs project at the door)

 there's gonna be free food, dancing, music and more!!

 
 hope to see you all there!!
 
 i also attached our eboard leadership retreat packet (last summer we had a team building/training retreat where we learned how to be a successful queer/straight alliance and things like that).  on the first page is the mission statement for ramapo pride...so the packet as a whole should be really helpful for creating a gay/straight alliance
 
 also here's some links to check out:
 Here's a link to GLSEN's (Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network) free guide to starting a gay/straight alliance at the high school level
 Here's a link to GLSEN's training guide for creating safe spaces in your school ( how to educate faculty on dealing with queer issues and students)
 and this is a link to GLSEN's climate survey (they collect stats on how safe/homophobic schools are)
 -GLSEN is an awesome website, def check it out!
 
 also here's some local schools with gay/straight alliances:
 Northern Highlands Regional
 Mahwah High
 
 and...paramus library has a gay/straight book club and the Rainbow Cafe Coalition is a gay/straight alliance for the bergen county/northern nj area
 
 good luck with your projects and lemme know if i can be of any more help :)

and thanks again for being awesome queer advocates!!

Pride Prom Flyer

Ramapo Pride Flyer

Ramapo Pride Leadership Retreat 2008

EBOARD ELECTIONS

Welcome!

Intros

Ice Breaker - Shout OUTs

Eboard Elections

• Candidate Introductions
  
• Candidate Speeches
  
• Voting
  
• Announce the NEW 2009-2010 Ramapo Pride Executive Board - woohoo!
  

PRIDE PROM - FRIDAY, APRIL 24 FROM 8PM TO 12AM IN PAVILION MEETING ROOMS

• tabling
  
• decorations
  
• etc
  

Check out other upcoming events

• Wednesday, April 22 from 6:30pm to 7:30pm in H129 - Speaker: Eva Dolgin "Forging Identity, Crafting Selfhood and the Spirit of LGBTQ"
  
• Pride Prom (see above)
  
• Sunday, April 26 from 12pm to 2pm at the Ramapo Reservation - Pride Hike
  
• FRIDAY, MAY 1 FROM 8:30PM TO 11:30 PM AT MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSTIY IN THE STUDENT CENTER BALLROOMS - EQUALITY PROM (tickets are $7.00)
  

any other business...

Article Discussion:

11 Year Old Hangs Himself after Enduring Daily Anti-Gay Bullying

NEW YORK, April 9, 2009 - An 11-year-old Massachusetts boy, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hanged himself Monday after enduring bullying at school, including daily taunts of being gay, despite his mother's weekly pleas to the school to address the problem. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year.

Garden State Equality Internships

Applications for summer internships due May 1st, 2009

Help Garden State Equality pass marriage in New Jersey in 2009. GSE summer, and fall office and field organizing internship positions available. GSE offices are located in Montclair and Collingswood; GSE will be expanding to Central Jersey. A willingness to learn new skills and push oneself to try new things is more important than previous experience. In all aspects of their work interns will work along side GSE Field Staff and will be mentored and trained in all tasks they are asked to perform. Interns are expected to work 10 to 20 hours a week, hours are flexible including nights and weekends and can be scheduled around another job. All internships are unpaid.

Key qualifications and characteristics:

• Willingness to try new things including in-person volunteer recruitment and direct community contact through door-to-door canvassing and phone banking.
  
• Openness and thirst for learning - strong desire to learn organizing skills.
  
• Enthusiastic desire to work as part of a team in a fast-paced environment.
  
• Highly organized, detail-oriented and responsible, solution-focused self-starter.
  
• Enormous drive to achieve measurable progress towards meaningful social change.
  
• Excellent listening, speaking, and writing skills.
  
• Respect for and great curiosity about all aspects of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
  
• community.
  
• Capacity and desire to work in a multi-cultural environment where commitment to diversity based on race, ethnic origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, and physical ability is an important institutional value.
  
• Ability to maintain composure and a sense of humor in tense times.
  
• Ability and desire to confront conflict in a productive, diffusive manner.
  
• Strong work ethic. Willingness to travel, and work evenings and weekends.
  

Intern Tasks

• Perform volunteer recruitment in person and over the phone
  
• Aid in organizing volunteer-based phone banks, door to door canvasses, and large days of action.
  
• Including material prep and, confirmation calls, and break down of actions.
  
• Insure data is entered within 48 hours of receipt, both by entering data and leading volunteers in entering data.
  
• Incorporate grassroots fundraising in all actions.
  
• Partake in engaging community in large scale constituent contact including: postcards, letters, phone calls, and lobby visits.
  
• Meet daily with Field Director and other staff.
  
• Share in other coalition work and office tasks as directed by Regional Coordinator.
  
• Research progressive outreach events across New Jersey.
  
• Research and monitor targeted Legislators to aid in creating individualized plans that will have
  
• maximum impact on each Legislator.
  

Applications for summer internships due May 1st, 2009

Send cover letter, resume, and references to:

Hannah Johnson

Field Director, Garden State Equality

Johnson@GardenStateEquality.org

The nondiscrimination policy of Garden State Equality is to go beyond the requirements of both federal law and New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination, the oldest and strongest state civil rights statute in the United States.  

In every facet of its organizational operations, including employment, grassroots outreach, and Board and general membership, Garden State Equality does not discriminate, and has zero tolerance for any discrimination, on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, color, creed, heritage, native language, veteran status, economic status, HIV or AIDS status, partner or marital status, physical abilities, and height and weight characteristics.  

Going beyond nondiscrimination, Garden State Equality aggressively strives for diversity in these and any other qualities that make our society a rich mosaic.