PFLAG Madison WI

December 2025

Founded in 1973, PFLAG is the first and largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and their families.

November 16 Meeting Recap:

GSAFE’S Leadership Training Institute

Our November meeting focused on GSAFE’s (Gay/Straight Alliance for Safe Schools) Leadership Training Institute (LTI) that was held at the UW-Milwaukee campus in July. Sue Neeley, GSAFE’s Director of Family Engagement and Advocacy, joined us in person while Yante Turner, the Director of Youth Programming, was with us over Zoom. Sue explained how 20-30 LGBTQ+ high schoolers from all over Wisconsin are chosen to participate in the 4 day/3 night event each summer. These students from differing backgrounds engage in workshops, activities and youth led conversations that focus on queer issues, racial and social justice. Yante explained how this year’s theme, Art as Activism, looked into the many ways that art can be a tool to talk about power. His enthusiasm for the program and the “young folk” was obvious as he encouraged two of the campers to share their experiences.

Shelby was a senior mentor since it was her third time at LTI. She described how first year participants are campers while the second years are elevated to peer mentors. Each team had a color (red team, yellow team…), a peer mentor and an adult mentor. As one of the two senior mentors, Shelby oversaw all of the rainbow teams. Her LTI experience taught her that there are many leadership styles and that her more organizational leadership style can be just as important and powerful as someone whose style is louder or more active. As a first year camper, Miles told us about the poetry, photography and painting workshops. Everyone created their own zine which included bits of their photos, art and writings, put together to tell a story. There was a powerful “calling out the oppressor” activity where students of color sat in a circle and talked while the white students sat in the outer circle and listened. Miles said it taught him how those small actions, like listening or making people more comfortable can build to have greater social impact. They both felt that LTI taught them leadership and advocacy skills that will help them in their GSAFE groups and throughout the rest of their lives.

Next meeting: Sunday, December 21 at 2-4pm

OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center offers a variety of ways to reach elders and provide services for social and learning activities as well as trainings for caregivers and more!

Educational portion begins at 2 pm with OutReach Elder Advocate Lynn Currie.

OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center offers a variety of ways to reach elders and provide services for social and learning activities as well as trainings for caregivers and more. We are pleased to welcome the current Elder Advocate Lynn Currie as our speaker this month.

The role of the Elder Advocate is to connect LGBTQ elders with one another, as well as working with elder-serving agencies in Dane County to ensure they offer welcoming and culturally competent services to our elders. In addition, they lead the LGBTQ+ Elders: Creating Inclusive Spaces project and serve as OutReach liaison on the LGBTQ 50+ Alliance committee.Lynn has a wealth of information on the local business climate as well, sharing unique economic and health disparities LGBTQ elders face, and how businesses can show care for the community.

Learn more about elder advocacy and support at Outreach here

Membership Renewal

Our annual dues are $30 per person or $40 per couple and are due in October. We share some dues with the National level of PFLAG and our local dues help support our Farmer’s Market, educational and outreach opportunities.

Submit payment online through our website donation button or send your check directly to PFLAG Madison, courtesy of our Treasurer, Paul Wertsch, 4221 Venetian Ln, Madison, WI 53718.

When you hit the Donation button at the top of our website, enter “other” and your total, and that will go to our PayPal account. You can write a memo, like “McConnell family dues” and that will help us know this is for renewing your membership.

When submitting payments using PayPal or credit cards, please provide the following information via email to Paul Wertsch, Treasurer, pwertsch@gmail.com:

 Your complete name, mailing address for a tax receipt, and email address to receive the monthly newsletter.

 The amount of money you submitted either as membership ($30 individual/$40 family) or as a donation.

Email pwertsch@gmail.com if you have not received a confirmation of past transactions.

Learn more about PFLAG

Madison PFLAG

Contact us: pflagmadison@gmail.com

Voice-Mail: 608-848-2333

Website: https://pflag-madison.org/

Meeting Place: Contact us for details on the location and parking

Meetings: 2:00 to 4:00 PM, 3rd Sunday of the month, Sept. to May

National PFLAG

Website: http://www.pflag.org

PFLAG Madison Board of Directors

President: Jeanne Williams

Treasurer: Paul Wertsch

Secretary: Jackie Wealti

Board Members: Sandy Feria, Bill Gillespie, Deb Laurence, Amelia McConnell, Michael Rosenman, Sue Martinson