Dignity/Washington Affirms that “It Gets Better” With Their YouTube Video
[caption id="attachment_1472" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A still shot of the D/W community members gathered for the It Gets Better video shoot."][/caption] For several months Dignity/Washington members had been quietly discussing a community response to the alarming rise in bullying in schools across the nation. Finally the idea crystallized that a YouTube “It Gets Better” video could be produced from the personal testimonies and words of hope of any and all community members who would want to sit before the camera. Promotion of the project quickly won community support and filming began six months ago. Credit is due to member Tom Yates who ...
Dignity/Washington Holds Strategic Planning Day
Dignity/Washington continues to collect and review data relating to its current mission and priorities and redefine them in a future-oriented and systematic process. Further steps were taken in an all-day Strategic Learning and Planning Day held on April 22nd at the Dignity Center, led by Chris Pett, a professional consultant/facilitator and Dignity/Chicago member, who was hired by the community’s Board. [caption id="attachment_1474" align="alignright" width="447" caption="Board and community members of Dignity/Washington gather at the chapter's Dignity/Center for a day of strategic planning."][/caption] Twenty-five members were present, evenly divided between Board and non-Board members. Building on the Final Presentation of the Hilltop Consultants from ...
Dignity/Washington Honors Saint Joseph With A Traditional Festival
On March 10, 2012 over sixty friends of Saint Joseph were convened by Dignity/Washington to honor him near his March 19 Feast Day with a traditional banquet in the Sicilian style, complete with a festive procession of flags and icons, a beautiful liturgy of music, Scripture reading, litany and blessing, a wonderful home-cooked Italian dinner of rich food and pastries, a film retrospective entitled “The Irish in Movies” and live entertainment by Celtic musicians “Hangman’s Faire” (yes, there was some infiltration of the ranks by the sons and daughters of Saint Patrick). The proceeds of a 50/50 raffle benefited the ...
Dignity/Washington’s Saint Valentine Potluck Celebrates Love In All Its Splendor
-- by Henry Huot, Dignity Board member Saturday, February 11, 2012 saw the gathering of Dignity/Washington with some Dignity/Northern Virginia community members for a Potluck Celebration hosted by long-time Dignity members Rodney Johnson and his partner Henry Huot, as well as Robert Miailovich, in the Party Room of their condo building in Arlington, Virginia. Love was certainly in the air, in the music, in the friendly laughter and in the plentiful food and drink that was cordially and warmly shared. [caption id="attachment_1356" align="aligncenter" width="397" caption="Theresa and Ellen at D/W's 2012 St. Valentine's Celebration"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1385" align="alignleft" width="491" caption="All set for the celebration"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1379" ...
Dignity/Washington Defenders Celebrate Their Twentieth Anniversary
On January 15, 2012 at a special Mass the Dignity/Washington community honored its Defenders for their outreach and service to the local leather/levi community over the past twenty years. As part of this anniversary celebration and at the end of Mass, Fred Bowers, Defender President, presented a total of $3,816 in checks from funds raised at their bar nights at the DC Eagle and their sale of Christmas ornaments. [caption id="attachment_1317" align="alignright" width="420" caption="Dignity/Washington Defenders stand in the sanctuary at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church (Jan. 15, 2012)"][/caption] Damien Ministries, a faith community who identifies with and supports those abandoned or ...
Dignity/Washington Holds Its 39th Anniversary Dinner
Dignity/Washington celebrated its 39th anniversary with a fantastic dinner, chaired by Len Latham who also was the surprise chef with many gastronomic delights served with extraordinary flourish. [caption id="attachment_1260" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Anniversary Dinner Featured Speakers Blake Bergen and Damian Legacy, wearing Madrid World Youth Day T-Shirts, October 29, 2011"][/caption] Other highlights of the event, held the evening of October 29, 2011 with a Halloween theme, included a Power Point/photo presentation by Blake Bergen and Damian Legacy of their August pilgrimage to Rome, Paris, Lourdes and Madrid’s World Youth Day and their announcement that a Dignity chapter had formed at The George Washington ...
Dignity/Washington and Dignity/NoVA Raise $1,810 for 25th Annual AIDS Walk
The snow flurries and rain that began the morning of October 29, 2011 did nothing to deter seventeen or so members of Dignity/Washington and Dignity/Northern Virginia from raising over $1,810 for Washington’s 25th Annual AIDS Walk to benefit Whitman-Walker Health. Team organizers were Michael Peterson and David Lamdin who motivated Dignity members with a great spirit of generosity and social consciousness for the event. Donning umbrellas, ski hats and gloves and either walking or running a 5-kilometer timed course, over 5,000 participants reached the goal of $1,000,000 for health services to those infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS. ...
Dignity/Washington Holiday Programs Provide Opportunities For Generous Giving
During the Advent season the Dignity/Washington community responded generously to three appeals for Christmas help to the needy of the metro DC area. Again this year the Dignity/Washington Defenders sold Christmas tree ornaments after Mass to benefit the Northern Virginia AIDS Ministry’s programs. In addition, the annual Secret Santa Drive, launched and organized by Dignity/Washington members, provided thirty-five (35) boys and girls from seventeen (17) needy families at the Maury School in Northeast Washington with Christmas gifts brought to Mass wrapped and ready for distribution. [caption id="attachment_1221" align="alignleft" width="246" caption="Santa's Helpers Jeff Maier and Carl Spier sort the many ...
El Dia De Los Muertos at Dignity/Washington (2011)
Once again this year the Dignity/Washington Grupo Latino invited the entire community to observe November 2 as All Souls Day or The Day of the Dead, El Dia de Los Muertos. The day is traditional on the Catholic liturgical calendar when all the deceased are remembered and prayed for. Following the customs of Mexico and other Latin American countries, the group built a beautiful altar at the Dignity Center displaying photos and mementos of their late loved ones and decorated with flowers, religious icons and favorite foods of their departed. Far from being a somber day, it was entered into ...
Dignity/Washington Blesses Animals In Observance of St. Francis of Assisi Day
Dignity/Washington held its annual Blessing of Animals during Sunday Mass on October 9. Fr. Tim MacGeorge, one of the community’s presiders, did the honors and received much appreciation especially from all the pet owners and their charges who attended.
God Was Laughing: A Pilgrim’s Journey to World Youth Day 2011
In late September 2009, I was still actively discerning a possible vocation to the priesthood, in early formation with the Congregation of Holy Cross, and defending the faith on what seemed like a nightly basis. The adversary was none other than my best friend, who happened to be a self-described “agnostic Jew,” who did not believe in the Catholic Church and who continually questioned my faith. And the biggest issue debated was the Church’s teaching on same-sex marriage. “How do you know? How do you really know God exists?” was always the ...
Dignity-Washington Goes to the Beach
From September 16 through 18 twenty members of Dignity/Washington revived one of the chapter’s best annual social outings of past years: the Rehoboth Beach (Delaware) Weekend. On that Friday Jake Hudson, Dignity/Washington Vice President, hosted everyone for a lovely opening reception at his beach home. Saturday’s rain and wind didn’t stop members from joining in the festivities of Delaware's Gay Pride Day, culminating with Mass at one of the group’s beach hotels that evening. The spirit of celebration continued after Mass with more socializing at one of the local bars and a great pizza dinner. A Sunday morning brunch near ...
2011 St. Joseph’s Dinner
As in the past 20 plus years, Dignity/Washington marked the feast of St. Joseph by hosting its popular festive and elaborate liturgy and home-cooked Italian dinner for area LGBTQ Catholics on Saturday, March 19, 2011, at All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. The ceremony and the ornate altar built by the community continued an 800-year old tradition that fulfills a vow made in thanksgiving by the Sicilians after a severe drought. After thirteen days of prayer, through the intercession of St. Joseph, rain came and crops began to grow, especially the fast growing fava beans which thereafter became ...
DC Councilmen David Catania and Philip Mendelson Honored
At its Sunday Mass, February 6, 2011, Dignity/Washington presented its annual community service award, the Colfer Award, to District of Columbia Council members David Catania (I-At-Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) in recognition of their key roles in securing passage of DC’s same-sex marriage law. Dignity/Washington Board Vice-President Jake Hudson and his husband Greig Stewart and Dignity/Washington Board member and Treasurer Ellen Lee and her wife Theresa Bosanek, whose marriages became possible when the law took effect in March 2010, joined Dignity/Washington President Allen Rose in presenting the award. Mr. Catania wrote and introduced the marriage measure and Mr. Mendelson, as ...
Board of Directors Attends Its Annual Retreat at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center
All but one of the eleven members of the Dignity/Washington Board met from Saturday, January 29 to Sunday, January 30, 2011 at the Bon Secours Spiritual Center in Marriottsville, Maryland for an overnight retreat that stressed spiritual renewal, leadership formation, and strategic planning for Dignity/Washington’s upcoming year. Dr. Tom Little, long-time executive director of the Center, led a two-part session on friendship in the works of St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal, Mahatma Gandhi, and other spiritual masters, developing the theme of how friendship to all serves as the underpinning of the Board’s work. In later sessions, ...
Dignity Washington Honored with Brother, Help Thyself Founders Award
On January 29, 2011, Dignity/Washington was the recipient of the Founders Award from Brother, Help Thyself— an umbrella charity operating like a United Fund for LGBT causes in the Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD metropolitan areas. In its 33-year history, the organization has given away more than $2 million in grants to charitable groups that serve the LGBT community, or further the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. The group presented nearly $100,000 of grants for the year 2010 at a reception in Baltimore on January 29, 2011. It also announced its annual service recognition awards including the one to Dignity/Washington. As ...
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