Preparations for A Party

Sunday, I will be turning 42. But since Sunday is Sunday... and Valentine's Day is never a good day to have a party... I will be gathering with friends the night before for revelry and raising the roof for good causes!

Yes, you read correctly... raising the roof for good causes. It is my choice and desire that my birthday take on a theme of breathing life into queer organizations that need as much help as they can get.

And so, this Saturday, I will be throwing a "Queer Carnival" celebrating my birthday, Mardi Gras, Valentine's Day, and the Chinese New Year all into one crazy, creative, costumed fete! The Chinese are celebrating the Year of the Tiger starting Feb. 14th... and so, provided the weather holds... we will take our tiger energy into the street and fearlessly proclaim the goodness and rightness of equality for all! I've been busy creating the Tiger head that we will carry along with our noisemakers. Pictures to be posted in the future! That's the fun part.

But what about gifts? Isn't that what birthdays are about? Yeah... sure. But I have been given lots of gifts already... ones that I feel inside the marrow of my bones. And so, with the money one would have spent on a gift of some extravagance... I'm asking my friends to put those dollars and cents into the donation jars for three excellent causes:

*Queer As Faust 3: the Mickee Faust Club's now annual gay pride festival during June. Our theatre troupe has put all our money into a major renovation project... and so QAF3 needs some seed money to afford to put on the programs we want to bring to Tallahassee.

*PFLAG-Tallahassee: our new little chapter that could is building momentum, but has a very meager bank account. We could use some extra cash to purchase materials, books and DVDs for our library.

*Integrity Uganda: talk about folks who need our help NOW! LGBT people in the African nation are living in fear as are those who want to bring services and affirmation of their worthiness to them. I'll have "Voices of Witness: Africa" playing in one room for people to see the folks they will be helping with their donations.

I was hoping to include some donations to Haiti, but sadly the group that was collecting on behalf of the gay community has chosen not to respond to requests for information. And past experience tells me that if someone won't respond to an email, or a phone call, they don't want the money. Sad, but there it is.

Meanwhile, the Integrity folks were all over my request for information. In fact, I received a very nice email proclaiming, "Thanks be to God for Susan!" Awww, shucks. :)