LIX - Newsletter

Special Interest Groups & Activities

Hey LIX Chicks,

The recent election of Barack Obama as the first black President of the United States knocked my socks off. And if that wasn’t exciting enough for this old dyke, Iceland has just made history by electing a lesbian as Prime Minister! On February 1st, Johanna Sigurdardottir, was sworn in as interim Prime Minister and will head a coalition of socialists and Greens until a general election is held in May. In 2002, a gay man did act as prime minister of Norway, but only for a matter of hours. Ms. Sigurdardottir is the first ever openly gay head of government. For details on this amazing event in queer history, go to www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10983.html.

It’s that time of the year again...the 5th Annual Ten Oaks Bowl-a-thon is fast approaching. On March 7th, our LIX Chicks team members will be making complete fools of ourselves at Walkley Lanes in order to raise funds for the Ten Oaks Project. This very important project engages and connects children and youth from LGBTQ communities through programs and activities rooted in play. There are now two parts of the Project...Camp Ten Oaks, a week-long camp for queer youth and kids of queer families, and Project Acorn, a leadership retreat for youth aged 16-24 from LGBTQ communities. With your generous help, the LIX Chicks team has been the top fundraising team for the last three years. Help us maintain our illustrious title and raise funds for this invaluable resource. If you’d like to sponsor the LIX Chicks, please go to our team page .

I have exciting details on our two upcoming events...the LIX Dinner/Speaker Meeting and the LIX Disco Tea Dance. First, I met with Kathryn Trevenen, and she has kindly agreed to be our guest dinner speaker on March 30th! Kathryn is an Assistant Professor at The Institute of Women’s Studies and The School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. Her teaching, research and activism focuses on queer cultures and LGBTQ human rights; gendered media representations of war; and transnational women’s issues and rights. She is a volunteer board member with Human Rights Watch and also volunteers with the Grandmother to Grandmother campaign run by the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Her work has been published in a variety of venues, including several edited volumes, Political Theory, Urban Affairs Review, and Theory & Event. She was also the recipient of the Capital Educators Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2006.

The title of Kathryn’s talk is “A Soundtrack for Our Lives: Building Community and Solidarity with Music”. Kathryn will speak about the growing popularity of Lesbian MCs in the “homohop” scene and look at the kinds of solidarity and community their music is creating. Arguing that music plays an essential role in the creation of both identity and community, Kathryn will examine the different messages and possibilities that this music opens up for queer women. Her talk will also consider the political role that music has in providing resources for diverse groups of queer women to understand their differences and work in solidarity with one another.

I also met with Carolyn, the owner of The Pantry, and we finalized the dinner menu. As always your $30 includes appetizer, choice of entrée, dessert, beverages, tax and tip. This year Carolyn is offering two fabulous entrées to choose from...either Spinach & Cheese Spanakopita or Marinated Portobello Mushroom ‘Steaks’ (safe for vegans). Both dishes are very popular at The Pantry. We will have the reservation list at the March LIX networking meeting at Swizzles. So bring your $30 and let us know which entrée you want. As The Pantry only holds 45 diners, we will not take ‘group’ reservations of more than 4 women and all reservations must be pre-paid. If there are any seats left after the March 5th meeting, I will put a notice on the LIX Facebook page. For more information about the Dinner/Speaker meeting, see ‘Upcoming Event of Interest #13.

Plans are moving forward for the LIX Disco Tea Dance on the afternoon of Sunday, April 26th. Not only is Pantry owner, Carolyn, going to be selling coffee, teas, cold beverages and an assortment of her luscious snacks. She also plans to open up the café space itself so that you can pop in and ‘sit for a spell’ in order to get your breath back after all that frenetic disco dancing! We will be advertising this dance in the lesbian community once our posters are ready. Tickets will be available in April at the LIX monthly meeting, mother tongue books, Venus Envy and After Stonewall. So get those old 70’s and 80’s dance clothes out of mothballs and prepare to disco down on the afternoon of Sunday, April 26th!

At this month’s networking meeting, we were pleased to have Pam Laidler’s five-minute infomercial on Emergency Preparedness Resources. Pam is part of a team of people working with the City of Ottawa to spread valuable information about what we all can do in the case of a major emergency. Did you know that of the top ten large-scale emergencies that Ottawa could face, an infectious disease outbreak is the number one threat? Earthquake is number two followed by a radiation-related emergency. Are you ready? Pam’s message is this: the best protection in any emergency is knowing what to do…how to take care of every member of your family including your pets. Pam had lots of valuable handouts available including checklists for: Emergency Preparedness Kits, Important Family Documents, First Aid Kits, Car Kits, Food & Water Kits, and Special Needs Kits. She also offered us the ‘Influenza Pandemic Passport’ a handy guide about how to best protect ourselves during an influenza pandemic. Pam brought in her own First Aid Kit for us to look at as well as a sports bag full of emergency items like canned food, water, tools, and a wind-up flashlight that doesn’t require batteries. All in all, it was a very informative presentation. I certainly went home giving serious thought to how I can better prepare myself and my family in the case of an emergency! Thank you very much Pam.

To find out more about what the City of Ottawa is doing, and what you can do to be prepared:

Visit Ottawa's Emergency Management Unit online at www.ottawa.ca/residents "Residents", then "Emergency Management"
Call 3-1-1
Contact Nathalie.Rochefort@ottawa.ca Community Emergency Management Coordinator, 613-580-2424 x28078.

For other resources, you can visit www.GetPrepared.ca, www.publicsafety.gc.ca, www.emergencymanagementontario.ca and www.redcross.ca.

If you have any interest in presenting a five-minute infomercial about your business/volunteer work/special interest group at one of the networking meetings, please contact Lucy at info@girlswanttoknow.com. That’s it gals. Winterlude is here so I’ll be barricading myself in our warm and cozy home. Catch you later...

Special Interest Groups & Activities
1.Fun on the Courts...Sunday, February 22nd. Are you interested in a morning of fun sports activities with other lesbians? If so, then join Julie at the Ottawa Athletic Club on Sunday, February 22nd. The morning includes playing racquetball, squash and wallyball (volleyball inside the racquetball court). Equipment is provided. Be ready to start at 9:30 am. and the activities will run until noon. An instructor will be available to help you with your racquet skills. To participate, call the OAC at (613) 523-1540 and register for "Fun on the Courts". Cost is $15. A maximum of 14 women will be allowed to register...deadline for registration is Saturday, February 21st. Option of going out for brunch afterward. 2. Are you a lesbian parent or guardian with adopted children? Are you interested in connecting with other LGBTQ adoptive parents? Please join us as we start up a new group for parents to meet and talk with other LGBTQ parents who have also adopted. The goal of our first meeting will be to determine what kind of supports and needs LGBTQ parents who have built their families through adoption require in Ottawa. The first meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at the Overbrook-Forbes Community Resource Centre, 225 Donald Street, Unit 120, from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm. For more information, please contact Holly Wagg at 613.742.5944 or lgbtqadoptionottawa@rogers.com. 3. Monthly group for non-biological Moms in same-sex families. I’m interested in creating a group for those of us who have started families together and where one parent is the biological mother and one isn’t. The purpose of the group would be to provide an informal space to share concerns, fears and issues with other Moms going through this experience and navigating this sometimes difficult terrain. My thought would be to meet for coffee/tea at a café or at someone’s home. If you are interested, please contact Laura Cohen at lauracohen@rogers.com or at (613) 228-9778 and we can go from there. 4. Ottawa Amazons Women's Motorcycle Club. Come and join the gals for fun, friendship, laughter and travel with an all lesbian motorcycle group. Monthly meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month at Bridgehead Coffee, 362 Richmond Road (west of Churchill in Westboro) at 7:15 pm. If you would like information on how to become a member of the Ottawa Amazons, how to obtain a motorcycle license, and/or tips on negotiating the purchase of a new or used motorcycle, the Amazons are the gals to contact. If you plan to attend a monthly meeting, please contact Molly King at Ottawa.Amazons@monaco.ca.
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