Montgomery County MD's first LGBTQ youth prom!

Tonight we chaperoned the MoCo MD LGBTQ Youth Forum’s Pride Prom (A Time Travelers' Ball; steampunk-themed), right here in Gaithersburg (my partner Julia’s hometown and our current home) – the first queer youth prom in this county!

Julia attended the ’89 Gaithersburg High School prom and I the ’94 Newton North High School (suburban Boston MA) one -- I was half of the first (?) LGBTQ couple to do so, and went on to attend and chaperone the BAGLY Prom (Boston Alliance of LGBTQ youth) the oldest in the country.

In addition to DJ ‘Zo, we had a crew from HOT 99.5 (FM, DC), including DJ Houston, who is gay; and much of the food was donated by &Pizza and Wegmans (Germantown).

Our vest and some of the rest of our outfits are thrifted, and our orchids are from one of our houseplants.

‪#‎MCMDPrideProm‬ ‪#‎LGBTQyouth‬ ‪#‎LGBTQ‬ ‪#‎youth‬ ‪#‎queeryouth‬ ‪#‎prom‬ ‪#‎LGBTQprom‬ ‪#‎MoCoMD‬ ‪#‎MoCo‬ ‪#‎MD‬ ‪#‎Maryland‬ ‪#‎Gaithersburg‬ ‪#‎steampunk‬ ‪#‎MoCoLGBTQyouth‬ ‪#‎MoCoLGBTQyouthforum‬

Science News : Planet Jupiter Now Looks Like Transgender Flag!

So we went to our local post office today – and learned that the planet Jupiter now looks like the trans*(gender et al) flag!  (The most popular one, by far, at least.)

Views of Our Planets and Pluto Explored forever stamps will be issued on the 31st at the World Stamp Show 2016 (in NYC).

And of course we will get and use some.

‪#‎PlanetStamps‬ ‪#‎Jupiter‬ ‪#‎transflag‬ ‪#‎trans‬ ‪#‎transgender‬ ‪#‎transpride‬ ‪#‎stamps‬ ‪#‎USPSstamps‬ ‪#‎USPS‬

Free State Legal & Equality Maryland's Community Listening Sessions

Free State Legal & Equality Maryland have been holding Community Listening Sessions across the state, and Julia and I helped to organize two of them (and we attended those ones).  FSLEM has also been doing a community survey (primarily through Survey Monkey).  This is all part of their merger, to become the primary statewide LGBTQ organization.

On Wednesday May 4th, we were in Rockville, at the public library, and it was very successful.  Special thanks to Maryland Trans*Unity for hosting – especially its primary organizer Ezra Towne.  (Facebook event.) Also, our meeting room at the Rockville Library had the soda fountain from Vinson’s Pharmacy.  

On Sunday May 15th, we were in Boyds, at Open Door Metropolitan Community Church -- which was a host and participant in more ways than one (thank you) -- and it also went very well.  (Facebook event.)  We didn't make it to Open Door's Pentecost service that morning, but as you can see we still saw the sanctuary in its fiery finery.

Many thanks to FSLEM’s Director of Community Engagement & Youth Policy Saida Agostini for schlepping to more than a dozen of these throughout MD (!), not to mention facilitating them so well.


‪#FreeStateLegal #EqualityMD #FreeStateJustice #‎LGBTQMD #LGBTQMaryland #LGBTQ‬ #‎bisexual‬ ‪#‎trans‬ ‪#‎queer‬ #‎MD‬ ‪#‎Maryland‬ ‪#‎RockvilleMD‬ ‪#‎BoydsMD‬ ‪#‎Maythe4th‬ ‪#‎Maythe4thbewithyou‬ ‪#‎andalsowithyou‬‎ #RockvilleLibrary ‪#‎OpenDoorMCC‬ #Pentecost2016