February 1996, DECplus Annual Meeting, Part IIOn February 21st, we had the 2nd part of our Annual Meeting. We still had 20 people showing up to the meeting, but most of those 20 were different people. It was great to see so many new faces!
Dawn Banks, a member of the Transexual Community, spoke first. She came to speak about the differences between transgendered & gay communities, along with the differences thatvare in the transgendered community itself. We tried to get her to talk about the Chicken story, but she would have no part of that!
Dawn mentioned how there are stereotypes of women. How people expect the TS community to live up to them. She also went on to say that the TS community does not have any stereotypes that they live by. She stated how she could have come to the meeting in a dress, but that would be something people would expect. She decided to wear what was comfortable for herself, which was a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans.
Dawn also must have said the word penis about 50 times. While this did take some back, it was for a reason. It appeared that if we were to find out what it is like for the TS community, it had to be done in straight forward talk, without worrying about having language as a barrier. This approach worked, as she was able to speak very honestly to the people at the meeting.
Dawn also mentioned that DECplus may never really have a TS following. She stressed that the closer one gets to the operation, the more likely they are to push away. She also mentioned how someone could have been straight/gay appearing, but once the operation is done they will be the gender they were meant to be. And at that point, many people would like to be away from the b/g/l/t communities, and on their own.
Dawn gave some excellent advice to us as a community. She said the things we could do to help out the TS community would be to not make fun of them, but to treat them like everyone else. Simple, yet it really can be one of the hardest things to achieve for some. But it is something that DECplus will strive for.
Was it a moving experience? I would say yes. In fact, it was so moving that a member in the audience came out as a TS!
Dawn did say that the other parts of the transgendered community would give us a greater chance of reaching them. But to have the transgendered community as part of our outreach, we have a far greater chance of helping someone than if we just did not have it.
The DECplus Eboard would like to express a sincere thanks to Dawn, who drove up from Conneticutt to talk with us. It was a moving, and an educational experience. THANKS!
Ron Glover got up to speak next, and he told us that the funding for the GBBC Membership has been approved! If you are a Digital employee, and would like a free membership, please send mail to Don Bracken if you are interested in a membership.
Ron also talked about how there is a renewed energy coming from his department in the field of Diversity. According to him, diversity will be coming back, and it will be a commitment from Digital. We all hope this does happen.
The DECplus Logo was unveiled at the meeting. It has the Digital label in the middle, with the DECplus underneath the Digital label. On either side of both words are Pride Flags. This design will be submitted for approval through Ron Glover. We will keep you updated on the progress!
The Bylaws have been voted in, along with the mission statement! Check out the bylaws page for details!
There were several groups that were going to start up for the 1996 year. They are:
Due to time constraints, we did not meet in these groups. A member of the community, Pippa Jollie, said a better approach would be to get these groups to meet individually. This way, people could work on more than 1 project if they wanted to. This is an EXCELLENT idea, and it is the approach we are going to use. Check out the March Newsletter for details on who you can contact for what group.
The meeting ended and while it looked as though everyone was beat, you could tell that they were happy with what happened.
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