Welcome new members!

Upcoming Events of THE NETWORK:

(1) Spring Workshop: Friday, May 21 Noon - 145pm CEU
"Talking about the Bi Community" presented by William Burleson
Calling oneself bisexual sometimes means different things to different people, adding to the challenge for many to claim the identity as their own.  Yet, in my experience, the number one lament of bi people is the lack of a community. But there is a bi community, however small, nearly invisible, and not necessarily representative of most who call themselves bi. On May 21, we'll talk about bi culture, the need for community, and how you as a therapist can be of help.

William Burleson is the author of Bi America, Myths, Truths, and Struggles of an Invisible Community(Rutledge, 2005)  

When: Friday, May 21, 2010   12:00 to 145pm
Agenda:
Member announcements: 12:15 to 12:30
Presentation with question time: 12:30 to 1:45
Where: Nancy Baltins Room, in their lower level, at the Plymouth Congregational Church, corner of Franklin Avenue & LaSalle, Minneapolis.  
CEU form available.
Light snacks provided. Feel free to bring a bag lunch.
$15 members. $20 non-members. $10 students & elders
RSVP to Dennis V Christian, LICSW., DCSW,  support@dennischristian.com  

(2) Steering Committee Meeting:  Wednesday, April 28  Noon - 130pm
Where: Office of Mindy Benowitz, 100 West Franklin Avenue, Suite 202, Minneapolis, 55404
All Network members welcome  RSVP to Mindy: <MBENOWITZ@aol.com >
Agenda:

(1) what to do with the 'profit' (albeit small) made from the Beyond the Boxes Conference (i.e., pay bills)
(2) moving forward: with regards to increased memberships, more student members, future projects of The Network (tabling at TC Pride, MN Trans Health & Wellness Conference tabling, Rainbow Health Initiative partnership, 2012 conference)? Including the membership in these projects & decisions.
(3) Tabling at TC Pride:  Saturday, June 26 & Sunday, June 27 
We need a table coordinator and volunteers to staff the table. If you are interested please contact:
irenegreene@earthlink.net   or 612.874.6442

Presentations, Workshops & Conferences:
 
"Impulsive/Compulsive Sexual Behavior: A Case Presentation"
April 14, 2010  12-1pm
Eli Coleman, PhD
During this case presentation Eli Coleman, PhD, will discuss how impulsive/compulsive sexual behavior can cause occupational and relationship challenges for individuals that can lead to anxiety, depression, feelings of abandonment, and emotional deprivation. He will also discuss events or feelings which may lead people to impulsive or compulsive sexual behavior, and define methods of treatment.

The faculty of the Program in Human Sexuality invite you to explore the latest in sexual health research. PHS faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and research collaborators will present their work monthly at our Faculty Research Presentations. Join us at 12 noon - 1 PM at PHS, 1300 South 2nd Street, Room 142, Minneapolis, MN 55454. To RSVP or to request notice of future presentations, please email phsresearch@umn.edu

Program in Human Sexuality at the University of Minnesota, 1300 South 2nd Street, Suite 180, Minneapolis, MN 55454, phone 612-625-1500, fax 612-626-8311, website www.phs.umn.edu

Bisexual Empowerment Conference:
April 16-18, 2010
Hamline University in St. Paul

The BECAUSE Conference is the premier weekend event in the Midwest for bisexuals, queers, non-mono-sexual, bi-curious, questioning, and all others, regardless of sexual or gender identity.  This conference is open to everyone!
www.becauseconference.org

Workshops at The Smitten Kitten:
(1) Eco Sex in Honor of Earth Day
Thursday, April 22 at 7:00pm - 9:00pm

(2) Tantra for Erotic Empowerment
April 25, 7:00-9:00pm
Join us for an honest discussion with Mark and Patricia Johnson who dispel some of the most popular myths about this ancient tradition. You'll learn how elements of Tantric philosophy and practice can be easily applied to our modern lives in ways that do more than just improve our sex lives.
Location: Smitten Kitten, 3010 Lyndale Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN
Admission: $25, pre-registration strongly encouraged
Info: 612-721-6088
Email: info (at) smittenkittenonline
www. SmittenKittenOnline.com

"Revolutionizing Our Sexually Dysfunctional Society: Are Americans Ready to Talk, Listen, and Learn?"
Joycelyn Elders, MD, 15th U.S. Surgeon General
Friday, May 7, 2010
4:30 pm
Mayo Memorial Auditorium
425 Delaware Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Free and open to the public
On May 7, 2010, former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, MD, will deliver a free lecture on the University of Minnesota campus. Her presentation "Revolutionizing Our Sexually Dysfunctional Society: Are Americans Ready to Talk, Listen, and Learn?" will cover the public health issue of sexual health and the fundamental changes required to move our society forward. Throughout her career as a pediatrician, state health director, and U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Elders has advocated that providing every citizen with a comprehensive sexual health education will not only improve the health of individuals, but advance the health of our communities and our society. She promotes the essential training of health care providers and education professionals as well as improving access sexual health information and sexual health services.
Please join us for the inaugural event of the John Money Lecture in Pediatric Sexology hosted by the Program in Human Sexuality, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School.

MN Transgender Health and Wellness Conference:
An educational program on transgender health for primary care and mental health
providers and students
"Identifying Crossroads, Connecting Communities"
 May 14 - 15, 2010
Metropolitan State University
 700 East Seventh Street
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55106
 Cost:
 $175 for physicians (MD or DO) with CME credit
         ($200 on-site registration)
 $100 for other providers 
         ($125 on-site registration)
 $25 for non-providers and students 
         ($35 on-site registration)
Register online by May 11
www.mntranshealth.org
Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition
3405 Chicago Ave S Suite 3
Minneapolis MN 55407
612-823-1152
mntranshealthconference@gmail.com
Presented by:  The Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition, in conjunction
with the Minnesota Medical Association

Groups Offered:
Group notices list for two consecutive issues.  (Do you have a group you want to advertise here? Free. Contact us. Review past archived eNewsletters on our website for more groups.)
LGBT Crime Victims Support Groups
OutFront Minnesota's Anti-violence Program is still organizing two support groups that will start soon. One group is for GLBTQ victims/survivors of domestic violence and the second group is for GLBTQA crime victims. If you would like more information, please contact OutFront Minnesota's Anti-Violence Program Director, Rebecca Waggoner Kloek, at 616-822-0127 ext. 7656 or rwkloek@outfront.org.Women's Psychotherapy Groups
Music for Self Esteem
Girls Rock N Roll Retreat Girls Rock n Roll Retreat uses electric instruments and the genre of rock music to foster self esteem in girls ages 9-17. Girls learn the joy of accomplishment, working in a team, conflict resolution and the ability to stand up for themselves. Music is a skill they can utilize for the rest of their lives. Music matters. Girls Rock! Details @http:// www.girlsrocknrollretreat.com/ladiesrock
Sara Marck M.S., L.P.
smarck@usfamily.net

Announcements

Bisexual Organizing Project - Twin Cities Bi History tab on our website!
Go to http://bisexualorganizingproject.com/TwinCitiesBiHistory.html to see the page. We'd love to turn this into a Minnesota-wide Bi history resource in the future. Right now there are only two documents posted, but we will be posting more materials as we obtain the resources to electronically archive them.

If you have any materials you think would add to the collection and/or any comments about the page, please feel free to reply to this post and/or e-mail BOP backchannel at tcbop1@yahoo.com .

Bisexual Organizing Project: Meeting for Men:
We will be starting a monthly casual meeting for men and male identified members of BOP. We will meet on the second Tuesday of each monthat the Riverview Cafe and Wine Bar, 42nd Avenue S. in Minneapolis. We won't have a set agenda or topic, just folks getting together to talk about being bi, being straight and dating a bi, or any other topic that comes up - who knows, we might even take on politics and religion!
We will be there starting at 7:00 and start to wind things down around 9:00.

Call for Artists - Wilder Foundation LGBTA Event
Hi all,
The LGBTA Employee Resource Group at the Wilder Foundation in St. Paul is hosting a community event in June for LGBT Pride month, and we are looking for artists who would like to help us celebrate the richness of artistic expression going on throughout the Twin Cities LGBT community.
The theme of the event is tied around celebration, growth, and change, and we would like to invite authors, poets, spoken word artists, singers, and artists of all ages and persuasions to join us.
The event will be roughly an hour long, and will be held at the Wilder Center in St. Paul on either June 7th or June 14th from 12pm - 1pm, with food open at 11:30am. We are still unsure what the particular composition of artists will be or how many we'll be able to accommodate within the hour, but we look forward to hearing from you.
Please let me know if you or someone you know might be interested, and I will pass along more information.
Thanks!
Matt Thiede  |  651.280.2734  |  651-280-3700 (fax)  |  www.hmismn.org

Upcoming Events:
PRIDE Institute Outpatient Open House
April 14, 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
This is a great time to visit the Minneapolis branch of PRIDE Institute's programming including adult and adolescent chemical dependency, as well as the new affiliate mental health program called PRISM.
PRISM offers individual therapy as well as specialized groups including women's relationship and sexual health, men's sexual health, and body image issues. Psychiatric services are also available through PRISM.
For details and to RSVP, email nsimon@pride-institute.com or call 612-267-9371.

Gender Freedom Day, April 14, 2010
From the University of Minnesota GLBTA Programs Office.

The Transgender Commission has declared Wednesday, April 14, 2010 to be University of Minnesota Gender Freedom Day. We hope it is a day where we can openly consider & celebrate the ways in which we all benefit from expanding the possibilities of how we can express our femininity, our masculinity, and our ways of being and being gendered that transcend those concepts. (We hope we can do this all year, but we've chosen April 14 as a day of intentional visibility.)

We are organizing/sponsoring three events on April 14, staffing an information table in Coffman Union, and encouraging people/offices/classes/organizations/depts to look at their work through a gender justice lens. One important question to ask yourself and your group on Gender Freedom Day might be:

"What would it be like if you felt completely free to express yourself, your body and your gender without any consequences, restraints or limits? How would the world change along with this freedom?"

Film + Discussion: Against A Trans Narrative
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Appleby Hall 103
FREE PIZZA!

Trans filmmaker Jules Rosskam's against a trans narrative is a provocative and personal experimental documentary investigating dominant constructions of trans-masculine identity, gender, and the nature of community. The film employs a gender-busting combination of intimate diary footage, stylized dramatic scenes, spoken word performance, faux audition tapes, and roundtable interview footage to explore & initiate a dialogue between feminists, queers, and transfolk about the way we construct personal and historical narratives. Careful attention is paid to the ways generation, race, class, and culture impact our understandings of gender. Trans Commission member Tara will facilitate a learning circle-style discussion following the film. Pizza and soda will be served!

Sing & Dance
3:00 PM (be on time!)
East Bank Mall Area, In front of Walter Library

We strongly encourage you to join the Gender Freedom Collective for a spontaneous song & dance in the middle of the Mall Area. Wear whatever makes you feel fabulous and come feel pretty with us! It will only take a few minutes, but the sense of fabulousness & freedom you feel will last all day!

Genderheads: Envisioning Gender Freedom
4:00-6:00 PM
Coffman Union 324
FREE FOOD!

Trans Commission member Alex will facilitate a Genderheads discussion about "envisioning gender freedom." How do you feel about gender freedom and what does it mean to you? Is it something you desire or that you feel ambivalent about? How do your experiences and identities affect your vision of gender freedom? Does the idea of gender freedom have an impact on our communities? Does this differ across communities? Come, eat some food and discuss your vision of gender freedom in a safer and inclusive environment.

Information Table: Coffman Union Ground Floor
11:00 AM - 2:30 PM

Stop by our table near the food court in Coffman Union between 11:00-2:30 to get information about University of Minnesota and Twin Cities gender liberation/equity organizations and events, and participate in interactive questions about what gender freedom means to you and on our campus.

Gender Freedom Art Showcase!
Now Showing: April 5 - May 6
Appleby Hall Ground Floor Display

The GLBTA Programs Office and the Transgender Commission are displaying selected gender freedom artwork in Appleby Hall (near the north ground floor entrance) during the month of April.

Protest the National Organization for Marriage with Outfront Minnesota, April 17, 830am
Maggie Gallagher, President of the anti-GLBT National Organization for Marriage (NOM), and Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, one of the creators of California's Proposition 8, are coming to the University of Saint Thomas to bring their campaign of discrimination against Gays and Lesbians to Minnesota.

Join OutFront Minnesota, All God's Children Metropolitan Community Church, the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, Dignity Twin Cities, and the Institute for Welcoming Resources (a project of The Task Force) in protesting Proposition 8 and the discrimination NOM has been fighting for across the country!

Let's meet at 8:30am on April 17th in front of the University of St Thomas to speak out for love, fairness and equality. This is a peaceful, nonviolent protest for love - let's show NOM that we would respectfully like them to go back where they came from and leave Minnesota alone.
More details at outfront.org and on facebook.

Minnesota's justFair Lobby Day
Wednesday, April 21st - State Capitol
Legislative Appointments - all day; Rally for Fairness - 1pm
Minnesota has the largest lobby day in the country for GLBT equality because of your attendance and your help in recruiting your friends and family to speak out for equality.

Twin Cities Black Pride Skating Party:
Thursday, April 29, 7pm
Let's take a step back-No, better yet-Let's RRROLLL back to the bangin' beats of one of the best decades of music known while letting loose with one of the most beloved recreational activities known for one night ONLY!

That's right! the 80s is here the stay...Well...at least on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at the Roller Garden in St. Louis Park... So, zip-up that jump suit, and slide those neon colored leg warmers on, because the best dressed wins the BEST prize of the night!

Join, Twin Cities Black Pride and a host of community members, for a night of ROLLER SKATING, THROWBACKS, GAMES (cards, dominos, etc...), PRIZES, GREAT COMPANY, MUSIC from DJ LADY L. and DJs STORM & FLO AND FUN for the ENTIRE FAMILY!!
*******************************************************************************************
ADULTS pay $10 WITHOUT 80s gear and $7 WITH 80s gear, and not to mention be entered into the Best 80s Gear Contest for a chance to win a prize. 
CHILDREN (ages 12 and under) only pay a flat rate of $5.
********************************************************************************************

Tidbits:

This Article from StarTribune.com Fri, 2 Apr 2010
Judge lifts ban on hormones for transgender inmates

MADISON, WIS. - A federal judge has struck down a unique Wisconsin law that prohibits transgender inmates from receiving taxpayer-funded hormone therapy, which alters their appearance to be more like that of the opposite sex.A group of male inmates who identify as female had challenged the 2006 law with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and Lambda Legal, a national gay rights group. They say they need the hormones to treat their gender identity disorder, and not having them would lead to severe health problems.While similar prison policies in other states have been challenged successfully, the ACLU and Lambda Legal said the law was the only one of its kind in the nation that denied such medical care to transgender inmates.Lawmakers who wrote the measure, declared unconstitutional and unenforceable Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Charles Clevert, reacted with outrage and urged Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to appeal. They warned the decision would open the door for taxpayer-funded sex changes for inmates, which the law had also blocked.The law bans tax dollars from being used for inmates' hormone therapy and sexual reassignment surgery. Lawmakers approved it with bipartisan support, and Gov. Jim Doyle signed it into law after an inmate who had received hormone therapy filed a suit to try to force the prison to pay for his sex change.

Politics
Bang for Their Buck?: A Critical Précis to the R.N.C.'s Night at a Bondage Club
by Juli Weiner - Vanity Fair
March 29, 2010

The Daily Caller has gotten its hands on some sexy new Federal Election Commission documents that detail the Republican National Committee's expenditures. These expenses include $1,946.25 spent at Voyeur West Hollywood, "a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex." This seems extravagant-particularly in these recessionary times! What can one even do with $1,946.25 in a bondage-themed nightclub? VF Daily spoke with Zena at Pandora's Box, a BDSM club in Manhattan, to see how much bang we could get for our buck. At Pandora's Box, a club similar to Voyeur West Hollywood in self-described interests, $2,000 is the cost of a "marathon session," which Zena explained is an appointment with "all mistresses, all night long." Otherwise, it's $205 dollars-per-hour with one mistress, although one can book one of the seven "fetish fantasy rooms" with multiple mistresses for an extended period of time for a higher cost. So really, the Republican National Committee was rather prudent in balancing pleasure and purse-strings!

Office Space Available:
 Loring Park Location: Beautiful office suite with lots of windows, a working fireplace, hardwood floors, 15 feet by 27 feet in a 1931 mansion, completely updated. Rent is $900 a month, including expenses. Available to an individual renter, or two persons sharing a lease. Location is south of downtown on Ridgewood Ave., near Loring Park with easy freeway access. There are 5 experienced psychologists in the building, all in individual practices but with much collaboration. Contact George Roehrdanz, owner, with questions at 612.871.0817.

South Minneapolis Location:  PT/FT offices available in convenient S. Mpls location. Great opportunity to work with a variety of other therapists. It is a unique rental experience in that the offices are owned and maintained by a psychologist and her husband who live in the neighborhood and take a lot of pride in it! FFI: 612.250.6433.  Sandee Koch  srdaly@msn.com

Be a Featured Network Member!!!
We want to know more about our Members!  Don't be shy! Let's all share a virtual handshake.

If you would like to be a featured member in our next eNewsletter contact me, Irene Greene at irenegreene@earthlink.net or 612.874.6442  I have some questions for you to answer and you can share info about your counseling services, yourself and what being a Network member means to you.
Let's all get to know each other!!

Quote of the Day:
 "One problem in trying to bring together people who are open to sleeping with either sex is that we are known by such a wide variety of labels - and, more often than not, we refuse to label ourselves and therefore fail to identify with the group know as 'bisexual.' Many objections have been raised to the use of that particular term, the most common being that it emphasizes two things that, paradoxically, bisexuals are the least likely to be involved with: the dualistic separation of male and female in society, and the physical implications of the suffix '-sexual.' "
                                                 ~ Thomas Geller, Editor of BISEXUALITY: A READER & SOURCEBOOK, 1990

Welcome to the MN LGBTQA Therapists eNewsletter of "The Network." The Network is a MN based grass-roots group of queer & allied mental health therapists, students in mental health related fields, and community mental-health related agencies. Our group shares information and resources that impact our varied work in the mental health fields and that is unique to the particular needs of the LGBTQ communities we live in and serve. We welcome submissions to this eNewsletter that are pertinent to mental health and LGBTQ issues ! All Network members are welcome to contribute to this bi-weekly eNewsletter. Just send your referral question, announcement, member accomplishment, space available information, event, conference, workshop, group information, or other pertinent notice to irenegreene@earthlink.net .

The MN LGBT Therapist eNewsletter is sent out every second Tuesday of the month.  All responses to questions, ads, workshops, etc. should be emailed directly back to the contact person in the notice. If you want your name added or deleted from the Network email list, please contact us.  Please note that if you do decide to delete your email, you will no longer receive general Network communications, such as event announcements.

If you want to become a member of this organization please visit:  <http://www.LGBTTherapists.org >
Thank you! Irene Greene, MN LGBT Therapist eNewsletter Coordinator