Monthly Milwaukee Meeting: Learning to Tell Your Story

Description:

With the start of the new year comes statements from Wisconsin lawmakers who intend to introduce legislation limiting the rights and freedoms of transgender and non-binary Wisconsinites.  More than ever, your story is needed.  In this workshop you will learn how to craft an effective story about the impact this and similar efforts have on you and/or people you love and care about.  You will have time to draft and get feedback on your personal story in advance of possible legislative hearings, as well as hearings at your local school district, city, and county level.  It will be facilitated by GSAFE and members of the Wisconsin Trans Health Coalition Policy Group, Brian J and Sawyer Johnson.
 

What’s the purpose of FORGE’s Milwaukee Monthly Meetings?

1. Share information on pre-selected subjects.
   [Ideas for discussions, speakers, books, films, and panels are initiated by group recommendations and facilitator suggestions. With only 12 monthly meetings per year, these topics only touch a small number of areas with plenty of room for post-meeting discussion and other groups to take on other topics.]
2. Provide support for people who attend.
   [All people who are interested in trans and gender non-binary issues are welcome.
   We encourage people to participate at their level of comfort.
3. [Note: Milwaukee Monthly Meetings are not political action or social justice-focused events. Our purpose is support and information-sharing. There is ample community space for political organizing, confronting injustice, and creating action agendas.
   FORGE monthly meetings are not that space.]

WORKING AGREEMENTS
Creating a space where people can feel free to participate is important. These are some working agreements and principles that FORGE meetings operate under. We will review and add to this list at tonight’s meeting.

1. Confidentiality / Privacy
2. Use “I” statements
3. One person / one mic
4. Move up / move back
5. Oops and ouch (and snap)
6. People can choose to be quiet / Participation is voluntary
7. We are more than our gender (or any one identity/component)
8. Speak about own experiences – please do not talk about others not in the room
9. Criticism-free zone – no hurtful or negative comments about individuals or agencies
10. In this support-centered space, everyone has an equal voice
11. Respect different backgrounds, experiences, and identities
12. Remember we all have trauma