7:30 - 9:00pm Guest speaker: Shai Wise Guest speaker - and former regular FORGE attendee - Shai Wise is back from Minnesota and will rally discussion around spiritual practices and connections (or not) to religious communities.   Shai is an out FTM/intersex pastor, who comes from a complex spiritual background and embraces a wide range of spiritual beliefs and practices.  Shai's laid back style, will encourage discussion and guide people into talking about what needs and desires people have (or don't have) from religious communities. -- For more information on monthly social support group meetings, check out this page.

7:30 - 9:00pm Choosing Love Join us for a discussion about choosing love in your life.  An interactive game will kick of the meeting, serving as a jumping off point for further discussion about how and where to meet people; considerations about if/how/when to disclose trans identity or history; what kinds of things weaken the bonds within a relationship; and strategies for maintaining loving and long-lasting relationships. -- For more information on monthly social support group meetings, check out this page.

Have you enjoyed coming to PrideFest in previous years?  Are you looking for a way to cut costs and still be able to attend, connect with your friends, and contribute to a thriving Trans/LGBQ community? Once again, FORGE is a co-sponsor of PrideFest's Health and Wellness area.  We are looking for volunteers to help onsite, as well as to do some "behind the scenes" (pre-PrideFest) work.     Volunteering = free admission.    To sign up, fill out this brief survey: https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dDByZDVoQ08zSnZMVzRya2ZER0NkTFE6MA

Ramping up, slowing down: taking charge of your emotions “Emotional regulation” – not only may the term itself seem a little strange, but the skills it entails may be strangers to us, as well.  Many of us learned to fear emotions or act them out rather than “regulate” them.  At June's meeting, we will learn and practice some specific strategies and skills to modulate our emotions.  We will talk about how these skills can be used to help us achieve personal, professional, and spiritual goals, as well as to more easily work WITH our emotions rather than letting them rule our lives.  Date and Time: Saturday, June 25, 2011 -- 7:30 - 9:00pm  Location: Milwaukee LGBT Community Center 252 E. Highland Ave Milwaukee, WI  53202  # # # # # Please also  join us for open discussion from 6:00 - 7:15pm.    

July's meeting will be a laid back, participant-driven, discussion.  Each attendee will be given the opportunity to propose topics that are of interest to them -- either because they would like to talk more about it, or because they'd like to hear what others have to say about a particular subject.   The meeting will be informal, but will provide support, gentle facilitation, and information.

MEETING CANCELED! The August 27 meeting has been canceled.  Please join us in September.  

Guest speakers: Brice Smith, Michael Doylen, and Max Yela    Description:  Join Brice Smith (trans historian), Michael Doylen (head of the UWM Archives Department) and Max Yela (head of the Special Collections at the UWM Archives) for a unique opportunity to learn more about the LGBT special collection and view highlighted transgender selections.  Brice Smith will discuss the transgender oral history project and share audio excerpts from his interviews of transgender community members.  For more information about the LGBT Special Collection, please visit http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/special/collections/lgbt_studies/lgbt_collection.cfm Date and (new) Time:  September 24, 2011, 6:00 - 7:45pm Location (just this month): Golda Meir Library (UW-Milwaukee campus) 2311 East Hartford Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53211 The Special Collections are on the 4th floor.  Enter the west wing of the building and take the elevator around the corner. There will be someone at the Welcome Desk to help with directions to the Special Collections area.  Google Map to the Golda Meir […]

(The HIV Story Project, Jörg Fockele and Marc Smolowitz, producers; 82min., 2011) A video quilt that weaves together a diverse array of stories – of men and women, young and old; gay, straight and transgender – all living with HIV. Still Around shares artful testimonials brought together to mark the 30th anniversary of one of the world's most substantial health pandemics. Produced by the San Francisco-based collective The HIV Story Project, Still Around is a collaboration between subject and filmmaker: each portrait started with an individual living with the disease who wanted to tell their story, a filmmaker then brought in to collaborate on the story’s realization. The results wonderfully vary in form – straightforward documentary, spoken word performance, experimental poetics, a dance piece. But in sum the anthology marks a triumph of voices raised -- in courage, in defiance, as witness. 24th Annual Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival http://www4.uwm.edu/psoa/programs/film/lgbtfilm/ Co-Sponsor: BESTD Clinic Community Co-Presenter: Sixteenth […]

Description: Join us for a moderated panel discussion of individuals who are living long term.  There will be ample time for attendees to ask panelists specific questions and begin a dialogue that will continue later in the evening when we break into our usual roundtable discussion format.    Topics that may emerge include: implications of long-term hormone use; changes in health insurance benefits/access over time; shifts or stability in various components of identity; decisions around the choice to be stealth or out; impact on family and relationships; consequences of theREALID Act; changes in emotions or socialization; issues that may have cropped up now that weren’t there long ago; and cultural and political and changes in the trans (and LGB and straight) community/ies.