Woodstock Pride Newsletter

Join us for insightful conversation and reflection the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. This month's meeting dates are Sept 6th and 20th, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Bring your works-in-progress and craft supplies in to the Woodstock Pride Community Center to a relaxed group setting and engage in some parallel play. The next gathering will be September 13th from 10 am to 2 pm.

Join us on the last Friday of every month for games galore! Our next game night will be on September 25th!

Check out the Woodstock Pride calendar to keep up to date with all of our upcoming events.

Do you know of a cool LGBTQ+ event nearby or want to host your own? If you're a Woodstock Pride member, you can also submit events to be added to the calendar through the link above.

It’s our Queer Joy Back-to-School edition! In this highly engaging first-person account,

journalist Elizabeth Winkler takes the reader on her travels across the Atlantic on her

journey from the present into the past to unpack how colonialism, religion, gender and

class have shaped our ideas about “Shakespeare.” But who wrote the collected works

of Shake-Speare (as the name first appears)? Winkler considers arguments for the

most compelling candidates: A forgotten woman, a disgraced aristocrat, a government

spy. The deeper she digs, the more she confronts the mysterious elements of the plays

themselves, with their gender-bending twins and mistaken identities and disguises.

What is true, and how do we know what truth is when we look back at history?

https://bookshop.org/shakespeare-was-a-woman-and-other-heresies

One candidate with a strong case for the authorship is Edward de Vere, the 17 th Earl of

Oxford, a spend-thrift literary genius courtier whose life (and loves) echo through the

plays. But even if this were the answer to one mystery, it only opens up more: Is the

‘Dark Lady’ of the Shake-Speare sonnets actually Queen Elizabeth, Edward’s surrogate

mother and possibly his lover in his early 20s? Who is the ‘Fair Youth’, and why are the

first 126 of the sonnets obsessed with him? Did Edward have a child with Elizabeth—a

Tudor heir—or was de Vere bisexual? Are these love poems political or, well, love

poems? In this collection of short essays, Richard M. Waugaman makes his case for an

erotic reading of the sonnets (free on Kindle Unlimited).

https://bookshop.org/let-s-re-vere-the-works-of-shakespeare/

Whoever wrote the works attributed to Shakespeare, it’s a fascinating question worth

asking.

Was Shakespeare Gay? - J. Draper

Point of Pride: affirmation cards for trans youth: https://www.pointofpride.org/letter-writing

LGBTQIA+ Resources: https://www.woodstockilpride.com/resources

Trans-Farm-Ation Grant Application: Funds are available for gender-affirming care including (but not limited to):
- HRT (hormone replacement therapy)

- Co-pays or medical bills for doctor visits related to gender-affirming care
- Legal aid for Name Change
- Gender-affirming clothing and accessories (binders, gaffs, packets, STPs, etc.)
- Gender-affirming surgery

- Beauty products
- Laser hair removal
- Lost wages for surgical recovery
- Voice training
- Therapy
- And more!
Click here to read more and apply

Order a personalized brick for the Wall of Pride in the future Woodstock Pride Community Center. Whether it’s for yourself, your family, or a friend, your custom brick will become a lasting symbol of support and celebration for our LGBTQ+ community and allies.

It’s a meaningful way to honor someone special—and help build a space where everyone belongs.

Learn more and order your brick here.

• Plans were discussed for Trans Day of Remembrance and the next Drunk History.
• We will be again be supplying prop bags for Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Opera House in October- we will be packing them at an upcoming meeting.
• Nominations to the Pride Board of Directors will be open in October, with elections November. Only paid members will be eligible to cast votes.
• The fight against Flock Safety cameras continues with Woodstock Pride co-hosting a silent demonstration on August 29th. Reminder that you can access the Woodstock Pride Community Center via the Throop Street entrance to avoid the cameras.
• The Trans-farm-ation Mutual Aid Grant is still open and going through a revamp and taking applications.

Woodstock Pride

General Inquiries: woodstockpride@gmail.com

Website: https://www.woodstockilpride.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woodstockpride/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/woodstockpride/

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/woodstockpride.bsky.social

Woodstock Pride Newsletter

Email: wpnewsletter002@gmail.com

Are you interested in sharing your art, poetry, or media recommendations? Or maybe you have suggestions for content to include in the next newsletter? Send us an email!

Submissions due by 1st Tuesday of the month