Join us for our regular monthly meeting welcoming the entire spectrum of LGBTQ+ community, friends, families, and allies for support and education. Our regular support group will follow the education portion.
Our PFLAG general support meetings will be held both IN PERSON and VIA ZOOM. Please note: all persons who wish to attend our in person meetings must be Fully Vaccinated against Covid-19.
Virtual meeting attendees still require RSVP. If you are new to Zoom, CLICK HERE to get set-up.
Please RSVP to rsvp@pflagmanhattanbeach.org
EDUCATION PORTION:
Coming Out as a Spiritual Process
with Ben Freeman (he/him/his)
ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION:
What does it take to live in the world as our authentic selves? And what beliefs about our relationships with others, ourselves, and the world around us does the act of living authentically test the limits of? In this interactive presentation and discussion with Ben Freeman (he/him), a queer Jewish chaplain and ritual leader, we'll talk about coming out as an ongoing process, rather than a singular event; dip into some theoretical concepts of spiritual care that can help us approach coming out with greater awareness of all that's at stake; and engage with the stories of queer people living their truth.
ABOUT OUR PRESENTER:
Ben Freeman (he/him) is an artist, educator, ritual leader, and chaplain/spiritual director/coach originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, currently based in New York City. He is Associate Clergy at Lab/Shul, an experimental Jewish community based in New York; works as a teaching artist with CO/LAB Theater Group, a theater group that aims to provide a creative outlet through theater arts for actors with developmental disabilities; and works as a wellness coach for K-12 educators through edwell. As a musical artist, he released a full-length album last summer entitled Quiet Fury and is currently developing several independent theater projects. Ben holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School and an undergraduate theater degree from Brown University.
A NOTE ABOUT VIRTUAL MEETINGS:
We will be utilizing Zoom features that provide the highest level of safety and confidentiality possible. Zoom is free to you and you need not have an account to join us. If you are new to Zoom, you can follow the links [here] for brief tutorials on all you need to know to sign on to a Zoom meeting with us. We ask that each of you that would like to participate in the on-line support, contact us in advance by email at rsvp@pflagmanhattanbeach.org to RSVP for the meeting. We will cut off RSVPs at 5 p.m. on the day of the meeting. All participants will receive a follow-up email with the link to the Zoom call and a password. For confidentiality’s sake, please do not forward these to another participant — they are welcome to contact us directly to receive the link.
We ask that youth who may want to join for our support groups to please be joined by a parent. Some heavy emotions can emerge in the course of our sessions and having a parent on-hand helps to ensure that the needs of any youth on the call are met.
There are some benefits to utilizing new tools like Zoom. We recognize that our typical evening support group meetings are not feasible for everyone due to work, family or other demands. If there is a need, we would like to offer an additional support group Zoom conference call sometime during the daytime hours. If you are interested in a daytime support group, email us at info@pflagmanhattanbeach.org and let us know what times might be more workable for you.
If you need more personalized assistance and support, we remain here for you. Email us confidentially and we will work with you to identify the best member of our team to assist with your individual needs.