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News

7-4-09 - So Long, And Thanks...

With great regret, but also gratitude, we announce that Pacific Gender Support will cease its regular schedule of support meetings and social events.  PGS will no longer hold meetings in our 1812 East Madison office after June. For some time, attendance at our regular support group meetings has been too small to justify money spent on rent that could be better spent helping in other ways.

We'll still keep our phone line and web site. We may host occasional events when an opportunity arises, and we welcome constructive thoughts and advice.

PGS was founded in a tumultuous era, one when it seemed peer support meetings were needed but unavailable. Venerable groups were struggling to redefine themselves, their survival and shape in question.

Those of us with the resources and skills to keep the torch lit decided to fill that continuing need on our own. We kept our ambitions simple: A door, open, and friendly faces and help inside. Our mission was to ensure that no one have to suffer through the often lonely, difficult and frightening journeys of life outside society's gender norms alone.

Plenty of people have told me we fulfilled that essential mission. Ingersoll, our city's long-running gender-variant support organization, has since weathered its storms with great resilience, and its meetings and events are well-attended today, back in its ancestral home at Seattle Counseling Service. I wish we could have done more. Seattle has a fantastic transgender community, and it deserves its organizations held to high standards.

PGS' parent organization, the Pacific Gender Institute, will continue to operate, supporting other gender-related programs. But for now, this is goodbye. Keep an eye on our web site, stay in touch, and be proud of yourselves.

Many thanks for all your support.
        -Fran Stewart, Pacific Gender Support

Copyright 2006, Pacific Gender Support