We are happy to welcome Peter Caprise to our DignityUSA Board of Directors as Treasurer. Peter stepped forward to fill the vacancy following the resignation of his predecessor due to personal responsibilities.

Peter is the Chief Financial Officer of a large non-profit organization. He brings a wealth of talent and experience to his new role on our national board.

Welcome, Peter!

We wish a fond farewell to Ron Karstetter, DignityUSA's National Office Manager, for the past five years.

While Marianne Duddy worked from her home in Boston, Ron was the point of contact for our vendors, chapters and members seeking help or placing orders. Ron was the voice on the phone when someone found the courage to call and talk about being Catholic and gay, lesbian, transgender or bisexual. While he will be working for another employer, Ron will continue to be a part of the DignityUSA family serving on the DignityUSA 2005 Convention Committee.

We wish Ron all the best in his new endeavors, and thank him for his past and continuing service and participation in our Dignity family.

We welcome Karen Banks as the new Office Manager. Karen comes to us with a background of experience working with small, non-profit, community based organizations.

Welcome, Karen.

The Call To Action National Conference is being held in Milwaukee from November 5-7, 2004. We are able to make use of a group discount rate for DignityUSA members who wish to attend this Conference. If we have 10 or more registrants, the charge will be $145 per person.

If you wish to take advantage of this discount, please send your check, made payable to CTA-USA and the registration form to our national office, DignityUSA, 1500 Massachusetts Ave. NW #8, Washington, DC 20005-1894, by September 21, 2004. At that time, if we have at least 10 registrants, we will send the registration forms and checks to CTA.

If you don't have a registration form, you can go to www.cta-usa.org/index2.php?dest=conference.html and print one.

The Catholic Church, Government and The Right to Marriage
West Coast Regional Conference

October 15 - 16, 2004
Dignity Center, Los Angeles, CA

Hosted by
Dignity/Los Angeles

Friday Evening, Oct 15, 2004

• Mass and Commitment Ceremony

Saturday Daytime, Oct 16, 2004

• Faithfulness and Commitment in Relationships, John M. Warrington, Ph.D.
• The Spiritual Life and Living Single, Vickie Dendinger, Ph.D.
• Guest Speaker
• DignityUSA Regional Membership Meeting

Saturday Evening, Oct 16, 2004

• Dignity/Los Angeles 35th Anniversary & Awards Dinner at the Taix Restaurant, 1911 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
• Keynote Speaker: The Honorable Jarrett T. Barrios, Massachusetts State Senator
• Conference attendees are invited to attend the evening event for an additional fee.

More details and registration form at www.speakourtruth.org

www.dignityusa.org/2004conferences/index.html

DignityUSA seeks volunteers to staff exhibitor tables at the following 2004 conferences:

• Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), October 22 - 24, Salt Lake City, UT
• Call to Action (CTA), November 5 - 7, Milwaukee, WI
• Creating Change, November 11 - 15, Saint Louis, MO

Please give us some time to INCREASE Our Voice! We will be explaining who we are and what we do, as well as signing up new members. Training will be provided. Please contact the DignityUSA office at 800-877-8797 or info@dignityusa.org

Join DignityUSA in Washington D.C. for acts of prayer and visibility at the next U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) meetings, November 15-18, 2004.

Our presence to empower and amplify the voices of LGBT Catholics has never been more needed than it is NOW!!

Interested in helping to plan and/or join DignityUSA in our actions at the USCCB meeting? Contact Patty Hayes at phayeser1@yahoo.com or 315-437-9957.

Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, will be leading a pilgimage to Austria and Bavaria for friends and advocates of GLBT Catholics, Feb 26 – March 7, 2005.

For further information, phone Jeannine Gramick at 301-864-3604 or email gramick@juno.com.

• Greater Lansing (MI) - 16 Years
• New Brunswick (NJ) - 20 Years
• New Mexico (NM) - 20 Years
• Indianapolis (IN) - 23 Years
• Maine (ME) - 24 Years
• Toledo (OH) - 27 Years
• Buffalo (NY) - 28 Years
• Pittsburgh (PA) - 30 Years
• Twin Cities (MN) - 30 Years
• Seattle (WA) - 31 Years
• New York (NY) - 32 Years
• Washington (DC) - 32 Years
• Los Angeles (CA) - 35 Years

"Breath of the Spirit: Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments," is DignityUSA's electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members.

Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.

See the Scriptural Essays at www.dignityusa.org/breath/spirit.html.

Our beginning offering is weekly Scriptural Essays with wisdom from a Vatican II scripture scholar. We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also - particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians.

You may volunteer to help with this program, or send your comments, by e-mail to info@DignityUSA.org, ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.

October 10, 2004

Wear the ribbon. Pray the prayer. Take the pledge. End the violence directed towards perceived and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons.

Pre-assembled brochures and other appropriate supplies for use in conjunction with Solidarity Sunday™ are available with improved order handling and shipping – 2-3 business day order handling and 2-5 business day delivery.

For more information and supply order forms, go to www.dignityusa.org/solidarity/index.html.

Solidarity Sunday™ is a project of DignityUSA since 1995.