Dear , As Thanksgiving approaches, and perhaps due to the focus on preparing for our organization's 50th anniversary, I am incredibly grateful for DignityUSA, and for all of the leadership, vision, work, funding, and just plain tenacity it has taken to get to this moment. I wanted to take a moment to thank YOU for your service to our members, the LGBTQI Catholic community, and to our Church. Whether your service on the DignityUSA Board of Directors has just begun or reaches back decades, you are an essential part of our story. Here is just a tiny bit of what you have helped to build: --A network of more than 30 local faith communities and 4 nationwide caucuses that provide affirming community for thousands of people each month --An uncompromised voice that can address Church leaders, Catholics, political leaders, and the general public on issues of importance to LGBTQI Catholics locally, nationally, and internationally --An organization that has outlasted numerous attempts to crush and discredit it --An organization helping to build an international movement of LGBTQI and Allied Catholics (three of our leaders head to Germany this week for the second in-person meeting of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics) --A group that just helped sponsor a historic conference celebrating the early decades of the LGBTQI Christian justice movement (You can watch videos and get more info here.) --A ground-breaking organization that helped shatter many barriers for LGBTQI people through court cases, gaining support of Catholic legislators and executives for equality legislation, placing the first ad in a mainstream newspaper, and shaping public and religious conversation on key issues --A transnational community of deeply supportive relationships, friendships, even marriages! --A movement that has helped tens of thousands of people embrace the truth of who they are, and come to see themselves as an incarnation of the Divine. On this Feast of Gratitude, I extend my personal thanks, as well as the appreciation of so many whose lives have been shaped by their connection with Dignity, for your leadership and service. Thank you for a glorious past, an incredible present, and a promising future. With deep gratitude, Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director
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