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Greg Partridge, Doug Potter, and Mary Rees oral history, 2019.
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- speakerAll right. So this is Elizabeth
- speakerWittrig interviewing Greg Partridge
- speakerand Doug Potter and Mary Rees on
- speakerJune 1st 2019.
- speakerSo how did you guys come to
- speakerthe Downtown Church?
- speakerWas it because of Janie?
- speakerAbsolutely.
- speakerYeah, we had been attending
- speakerThird Presbyterian Church
- speakerfor a few weeks
- speakerand someone
- speakerhad suggested to us that
- speakerJanie Spahr was preaching
- speakerat the Downtown Church and that we
- speakermight want to
- speakerhear what she had to say.
- speakerAnd Jane.
- speakerNo, not Jane.
- speakerSusie.
- speakerSusie.
- speakerSusie someone.
- speakerHad been, was a
- speakerfriend of ours and was encouraging
- speakerus to come to to Downtown Church.
- speakerShe was very active here at that
- speakertime.
- speakerSue and Jane. So anyway.
- speakerOh yes.
- speakerWe came to Downtown Church on a
- speakerSunday morning to hear Janie Spahr
- speakerand we've
- speakernever left.
- speakerIt felt very much like home
- speakerat the time we were here
- speakerand we,
- speakerI think we both knew just
- speakerwithin minutes of walking in
- speakerand hearing Janie preach that this
- speakeris this is where we belonged.
- speakerAnd at that time
- speakerthat was just after
- speakerJanie's call to
- speakerthe Downtown Church and
- speakerI think the case had gone all the
- speakerway through the, the PJC
- speakerjudicial commission and
- speakerThat All May Freely Serve had
- speakeractually maybe started.
- speakerJust been.
- speakerHad been formed.
- speakerWas forming at that time.
- speakerWere you guys on the
- speakerboard early on?
- speakerI can't remember. I think you
- speakerweren't on there when I came and I
- speakerwasn't on the board in the first few
- speakeryears.
- speakerThose first two to three years
- speakerwe weren't.
- speakerFirst two to three years.
- speakerActive on the board.
- speakerYou weren't either. Just supportive.
- speakerIt was, right we became supporters.
- speakerThere was you know how
- speakermany times there was all these
- speakermeetings the TAMFS meetings.
- speakerRight.
- speakerWhen Janie was in town at
- speakera house meeting and Janie would ask
- speaker"Well how would you like to become
- speakerinvolved at these meetings?".
- speakerOh yes.
- speakerSo it was an evolutionary process.
- speakerIt was at Rose Mitchell's house.
- speakerOh was it? Yeah. The way I got
- speakerinvolved with the board was that
- speakerJanie asked me to be
- speakera facilitator for a weekend.
- speakerOh that's right.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerYeah. I almost think that I was on
- speakerthe board at that time because I remember that. At the retreat center,
- speakerthe Mercy Retreat Center.
- speakerYou were on the board at that time. Do you remember that?
- speakerAnd
- speakerI did that.
- speakerAnd then after that I was invited.
- speakerYou got sucked in.
- speakerI got sucked in. Which of us was a co-moderator first?
- speakerI think I was first. Because I was co-moderator with
- speakerVirginia.
- speakerYou replaced Chuck, with Virginia.
- speakerAnd I replaced Chuck, Chuck Lundeen. Right.
- speakerAnd then I was seen as the
- speakerVirginia replacement.
- speakerYou were the Virginia successor.
- speakerBut of course nobody can replace Virginia.
- speakerNo one can replace Virginia.
- speakerYeah
- speakeryeah. And we were co-moderators for
- speakeryears.
- speakerA long time, yeah.
- speakerFor a long time, I for even longer than you.
- speakerYes. Yeah.
- speakerAnd then I left and Jim Vesper
- speakertook my position. Yeah.
- speakerJim Vesper came after, yeah. I was trying to remember
- speakerhow many of the general assemblies I
- speakerwent to. You went to a couple.
- speakerA couple.
- speakerYeah was in Louisville.
- speakerYou went to some of the earlier ones
- speakerthan I did.
- speakerWhere it was pretty
- speakerdifficult right?
- speakerIt it was, yeah.
- speakerKind of painful?
- speakerIt was painful.
- speakerI think you were at several. I know I was at
- speakerthe Louisville one and
- speakerthen Richmond?
- speakerRichmond.
- speakerWe went to Richmond
- speakerbecause I mean that really
- speakerjumps way ahead because
- speakerthat was the
- speakeryear we got married in Canada
- speakerwhich was
- speaker15 years ago now.
- speakerSo that's when, I mean they were
- speakertalking a lot about that year in
- speakerRichmond about marriage
- speakerand the church.
- speakerSo that's what I mean.
- speakerThere's all of these elapsed times.
- speakerYes.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerGA was always an interesting
- speakerexperience though.
- speakerI mean there was certainly a lot of
- speakercamaraderie between
- speakerall the observers that went from
- speakerMore Light
- speakerand and
- speakerThat All May Freely Serve, the various chapters
- speakeraround, and so forth but
- speakeryou know just some awful awful
- speakerthings happening to us.
- speakerLost votes.
- speakerLost vote after lost vote.
- speakerAfter lost vote, after lost vote.
- speakerIt just seemed like we couldn't get
- speakera break anywhere.
- speakerAnd a lot of hateful stuff to listen
- speakerto.
- speakerOh awful stuff.
- speakerIn
- speakerthe committees and then and in the
- speakerin the General Assembly
- speakeras well.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerAnd when I started going it
- speakerwasn't quite.
- speakerI
- speakersort of was there as it transitioned
- speakerfrom
- speakerits very worst to
- speakerthe beginning of feeling that
- speakersomething might really happen.
- speakerMight actually happen, yeah.
- speakerAnd then.
- speakerAnd then of course Lisa's
- speakerwonderful just incredible
- speakerbrilliance in
- speakerfocusing on
- speakerthe church we all wanted
- speakerit to become, the welcoming church
- speakerand the new church
- speakerrevolution and that
- speakerwhole hospitality
- speakereffort of bringing in young
- speakerpeople and showing that the future
- speakerof the church
- speakeris to be a welcoming church
- speakerand standing out
- speakerwith coffee and cookies as
- speakerall the assembly members came
- speakerin. I will never
- speakerforget how powerful
- speakerthat was.
- speakerBut it couldn't have been done a lot
- speakerearlier.
- speakerIt wouldn't have had the same
- speakereffect.
- speakerIt was at the right time.
- speakerIt was at the time when things were
- speakerstarting to shift
- speakerand it helped the shift.
- speakerMary can you talk a little bit more
- speakerabout that New Church Revolution
- speakeridea?
- speakerYeah. And we've, I'll show you
- speakerlater in our archives we've got the,
- speakershe got a
- speakergrant
- speakerand that funded
- speakerI think about 20, I've forgotten the
- speakerexact number of young people,
- speakerto be at General Assembly.
- speakerThey were the core
- speakerin doing this and I think it
- speakerhappened
- speakerat least two general assemblies.
- speakerI know it happened more than once.
- speakerIt might have been might have been
- speakermore but it was at least two
- speakerand
- speakerand at the same time there were
- speakerstill More
- speakerLight was still doing some advocacy
- speakerthat was more confrontational.
- speakerYou know they were both happening at
- speakerthe same general assemblies.
- speakerIt wasn't a total
- speakertransition to a different
- speakerway of a different
- speakerparadigm so to speak.
- speakerYeah more than anything it just
- speakerthere they were.
- speakerYou know these young people
- speakerbeing welcoming and it's like and
- speakerJanie
- speakeralways talked
- speakerabout personing the issue
- speakerfrom the very beginning
- speakerand that she always
- speakerunderstood that telling stories
- speakeris what changes
- speakerpeople.
- speakerAnd this was
- speakerlike taking that another step
- speakerfurther and saying
- speakerit's not just telling stories it's
- speakershowing what can be.
- speakerThat's what these young people were
- speakerdoing and it was like
- speakerthis is the future.
- speakerIf you choose to accept
- speakerit this is the future that
- speakerwe can have in our denomination.
- speakerAnd that was not the year that
- speakerit changed.
- speakerThat was the preparation
- speakerfor the vote finally
- speakerhappening and Amendment B being
- speakerremoved.
- speakerYou were, you were there though?
- speakerNo, no, that was after my time.
- speakerThat was after you were a co-moderator, yeah.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerSo can you talk about some of the work that you did as co-moderators?
- speakerA lot happened in those days, didn't it?
- speakerIt did.
- speakerI think, I mean just going back to
- speakerto sort of personing the issue that
- speakerI think was was a core concept
- speakerof at the inception
- speakerof That All May Freely Serve.
- speakerJanie obviously was
- speakerwas a wonderful storyteller
- speakerand taught
- speakerus all that
- speakeryou know the way the way to change
- speakerhearts and minds is to tell your
- speakerstory and to
- speakerbe real with people.
- speakerAnd that's what we sent her out to
- speakerdo.
- speakerYou know we.
- speakerWe were told that we couldn't have
- speakerher as our pastor.
- speakerAnd so we said well
- speakermaybe then we need to educate
- speakerthe church on this issue
- speakerand
- speakerwe seem to have picked the right
- speakerperson to start the whole ball
- speakerrolling to do that.
- speakerYeah. My gosh.
- speakerMy gosh. And
- speakerGreg you were doing the newsletters all these years.
- speakerSo I was the.
- speakerWell Doug was a co-moderator and
- speakerMary was became
- speakera co-moderator and one of the
- speakerpeople who worked on the annual
- speakermeeting.
- speakerI would be working we
- speakerdid four times a year newsletter.
- speakerIt was very
- speakerinteresting because we transitioned
- speakerfrom the early days when it was
- speakerjust one eight
- speakerand a half by eleven. It all fit there to every
- speakernewsletter was different.
- speakerThe largest one was
- speakeralways after the.
- speakerAfter the General Assembly, huh?
- speakerAfter the general assemblies because
- speakerthere again telling the story
- speakerit was important also to tell the
- speakerstory to the people who weren't able
- speakerto be there.
- speakerSo we told it through both photos
- speakerand words. So that's why
- speakerthe newsletter was large after
- speakerGeneral Assembly.
- speakerBut my task doing that
- speakeris it
- speakerbecame the whole
- speakerthing.
- speakerI learned I had
- speakertechnical computer skills so
- speakerthat's kind of why I got tapped.
- speakerBut I had to also learn how
- speakerto become an editor.
- speakerHow you do a layout. So part of
- speakerthe skill, you
- speakertake one skill and then you build on
- speakerit.
- speakerI built on it.
- speakerBut anyway, I really don't remember
- speakerhow many years
- speakerI did that throughout the process.
- speakerQuite a few
- speakerI think.
- speakerBut
- speakerthat's so I would
- speakersay from my perspective
- speakerI wasn't the front facing
- speakerperson telling a lot of the
- speakerstories.
- speakerVery rarely.
- speakerI was more
- speakerthe making
- speakersure this newsletter got out four
- speakertimes a year and the logistics
- speakerperson.
- speakerI don't remember how many people
- speakerwe had in our database but it
- speakerwas a lot. The newsletter
- speakerwent to a lot of people all around
- speakerthe country.
- speakerIt was, there was
- speakerI remember
- speakerover a thousand or so we
- speakerconstantly had that was one of the
- speakertasks.
- speakerIs that the number of, about?
- speakerIn
- speakerorder because of postage you always
- speakerhad to watch that.
- speakerYou always tried to work to make
- speakersure that you only send
- speakerit to one person
- speakerone time and that
- speakersort of stuff.
- speakerBut it was in the thousands.
- speakerIt was a lot
- speakerof work.
- speakerIt was a it was a really important
- speakerpart because part of this was
- speakerit was always about supporting
- speakerpeople and staying
- speakerconnected which is a huge
- speakerchallenge for any organization
- speakerbut especially when you're national.
- speakerSo like you said staying connected
- speakernationally and
- speakerthen one way along the way you know
- speakersomeone prompted us, so what is the
- speakergoal of the newsletter besides this
- speakerconnectedness?
- speakerSo we became much better at making
- speakersure we always made an ask
- speakeras well.
- speakerOh yeah.
- speakerThis is probably speaking of that is
- speakera good time so what kind of happened in the beginning and I think it's
- speakerreally important in terms of the Downtown Church's role in all of this.
- speakerSo we
- speakercalled Janie and then we were not
- speakerallowed to
- speakerhave her.
- speakerAnd so when That All May Freely
- speakerServe was created
- speakerand
- speakerthe church donated
- speakerthe amount that would have been her
- speakersalary which was around 30,000
- speakerto That All May Freely
- speakerServe and
- speakerliterally because the amount
- speakerwas because that
- speakeris what at that time would
- speakerhave been her salary.
- speakerAnd the
- speakerchurch continued to support
- speakerthat That All May Freely Serve
- speakerfinancially
- speakerin about that range for
- speakera many many years until at a
- speakerpoint came where
- speakerother financial realities
- speakerwere intervening
- speakerin terms of the church and we had
- speakerto reduce
- speakerthe amount
- speakerthat was done.
- speakerBut that made a huge
- speakerdifference. So the rest of that came
- speakerfrom donors.
- speakerThe rest of what funded
- speakerbecause we're talking about Janie's
- speakersalary.
- speakerLater we hired an
- speakeradministrative person
- speakerand then
- speakerwe hired Lisa Larges
- speakeras regional coordinator
- speakerto be the primary person working
- speakerwith the various
- speakerregions and the
- speakerrepresentatives of those.
- speakerSo you know it took, it
- speakerwas a lot of travel.
- speakerIf you think about, you know
- speakerit wasn't a cheap thing to.
- speakerNo it wasn't a cheap thing.
- speakerTo
- speakerlaunch That All May Freely Serve
- speakerand keep it going so the
- speakerthat
- speakerdonor base was
- speakerso important to being able
- speakerto do that.
- speakerCan you talk a little bit about I guess kind of where That All May Freely
- speakerServe kind of fit into other advocacy groups?
- speakerSure, you want to do that?
- speakerSure, at one point we began
- speakerto work with two
- speakerother organizations and they, I
- speakerdon't know where the term came,
- speakerbut
- speakerwe the groups called each
- speakerother The Three Sisters.
- speakerSo there was More Light
- speakerPresbyterians and.
- speakerCovenant Network.
- speakerCovenant Network were
- speakerour two
- speakermajor partners. And then.
- speakerThey were the three sisters.
- speakerYeah, they were the three sisters.
- speakerThe Shower of Stoles project
- speakercertainly was
- speakera big coordinator.
- speakerAll three of us related to them.
- speakerThey didn't really.
- speakerThat was more supplying
- speakerthe stoles for important events.
- speakerImportant events, yeah.
- speakerAnd we all
- speakerdid that because it was again
- speakera way the Shower personing the issue.
- speakerPersoning and telling the story.
- speakerYeah, absolutely.
- speakerThe stoles were
- speakeralways very impressive
- speakerto you know walk around and
- speakereach of them had a
- speakerstory of
- speakerthe person.
- speakerDid you guys have stoles?
- speakerWe did.
- speakerI thought so.
- speakerSo
- speakeryou know that that always
- speakermade made
- speakera wonderful backdrop for for our group
- speakergatherings and it sort of felt like
- speakeryou know a hug from
- speakerthe cloud of witnesses.
- speakerAnd I think all three
- speakerorganizations used those
- speakeroften, yeah.
- speakerUsed those.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerAnd we
- speakerhad joint dinners at
- speakerGeneral Assembly.
- speakerWe attended each other's dinners.
- speakerAttended each other's dinner.
- speakerSometimes they were joint and sometimes, yeah.
- speakerRights, sometimes they were individual.
- speakerSometimes they were individual.
- speakerBut
- speakerif you so
- speakerwe
- speakerkind of at least I kind of thought of
- speakerus as being in the middle maybe
- speakeramong the three. You too? Is that what you would say?
- speakerOh yeah.
- speakerThat you know Covenant Network was.
- speakerDefinitely
- speakermore towards the center.
- speakerMore towards the center and more, you know
- speakersometimes it was difficult
- speakerbecause it
- speakerwas very clear to both That
- speakerAll May Freely Serve and More Light
- speakerthat
- speakerevery General Assembly we
- speakerneeded to bring
- speakerat least one overture
- speakerregardless of what happened to
- speakerit that we needed to keep
- speakerthe issue out there
- speakerand that our denomination
- speakerneeded to wrestle with it every
- speakerGeneral Assembly
- speakerand what often happened
- speakerwas or some of the
- speakertimes happened was that
- speakerCovenant Network
- speakersometimes didn't support those.
- speakerJust ignore it.
- speakerCovenant Network sometimes didn't
- speakersupport those overtures
- speakerbecause probably what
- speakerthey would say was it wasn't time
- speakeryet or the church wasn't ready
- speakeror something
- speakerwhich wasn't easy for us
- speakerto hear.
- speakerSo that's why we
- speakersay they were it was more
- speakercenter and it you know
- speakerhad a lot of clergy people so that
- speakeryou know I think that was part of
- speakerthat as well.
- speakerI would say that More Light was
- speakermore radical than we were
- speakerprobably only in the
- speakernot in terms of what we believed
- speakerbut
- speakersometimes I think that we were
- speakermore relational
- speakerand or tried to be more relational
- speakerin how we approached things.
- speakerDoes that make sense?
- speakerI think that does make sense to me.
- speakerSo these are our
- speakerbiases.
- speakerSomeone else may say something
- speakertotally different but
- speakeryou know I think
- speakerMore Light was
- speakereven more ready to
- speakerconfront, push whatever
- speakerthan we always were.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerYeah but we saw
- speakerourselves as really doing the work
- speakerof being out there personing the
- speakerissue, talking
- speakerto people, and
- speakertrying to change hearts and minds.
- speakerAnd yeah you know so.
- speakerSo when when something would
- speakercome up that you know we
- speakerthought was too much in someone's
- speakerface you know we
- speakerreally had a hard time harder time
- speakersupporting.
- speakerOne of the things that always amazed
- speakerme about Janie and
- speakereven more so then cause I think it
- speakerwas more difficult then, was that she
- speakerwas always ready to
- speakersit down with anyone
- speakerand in fact was it Ron?
- speakerRolf
- speakerPaul Jensen.
- speakerYes it was him.
- speakerSo he's the guy who
- speakerbrought a bunch of the
- speakerwhat are they called?
- speakerComplaints.
- speakerThe complaints. Anyway she pursued
- speakerhim at General Assembly
- speakerand said you know I want
- speakerto pray with you.
- speakerI want to sit down with you.
- speakerYeah yeah yeah.
- speakerAnd she did.
- speakerAnd she did.
- speakerAnd and she did.
- speakerI mean.
- speakerThat's the.
- speakerSo when I say relational that's
- speakerwhat I mean.
- speakerIt's more than you know it's not
- speakerjust a
- speakerloose word.
- speakerIt's it's a real word.
- speakerJanie.
- speakerConnected with the whole spectrum.
- speakerShe worked at making those
- speakerthings happen and making those
- speakerconnections which I couldn't
- speakerhave done.
- speakerNo absolutely not. But
- speakeryou know that that was her gift is
- speakerthat she could
- speakertalk and be in
- speakerrelationship really with anyone.
- speakerI mean just
- speakerphenomenal. I think.
- speakerEven when hatred was coming towards
- speakerher.
- speakerYeah yeah.
- speakerAnd she'd say things like you know
- speakerI'm sorry you feel that way.
- speakerBut then she'd go on.
- speakerShe'd go on, yeah.
- speakerWhereas I'd be ah!
- speakerYou're the Antichrist, yeah. Well I'm sorry you feel that way.
- speakerSo. So just going back
- speakerto the previous
- speakerquestion about what we
- speakerdid as moderators I think
- speakermaybe Mary and I or certainly I
- speakeralways saw our role as trying
- speakerto keep a lid on Janie Spahr.
- speakerI mean that was how we moderated.
- speakerYeah sometimes it was.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerThat is true.
- speakerIn many ways including financially
- speakerbecause it's like you know she
- speakerbelieved that God
- speakerwill provide and there's abundance
- speakerand it's like yeah but yeah
- speakerbut.
- speakerYeah but.
- speakerBut we don't have the money to, we don't have it today to do that.
- speakerWe don't have it today.
- speakerAnd somehow she almost always did
- speakercome through with it and I don't
- speakerknow how she did it.
- speakerBut somebody came through.
- speakerSomehow the word got out.
- speakerWord got out that Janie got the money.
- speakerYes exactly.
- speakerThat is what happened.
- speakerI was going to circle back you said
- speakerthat each of you had stoles in the Shower of Stoles Project?
- speakerWe had stoles
- speakermade and actually we
- speakerstill have them in our
- speakerpossession.
- speakerWe wrote our stories and never ended
- speakerup getting there.
- speakerWe wrote our stories and somehow it never made it to the Shower of Stoles
- speakerProject.
- speakerOh they never made it to the
- speakercollection? It's not that you got them back.
- speakerYeah. No no no.
- speakerYou still have them. Well that's kind of nice too.
- speakerWe still have them. So that's a little embarrassing
- speakerreally, but we intended to send them to Shower of Stoles.
- speakerMaybe you didn't want to part with
- speakerthem.
- speakerDid
- speakeryou guys go to the
- speakerconferences? We had
- speakera lot of conferences.
- speakerWe had a lot of conferences, sure we did.
- speakerRochester? Did you go to the one in Georgia? There was one in Georgia.
- speakerThere was one in Stony Point.
- speakerIn Georgia, yeah.
- speakerYou didn't go? Did you miss them?
- speakerI think went to every single TAMFS conference. The
- speakeronly one that I
- speakermean I didn't many
- speakerTAMFS as
- speakerco-moderators or went
- speakerto the Covenant Network or
- speakerMore Light meetings.
- speakerAnd I didn't go to all of
- speakerthose meetings but it was either
- speakerlike you as co-moderators went
- speakerto one or the other.
- speakerWe did. We always tried to support
- speakertheir conferences as well as ours.
- speakerYeah. Yeah but those that
- speakerwas another way that
- speakerwe stayed in touch with people around the country because that
- speakeryou know that's
- speakera huge challenge.
- speakerThose are the three I remember.
- speakerDo you remember any others?
- speakerAnd maybe we did more than one in
- speakerRochester.
- speakerI think there were two here.
- speakerThere was one early on that
- speakerI don't think we participated in.
- speakerYeah.
- speakerThere
- speakerwas an attempt to bring all
- speakerthe regions together.
- speakerWere they well attended?
- speakerYeah.
- speakerYeah as a matter of fact.
- speakerGeorgia was packed.
- speakerStony Brook was.
- speakerStony Brook was fabulous.
- speakerThe conferences
- speakerwere great from
- speakerthe aspect of all of the educational
- speakeropportunities but it was behind
- speakerthe scenes operations.
- speakerSo that's why I said Stony
- speakerBrook was packed because the
- speakeroperations there even though they
- speakerwere complex there
- speakerwas a physical plant there to
- speakersupport you. A cafeteria, a dorm
- speakerroom versus the other
- speakerplaces. The wonderful aspect though
- speakerwas the housing usually occurred
- speakerwith people in
- speakerthe region.
- speakerYes and we
- speakerstayed with people. That was neat.
- speakerAnd then
- speakerwe would do usually catered things would be brought to the churches
- speakerbecause they were so big that it was
- speakertoo hard to have.
- speakerBut so think
- speakerof it if you started on Friday night
- speakerthat's a Friday night dinner.
- speakerThree things on Saturday and then a
- speakerSunday morning.
- speakerAnd so just logistically
- speakerthat was.
- speakerA lot.
- speakerIt was huge.
- speakerSo the aspect was fun from the
- speakeraspect of worships and things.
- speakerI mean Stony Brook there
- speakeragain when you spoke of youth.
- speakerStony Point.
- speakerStony Point had a huge youth contingent
- speakerand they did almost all the
- speakerworships.
- speakerSo the youth contingent
- speakerwere
- speakeryoung people who were in seminary.
- speakerRight.
- speakerRight. That was the other that connection.
- speakerAnd that became Ivy Marlowe
- speakerand Mieke Vandersall
- speakerin particular led that
- speakergroup for several years and
- speakerthey had their own events
- speakertoo so
- speakerthat they could be really supported
- speakerin maybe
- speakermoving towards hopefully
- speakermoving towards a day when they could
- speakerbe ordained in the Presbyterian
- speakerChurch but they
- speakerthose who are some of the most
- speakerpowerful worship services.
- speakerOh my goodness yeah.
- speakerBecause some of the most fabulous sermons I thought. Just incredible.
- speakerAbsolutely.
- speakerOh and the other thing like for me
- speakerbecause I'm straight, the workshops
- speakerwere I mean I
- speakerwas when I first started this the
- speakerterm bisexual was
- speakeryou know I mean like I sort of got
- speakerit as
- speakeroh oh I didn't know
- speakerthat you know that
- speakerexisted or could happen
- speakerbut it was really how
- speakeryou know there would be workshops
- speakerwhere somebody who was bisexual
- speakeror is bisexual
- speakerwould speak of their own
- speakerexperience. There were
- speakerpeople who were trans who talked
- speakerabout their experiences.
- speakerI mean I learned a
- speakerlot from the workshops
- speakerthat were part of those conferences
- speakertoo.
- speakerThat really helped me.
- speakerAnd again a lot of it was about
- speakertelling stories but
- speakerthere was information too I mean
- speakerfactual information helped me
- speakerbecome better
- speakerbecome a better ally.
- speakerDo you remember anything else about the workshops? I can't remember.
- speakerThose for me that's what was most helpful.
- speakerThe concept of broadening, but then also like the concept of.