2026 Season Recap

Dear LGBTQ+ and Friends Community,

Hello everyone! This is our end-of-season newsletter.

Once again it was an amazing summer at Chautauqua and we are so happy to have seen so many of you once again! Together we have built quite an amazing community, one that I know many of us deeply treasure.

This was our 10th year of fabulous Meet and Greets every Sunday at 6:30 on the porch of the Atheneum. A great big thank you to Karen James for organizing the hosts, and to all of the hosts for hosting! We had between 100 and 170 people each week, which is a lot. Sometimes I sit back (maybe after a glass of wine) and marvel at the diversity of folks on the porch and revel in the laughter, good conversation, and just sheer fun that is happening. It’s amazing what a little “You’re welcome here at Chautauqua!” party can do.

Always Surprising Lunch Time Discussion Groups with great themes on Tuesdays at 12:15 at the Literary Arts Center Dining Room. Thank you Catie Miller for once again doing a great job. We averaged about 30 people each week. These discussions have been going on since the late 1990’s and have evolved so beautifully as the issues that people are concerned about have changed.

Community Activity Fairs on selected Sundays from noon to 1:30 in Bestor Plaza. Thank you, Bree Dietly for organizing the volunteers, and a big thank you to all the people who sat at our table, answered questions, and gave away taffy. Visibility makes a difference.

CTC’s “Best for Baby” and After Show Gathering – This was the 5th year of doing this event and we did it a little differently this year. We partnered with the African American Heritage House, and had the After Show Gathering on their covered patio at 40 Scott. It was so fun – “Best for Baby” was an amazing production and it was really a treat to meet the cast and crew. A great big thank you to Sean Hawkins, Executive Director of AAHH, for agreeing to have the event at their House. And many thanks to Terry Horner, Bob Jeffrey and Karen James for organizing this event, and working hard to make it happen!

Lecture by the Honorable Grace Hanlon at Smith-Wilkes. Grace is a New York Supreme Court Justice and Director of the Richard C. Failla LGBTQ Commission of the New York State Courts. She gave a fantastic lecture about the history of LGBTQ+ rights at the Federal Supreme Court level and then answered a lot of very topical questions. She very kindly allowed us to upload the slides to our website, so if you missed the lecture you can see the slides right here on our website. Many thanks to Barbara Britton for organizing this very important lecture.

All in all, we sponsored 25 events over 9 weeks in 2026. It was a lot, but also a lot of fun! And we are so grateful that so many more members of our community are stepping up into leadership roles. We have some very good things in the works for 2027, so stay tuned.

Thank you so very, very much to MJ and Barbara Britton for managing changes/additions to our website and Facebook page.

And finally, many thanks to those of you who wrote us checks and sent Venmo donations to cover all of our various expenses this summer. We also had many volunteers, with some participating in several or many(!) of the events. LGBTQ+ and Friends is totally self-funded and we appreciate any donations you can make to the group to help fund our continuing activities as well as our website maintenance costs. Donations to LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua are not tax-deductible. If you would like to donate, please make out your check to:

LGBTQ and Friends at Chautauqua

And then mail the check to:
Hughes/Britton
300 Carlsbad Village Drive
Suite 108A-359
Carlsbad, CA 92008

Alternatively, you can now donate through Venmo! If you have a Venmo account, you can send money a few different ways. Our username is @lgbtq-chq. Or you can use our e-mail address which is lgbtqchq@gmail.com. Or you can use our Venmo QR code here on our website.

We hope everyone has a lovely fall and winter. We are so looking forward to seeing you all in 2027! Keep an eye on our website to see what events we will be sponsoring next year.

Thank you! And until next year --

LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua