2026 Mid-Season Newsletter
Dear LGBTQ+ and Friends Community,
Hello to everyone! This is our mid-season newsletter. This e-mail is going to everyone who signed up to be on our e-mail list for LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua. It details LGBTQ+ and Friends activities and events planned for the 2026 season.
First of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who is showing up on the porch on Sunday evenings! Attendance has been terrific and I think the porch Meet and Greets are truly making people feel more welcome and a greater sense of community here at Chautauqua.
CTC’s “Best for Baby” and After Show Gathering
Saturday, July 25 at 4:00 pm at Bratton, followed by a 6:00 pm gathering at AAHH
This event is a little different this year – we are partnering with the African American Heritage House for the after show gathering! We will each buy our own tickets to the July 25, 4:00 pm performance of Chautauqua Theater Company’s “Best for Baby” at Bratton Theater, then gather at 6:00 pm at AAHH, 40 Scott Avenue, to meet the cast and crew and share food and drink. Tickets for this performance are pay-your-own-price, starting as low as $5 for any seat. You can find details about the play and purchase tickets through the Chautauqua Institution website or at the Ticket Office, or by calling 716-357-6250. No RSVP is needed for the gathering, but we do need volunteers to help set up and/or clean up. For questions or to volunteer, e-mail Terry Horner at terry.horner@mac.com. A great big thank you to Sean Hawkins, Executive Director of AAHH, for agreeing to have the event at their venue. Many thanks to Terry Horner and Bob Jeffrey for organizing this event!
Lecture by the Honorable Grace Hanlon
Wednesday, August 5 at 12:15 pm at Smith Wilkes Hall
The Honorable Grace Hanlon is a New York State Supreme Court Justice and Director of the Richard C. Failla LGBTQ Commission of the New York State Courts. She has offered to give a presentation on the state of the Supreme Court and the current state of legal affairs for LGBTQ+ people. We believe this to be a very timely and important lecture given the current political situation and many attacks on our community, particularly the trans community. Many thanks to Barbara Britton for organizing this event!
Sarah James Trio
Wednesday, August 5, 10:00 pm at the Roe Green Theater
Our own award-winning singer-songwriter and recording artist Sarah James brings her trio to the Late-Night series at the Roe Green Theater with Pittsburgh guitarist Doug Edgell and Aaron Majiros on bass and keys. Sarah’s music video “Take It or Leave It” recently won Bronze at the Berlin Music Video Awards in Germany and First Place in the LA Wildwood LGBT film festival. Also check out her lyric video “Better Than This” which has nearly 250K streams at link. Tickets are $25 through the Chautauqua Institution website And thank you Sarah for entertaining us at so many venues through all these years!
Special Studies Course: LGBTQ+ Literature and Culture: Out in Nature
Week 7, August 11 – 14 at 3:00 pm in the Alumni Hall Poetry Room
OK – so this looks so cool. From the Special Studies catalog course description: “From the poetry of Walt Whitman to Mary Oliver, to the essays and fiction of contemporary writers like Callum Angus, LGBTQ+ writers have drawn inspiration from nature and the natural world to express queer experience and to imagine queer futures. In this course we’ll explore this relationship through short fiction and poems from selected writers. Through discussion and some short, focused writing, we’ll draw upon the beautiful natural surroundings of Chautauqua to tease out how nature models queer transformations.” And it’s being taught by our very own Tim Francisco who teaches LGBTQ+ Literature at Youngstown State University. Thank you, Tim! I’ve already signed up. Note: you have to sign up through Special Studies at Chautauqua.
LGBTQ+ and Friends T-Shirts
If you bought one of the t-shirts that Sydney Lozier designed, they are available at Spruce. Thank you, Sydney! And, also a big thank you to Nick Giancola for making Spruce available for people to pick up their t-shirts! Do some shopping while you are there. They have some really cool stuff.
Sunday Community Activity Fairs
Sundays (on Weeks 4 and 5) from Noon to 1:45 in Bestor Plaza.
Informational tables about the various Community Groups at Chautauqua are set up in Bestor Plaza on Sundays after church. We have a table and a very nice banner and lots of little bling-y things to make it look good. A great big thank you to Bree for continuing to coordinate it all, and to all the volunteers who mind our table and answer questions about LGBTQ+ and Friends activities and events at Chautauqua. This is actually a very cool program and is especially beneficial and welcoming to first-time visitors to Chautauqua.
Sunday Night Meet and Greet Social Hour
We will be having our weekly Meet and Greet Social hour each Sunday from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm on the porch of the Athenaeum Hotel. The hotel lobby bar will remain open until midnight, but our event ends at 9:00. This year (due to popular demand) we are also going to do a Meet and Greet Week 10, which is Sunday, Aug 30 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the Athenaeum. We are still looking for hosts for Week 4 (Sunday, July 19). As host you will sponsor the cheese board that the hotel puts out. This year it could be as high as $250 plus tip so it might be a good idea to share hosting duties. As host you will welcome people to the porch, assist with name tags, help those who look a little lost find a connection and direct people to our website to sign up to be on our e-mail list if they are not already on it. Please contact Karen James at karenjames@me.com if you would like to host a Meet and Greet. Many thanks to Karen for managing this!
LGBTQ+ and Friends Discussion Group. Bring your lunch.
Our weekly discussion group will be held each Tuesday at 12:15 in the Dining Room of the Literary Arts Center. Catie Miller will facilitate. Big kudos to Catie for facilitating all these years. We appreciate you! The themes for 2026 are as follows:
Week 3: Our Fragile Democracy: Authoritarian Alert
Week 4: Our Disposable Selves: The Challenge of Remaining Relevant
Week 5: Cultural Creatives: The Heart of Society
Week 6: Keeping Democracy Alive: Crisis from Within
Week 7: Power Corrupts; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely: Learning from the
Past
Week 8: We Are What We Eat, Sometimes
Week 9: Gathering and Community: We Need One Another
Brick
Update on the Brick. We found the Brick! Well, to be more precise, Tim Holland found the Brick. It’s an 8x8 brick that says “LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua.” It’s located just outside the entrance to the Welcome Center. Go and admire it! Many thanks to Terry Horner for facilitating this. And, as it turns out, we have another brick (a smaller one) that was installed in front of Alumni Hall (Literary Arts Center) in 2012. This one says “Lesbian and Gay Chautauqua Community Founded 1999.” Thanks to Bob Jeffrey for facilitating that one!
LGBTQ+ and Friends 2027 Planning Session
Each year, various members of our group meet to evaluate and discuss the programming of the current season and plan for the upcoming season programs. If you would like to participate in our planning meeting, please send an email to Barbara Britton at lgbtqchq@gmail.com. Attendance is by invitation only.
Website
Huge thanks to MJ Johnston and Barbara Britton for maintaining and enhancing our website! It is looking really great. Check it out here! website
Financial Oversight Committee
As we continue to grow, we want to make sure that all of our financials are fully transparent and the accounts are in order. Many thanks to Karen James, Christopher Griffith, Terry Horner, Tim Holland, MJ Johnston, and DeDe Hughes for serving on the committee.
Fundraising
LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua 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
And then mail the check to:
Hughes/Britton
P.O. Box 1367
Chautauqua, NY 14722
Or you can Venmo us @lgbtq-chq
Thank you and see you all soon!
LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua
LGBTQ+ and Friends at Chautauqua
P.O. Box 1367
Chautauqua, NY 14722
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