Hi all!

We wish you all well as you head into this week of gathering, giving thanks, and maybe being around people you don’t typically tolerate. Please make sure to spend some time with the folks who know you and love you best, if you have the chance.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: As mentioned earlier this month, due to the holiday season, the next Collective meeting will not be held on the last Tuesday of the month. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, December 9th, at Cache Valley Unitarian Universalist Church at 596 E 900 N, Logan, UT. Social hour + dinner will begin at 6:00 pm. The meeting will start at 7:00 pm. You can come in person or via Zoom! Email us for the link.

Read on for a recap of November’s meeting and more!

At our Steward meeting on Nov 4th, we discussed how the Collective could best support LGBTQ+ folks in the valley facing food insecurity. It has been incredible to see how our community has rallied to provide food for those in need while SNAP benefits were withheld. Benefits should be accessible again, although that doesn’t mean the need no longer exists. In our valley, here are some ways to support and get involved in ways that directly support LGBTQ+ folks:

Each year between November 13 – 19, people and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help increase understanding about transgender people and the issues members of the community face. The week culminates in Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), which is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence that year (GLAAD).

This year, USU’s QSA club hosted several activities throughout Transgender Awareness Week, and Prince of Peace Presbyterian Church held an event and vigil for TDOR on the 20th. We appreciate them and the work they’re doing in the valley to show up for the trans community!

If you want to learn more about trans folks’ experiences, Transgender Awareness Week, or Transgender Day of Remembrance, check out this brief blog post from Queer Liberation Library, which includes links to books to read and organizations to learn more about: https://www.queerliberationlibrary.org/blog/trans-day-of-remembrance

You can also read this helpful guide, “Supporting the Transgender People in Your Life: A Guide to Being a Good Ally” by Advocates for Trans Equality (A4TE).

Remember, our trans community members and loved ones need our support every day. Anything you can do to make our valley a safer, more affirming place is worthwhile!

We have done a lot this year! We plan to reflect on much of it at our upcoming meeting. During our last meeting, we highlighted some projects that we’d like to continue, such as identifying affirming businesses and providers, providing resources and education to support local schools, fleshing out our calendar of events for next year, and setting goals for 2026.

We share more details about how to get involved in these projects on our Discord, our Facebook Group, and at our meetings. Please reach out to us if you want to know more about how to get involved!

Here’s a PDF of the presentation slides from November’s meeting. We had an issue with the zoom meeting that night, so if you were online and got kicked off, we are so sorry! Please reach out if you have more questions about the meeting. We will share the notes as soon as we have them via Discord and our FB group.

November and the end of the year tends to be the time when many grants and programs accept new applications to provide financial support to those accessing trans-affirming medical and mental health care. Here are just a few we know about. Please share with folks you know who could benefit!

For more trans health care grants, visit Trans Lifeline’s Grants and Funding page: https://translifeline.org/resource_category/grants-funding/

Transgender Together also lists these resources for healthcare and medical transition support: