Independent Order of Odd Fellows

Tomorrow our lodge will be putting up our pride flags for Pride Month. This is the second year of this tradition and one we're proud to continue. We are flying flags representing a wide range of different identities; every flag represents a member of our community who requested it and nearly every single represented below is claimed by a member of our lodge. Nearly all of our officers this year identify as queer or as allies, so making sure we continued this tradition even during the pandemic was important to all of us. If you have questions about any of these terms, please feel to reach out!

If you're looking for a way to help hungry people in Mountain View and help keep our working neighbors in restaurants, checkout -- it lets you buy meals from local restaurants for hungry neighbors: https://www.facebook.com/mvappetiteforgood https://www.roonga.com/appetiteforgoodcsa

Sometimes groups only talk about their queer members and the LGBTQPIA+ community during Pride Month in June, and while a month of visibility is good, our queer members contribute to their communities, participate in our families, and engage in our shared world year-round. In case you're not familiar with the work they do, here are some examples: before COVID-19, we hosted a bi-monthly RPG group called the Oddizens (whose leader joined our lodge and is now our esteemed secreta...ry), a trans and genderqueer-inclusive gaming group. We hope to resume hosting them post-COVID-19. We've raised money (twice!) for the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund through our charity pop-up galleries. Our top leadership is about 1/3 queer people right now; last year our Noble Grand was a queer woman. The weekly writing group we hosted pre-COVID-19 (and will host again post-COVID-19) is majority queer people, including nonbinary, asexual, pan, bi, and lesbian members. All of which is to say -- while this is the first time we've flown the flags, our queer members have been working for this change for years. We'll see you in July, and every month after that.

Happy Pride Month! Pride 2020 is almost over. But we will continue supporting our ace, bi, demi, gay, nonbinary, pan, trans, and queer members year-round. Because Everyone Is Welcome Here.

We are proudly flying Pride Flags from our Lodge Hall this month. But not everyone knows the history or symbolism of the different flags that different members of the LGBTQPIA+ community uses. Here are what each of the flags on our building are, in order: - Asexual Pride Flag - Rainbow Philly Pride Flag (Note: this flag Includes all queer people and centers the experiences of queer people of color) - Nonbinary Pride Flag - Trans Pride Flag... - Demisexual Pride Flag - Bisexual Pride Flag - Asexual Pride Flag (again! It's really hard putting a bunch of flags up 20' in the air on a hate day while wearing a pandemic mask, so your dear correspondent got a little confused) - Pansexual Pride Flag - In the window is the Aromantic Pride Flag (we don't have any Aro members of our lodge, but we wanted to make sure that community was included as well) Currently missing: the Lesbian Pride Flag, which got stuck in the mail.

We have a new website! You can apply online to join our lodge, learn more about the groups we host, and see our impact in the community: http://mountainviewoddfellows.org

A different view of Mountain View -- before and after raising the Philly Pride Flag and the Trans Pride Flag. We decided to raise the Philly Pride Flag to honor and center the work communities of color have done in working for our shared freedom -- note the black and brown stripes at the top of the flag.