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MASON CITY — Two women on a year-long nationwide trip stopped in Mason City to share their story on Monday.
Robynne Sapp and Dotti Berry, who live in Washington with their standard poodle Rylee Joy, spoke at PFLAG-North Iowa’s meeting at First Presbyterian Church.
“The polarization in our country has just reached epic proportions about GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) issues,” said Berry.
The couple, who met through mutual friends, vowed when they married to create change in the world through expression of their love.
As they tell of their relationship and cross-country travel in a purple Suburban with magnetic placards that say “Two Women and a Poodle, www.GayIntoStraightAmerica.com,” their humor and engaging personalities create a warmth that comes with natural and comfortable communication.
They moved into a new neighborhood that at first seemed welcoming, then not. So Berry set out to build friendship and understanding by going house to house, surprising the neighbors with a rose and an invitation to dinner. That gesture of friendship helped create a warmth and openness that has developed into a different neighborhood than it might otherwise have been.
Through their zig-zag travels treating them to all varieties of weather, they’re creating “connections by talking with people who are wrestling” with the GLBT community, Berry said.
They talk about developing a friendship by meeting for a monthly meal with a Baptist minister who once gave the rebuttal against marriage equality at a forum they attended.
After a few months, he was saying, “Since knowing you, I look at you two and I see two people who love each other,” Berry said.
That happened through friendship, she said.
It’s important to conquor fear and “tell our stories,” Berry said. “We’ve got to let people know who we are.”
It’s not as important that people change immediately as that seeds are planted, she said.
“The only way things change, the only way we come to be in community with each other is by engaging,” Sapp said.
For more information about their project, visit their their Web site www.gayintostraightamerica.com.
Reach Julie Birkedal at 421-0535 or julie.birkedal@globegazette.com. |
