Join Us by Connecting At Our Events
Our Events bring the community together to celebrate, learn, grow, and make change happen.
We are grateful to the beautiful people who have helped to create these events for us to be unified.
We appreciate the amazing community of support, kindness and love that Sedona has brought together!
We are grateful to the beautiful people who have helped to create these events for us to be unified.
We appreciate the amazing community of support, kindness and love that Sedona has brought together!
EDUCATION Our events bring together incredible diversity and offer us all an opportunity to learn and grow. We explore and learn together as we discuss and understand how we can create equality for all.
Since our inception, we have offered educational films and interactive discussions to enhance awareness of differences, strengths and needs within marginalized and minority populations. following a film or documentary, we provide a panel and a safe forum for individual questions and answers. We have explored the history and events that have marked key issues and struggles of LGBTQ folks another marginalized groups with the goal of mutual understanding. We collaborate with PFLAG to provide scholarships for students in need and are growing an endowment through the Arizona Community Foundation with the goal to provide resources for youth to become successful as adults. We initiated and sponsor an annual Transgender Day of Awareness in November and now partner with PFLAG for that evening, ending in a candlelight vigil. |
COLLABORATIONBy bringing together all voices and individuals who are taking action in our community, we create collaboration. Unify Sedona has a mission of creating change in our communities in a unified vision. Our interactions with like-minded groups are growing. Here is a list of the many local and regional organizations that we partner with or support and who support us:
PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley, Arizona Community Foundation, Sedona International Film Festival, Arizona Alliance of Non-profits, Sedona Chamber of Commerce, Leave No Trace, League of Women Voters, Sedona Elks Lodge, PRISM Network, One Community, Northland Cares, Arizona Gives Day, Sedona Police Department, Red Rock Lock, Eye Boutique of Sedona, and Sedona Arts Center with more to come. If your organization is interested in learning more, contact us at [email protected] |
CELEBRATIONOur events focus on celebrating the lives we live as we overcome. We come together, meet and mingle as we empower each other. We watch films with a purpose of sharing truths, and we dance to the rhythms of dignity and honor. We introduced ourselves to the greater community with a "Coming Out Party" in 2018 and were recipients of donations at a "Dancing into Autumn" event, hosted by the Sedona Elks Lodge in September of 2021. Other celebrations included a "Party with the Police", where we got to know our law enforcers and to be comfortable with each other. Coming in February, we will co-sponsor an event during the Sedona International Film Festival at the Sedona Performing Arts Center.
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Past Events
Lily
Please join us for our production of Lily by Playwright Bryan Harnetiaux and the AD (Advance Care Directives) Project through Hospice Foundation of America on Thursday, March 21st at 7 pm at the Mary D. Fisher Theater.
This show stars our community's own Kate Hawkes as Lily and Dr. Linda Roemer as her ex-wife JoAnn, as they negotiate the decisions that come with end-of-life.
Thank you to our partners PFLAG of Sedona, Unify Sedona, the Sedona Film Festival who, along with Hospice Foundation of America made it possible to bring this to the stage.
Stay tuned, as we give you highlights of this production and more information about our amazing local actors and our Director, Breinne Reeder in future posts.
This show stars our community's own Kate Hawkes as Lily and Dr. Linda Roemer as her ex-wife JoAnn, as they negotiate the decisions that come with end-of-life.
Thank you to our partners PFLAG of Sedona, Unify Sedona, the Sedona Film Festival who, along with Hospice Foundation of America made it possible to bring this to the stage.
Stay tuned, as we give you highlights of this production and more information about our amazing local actors and our Director, Breinne Reeder in future posts.
Transgender Day of Visibility is on March 31, 2023
Transgender people have existed long before our generation and will continue to exist long after us. We cannot legislate people out of existence. However we can love others even if they are different than we are, even if we don’t understand them. We can be open to perspectives , beliefs and lifestyles which will serve to enrich our lives .
join us as we move ahead to educate that all of us are simply much more similar, just wanting to live our lives.
In light of the most recent senseless violence, we would like to share the following resources and support available to you and your loved ones:
Trans Lifeline: translifeline.org 877-565-886
The Trevor Project: the Trevor project.org 866-488-7386 or text to 678678
Nat’l Suicide Prevention Line (also on our resources page)
988lifeline.org. Call or text 988
Transgender people have existed long before our generation and will continue to exist long after us. We cannot legislate people out of existence. However we can love others even if they are different than we are, even if we don’t understand them. We can be open to perspectives , beliefs and lifestyles which will serve to enrich our lives .
join us as we move ahead to educate that all of us are simply much more similar, just wanting to live our lives.
In light of the most recent senseless violence, we would like to share the following resources and support available to you and your loved ones:
Trans Lifeline: translifeline.org 877-565-886
The Trevor Project: the Trevor project.org 866-488-7386 or text to 678678
Nat’l Suicide Prevention Line (also on our resources page)
988lifeline.org. Call or text 988
Transgender Day of Awareness. 2023
Each November, we partner with the Sedona International Film Festival and now also with PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley to educate the greater Community and remember the lives lost to needless violence across America. Stay tuned for additional information on the date and time for this annual event.
Each November, we partner with the Sedona International Film Festival and now also with PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley to educate the greater Community and remember the lives lost to needless violence across America. Stay tuned for additional information on the date and time for this annual event.
June 30, 2023
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
The culmination of PRIDE month was an event to behold! Patrick/Priscilla was “Queen”, and the entourage of costumes completed the party atmosphere. The costumes completed the party atmosphere. The costume contest revealed Rance with quite a headdress and Vassi’s creativity shone through with her flip-flop dress!
Thanks, Samyo, Patrick, Reba, Dani, and everyone at SIFF for a joyous event!
Can we top this next year?
Photos courtesy of Skinwalker Photography
Sedona Chamber of Commerce Event
The Chamber would like us to help them plan and be a part of their Strategies for Success Program in June. Jan Montgomery will be presenting and the topic is: Equality in the Workplace. Date is June 7, 2023 8:30AM-10:30 AM
Co-Sponsor(s): Sedona Chamber, APS, Unify Sedona, and Yavapai College SBDC.
The Chamber would like us to help them plan and be a part of their Strategies for Success Program in June. Jan Montgomery will be presenting and the topic is: Equality in the Workplace. Date is June 7, 2023 8:30AM-10:30 AM
Co-Sponsor(s): Sedona Chamber, APS, Unify Sedona, and Yavapai College SBDC.
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We brought together a panel of experts and followed it with a question and answer session to address the historical and current effects that banning books had and continues to have in our society.Panelists included:
Gregg Leslie, J.D., Executive Director of the First Amendment Clinic at the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law at Arizona State University
Mary Corcoran, Program Librarian at the Flagstaff-C0c0nino County Public Library
Rabbi Alicia Magal, Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley
Afsana N, local student that escaped from Afghanistan, who was persecuted for reading and attending school because she was a girl. We raffled off banned books and donated the proceeds to help build a "secret" library for the children of Afghanistan. Did you know that "Charlotte's Web" has been banned in some areas?
Gregg Leslie, J.D., Executive Director of the First Amendment Clinic at the Sandra Day O'Connor School of Law at Arizona State University
Mary Corcoran, Program Librarian at the Flagstaff-C0c0nino County Public Library
Rabbi Alicia Magal, Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley
Afsana N, local student that escaped from Afghanistan, who was persecuted for reading and attending school because she was a girl. We raffled off banned books and donated the proceeds to help build a "secret" library for the children of Afghanistan. Did you know that "Charlotte's Web" has been banned in some areas?
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Stand Up for Love and Turn Our Backs on Hate July 24, 2022 The Sedona Police Department was contacted by the Westboro "Baptist" Church (a known hate group, denounced by the Anti-Defamation League as the worst) and sent 11 protesters to picket four Sedona Churches with signs that denigrated LGBTQ+, Jews, Christian clergy and racial minorities. We formed a committee with representation from PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley, St Andrews Episcopal Church and others to counter them on that morning. As a result, we stood over 100 strong on the street corners in Sedona and peacefully gave them our countered messages of: Love Conquers All, We Are Love, Turn Your Back on Hate and more. Our silence was deafening that morning and we don't think they will be returning to Sedona anytime soon. Thanks to the Sedona Police Department, Reverend Monica Whitaker, and PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley and all of the counter protesters as we promote peace together in the greater community. |
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TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
This has become an annual event in our community and this year we co-sponsored with PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley. It was a somber evening with a documentary short film, addressing the battle over the rights and freedoms of Transgender individuals that follows the battles that women, LGBTQ+, black, brown and indigenous peoples have had for decades in America. Even though we are always struggling to improve human rights, the Transgender population is suffering the most. This film told the story through the voices of Transgender people from all walks of life. It revealed a world of people who are in direct conflict with the gender they were assigned at birth and raised a sense of awareness and empathy in members of the audience. Thoughtful answers to questions were addressed, followed by a candlelight vigil, and reading of the names of lives tragically lost in 2022. Sadly, the number increases every year.
This has become an annual event in our community and this year we co-sponsored with PFLAG of Sedona and the Verde Valley. It was a somber evening with a documentary short film, addressing the battle over the rights and freedoms of Transgender individuals that follows the battles that women, LGBTQ+, black, brown and indigenous peoples have had for decades in America. Even though we are always struggling to improve human rights, the Transgender population is suffering the most. This film told the story through the voices of Transgender people from all walks of life. It revealed a world of people who are in direct conflict with the gender they were assigned at birth and raised a sense of awareness and empathy in members of the audience. Thoughtful answers to questions were addressed, followed by a candlelight vigil, and reading of the names of lives tragically lost in 2022. Sadly, the number increases every year.
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BIG GAY ART SHOW OPENING On December 7, 2022, Unify Sedona...a rainbow alliance celebrated with the Sedona Arts Center at the opening of their Big Gay Art show and forged a new relationship of support. Those who attended were entertained with a Las Vegas Drag Show and juried art by LGBTQ artists. Thank You, Sedona Arts Center! |
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