Dear Folks,

This is a preliminary Newsletter; the Official First Newsletter hopefully will be published in June and quarterly thereafter.  As you can imagine, launching an organization and website like this is a big task, with lots of issues.

We are already being called out, because the quotes on the website were from “4 white cishet men.”  Actually Kinsey was bisexual and Hirschfeld was gay (possibly trans).  I am not sure about the others, but at least my critics should get their facts straight (pun intended).  DSREI is about excellence in research and education, not identity politics.  Nevertheless, we are striving to add more People of Color and a variety of diverse sexuality practitioners to our committees, because we want all perspectives. The quotes used will change from time to time, so expect other identity groups to be represented.

Possibly the most complicated task for me is fundraising for DSREI.  We are giving money and awards to researchers and educators, so why should the public or even other researchers and educators want to make a donation?  Of course, without donations what we can do is quite limited.  We realize we are competing with many other deserving charities, but we feel we fill a special niche.

The rules for 501(c)(3) charities require that a significant amount of money raised will come from small donations, so no donation is too small.  Check out our donation page to see how you can honor people or events, or get Amazon to donate without it costing you anything.

We are interested in what you would like to see from DSREI and how we can garner more support.  We have ordered lapel pins with our triangle logo.  We hope people will wear them with pride.  When people ask what it is, it is a perfect opportunity to discuss diverse sexualities.  We are thinking of other ideas, “Make America Diverse Again” baseball caps, DSREI belt buckles, mugs, etc.  We welcome your ideas.  These items will be associated with donations, but it is also a method to getting our name out there.

A number of people have asked how they can help.  Possibly the easiest way is to talk about diverse sexualities with friends, colleagues, family, and patients.  If you have any special talent (advertising, public relations, investing, fundraising, social media, etc.) we need you.  If you want to edit or write the newsletter, I will be eternally grateful.  We need people to catalog new research on diverse sexualities to create a database.  We need people to be on the lookout for innovative and excellent educational programs, to which we can refer people.  We are open to any other ideas you might have.

Take care,

Charles Moser, PhD, MD
President
DSREI