The executive director of the LGBTQ group, One Iowa spoke at the Ames PFLAG meeting Wednesday night on his 100-day plan for 2017.  

Daniel Hoffman-Zinnel is the newly appointed executive director for One Iowa, the largest LGBT organization in Iowa. He took over Donna Red Wing’s position and started his term in January. He is now nearing the 50-day mark for his 100-day plan.

The Ames PFLAG is a small group consisting of less than 15 members who all meet once a month at the Youth and Shelter Services building to provide a safe space for everyone. There are PFLAG organizations all across the nation to support inclusion.

“We all came for the same reasons…to find the community and support we needed and what we found are a bunch of folks who are nonjudgmental,” said Cyndie Blythe, president of the Ames PFLAG.

Hoffman-Zinnel’s agenda for this meeting included an introduction about himself, policy changes, upcoming events and then asked what the PFLAG community members wished to see happen regarding One Iowa.

The meeting took form as an informal discussion where people would bounce ideas off of one another instead of being a formal presentation from Hoffman-Zinnel making it a more relaxed setting.

The main topic Hoffman-Zinnel discussed is that he wants to be more heavily involved with the Iowa community and get their insight on what they would like to change. This resulted in heavy discussion with the members.

“I’ll continue trying to go to meetings and engage with members,” Hoffman-Zinnel said. There is “definitely an opportunity for (PFLAG and One Iowa) to collaborate on things.”

A point that was brought up by PFLAG member Lorrie Hanson was that she wished to see more early education regarding the LGBT community.

“Teachers spend so much time with our kids and they see a lot of things maybe parents don’t want to see, refuse to see or just plain don’t see,” said Hanson.

Another PFLAG member, Alison Carleton added on to Hanson’s argument on why there needed to be more early education.

“Early recognition of trans is really important…catch those kids before puberty,” said Carleton.

Along with education there were many topics brought up such as politics leaving members in a more heated discussion. PFLAG members asked Hoffman-Zinnel how to deal with such serious topics where people tend to disagree on.

Hoffman-Zinnel gave the metaphor of being a pipe cleaner to express how people should handle topics they do not necessarily believe in.

“You can bend, but you don’t break,” Hoffman-Zinnel said.