Lesbians in the Tampa Bay area of Florida are lucky to have Suzanne Noe, the founder of ProSuzy, a lesbian social network in south Florida. Because of ProSuzy, thousands of Florida lesbians have connected for social activities, dancing, recreational activities, cultural events and casual outings. We interviewed ProSuzy founder Suzanne Noe to find out more about the organization and what it offers lesbians in Florida.
Lesbian Dating: Tell me in three sentences or less, what ProSuzy is.
Suzanne Noe: ProSuzy is Tampa Bay’s lesbian focal point for activities, consisting of our http://prosuzy.com/ website and frequent email blasts detailing a myriad of lesbian events to an email list of over 7,000 Lesbians who are on the go, and in the know, making this area of the country a lot more fun for the gals with a variety of things to do from dances, bike ride, potlucks, kayaking, socials, Prides, comedians, geo-caching, camping, travel, films, plays, drumming, self-help, and spiritual gatherings and so much more, 3 – 7 events daily. Beyond the events and activities, ProSuzy provides, lesbian businesses with advertising in several ways. ProSuzy also features a very active, successful and FREE personals, so our women can find the love of their life. We email out weekly classified ads, have a blog with interesting columnists from astrologers to nationally known authors such as Lee Lynch, and we document each of our activities with hundreds photos in our ProSuzy photo gallery.
Why did you decide to start this lesbian list?
When I started ProSuzy in Oct of 2000 I was like so many other lesbians, newly out, and stumped at how to find active lesbians other than at a bar. I wanted to bike, kayak, meet friends, just have fun and wasn’t sure if there were any other women like me anywhere around. A few emails inviting other to join me, and the list and the activities grew exponentially.
Has it done what you thought it would?
I never thought about ProSuzy becoming a business when I first started gathering email addresses to bring women together. I started adding classified listings to the emails that I sent out, which made other women money, and DING, “The Light went on”. I began to think that maybe I needed to charge for advertising. That was hard because I seemed to have stomped on the underlying thought in the lesbian community here that said, “If you do something for the lesbian community you need to do it for FREE”. The business of ProSuzy has grown slowly over the last 11 years into a great way to get women out and about, to play and meet with others like themselves. We have added a Real Estate Page, Classified, Personals, a wonderful photo gallery of all the events I attend.
Tell me some of the activities that have come out of this list?
Besides the events mentioned above, we always have a 1st & 2nd Thursday Grrrls Mingle/Social, every other month a 40+ professional women’s mingle, Sunday afternoon beach volleyball, we have potlucks and T-dances, bike rides, kayak trips, bowling, monthly lunch socials for Seniors, Bingo, Picnics, monthly Game night, movies, plays, a yearly camping trip, and other travel. Everyday holds multiple choices, almost all outside of a bar. The nice thing about them is all these events are free or really inexpensive.
You talk about how you went from being a lesbian who sat around and waited to be approached to a woman on the move. What are three tips you can give women who want to go from being a sitting to a woman on the move?
1. This is important: make up your mind, as I had to, to be assertive and stop saying “I can’t”.
2. Look into your heart and admit that it IS really hard to walk up to someone you don’t know and put your hand out them and realize that if you wait for them to be brave first, you might be missing out on meeting a lot of really great women.
3. Take a deep breath and throw out any thought that YOU might be rejected for some idiotic reason and think of one positive comment to make to that “new” person over in the corner, and go for it. Everyone likes a compliment and how can anyone worth meeting resist smiling back to your warm greeting.
4. And I have to add a 4th tip: Don’t look at every new gal as your next partner; it’s too much pressure on both of you. Relax, smile, be brave and you’ll have a new friend in two minutes. See it wasn’t that hard.
What have been some of your favorite ProSuzy activities?
Have you got a day or two? How do I choose, when so many women make my life sterling? Every mingle and dance is a chance to meet, greet and laugh with old and new friends. We do have some fabulous memories of a trip that we arranged to San Francisco. We arranged to go to the waterfront Hostel and planned lesbian oriented events for each day and threw the trip and itinerary open to all the gals with ProSuzy. Several couples and singles joined us and some did everything and other met us for just a few. We were busy every moment and met so many great women, including one famous pastry chef, Elizabeth Falkner. We will never forget a moment of that fun. Everyday is a treat, boring is not in our vocabulary. If it’s ProSuzy, it’s fun and worth attending, come join us!
What’s your favorite thing to do on a date in the Tampa area?
My partner, Cathy, and I agree our best dates are going to the ProSuzy events. They are all safe and friendly. If we want to be alone, yes, the beaches are where we head after a morning coffee and pastry or in the evening after a great seafood dinner. Then maybe John’s Pass in Treasure Island for the best frozen custard cone. But nothing beats a lesbian dance or mingle with “family” and warmth from old and new friends. We love to share our time and dates with the “gals”.
