Can You Understand The Harm?
Faith In America today released a series of videos and letters that it hopes will help Rev. Rick Warren and other non-accepting people of faith understand the harm caused to gay Americans by religion-based bigotry, prejudice and discrimination.
The project, entitled "Can You Understand the Harm?", includes videographed open-letter segments from Faith In America Founder Mitchell Gold of Hickory, N.C., who in September released his transformative expose about the personal, social and religious pain and trauma of growing up gay in America; and Tracey Zoeller of Chicago, Ill., author of a recently published young adult novel entitled "A Pastor's Daughter." Both titles were presented to Warren.
In addition, the organization collected letters from its supporters who address Rev. Warren about the harm that they have experienced as gay Americans or as parents and friends of gay individuals. Examples of those letters, along with the video segments, are being delivered to Saddleback Church in Forest City, Calif.
Gold said the project is an attempt to assist Rev. Warren in understanding the harm that is caused when his words and actions promote an attitude that gay Americans are somehow unworthy and inferior and therefore undeserving.
"While there has been much controversy over Mr. Warren's invitation to deliver an inaugural prayer, our organization believes these circumstances have created a much greater opportunity for Rev. Warren," Gold said. "He has the opportunity to help millions of gay Americans, particularly gay youth, who are hurting inside because of a societal climate of rejection and condemnation – a climate that his words and actions have promoted."
Continue reading at Faith In America's blog...EndTheHarm.com
Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Conservative Evangelical Minister Praises GLBT Inclusivity
MENDING FENCES
from The Washington Post:
The Rev. Rick Warren, the conservative evangelical minister who will deliver the invocation at the inauguration Tuesday, has extended an olive branch to V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopal bishop who had reacted angrily to the selection of Warren for the Inauguration Day spot.
Robinson had called the choice of Warren, who opposes same-sex marriage, a "slap in the face."
Then, this week, Robinson was selected to give the invocation at the inaugural opening ceremony at Sunday afternoon's concert on the Mall.
Warren issued a statement yesterday praising Obama for adding Robinson to the lineup, saying the president-elect "has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground." He added: "I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen."
from The Washington Post:
The Rev. Rick Warren, the conservative evangelical minister who will deliver the invocation at the inauguration Tuesday, has extended an olive branch to V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay Episcopal bishop who had reacted angrily to the selection of Warren for the Inauguration Day spot.
Robinson had called the choice of Warren, who opposes same-sex marriage, a "slap in the face."
Then, this week, Robinson was selected to give the invocation at the inaugural opening ceremony at Sunday afternoon's concert on the Mall.
Warren issued a statement yesterday praising Obama for adding Robinson to the lineup, saying the president-elect "has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground." He added: "I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen."
Southern Comfort - A Must-See Film
Thought it came out in 2001, we wanted to bring this film to the attention of anyone who may not yet have heard of or seen it ... Beautiful!
Synopsis:
SOUTHERN COMFORT is a 90-minute feature-length documentary about the life of Robert Eads, a 52-year-old female to male transsexual who lives in the back hills of Georgia. "A hillbilly and proud of it," he cuts a striking figure: sharp-tongued, bearded, tobacco pipe in hand. Robert passes so well as a male that the local Klu Klux Klan tried to recruit him to become a member.
Though his home is nestled among tranquil hills dotted with hay bales, Robert confronts a world as hostile to him as if he were an African American in the ante-bellum South. He was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, then turned away by more than two dozen doctors who feared that taking on a transgendered patient might harm their practice.
SOUTHERN COMFORT follows the final year of Robert Eads' life. Beginning in spring, he falls deeply in love with Lola, a male-to-female. That summer, his mother and father drive ten hours to visit their "lost daughter," a trip they know may be their last. His final dream is to make it to the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, the nation's preeminent transgender gathering. Beating the odds, he addresses a crowd of 500 and takes Lola to "The prom that never was."
The voices in SOUTHERN COMFORT are not only rarely heard, but also are commonly thought to be non-existent. A rare blend of humor, romance, and tragedy, SOUTHERN COMFORT is the first non-fiction film to intimately tell a trans-to-trans love story, set against a disturbing tale of gender bias as it unfolds before the camera.
from the Production Notes:
For over ten years, filmmaker Kate Davis has been making films about misunderstood people on the margins of society. She had met Robert Eads in 1998, at a female-to-male (FTM) convention in Maryland during a shoot for another documentary film on gender rights, for which she produced with her husband. Davis' commitment to this film took precisely one conversation over coffee with Robert Eads, as he spoke about his ovarian cancer, how he was denied treatment, how he felt like a traitor to his body while giving birth to two sons. Davis called him a week later, and he agreed to go public for the first time in his life.
"Though Robert was a private person, he let me into his life, this mother of two who at age 35 decided to become a man, this cowboy with ovarian cancer. He knew that when the film was completed, he would be dead, and therefore 'safe'," states Davis.
But the production was risky a proposition. Robert was dying. Davis had no time to raise money; and she was entering a delicate emotional situation out in rural Georgia. Furthermore, being mostly a director and editor, she had scarcely shot anything. But intimacy was required here. Davis bought a DV camera and did the filming alone, sometimes while recording sound as a one-person crew.
"More than once, I asked myself why I was choosing to leave my cozy New York family for rural Georgia so that I could camp out in the trailer home of a dying transsexual," says Davis
But what she witnessed was anything but the strain of social and economic poverty. Robert¹s world was suffused with love, courage, faith, humor -- the ingredients of survivors, even in the midst of tragedy.
Robert Eads lived in the farmland of Toaccoa, a small dot on the Georgia map. Robert and his male friends appear and act as extremely normal. But they privately cross gender lines, and so belong to perhaps the last minority society quietly grants permission to hate. There she met Max, Cas and the others, all of them closeted. Their decision to participate in the film was major, but they felt that Robert's story was important, and too the great risk.
During the course of location filming, "we told store owners that this was a film about our friend, awkwardly leaving out major details," said Davis. At the Southern Comfort Convention, the filming was almost entirely restricted, since participants could lose their jobs and families with one slip of the camera lens. On top of this, internal jealousies threatened to split up the group; and Robert began slipping in and out of consciousness.
By winter, Davis and her team balanced shooting with administering Robert¹s medication and backrubs. "It was a roller coaster. Every shoot seemed it would be the last one," said Davis. But as if secretly choreographing the film, Robert would suggest the next scene. "You haven¹t filmed my son yet, better come back down in July," said Robert
Davis grew to love Robert, and it stretched her to the limit to watch him die while still acting as the film producer. In the end, a large part of what drew Davis to make SOUTHERN COMFORT was the mystery at the core of Robert's story. How can a person with so much to offer be condemned throughout his life simply because his very existence challenges gender norms? Gender: an elusive concept at best. Merely physical, yet deeply existential. Something assigned at birth according to a few body parts, which then grows into a seemingly immutable sense of identity.
But as Robert once told Davis, "If this film helps one other trans-man go to a doctor or changes the heart of one straight person, then it's worth it."
Synopsis:
SOUTHERN COMFORT is a 90-minute feature-length documentary about the life of Robert Eads, a 52-year-old female to male transsexual who lives in the back hills of Georgia. "A hillbilly and proud of it," he cuts a striking figure: sharp-tongued, bearded, tobacco pipe in hand. Robert passes so well as a male that the local Klu Klux Klan tried to recruit him to become a member.
Though his home is nestled among tranquil hills dotted with hay bales, Robert confronts a world as hostile to him as if he were an African American in the ante-bellum South. He was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, then turned away by more than two dozen doctors who feared that taking on a transgendered patient might harm their practice.
SOUTHERN COMFORT follows the final year of Robert Eads' life. Beginning in spring, he falls deeply in love with Lola, a male-to-female. That summer, his mother and father drive ten hours to visit their "lost daughter," a trip they know may be their last. His final dream is to make it to the Southern Comfort Conference in Atlanta, the nation's preeminent transgender gathering. Beating the odds, he addresses a crowd of 500 and takes Lola to "The prom that never was."
The voices in SOUTHERN COMFORT are not only rarely heard, but also are commonly thought to be non-existent. A rare blend of humor, romance, and tragedy, SOUTHERN COMFORT is the first non-fiction film to intimately tell a trans-to-trans love story, set against a disturbing tale of gender bias as it unfolds before the camera.
from the Production Notes:
For over ten years, filmmaker Kate Davis has been making films about misunderstood people on the margins of society. She had met Robert Eads in 1998, at a female-to-male (FTM) convention in Maryland during a shoot for another documentary film on gender rights, for which she produced with her husband. Davis' commitment to this film took precisely one conversation over coffee with Robert Eads, as he spoke about his ovarian cancer, how he was denied treatment, how he felt like a traitor to his body while giving birth to two sons. Davis called him a week later, and he agreed to go public for the first time in his life.
"Though Robert was a private person, he let me into his life, this mother of two who at age 35 decided to become a man, this cowboy with ovarian cancer. He knew that when the film was completed, he would be dead, and therefore 'safe'," states Davis.
But the production was risky a proposition. Robert was dying. Davis had no time to raise money; and she was entering a delicate emotional situation out in rural Georgia. Furthermore, being mostly a director and editor, she had scarcely shot anything. But intimacy was required here. Davis bought a DV camera and did the filming alone, sometimes while recording sound as a one-person crew.
"More than once, I asked myself why I was choosing to leave my cozy New York family for rural Georgia so that I could camp out in the trailer home of a dying transsexual," says Davis
But what she witnessed was anything but the strain of social and economic poverty. Robert¹s world was suffused with love, courage, faith, humor -- the ingredients of survivors, even in the midst of tragedy.
Robert Eads lived in the farmland of Toaccoa, a small dot on the Georgia map. Robert and his male friends appear and act as extremely normal. But they privately cross gender lines, and so belong to perhaps the last minority society quietly grants permission to hate. There she met Max, Cas and the others, all of them closeted. Their decision to participate in the film was major, but they felt that Robert's story was important, and too the great risk.
During the course of location filming, "we told store owners that this was a film about our friend, awkwardly leaving out major details," said Davis. At the Southern Comfort Convention, the filming was almost entirely restricted, since participants could lose their jobs and families with one slip of the camera lens. On top of this, internal jealousies threatened to split up the group; and Robert began slipping in and out of consciousness.
By winter, Davis and her team balanced shooting with administering Robert¹s medication and backrubs. "It was a roller coaster. Every shoot seemed it would be the last one," said Davis. But as if secretly choreographing the film, Robert would suggest the next scene. "You haven¹t filmed my son yet, better come back down in July," said Robert
Davis grew to love Robert, and it stretched her to the limit to watch him die while still acting as the film producer. In the end, a large part of what drew Davis to make SOUTHERN COMFORT was the mystery at the core of Robert's story. How can a person with so much to offer be condemned throughout his life simply because his very existence challenges gender norms? Gender: an elusive concept at best. Merely physical, yet deeply existential. Something assigned at birth according to a few body parts, which then grows into a seemingly immutable sense of identity.
But as Robert once told Davis, "If this film helps one other trans-man go to a doctor or changes the heart of one straight person, then it's worth it."
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
As Economic Woes Encourage Rise of Hate Groups, Venango County Must Be Vigilant To Remain Open To Fairness and Equality For All
The number of hate groups in the United States is on the rise, a trend that some see as directly correlated to the failing economy.
from The Advocate:
The number of hate groups in the United States is on the rise, a trend that some see as directly correlated to the failing economy. There are now at least 888 known hate groups in the country, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Jim Cavanaugh of the Anti-Defamation League told The Washington Post that "the Internet, immigration and the economic crisis -- that is the molten mixture for these guys."
As the world delves deeper into uncertain economic times, veteran investigators in the United States have started to pay more attention to supremacists and radicals who harm certain minority groups to make a point, the Post reported Monday. In addition to fiscal troubles, rising immigration and the reality of a black man in the White House may be enough to push some extremists over the edge.
As the number of hate groups increases, the number of hate crimes committed against gays and lesbians has also seen a rise in the past year. FBI figures show that such attacks increased by 6% from 2006 to 2007, while the number for all hate crimes had dropped slightly (1% in the same time period). Race-based incidents made up a majority of the 7,624 hate crimes reported in 2007.
While federal investigators have been able to intercept plans for violent acts, one infamous group is heading to Washington, D.C. to protest the inauguration of President Obama. The antigay Westboro Baptist Church, which the Southern Poverty Law Center deems a hate group, will no doubt make headlines during its protest of Obama, who supports many gay-related causes and is pro-choice.
from The Advocate:
The number of hate groups in the United States is on the rise, a trend that some see as directly correlated to the failing economy. There are now at least 888 known hate groups in the country, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Jim Cavanaugh of the Anti-Defamation League told The Washington Post that "the Internet, immigration and the economic crisis -- that is the molten mixture for these guys."
As the world delves deeper into uncertain economic times, veteran investigators in the United States have started to pay more attention to supremacists and radicals who harm certain minority groups to make a point, the Post reported Monday. In addition to fiscal troubles, rising immigration and the reality of a black man in the White House may be enough to push some extremists over the edge.
As the number of hate groups increases, the number of hate crimes committed against gays and lesbians has also seen a rise in the past year. FBI figures show that such attacks increased by 6% from 2006 to 2007, while the number for all hate crimes had dropped slightly (1% in the same time period). Race-based incidents made up a majority of the 7,624 hate crimes reported in 2007.
While federal investigators have been able to intercept plans for violent acts, one infamous group is heading to Washington, D.C. to protest the inauguration of President Obama. The antigay Westboro Baptist Church, which the Southern Poverty Law Center deems a hate group, will no doubt make headlines during its protest of Obama, who supports many gay-related causes and is pro-choice.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right
Sin, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right, a powerful book by Cynthia Burack, Associate Professor of Women's Studies at the Ohio State University, explores the Christian Right's use of tailored rhetorics to advance multiple and varied antigay political projects.
While the Christian Right has spearheaded a variety of anti-gay projects over the past fifteen years, including interventions in public schools, anti-gay-rights initiatives, and support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, observers of the institutionalized Christian Right have also noted a softening of anti-gay public rhetoric. Sin, Sex, and Democracy analyzes these two ostensibly conflicting phenomena.
Examining Christian witnessing tracts, the ex-gay movement, and recent linkages between gays and terrorists, Cynthia Burack argues that as the Christian Right has become a more sophisticated interest group, leaders have become adept at tailoring different messages for mainstream audiences and for the internal pedagogical processes of Christian conservatives. Understanding the rhetoric and the theological convictions that lie behind them, Burack claims, is essential to better understand how American politics work and how to effectively respond to exclusionary forms of political thought and practice.
"This book offers a meticulously detailed account of the way in which antigay discourse is constructed and employed by the Christian Right and those closely associated with it. It is a topic of significance and central to the academic study of politics and cultural practice of politics, particularly in the United States." -- Angelia R. Wilson, author of Below the Belt: Sexuality, Religion, and the American South
"The appeal of this book is the niche it fills: at a time when critics take well-worn and cheap shots at the Christian Right ill fitting the seriousness of the times, this author demands that critics take the Christian Right seriously, not only politically, but theologically." -- Amy E. Ansell, editor of Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics
While the Christian Right has spearheaded a variety of anti-gay projects over the past fifteen years, including interventions in public schools, anti-gay-rights initiatives, and support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, observers of the institutionalized Christian Right have also noted a softening of anti-gay public rhetoric. Sin, Sex, and Democracy analyzes these two ostensibly conflicting phenomena.
Examining Christian witnessing tracts, the ex-gay movement, and recent linkages between gays and terrorists, Cynthia Burack argues that as the Christian Right has become a more sophisticated interest group, leaders have become adept at tailoring different messages for mainstream audiences and for the internal pedagogical processes of Christian conservatives. Understanding the rhetoric and the theological convictions that lie behind them, Burack claims, is essential to better understand how American politics work and how to effectively respond to exclusionary forms of political thought and practice.
"This book offers a meticulously detailed account of the way in which antigay discourse is constructed and employed by the Christian Right and those closely associated with it. It is a topic of significance and central to the academic study of politics and cultural practice of politics, particularly in the United States." -- Angelia R. Wilson, author of Below the Belt: Sexuality, Religion, and the American South
"The appeal of this book is the niche it fills: at a time when critics take well-worn and cheap shots at the Christian Right ill fitting the seriousness of the times, this author demands that critics take the Christian Right seriously, not only politically, but theologically." -- Amy E. Ansell, editor of Unraveling the Right: The New Conservatism in American Thought and Politics
Christian Faith Should Be Based On Love, Not Hate
Another in the Voices of Venango County series, this excerpted from a letter-to-the-editor in The Derrick, 5/7/04, by Trisha Balmer of Oil City:
In repsonse to a. Roy Aaron's letter ("Bible has final word on homosexuality":)
The first chapter of Romans talks about idolatrous religious practices that were common in the time of Paul. Paul never in his writings addressed same-sex orientation or the expression of love and affection between two people of the same sex.
God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexual practices. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they were selfish, greedy isolationists, always suspicious of strangers and outsiders. While the men of the city did come out to rape the two strangers (who were also men), this event is not what caused God to destroy the cities. He had already decided to destroy them before that had happened.
I do agree with Mr. Aaron on one thing. Every one of us shall give account of himself to god. And while Mr. Aaron did not quote anything from Leviticus, Jesus did. The only passage that Jesus ever quoted from Leviticus was "You should love your neighbor as yourself."
While I am a married, heterosexual woman, I do not believe that we should condemn anyone for who they choose to love. I always thought that the Christian faith was based on love, not hate.
In repsonse to a. Roy Aaron's letter ("Bible has final word on homosexuality":)
The first chapter of Romans talks about idolatrous religious practices that were common in the time of Paul. Paul never in his writings addressed same-sex orientation or the expression of love and affection between two people of the same sex.
God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexual practices. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they were selfish, greedy isolationists, always suspicious of strangers and outsiders. While the men of the city did come out to rape the two strangers (who were also men), this event is not what caused God to destroy the cities. He had already decided to destroy them before that had happened.
I do agree with Mr. Aaron on one thing. Every one of us shall give account of himself to god. And while Mr. Aaron did not quote anything from Leviticus, Jesus did. The only passage that Jesus ever quoted from Leviticus was "You should love your neighbor as yourself."
While I am a married, heterosexual woman, I do not believe that we should condemn anyone for who they choose to love. I always thought that the Christian faith was based on love, not hate.
Monday, January 12, 2009
National Equality Rally - May 3, 2009 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia
from the Equality Forum:
Just want to give you some info on the National Equality Rally!
That's right, there’s a rally in the works and it’s going to be big.
It's happening May 3rd, 2009 at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, home to the Declaration of Independence, and the Liberty Bell is just across the road. Serious symbols of freedom, liberty and EQUALITY--which is what this is all about.
Every July 4th from 1965-69, the first GLBT demonstrations (Annual Reminders) were held in this very same spot (these guys pre-dated Stonewall!). So 40 years later we'll be doing the same thing. Gathering at the site where our country and its ideology were born and sending the message to our new president and Congress that second-class citizenry is unacceptable and our rights to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness are just as important as the next guy's.
No matter your personal cause (be it Marriage Equality, passage of ENDA, repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell & DOMA, federal laws against Hate Crimes—or all of these and more), let's come out together on May 3rd and Make History!
--
If you’re anywhere near the Philadelphia area you should be there... and if you're not, we‘re going to have deals through Amtrak and Southwest Airlines—so getting here will be that much easier!
--
For more info on the handful of activists who risked their livelihoods to “annually remind” and paved the way for Stonewall and the rest of the GLBT civil rights movement check out the movie Gay Pioneers.
--
Join the NATIONAL EQUALITY RALLY facebook group for updates and other info surrounding the rally. Be sure to check in more often as we get closer to the rally date (May 3rd).
Also, be sure to follow us @ twitter/theNER
--
You can find info at www.nationalequalityrally.org, as well. This site should have much more information by the end of the month! So tag it as a favorite and keep checking in.
--
Any questions, concerns, ideas, etc. please feel free to contact ben@equalityforum.com.
Just want to give you some info on the National Equality Rally!
That's right, there’s a rally in the works and it’s going to be big.
It's happening May 3rd, 2009 at Independence Hall, in Philadelphia, home to the Declaration of Independence, and the Liberty Bell is just across the road. Serious symbols of freedom, liberty and EQUALITY--which is what this is all about.
Every July 4th from 1965-69, the first GLBT demonstrations (Annual Reminders) were held in this very same spot (these guys pre-dated Stonewall!). So 40 years later we'll be doing the same thing. Gathering at the site where our country and its ideology were born and sending the message to our new president and Congress that second-class citizenry is unacceptable and our rights to life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness are just as important as the next guy's.
No matter your personal cause (be it Marriage Equality, passage of ENDA, repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell & DOMA, federal laws against Hate Crimes—or all of these and more), let's come out together on May 3rd and Make History!
--
If you’re anywhere near the Philadelphia area you should be there... and if you're not, we‘re going to have deals through Amtrak and Southwest Airlines—so getting here will be that much easier!
--
For more info on the handful of activists who risked their livelihoods to “annually remind” and paved the way for Stonewall and the rest of the GLBT civil rights movement check out the movie Gay Pioneers.
--
Join the NATIONAL EQUALITY RALLY facebook group for updates and other info surrounding the rally. Be sure to check in more often as we get closer to the rally date (May 3rd).
Also, be sure to follow us @ twitter/theNER
--
You can find info at www.nationalequalityrally.org, as well. This site should have much more information by the end of the month! So tag it as a favorite and keep checking in.
--
Any questions, concerns, ideas, etc. please feel free to contact ben@equalityforum.com.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
PFLAG Northwest Pennsylvania Meeting - Monday, January 12
Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians & Gays - PFLAG
Please join us at our Monthly Meeting for PFLAG Northwest Pennsylvania.
Meeting is 7-9pm, Monday, January 12, 2009
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie
7180 Perry Highway
Erie, PA
(814) 454-1392.
Join Us for Support, Education, Advocacy, and "Moving Equality Forward."
Bring a Treat if you wish, a friend, and most of all you. Updates from the Successful Hoilday Dinner Event.
Hot Coffee, other beverages (sodas), and some treats provided.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark D. Hoovler
PFLAG PA Coordinator
Please join us at our Monthly Meeting for PFLAG Northwest Pennsylvania.
Meeting is 7-9pm, Monday, January 12, 2009
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie
7180 Perry Highway
Erie, PA
(814) 454-1392.
Join Us for Support, Education, Advocacy, and "Moving Equality Forward."
Bring a Treat if you wish, a friend, and most of all you. Updates from the Successful Hoilday Dinner Event.
Hot Coffee, other beverages (sodas), and some treats provided.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mark
Mark D. Hoovler
PFLAG PA Coordinator
Third Highest Donor Against Marriage Equality in California Hails from Pennsylvania
from Californians Against Hate, a web site that is helping the country to know who gave the $36 million to the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign that ended same-sex marriage in California. The web site has posted all major donors who gave $5,000 and more, many much more! It has taken public information from the California Secretary of State’s Office.
Unfortunately, one of the largest contributions came from a Pennsylvania couple:
John Templeton, Jr./Josephine Templeton, Bryn Mawr, PA
300 Conshohocken State Road, Suite 500, West Conshohocken, PA 19428 • Tel: 610.941.2828
$1,100,000
John Templeton, Jr., Chairman and President of the John Templeton Foundation, gave: $450,000 on 8/19 (to NOM), $450,000 on 8/19 (to Protect Marriage), $100,000 on 10/8/08 and $100,000 on 10/29/08.
John Templeton, Jr. is the son of the late John Marks Templeton. John, Sr. was born in Winchester, Tennessee in 1912, and made his fortune through the Templeton Funds that he started and later sold in 1992 to Franklin Group for $440 million. John, Jr. is now the President of the John Templeton Foundation which has nearly $1.5 billion in assets, and gave away $70 million in grants in 2007. The Foundation funds research into “life’s biggest questions,” including science, religion, ultimate reality and wisdom.
John Templeton, Jr. founded and is Chairman of 'Let Freedom Ring, Inc.,' a far right think-tank that he set up in 2004 with a $1 million donation. He is a member of the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which made news when they were forced to leave their Philadelphia headquarters due to a conflict between Philadelphia’s non-discrimination policy, and that of the Boy Scouts, which allows discrimination of gays.
Unfortunately, one of the largest contributions came from a Pennsylvania couple:
John Templeton, Jr./Josephine Templeton, Bryn Mawr, PA
300 Conshohocken State Road, Suite 500, West Conshohocken, PA 19428 • Tel: 610.941.2828
$1,100,000
John Templeton, Jr., Chairman and President of the John Templeton Foundation, gave: $450,000 on 8/19 (to NOM), $450,000 on 8/19 (to Protect Marriage), $100,000 on 10/8/08 and $100,000 on 10/29/08.
John Templeton, Jr. is the son of the late John Marks Templeton. John, Sr. was born in Winchester, Tennessee in 1912, and made his fortune through the Templeton Funds that he started and later sold in 1992 to Franklin Group for $440 million. John, Jr. is now the President of the John Templeton Foundation which has nearly $1.5 billion in assets, and gave away $70 million in grants in 2007. The Foundation funds research into “life’s biggest questions,” including science, religion, ultimate reality and wisdom.
John Templeton, Jr. founded and is Chairman of 'Let Freedom Ring, Inc.,' a far right think-tank that he set up in 2004 with a $1 million donation. He is a member of the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which made news when they were forced to leave their Philadelphia headquarters due to a conflict between Philadelphia’s non-discrimination policy, and that of the Boy Scouts, which allows discrimination of gays.
Are Gay Opponents Like Segregationists?
By John Corvino for 365gay.com:
In terms of gay-rights progress, brace yourself for a difficult year.
This is not because things are getting worse. It’s because the national conversation on gay-rights issues is getting harder.
One reason is that, as cliché as it sounds, we are more polarized than ever. Gone are the days when House Speaker Tip O’ Neill could lambaste President Reagan by day and play cards with him after 6 p.m.
It has become too easy to surround oneself solely with like-minded people. (The internet is one key factor.) The result is a bunch of echo chambers, where opponents seem not just wrong, but borderline-insane.
The second reason is that the gay community’s specific goals have shifted. We are no longer asking merely to be left alone, as when we were fighting sodomy laws and police harassment. Our central political goal, for better or for worse, has become marriage.
Marriage is not merely a private contract between two individuals. It is also an agreement between those individuals and the larger community. It requires, both legally and socially, that community’s support. And so the old “leave me alone” script no longer quite works.
A third reason the conversation is getting harder is that the gay community is at a crossroads regarding how we treat our opponents.
On the one hand we talk about reaching out, promoting dialogue, emphasizing common ground. On the other hand we are quick to label our opponents as hate-filled bigots.
This combination obviously won’t work. A bigot is someone whose views, virtually by definition, are beyond the pale of polite discussion.
One sees this contrast in the fracas over Obama’s choice of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.
Compared to most evangelical pastors, Warren is a moderate, who focuses on common-ground issues such as poverty over the usual culture-war stuff.
But Warren supported Prop. 8, the California initiative that stripped marriage rights from gays and lesbians. (He has since suggested some possible support for civil unions.)
Obama’s camp is taking the “big tent” approach, acknowledging differences but emphasizing shared values. In a similar vein, Melissa Etheridge has opened a dialogue with Warren.
Most gay-rights leaders, by contrast, have decried Obama’s choice of Warren. As one friend put it, “it’s like inviting a segregationist to lead the invocation. I don’t care what other good things the guy has done.”
And there’s the rub: Warren does indeed espouse a “separate but equal” legal status for gays and lesbians (at best). Should we treat him the way we treat segregationists?
Before answering, remember that the majority of Californians, and a larger majority of the rest of the country, hold the same position as Warren on marriage. So does Obama himself (though he did oppose Prop. 8).
So in asking whether inviting Warren to lead the invocation is akin to inviting a segregationist to do so, we are also asking whether the vast majority of Americans are akin to segregationists.
It’s a painful question to confront. And the only fair answer is “yes and no.”
On the merits, yes. For practical purposes, no.
From where I stand, the arguments against marriage equality look about as bad as the arguments for segregation. They commit the same fallacies; they hide behind the same (selective reading of) scripture; they are often motivated by the same fears.
But I’m mindful of the fact that “from where I stand” includes decades of hindsight regarding segregation. The nation isn’t there yet on gay equality.
Today, nearly everyone finds the following sentiments repugnant:
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
The segregationist who wrote that? Abraham Lincoln.
It is easy now to paint all segregationists as hatemongers, waving pitchforks and frothing at the mouth. Easy, but quite wrong.
The fact is that most segregationists were people not unlike, say, my grandmothers, both of whom were wonderful, loving, decent human beings, and both of whom - much to my embarrassment - opposed interracial marriage.
Their reasons had to do with tradition and the well-being of children. Sound familiar?
My grandmothers were not hatemongers. They were products of their time. So was Lincoln, so is Rick Warren, and so are you and I, more or less.
I don’t mean for a moment to let Rick Warren off the hook. He ought to know better. Maybe someday he will.
In the meantime, prepare yourself for a challenging 2009.
John Corvino, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.
In terms of gay-rights progress, brace yourself for a difficult year.
This is not because things are getting worse. It’s because the national conversation on gay-rights issues is getting harder.
One reason is that, as cliché as it sounds, we are more polarized than ever. Gone are the days when House Speaker Tip O’ Neill could lambaste President Reagan by day and play cards with him after 6 p.m.
It has become too easy to surround oneself solely with like-minded people. (The internet is one key factor.) The result is a bunch of echo chambers, where opponents seem not just wrong, but borderline-insane.
The second reason is that the gay community’s specific goals have shifted. We are no longer asking merely to be left alone, as when we were fighting sodomy laws and police harassment. Our central political goal, for better or for worse, has become marriage.
Marriage is not merely a private contract between two individuals. It is also an agreement between those individuals and the larger community. It requires, both legally and socially, that community’s support. And so the old “leave me alone” script no longer quite works.
A third reason the conversation is getting harder is that the gay community is at a crossroads regarding how we treat our opponents.
On the one hand we talk about reaching out, promoting dialogue, emphasizing common ground. On the other hand we are quick to label our opponents as hate-filled bigots.
This combination obviously won’t work. A bigot is someone whose views, virtually by definition, are beyond the pale of polite discussion.
One sees this contrast in the fracas over Obama’s choice of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.
Compared to most evangelical pastors, Warren is a moderate, who focuses on common-ground issues such as poverty over the usual culture-war stuff.
But Warren supported Prop. 8, the California initiative that stripped marriage rights from gays and lesbians. (He has since suggested some possible support for civil unions.)
Obama’s camp is taking the “big tent” approach, acknowledging differences but emphasizing shared values. In a similar vein, Melissa Etheridge has opened a dialogue with Warren.
Most gay-rights leaders, by contrast, have decried Obama’s choice of Warren. As one friend put it, “it’s like inviting a segregationist to lead the invocation. I don’t care what other good things the guy has done.”
And there’s the rub: Warren does indeed espouse a “separate but equal” legal status for gays and lesbians (at best). Should we treat him the way we treat segregationists?
Before answering, remember that the majority of Californians, and a larger majority of the rest of the country, hold the same position as Warren on marriage. So does Obama himself (though he did oppose Prop. 8).
So in asking whether inviting Warren to lead the invocation is akin to inviting a segregationist to do so, we are also asking whether the vast majority of Americans are akin to segregationists.
It’s a painful question to confront. And the only fair answer is “yes and no.”
On the merits, yes. For practical purposes, no.
From where I stand, the arguments against marriage equality look about as bad as the arguments for segregation. They commit the same fallacies; they hide behind the same (selective reading of) scripture; they are often motivated by the same fears.
But I’m mindful of the fact that “from where I stand” includes decades of hindsight regarding segregation. The nation isn’t there yet on gay equality.
Today, nearly everyone finds the following sentiments repugnant:
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.”
The segregationist who wrote that? Abraham Lincoln.
It is easy now to paint all segregationists as hatemongers, waving pitchforks and frothing at the mouth. Easy, but quite wrong.
The fact is that most segregationists were people not unlike, say, my grandmothers, both of whom were wonderful, loving, decent human beings, and both of whom - much to my embarrassment - opposed interracial marriage.
Their reasons had to do with tradition and the well-being of children. Sound familiar?
My grandmothers were not hatemongers. They were products of their time. So was Lincoln, so is Rick Warren, and so are you and I, more or less.
I don’t mean for a moment to let Rick Warren off the hook. He ought to know better. Maybe someday he will.
In the meantime, prepare yourself for a challenging 2009.
John Corvino, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Gay Children and Parental Rejection
San Francisco State researcher Caitlin Ryan explains the importance behind a study linking suicide and drug use among gay children to parental rejection.
By Neal Broverman for The Advocate:
When a study came out last week noting that gay children rejected by their parents have higher rates of suicide, depression, risky sex, and drug use than those embraced by their family, the collective response was, “Well, duh.”
But the study, conducted by San Francisco State University researchers, says and does a lot more than people may realize, says Caitlin Ryan, principal investigator on the study and director of SFSU’s Family Acceptance Project.
“Actually, [the results] do come as a surprise,” Ryan says. “We can assume family rejection would contribute to health problems and distress in your life, but before this study no one identified the specific behaviors that parents and caregivers express acceptance or rejection and measured them in young people.”
Where researchers previously studying this subject asked gay children whether their parents were simply accepting or not, Ryan says her study -- to be published in the January issue of Pediatrics in an article titled “Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young Adults” -- digs deeper.
“We identified 108 behaviors that parents and caregivers use to express acceptance or rejection,” Ryan says. “For example, when you exclude [gay] kids from family activities, their odds of attempting suicide are nine times greater.”
Ryan’s results came after interviewing 53 California parents with gay teenagers to identify those 108 behaviors that could be considered “accepting” or “rejecting.” Hiding a child from another relative, criticizing a gay child for their gender-nonconforming appearance, or blaming a child for being bullied were considered “rejecting” behaviors.
Next, 224 white and Latino gay people in their early to mid 20s were asked which of the behaviors they experienced in their adolescence and how they now dealt with depression, suicidal feelings, and drug use. It was found that parents who took baby steps toward acceptance -- such as ending pressure for gay kids to date opposite-sex peers -- can make huge differences in the future mental health of their children.
Ryan hopes the research will be used by school counselors and pediatricians to demonstrate how everything they do has an effect on their children.
“I have a matching grant to develop interventions with ethnically diverse families to decrease rejection and increase support for their LGBT kids,” she says.
While many parents exhibited “rejecting” behaviors in the study, Ryan was hesitant to criticize them.
“These are very common behaviors that parents do out of habit, or behaviors they think will help their children, like expressing disappointment and shame,” Ryan says. “Parents are not their behaviors; at their base they love their children and want the best for them.”
By Neal Broverman for The Advocate:
When a study came out last week noting that gay children rejected by their parents have higher rates of suicide, depression, risky sex, and drug use than those embraced by their family, the collective response was, “Well, duh.”
But the study, conducted by San Francisco State University researchers, says and does a lot more than people may realize, says Caitlin Ryan, principal investigator on the study and director of SFSU’s Family Acceptance Project.
“Actually, [the results] do come as a surprise,” Ryan says. “We can assume family rejection would contribute to health problems and distress in your life, but before this study no one identified the specific behaviors that parents and caregivers express acceptance or rejection and measured them in young people.”
Where researchers previously studying this subject asked gay children whether their parents were simply accepting or not, Ryan says her study -- to be published in the January issue of Pediatrics in an article titled “Family Rejection as a Predictor of Negative Health Outcomes in White and Latino Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Young Adults” -- digs deeper.
“We identified 108 behaviors that parents and caregivers use to express acceptance or rejection,” Ryan says. “For example, when you exclude [gay] kids from family activities, their odds of attempting suicide are nine times greater.”
Ryan’s results came after interviewing 53 California parents with gay teenagers to identify those 108 behaviors that could be considered “accepting” or “rejecting.” Hiding a child from another relative, criticizing a gay child for their gender-nonconforming appearance, or blaming a child for being bullied were considered “rejecting” behaviors.
Next, 224 white and Latino gay people in their early to mid 20s were asked which of the behaviors they experienced in their adolescence and how they now dealt with depression, suicidal feelings, and drug use. It was found that parents who took baby steps toward acceptance -- such as ending pressure for gay kids to date opposite-sex peers -- can make huge differences in the future mental health of their children.
Ryan hopes the research will be used by school counselors and pediatricians to demonstrate how everything they do has an effect on their children.
“I have a matching grant to develop interventions with ethnically diverse families to decrease rejection and increase support for their LGBT kids,” she says.
While many parents exhibited “rejecting” behaviors in the study, Ryan was hesitant to criticize them.
“These are very common behaviors that parents do out of habit, or behaviors they think will help their children, like expressing disappointment and shame,” Ryan says. “Parents are not their behaviors; at their base they love their children and want the best for them.”
Friday, January 9, 2009
Author of the "Defense of Marriage Act" Calls for Repeal !!
from Join The Impact:
One week before our National DOMA protest, the waves of change are already starting to form! Bob Barr, the infamous author of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), wrote an op-ed in the LA Times stating that DOMA should be repealed! This is something worth celebrating, and something we should take to the next level.
Ever since we announced January 10th’s National DOMA Protest, we learned that many members of the LGBTQ community do not even know what DOMA is. DOMA, put simply, is one current reason LGBTQ rights are so hard to come by. When you drill down to the heart of DOMA, it was launched as an effort to keep same-sex couples from gaining the same rights as heterosexual married couples… in other words, it was born out of a need to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ community. DOMA has been used time and time again to continually restrict the rights of the LGBTQ community in employment, spousal benefits, property ownership, insurance, etc. Many view it as discrimination written into the constitution (I am one of those many).
On January 10th, we are protesting to repeal DOMA and to gain 1 Million Signatures on our Open Letter to Barack Obama. This letter is meant to serve as a reminder to Obama of the promises that he made to our community, which he wrote in an Open Letter to the LGBTQ Community in early 2008. In that letter, he promised to repeal DOMA. We drafted a letter that uses his exact words in an effort to remind him just how accountable we expect him to be for his promises. Many requests have been made to broaden this letter and add a request for full gay marriage, or other initiatives to the list. We do not want to deter from the point of the letter though: Repeal DOMA. Hold True to Your Promises. Your Words DO Have Meaning.
DOMA Defined:
On September 21st, 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was signed into federal law. DOMA, wrote discrimination into the Constitution with two strict regulations:
1. No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state.
2. The Federal Government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.
To drive the point even further, 37 states slowly but surely adopted DOMA as a state-wide regulation further amending state Constitutions. This appalling law tells the American people that it is OK to discriminate. That it is OK to recognize the LGBTQ community as less than equal. This same law, that the California Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional set the precedence for Proposition 8. This same law has nullified many rights that come with Domestic Partnerships. This law does not just affect members of the LGBTQ community - it also repeals rights from heterosexual non-married couples. This law has nullified the heterosexual rights that come with Common Law Marriage. This law blurred the lines of separation of church and state even further. And this law, is one of many that President Elect Barack Obama has PROMISED to repeal in his “Open Letter to the LGBTQ Community.
DOMA is not a speed bump on the road to full equality. It is not even a road block. DOMA is a gigantic brick wall that is crumbling! On January 10th, we encourage you to find a protest in or near your city. Join in this important national moment, where we will work together to shed light on the negative effects of DOMA. Help us get signatures between now and Jan 10th on the Open Letter to Barack Obama. Bob Barr, who created the beast, is now in our corner to help us defeat it! He started the wall crumbling, now it’s time we come together this Saturday with our own “demo team” to help tear it down!
One week before our National DOMA protest, the waves of change are already starting to form! Bob Barr, the infamous author of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), wrote an op-ed in the LA Times stating that DOMA should be repealed! This is something worth celebrating, and something we should take to the next level.
Ever since we announced January 10th’s National DOMA Protest, we learned that many members of the LGBTQ community do not even know what DOMA is. DOMA, put simply, is one current reason LGBTQ rights are so hard to come by. When you drill down to the heart of DOMA, it was launched as an effort to keep same-sex couples from gaining the same rights as heterosexual married couples… in other words, it was born out of a need to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ community. DOMA has been used time and time again to continually restrict the rights of the LGBTQ community in employment, spousal benefits, property ownership, insurance, etc. Many view it as discrimination written into the constitution (I am one of those many).
On January 10th, we are protesting to repeal DOMA and to gain 1 Million Signatures on our Open Letter to Barack Obama. This letter is meant to serve as a reminder to Obama of the promises that he made to our community, which he wrote in an Open Letter to the LGBTQ Community in early 2008. In that letter, he promised to repeal DOMA. We drafted a letter that uses his exact words in an effort to remind him just how accountable we expect him to be for his promises. Many requests have been made to broaden this letter and add a request for full gay marriage, or other initiatives to the list. We do not want to deter from the point of the letter though: Repeal DOMA. Hold True to Your Promises. Your Words DO Have Meaning.
DOMA Defined:
On September 21st, 1996, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was signed into federal law. DOMA, wrote discrimination into the Constitution with two strict regulations:
1. No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need treat a relationship between persons of the same sex as a marriage, even if the relationship is considered a marriage in another state.
2. The Federal Government may not treat same-sex relationships as marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.
To drive the point even further, 37 states slowly but surely adopted DOMA as a state-wide regulation further amending state Constitutions. This appalling law tells the American people that it is OK to discriminate. That it is OK to recognize the LGBTQ community as less than equal. This same law, that the California Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional set the precedence for Proposition 8. This same law has nullified many rights that come with Domestic Partnerships. This law does not just affect members of the LGBTQ community - it also repeals rights from heterosexual non-married couples. This law has nullified the heterosexual rights that come with Common Law Marriage. This law blurred the lines of separation of church and state even further. And this law, is one of many that President Elect Barack Obama has PROMISED to repeal in his “Open Letter to the LGBTQ Community.
DOMA is not a speed bump on the road to full equality. It is not even a road block. DOMA is a gigantic brick wall that is crumbling! On January 10th, we encourage you to find a protest in or near your city. Join in this important national moment, where we will work together to shed light on the negative effects of DOMA. Help us get signatures between now and Jan 10th on the Open Letter to Barack Obama. Bob Barr, who created the beast, is now in our corner to help us defeat it! He started the wall crumbling, now it’s time we come together this Saturday with our own “demo team” to help tear it down!
Will Those Who Promote Religion-based Bigotry in the U.S. Go as Far as Senegal to Persecute Gays? What Would Venango County Do?
The jailing in Senegal of nine gay men for eight years over "indecent conduct and unnatural acts" has been condemned by an international gay rights group.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal but the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) told the BBC it was "shocked by the ruling".
The judge added three years to a five-year sentence, saying the men were also members of a criminal group.
Most of them belonged to an association set up to fight HIV and Aids.
"This is the first time that the Senegalese legal system has handed down such a harsh sentence against gays," said Issa Diop, one of the men's four defence lawyers.
Mr Diop said he would be appealing against the sentences.
The IGLHRC's Cary Alan Johnson said he was "deeply disturbed" by the case.
"There have been pretty consistent human rights violations… in Senegal," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme from Cape Town in South Africa.
"But the extremity of this sentence [and] the rapidness of the trial all really shocks us in a country which has been moving so positively towards rule of law and a progressive human rights regime."
'Schizophrenic'
The head of a gay rights organisation in Senegal told AFP news agency that the situation for gay people in the country was getting worse.
"Many gays are already fleeing to neighbouring countries because of our living conditions," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country and gay men and women remain socially marginalised.
Mr Alan Johnson said Senegal was "schizophrenic" in its attitudes.
Religious attacks on gay and lesbian people were on the increase, he said.
While Senegal recently played host to a major conference on Aids and sexually transmitted diseases, where "the needs of men who have sex with men were prominently featured", he said.
"There's both a movement towards progressive and inclusive culture but at the same time very, very strong movements towards oppression, specifically towards sexuality," he added.
In February 2008, a magazine editor received death threats after publishing pictures claiming to depict a wedding ceremony between two men.
Several men were also arrested in connection with the publication but later released.
Story from BBC NEWS:
Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal but the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) told the BBC it was "shocked by the ruling".
The judge added three years to a five-year sentence, saying the men were also members of a criminal group.
Most of them belonged to an association set up to fight HIV and Aids.
"This is the first time that the Senegalese legal system has handed down such a harsh sentence against gays," said Issa Diop, one of the men's four defence lawyers.
Mr Diop said he would be appealing against the sentences.
The IGLHRC's Cary Alan Johnson said he was "deeply disturbed" by the case.
"There have been pretty consistent human rights violations… in Senegal," he told the BBC's Network Africa programme from Cape Town in South Africa.
"But the extremity of this sentence [and] the rapidness of the trial all really shocks us in a country which has been moving so positively towards rule of law and a progressive human rights regime."
'Schizophrenic'
The head of a gay rights organisation in Senegal told AFP news agency that the situation for gay people in the country was getting worse.
"Many gays are already fleeing to neighbouring countries because of our living conditions," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Senegal is a predominantly Muslim country and gay men and women remain socially marginalised.
Mr Alan Johnson said Senegal was "schizophrenic" in its attitudes.
Religious attacks on gay and lesbian people were on the increase, he said.
While Senegal recently played host to a major conference on Aids and sexually transmitted diseases, where "the needs of men who have sex with men were prominently featured", he said.
"There's both a movement towards progressive and inclusive culture but at the same time very, very strong movements towards oppression, specifically towards sexuality," he added.
In February 2008, a magazine editor received death threats after publishing pictures claiming to depict a wedding ceremony between two men.
Several men were also arrested in connection with the publication but later released.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
The Truth About Homophobic Rick Warren
Team Obama likes to cite Warren’s work on AIDS in Africa to combat criticism about the controversial pastor. But how does burning condoms in the name of Jesus save lives?
by Max Blumenthal for The Daily Beast:
Once hailed by Time magazine as “America’s Pastor,” California mega-church leader and bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren now finds himself on the defensive. President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer has generated intense scrutiny of the pastor’s beliefs on social issues, from his vocal support for Prop 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in California, to his comparison of homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and bestiality. Many of Obama’s supporters have demanded that he withdraw the invitation.
Warren’s defense against charges of intolerance ultimately depends upon his ace card: his heavily publicized crusade against AIDS in Africa. Obama senior advisor David Axelrod cited Warren’s work in Africa as one of “the things on which [Obama and Warren] agree” on the December 28 episode of Meet the Press. Warren may be opposed to gay rights and abortion, the thinking goes, but he tells evangelicals it is their God-given duty to battle one of the greatest pandemics in history. What could be wrong with that?
But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming to those who have attempted to look into it. His website contains scant information about the results of his program. However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”
Warren’s man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.
Dr. Helen Epstein, a public health consultant who authored the book, The Invisible Cure: Why We’re Losing The Fight Against AIDS In Africa, met Ssempa in 2005. Epstein told me the preacher seemed gripped by paranoia, warning her of a secret witches coven that met under Lake Victoria. “Ssempa also spoke to me for a very long time about his fear of homosexual men and women,” Epstein said. “He seemed very personally terrified by their presence.”
When Warren unveiled his global AIDS initiative at a 2005 conference at his Saddleback Church, he cast Ssempa as his indispensable sidekick, assigning him to lead a breakout session on abstinence-only education as well as a seminar on AIDS prevention. Later, Ssempa delivered a keynote address, a speech so stirring it “had the audience on the edge of its seats,” according to Warren’s public relations agency. A year later, Ssempa returned to Saddleback Church to lead another seminar on AIDS. By this time, his bond with the Warrens had grown almost familial. “You are my brother, Martin, and I love you,” Rick Warren’s wife, Kay, said to Ssempa from the stage. Her voice trembled with emotion as she spoke and tears ran down her cheeks.
Joining Ssempa at Warren’s church were two key Bush administration officials who controlled the purse strings of the president’s newly minted $15 billion anti-AIDS initiative in Africa, PEPFAR. Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni also appeared through a videotaped address to tout the success of her country’s numerous church-based abstinence programs.
These Bush officials—Randall Tobias, the Department of State’s Global AIDS coordinator, and Claude Allen, the White House’s chief domestic policy advisor—are closely linked to the Christian right. Tobias, the so-called “global AIDS czar,” declared in 2004 that condoms “really have not been very effective," and crusaded against prostitution, until he resigned in 2007 when he was exposed as a regular client of the D.C. Madam’s escort service. Allen, once an aide to the late Senator Jesse Helms, resigned in 2006 after he was arrested for felony thefts from retail stores.
During the early 1990s, when many African leaders denied the AIDS epidemic’s existence, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni spoke openly about the importance of safe sex. With the help of local and international non-governmental organizations, he implemented an ambitious program emphasizing abstinence, monogamous relationships, and using condoms as the best ways to prevent the spread of AIDS. He called the program “ABC.” By 2003, Uganda’s AIDS rate plummeted 10 percent. The government’s free distribution of the “C” in ABC—condoms—proved central to the program’s success, according to Avert, an international AIDS charity.
On New Year’s Eve, 1999, Janet Museveni, who had become born-again, convened a massive stadium revival in Kampala to dedicate her country to the “lordship” of Jesus Christ. As midnight approached, the First Lady summoned a local pastor to the stage to anoint the nation. “We renounce idolatry, witchcraft, and Satanism in our land!” he proclaimed.
Two years later, Janet Museveni flew to Washington at the height of a heated congressional debate over PEPFAR. She carried in her hand a prepared message to distribute to Republicans. Abstinence was the golden bullet in her country’s fight against AIDS, she assured conservative lawmakers, denying the empirically proven success of her husband’s condom distribution program. Like magic, the Republican-dominated Congress authorized over $200 million for Uganda, but only for the exclusive promotion of abstinence education. Ssempa soon became the “special representative of the First Lady’s Task Force on AIDS in Uganda,” receiving $40,000 from the PEPFAR pot.
Emboldened by U.S. support, Ssempa took his anti-condom crusade to Makerere University in Kampala, where senior residents of a men’s dormitory promoted safe sex by greeting incoming freshmen with a giant effigy wearing a condom. According to Helen Epstein, one day after she visited the school, Ssempa stormed on to campus, tore the condom from the effigy, grabbed a box of free condoms, and set them ablaze. “I burn these condoms in the name of Jesus!” Ssempa shouted as he prayed over the burning box.
“It was a very controversial time,” Epstein told me. “After the Bush administration authorized PEPFAR, a number of the local evangelical preachers began to get excited about this and get involved in AIDS very rapidly. To try to prove his credentials, Ssempa became increasingly active and vociferous in his antipathy towards condoms.”
By 2005, billboards promoting condom use disappeared from the streets of Kampala, replaced by billboards promoting virginity. “Until recently, all HIV-related billboards were about condoms. Those of us calling for abstinence and faithfulness need billboards too,” Ssempa told the BBC at the time. A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch documented that educational material in Uganda’s secondary schools falsely claiming condoms had microscopic pores that could be penetrated by the HIV virus and noted the sudden nationwide shortage of condoms due to new restrictions imposed by on condom imports.
AIDS activists arrived at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006 with disturbing news from Uganda. Due at least in part to the chronic condom shortage, HIV infections were on the rise again. The disease rate had spiked to 6.5 percent among rural men, and 8.8 percent among women—a rise of nearly two points in the case of women. “The ‘C’ part [of ABC] is now mainly silent,” said Ugandan AIDS activist Beatrice Ware. As a result, she said, “the success story is unraveling.”
Troubled by what he was witnessing in Africa, Rep. Tom Lantos led the new Democratic-controlled Congress to reform PEPFAR during a reauthorization process in February 2008. Lantos insisted that Congress lift the abstinence-only earmark imposed by Republicans in 2002, and begin to fund family planning elements like free condom distribution. His maneuver infuriated Warren, who immediately boarded a plane for Washington to join Christian right leaders including born-again former Watergate felon Chuck Colson for an emergency press conference on the Capitol lawn. In his speech, Warren claimed that Lantos’ bill would spawn an increase in the sex trafficking of young women. The bill died and PEPFAR was reauthorized in its flawed form. (Days later, Lantos died of cancer after serving for 27 years in Congress.)
With safe sex advocates on the run, Warren and Ssempa trained their sights on another social evil. In August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. “Arrest all homos,” read placards. And: “A man cannot marry a man.” Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a website he created, along with photos and home addresses. “Homosexual promoters,” he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda’s children into their lifestyle. Soon afterwards, two of President Yoweri Museveni’s top officials demanded the arrest of the gay activists named by Ssempa. Terrified, the activists immediately into hiding.
Warren, in his effort to dispel criticism, has denied harboring homophobic sentiments. “I could give you a hundred gay friends,” he told MSNBC’s Ann Curry on December 18. “I have always treated them with respect. When they come and want to talk to me, I talk to them.”
But when Uganda’s Anglican bishops threatened to bolt from the Church of England because of its tolerant stance towards homosexuals, Warren parachuted into Kampala to confer international legitimacy on their protest. “The Church of England is wrong and I support the Church of Uganda on the boycott,” Warren proclaimed in March 2008. Declaring homosexuality an unnatural way of life, Warren flatly stated, “We shall not tolerate this aspect [homosexuality in the church] at all.”
Days later, Warren emerged so enthusiastic after a meeting with First Lady Museveni, he announced a plan to make Uganda a “Purpose Driven Nation.” “The future of Christianity is not Europe or North America, but Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” he told a cheering throng at Makerere University. Then, Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi rose and predicted, “Someday, we will have a purpose driven continent!”
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009.
by Max Blumenthal for The Daily Beast:
Once hailed by Time magazine as “America’s Pastor,” California mega-church leader and bestselling author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren now finds himself on the defensive. President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Warren to deliver the inaugural prayer has generated intense scrutiny of the pastor’s beliefs on social issues, from his vocal support for Prop 8, a ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in California, to his comparison of homosexuality to pedophilia, incest and bestiality. Many of Obama’s supporters have demanded that he withdraw the invitation.
Warren’s defense against charges of intolerance ultimately depends upon his ace card: his heavily publicized crusade against AIDS in Africa. Obama senior advisor David Axelrod cited Warren’s work in Africa as one of “the things on which [Obama and Warren] agree” on the December 28 episode of Meet the Press. Warren may be opposed to gay rights and abortion, the thinking goes, but he tells evangelicals it is their God-given duty to battle one of the greatest pandemics in history. What could be wrong with that?
But since the Warren inauguration controversy erupted, the nature of work against AIDS in Africa has gone unexamined. Warren has not been particularly forthcoming to those who have attempted to look into it. His website contains scant information about the results of his program. However, an investigation into Warren’s involvement in Africa reveals a web of alliances with right-wing clergymen who have sidelined science-based approaches to combating AIDS in favor of abstinence-only education. More disturbingly, Warren’s allies have rolled back key elements of one of the continent’s most successful initiative, the so-called ABC program in Uganda. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations’ special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, told the New York Times their activism is “resulting in great damage and undoubtedly will cause significant numbers of infections which should never have occurred.”
Warren’s man in Uganda is a charismatic pastor named Martin Ssempa. The head of the Makerere Community Church, a rapidly growing congregation, Ssempe enjoys close ties to his country’s First Lady, Janet Museveni, and is a favorite of the Bush White House. In the capitol of Kampala, Ssempa is known for his boisterous crusading. Ssempa’s stunts have included burning condoms in the name of Jesus and arranging the publication of names of homosexuals in cooperative local newspapers while lobbying for criminal penalties to imprison them.
Dr. Helen Epstein, a public health consultant who authored the book, The Invisible Cure: Why We’re Losing The Fight Against AIDS In Africa, met Ssempa in 2005. Epstein told me the preacher seemed gripped by paranoia, warning her of a secret witches coven that met under Lake Victoria. “Ssempa also spoke to me for a very long time about his fear of homosexual men and women,” Epstein said. “He seemed very personally terrified by their presence.”
When Warren unveiled his global AIDS initiative at a 2005 conference at his Saddleback Church, he cast Ssempa as his indispensable sidekick, assigning him to lead a breakout session on abstinence-only education as well as a seminar on AIDS prevention. Later, Ssempa delivered a keynote address, a speech so stirring it “had the audience on the edge of its seats,” according to Warren’s public relations agency. A year later, Ssempa returned to Saddleback Church to lead another seminar on AIDS. By this time, his bond with the Warrens had grown almost familial. “You are my brother, Martin, and I love you,” Rick Warren’s wife, Kay, said to Ssempa from the stage. Her voice trembled with emotion as she spoke and tears ran down her cheeks.
Joining Ssempa at Warren’s church were two key Bush administration officials who controlled the purse strings of the president’s newly minted $15 billion anti-AIDS initiative in Africa, PEPFAR. Ugandan first lady Janet Museveni also appeared through a videotaped address to tout the success of her country’s numerous church-based abstinence programs.
These Bush officials—Randall Tobias, the Department of State’s Global AIDS coordinator, and Claude Allen, the White House’s chief domestic policy advisor—are closely linked to the Christian right. Tobias, the so-called “global AIDS czar,” declared in 2004 that condoms “really have not been very effective," and crusaded against prostitution, until he resigned in 2007 when he was exposed as a regular client of the D.C. Madam’s escort service. Allen, once an aide to the late Senator Jesse Helms, resigned in 2006 after he was arrested for felony thefts from retail stores.
During the early 1990s, when many African leaders denied the AIDS epidemic’s existence, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni spoke openly about the importance of safe sex. With the help of local and international non-governmental organizations, he implemented an ambitious program emphasizing abstinence, monogamous relationships, and using condoms as the best ways to prevent the spread of AIDS. He called the program “ABC.” By 2003, Uganda’s AIDS rate plummeted 10 percent. The government’s free distribution of the “C” in ABC—condoms—proved central to the program’s success, according to Avert, an international AIDS charity.
On New Year’s Eve, 1999, Janet Museveni, who had become born-again, convened a massive stadium revival in Kampala to dedicate her country to the “lordship” of Jesus Christ. As midnight approached, the First Lady summoned a local pastor to the stage to anoint the nation. “We renounce idolatry, witchcraft, and Satanism in our land!” he proclaimed.
Two years later, Janet Museveni flew to Washington at the height of a heated congressional debate over PEPFAR. She carried in her hand a prepared message to distribute to Republicans. Abstinence was the golden bullet in her country’s fight against AIDS, she assured conservative lawmakers, denying the empirically proven success of her husband’s condom distribution program. Like magic, the Republican-dominated Congress authorized over $200 million for Uganda, but only for the exclusive promotion of abstinence education. Ssempa soon became the “special representative of the First Lady’s Task Force on AIDS in Uganda,” receiving $40,000 from the PEPFAR pot.
Emboldened by U.S. support, Ssempa took his anti-condom crusade to Makerere University in Kampala, where senior residents of a men’s dormitory promoted safe sex by greeting incoming freshmen with a giant effigy wearing a condom. According to Helen Epstein, one day after she visited the school, Ssempa stormed on to campus, tore the condom from the effigy, grabbed a box of free condoms, and set them ablaze. “I burn these condoms in the name of Jesus!” Ssempa shouted as he prayed over the burning box.
“It was a very controversial time,” Epstein told me. “After the Bush administration authorized PEPFAR, a number of the local evangelical preachers began to get excited about this and get involved in AIDS very rapidly. To try to prove his credentials, Ssempa became increasingly active and vociferous in his antipathy towards condoms.”
By 2005, billboards promoting condom use disappeared from the streets of Kampala, replaced by billboards promoting virginity. “Until recently, all HIV-related billboards were about condoms. Those of us calling for abstinence and faithfulness need billboards too,” Ssempa told the BBC at the time. A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch documented that educational material in Uganda’s secondary schools falsely claiming condoms had microscopic pores that could be penetrated by the HIV virus and noted the sudden nationwide shortage of condoms due to new restrictions imposed by on condom imports.
AIDS activists arrived at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006 with disturbing news from Uganda. Due at least in part to the chronic condom shortage, HIV infections were on the rise again. The disease rate had spiked to 6.5 percent among rural men, and 8.8 percent among women—a rise of nearly two points in the case of women. “The ‘C’ part [of ABC] is now mainly silent,” said Ugandan AIDS activist Beatrice Ware. As a result, she said, “the success story is unraveling.”
Troubled by what he was witnessing in Africa, Rep. Tom Lantos led the new Democratic-controlled Congress to reform PEPFAR during a reauthorization process in February 2008. Lantos insisted that Congress lift the abstinence-only earmark imposed by Republicans in 2002, and begin to fund family planning elements like free condom distribution. His maneuver infuriated Warren, who immediately boarded a plane for Washington to join Christian right leaders including born-again former Watergate felon Chuck Colson for an emergency press conference on the Capitol lawn. In his speech, Warren claimed that Lantos’ bill would spawn an increase in the sex trafficking of young women. The bill died and PEPFAR was reauthorized in its flawed form. (Days later, Lantos died of cancer after serving for 27 years in Congress.)
With safe sex advocates on the run, Warren and Ssempa trained their sights on another social evil. In August 2007, Ssempa led hundreds of his followers through the streets of Kampala to demand that the government mete out harsh punishments against gays. “Arrest all homos,” read placards. And: “A man cannot marry a man.” Ssempa continued his crusade online, publishing the names of Ugandan gay rights activists on a website he created, along with photos and home addresses. “Homosexual promoters,” he called them, suggesting they intended to seduce Uganda’s children into their lifestyle. Soon afterwards, two of President Yoweri Museveni’s top officials demanded the arrest of the gay activists named by Ssempa. Terrified, the activists immediately into hiding.
Warren, in his effort to dispel criticism, has denied harboring homophobic sentiments. “I could give you a hundred gay friends,” he told MSNBC’s Ann Curry on December 18. “I have always treated them with respect. When they come and want to talk to me, I talk to them.”
But when Uganda’s Anglican bishops threatened to bolt from the Church of England because of its tolerant stance towards homosexuals, Warren parachuted into Kampala to confer international legitimacy on their protest. “The Church of England is wrong and I support the Church of Uganda on the boycott,” Warren proclaimed in March 2008. Declaring homosexuality an unnatural way of life, Warren flatly stated, “We shall not tolerate this aspect [homosexuality in the church] at all.”
Days later, Warren emerged so enthusiastic after a meeting with First Lady Museveni, he announced a plan to make Uganda a “Purpose Driven Nation.” “The future of Christianity is not Europe or North America, but Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” he told a cheering throng at Makerere University. Then, Ugandan Archbishop Henry Orombi rose and predicted, “Someday, we will have a purpose driven continent!”
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for The Daily Beast and writing fellow at The Nation Institute, whose book, Republican Gomorrah (Basic/Nation Books), is forthcoming in Spring 2009.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Words, Like Actions, Have Consequences
Another in the Voices of Venango County series, excerpted from a letter-to-the-editor in The Derrick by Dean Hamer of Franklin/Washington, DC, 4/18/07:
Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, based in Venango County, is correct: It IS dangerous to be gay. Every year, thousands of American men and women and physically attacked and even murdered solely on the basis of their sexual orientation.
The situation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth is especially concerning. More than half of GLBT teens experience verbal and physical harassment and violence in their schools, and the suicide rate for this group is three times higher than average.
The cause of this violence is homophobia - the irrational fear of homosexuality that is so clearly exemplified in Gramley's rhetoric.
Although she may not have physically beat down anyone herself, her words are just as harmful because they give permission for others to do so. You can't condemn and revile an entire group of people and then pretend that your words don't have negative consequences.
Interestingly, Gramley mentions a group of GLBT youth from Pittsburgh, "Dreams of Hope," that recently visited Venango County to talk about their experiences with religion.
It was a moving performance, full of angst but also love, healing and redemption. Several ministers were in the audience, and even though they believe strongly in scripture, it was clear that they were personally stirred.
As a business investor in Venango County, I am concerned that the attitude of hate and discrimination expressed by Gramley and the American Family Association of Pennsylvania will make it difficult to attract educated employees to this area.
I hope her viewpoint is the exception rather than the rule in this beautiful part of the country.
Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania, based in Venango County, is correct: It IS dangerous to be gay. Every year, thousands of American men and women and physically attacked and even murdered solely on the basis of their sexual orientation.
The situation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth is especially concerning. More than half of GLBT teens experience verbal and physical harassment and violence in their schools, and the suicide rate for this group is three times higher than average.
The cause of this violence is homophobia - the irrational fear of homosexuality that is so clearly exemplified in Gramley's rhetoric.
Although she may not have physically beat down anyone herself, her words are just as harmful because they give permission for others to do so. You can't condemn and revile an entire group of people and then pretend that your words don't have negative consequences.
Interestingly, Gramley mentions a group of GLBT youth from Pittsburgh, "Dreams of Hope," that recently visited Venango County to talk about their experiences with religion.
It was a moving performance, full of angst but also love, healing and redemption. Several ministers were in the audience, and even though they believe strongly in scripture, it was clear that they were personally stirred.
As a business investor in Venango County, I am concerned that the attitude of hate and discrimination expressed by Gramley and the American Family Association of Pennsylvania will make it difficult to attract educated employees to this area.
I hope her viewpoint is the exception rather than the rule in this beautiful part of the country.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Psychologist Way Off Base With View On Gay Marriages
Another in the Voices of Venango County series, this excerpted from a letter by Carie Forden, Ph.D., of Oil City to The Derrick 6/8/06:
(The letter refers to a presentation in Venango County by Bill Maier, Vice-President, Psychologist in Residence at Focus On The Family, an anti-gay extremist organization based in Colorado. The program was promoted by Lighthouse Ministries of Franklin, an organization affiliated with Venango County's own anti-gay extremist, Diane Gramley.)
As a psychologist and a member of the American Psychological Association, I feel compelled to respond to an article which described a presentation made by a psychologist and radio host named Bill Maier*, who is opposed to gay marriage.
I want to make clear that this view is not representative of the majority of psychologists, nor is it supported by scientific research. In fact, the scientific evidence is such that the American Psychological Association has adopted a resolution which advocates for the establishment of civil marriage for same-sex couples.
This resolution also encourages psychologists to act to eliminate all discrimination against same-sex couples (http:/www.apa.org).
Maier gives a false picture of scientific evidence. He ignores the psychological research which consistently shows that gay and lesbian relationships are equivalent to those of heterosexuals in terms of satisfaction and commitment, and that gay and lesbian parents are just as likely as heterosexual parents to raise helathy and well-adjusted children.
While Maier implies that anthropological and sociological research provides support for banning gay marriage, in fact, both the American Anthropological Association and the American Sociological Association oppose such a ban.
The American Anthropological Association has released a statement saying that "more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provides no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.
Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contriute to stable and humane societies" (http://www.aaanet.org).
Likewise, the American Sociological Association has adopted a resolution strongly opposing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, saying that "we believe that the official justification for the proposed constitutional amendment is based on prejudice rather than empirical research" (http://www.asanet.org).
Although Bill Maier is a psychologist, it seems that his views on gay marriage are based more on his religious beliefs than on the sound scientific evidence of his profession. It is simply not accurate to argue that research supports the idea that a ban on gay marriage will benefit society, and that traditional heterosexual marriage is the only kind of healthy relationship.
(The letter refers to a presentation in Venango County by Bill Maier, Vice-President, Psychologist in Residence at Focus On The Family, an anti-gay extremist organization based in Colorado. The program was promoted by Lighthouse Ministries of Franklin, an organization affiliated with Venango County's own anti-gay extremist, Diane Gramley.)
As a psychologist and a member of the American Psychological Association, I feel compelled to respond to an article which described a presentation made by a psychologist and radio host named Bill Maier*, who is opposed to gay marriage.
I want to make clear that this view is not representative of the majority of psychologists, nor is it supported by scientific research. In fact, the scientific evidence is such that the American Psychological Association has adopted a resolution which advocates for the establishment of civil marriage for same-sex couples.
This resolution also encourages psychologists to act to eliminate all discrimination against same-sex couples (http:/www.apa.org).
Maier gives a false picture of scientific evidence. He ignores the psychological research which consistently shows that gay and lesbian relationships are equivalent to those of heterosexuals in terms of satisfaction and commitment, and that gay and lesbian parents are just as likely as heterosexual parents to raise helathy and well-adjusted children.
While Maier implies that anthropological and sociological research provides support for banning gay marriage, in fact, both the American Anthropological Association and the American Sociological Association oppose such a ban.
The American Anthropological Association has released a statement saying that "more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provides no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution.
Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contriute to stable and humane societies" (http://www.aaanet.org).
Likewise, the American Sociological Association has adopted a resolution strongly opposing a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, saying that "we believe that the official justification for the proposed constitutional amendment is based on prejudice rather than empirical research" (http://www.asanet.org).
Although Bill Maier is a psychologist, it seems that his views on gay marriage are based more on his religious beliefs than on the sound scientific evidence of his profession. It is simply not accurate to argue that research supports the idea that a ban on gay marriage will benefit society, and that traditional heterosexual marriage is the only kind of healthy relationship.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Students For Equality - Together As One on Jan. 27, 2009
STUDENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY JOIN TOGETHER IN THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT TOWARDS LGBT EQUALITY.
On January 27th, 2009, high school and college students across the country will wear the same shirt to school as a way to show unity within the community in the fight towards LGBT equality, particularly marriage equality. This is a visibility/fundraiser event geared towards achieving the following goals:
* Get students more involved in the fight towards LGBT equality.
* Raise the visibility of the LGBT movement towards equality by having everyone wear the same shirt on the same day. Students are encouraged to take group photos of everyone at their school wearing the Students for Equality t-shirt. Locations and time suggestions for group photos should be emailed to Eric Ross at eross@studentsforequality.com for better coordination. Students for Equality is encouraging students to submit the group pictures to their school yearbooks and newspapers.
* Have the event one week after the inauguration to remind Obama that we are not going away. We are expecting him to address same-sex marriage, and LGBT rights in general.
* Raise money towards fighting for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the courts. Students for Equality will be donating a portion of the proceeds to Lambda Legal since they are currently fighting the state of California to repeal Proposition 8. Lambda Legal has also fought for LGBT equality in many other cases, including overturning sodomy laws in the United States on a federal level. To see more landmark cases fought by Lambda Legal, go to http://www.lambdalegal.org.
“The younger generation was very involved in the election this year,” says Eric Ross co-founder of Students for Equality. “This event is a way for them to stay involved in political activism, and not just unite in the fight for marriage equality, but for LGBT equality as a whole.”
Designs for the shirt were submitted by students and voted on by visitors of the Students for Equality website. The winning design was announced on January 1st, 2009 and people wishing to buy one of these shirts to raise money in the fight of revoking Proposition 8 can do so by going to www.studentsforequality.com. People can also go to the same website to find out information about future events sponsored by Students for Equality.
On January 27th, 2009, high school and college students across the country will wear the same shirt to school as a way to show unity within the community in the fight towards LGBT equality, particularly marriage equality. This is a visibility/fundraiser event geared towards achieving the following goals:
* Get students more involved in the fight towards LGBT equality.
* Raise the visibility of the LGBT movement towards equality by having everyone wear the same shirt on the same day. Students are encouraged to take group photos of everyone at their school wearing the Students for Equality t-shirt. Locations and time suggestions for group photos should be emailed to Eric Ross at eross@studentsforequality.com for better coordination. Students for Equality is encouraging students to submit the group pictures to their school yearbooks and newspapers.
* Have the event one week after the inauguration to remind Obama that we are not going away. We are expecting him to address same-sex marriage, and LGBT rights in general.
* Raise money towards fighting for the legalization of same-sex marriage in the courts. Students for Equality will be donating a portion of the proceeds to Lambda Legal since they are currently fighting the state of California to repeal Proposition 8. Lambda Legal has also fought for LGBT equality in many other cases, including overturning sodomy laws in the United States on a federal level. To see more landmark cases fought by Lambda Legal, go to http://www.lambdalegal.org.
“The younger generation was very involved in the election this year,” says Eric Ross co-founder of Students for Equality. “This event is a way for them to stay involved in political activism, and not just unite in the fight for marriage equality, but for LGBT equality as a whole.”
Designs for the shirt were submitted by students and voted on by visitors of the Students for Equality website. The winning design was announced on January 1st, 2009 and people wishing to buy one of these shirts to raise money in the fight of revoking Proposition 8 can do so by going to www.studentsforequality.com. People can also go to the same website to find out information about future events sponsored by Students for Equality.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Everyone Deserves Equality, Fairness and Respect
Another in the Voices of Venango County series, this from David Martin of Oil City as excerpted from The Derrick 8/4/06:
According to several articles in The Derrick, the Franklin Area School Board has received reports of discriminatory practices and of bullying of some students based on race and sexual orientation.
At the last school board meeting, a young black student recounted the pain and hurt she experienced resulting from racially motivated bullying, and several months ago a young man, perceived to be gay, was withdrawn from the school due to persistent bullying. Reportedly, the administration and staff failed to adequately intervene in both instances.
Both of these cases are disturbing because they strike at the very heart of our American value system. As a people, we believe in the equality of all citizens and that each person, including students, should be treated fairly and with respect.
A core value of Americans is the belief that all children in our communities should feel welcome and safe in our public schools and no child should fear being bullied or discriminated against for any reason as he or she enters the school building in the morning.
Just as disturbing as the reports of bullying and discrimination in our public schools are the comments of some individuals attending the last school board meeting.
Diane Gramley and the American "Family" Association would have us believe that it's unacceptable and wrong to discriminate on the basis of race but quite acceptable to discriminate on the bases if real or perceived sexual orientation.
Even worse, Ms. Gramley and her AFA followers use "biblical teachings" and phony evidence to support their position. They should recall that not so many years ago, similar "biblical teachings" and similar phony evidence were used to justify slavery and segregation, to outlaw inter-racial marriage and to encourage other discriminatory practices against targeted religious and ethnic minorities.
This divisive attempt by Ms. Gramley and the AFA to foster hate in our schools is not only un-American, but for many of us, it's un-Christ-like as well.
As the Franklin School Board struggles to develop and implement a truly inclusive non-discrimination policy and to curtail bullying in the schools, we trust that they will be guided by the constitutional mandate that "all men are created equal" and that ll citizens, including all students, deserve equality, fairness and respect.
According to several articles in The Derrick, the Franklin Area School Board has received reports of discriminatory practices and of bullying of some students based on race and sexual orientation.
At the last school board meeting, a young black student recounted the pain and hurt she experienced resulting from racially motivated bullying, and several months ago a young man, perceived to be gay, was withdrawn from the school due to persistent bullying. Reportedly, the administration and staff failed to adequately intervene in both instances.
Both of these cases are disturbing because they strike at the very heart of our American value system. As a people, we believe in the equality of all citizens and that each person, including students, should be treated fairly and with respect.
A core value of Americans is the belief that all children in our communities should feel welcome and safe in our public schools and no child should fear being bullied or discriminated against for any reason as he or she enters the school building in the morning.
Just as disturbing as the reports of bullying and discrimination in our public schools are the comments of some individuals attending the last school board meeting.
Diane Gramley and the American "Family" Association would have us believe that it's unacceptable and wrong to discriminate on the basis of race but quite acceptable to discriminate on the bases if real or perceived sexual orientation.
Even worse, Ms. Gramley and her AFA followers use "biblical teachings" and phony evidence to support their position. They should recall that not so many years ago, similar "biblical teachings" and similar phony evidence were used to justify slavery and segregation, to outlaw inter-racial marriage and to encourage other discriminatory practices against targeted religious and ethnic minorities.
This divisive attempt by Ms. Gramley and the AFA to foster hate in our schools is not only un-American, but for many of us, it's un-Christ-like as well.
As the Franklin School Board struggles to develop and implement a truly inclusive non-discrimination policy and to curtail bullying in the schools, we trust that they will be guided by the constitutional mandate that "all men are created equal" and that ll citizens, including all students, deserve equality, fairness and respect.
Are These the "Traditional Family Values" Promoted by the American "Family" Association of Pennsylvania?
4 Accused of Raping Lesbian in Hate Crime
from News Services:
RICHMOND, Calif. -- Two men and two teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday.
The men, 21 and 31, face gang-rape, kidnapping and carjacking charges. The youths, 15 and 16, are being held on similar charges.
Detectives say the 28-year-old woman was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a gay pride sticker. The attackers made comments indicating they knew she was a lesbian, police said. Authorities have characterized the case as a hate crime.
from News Services:
RICHMOND, Calif. -- Two men and two teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of gang-raping a woman last month in the San Francisco Bay area while allegedly taunting her for being a lesbian, police said Thursday.
The men, 21 and 31, face gang-rape, kidnapping and carjacking charges. The youths, 15 and 16, are being held on similar charges.
Detectives say the 28-year-old woman was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a gay pride sticker. The attackers made comments indicating they knew she was a lesbian, police said. Authorities have characterized the case as a hate crime.
Stop Hate Crime in Pennsylvania
By Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau:
HARRISBURG -- Attack someone because of their skin color, religion or national origin and it's considered a hate crime, which can warrant additional charges in Pennsylvania.
Attack the same person because of ancestry, disability, sexual orientation or gender and it isn't.
State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, wants to change that by increasing the list of protected classes. Now.
He's asking fellow lawmakers in both chambers to make that their first order of business in the legislative session, which begins Jan. 6.
"Hate crimes," Mr. Ferlo said, "can often be far more violent than typical crimes and attempt to dehumanize victims. By grading these offenses more strictly, I hope we can further discourage crimes based on hate as we continue to grow into a more open and accepting society."
The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented more than 70 hate groups in Pennsylvania alone.
Ancestry, disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity used to be protected classes under a 2002 state hate-crimes law that was struck down for procedural reasons, Mr. Ferlo said.
"We have a moral and ethical obligation to step up and re-enact this important set of protections," he said.
Hate-crime laws allow the state to treat certain offenses more seriously when they motivated by hatred toward a protected class. In Pennsylvania, those crimes include harassment, assault, murder, trespass, criminal mischief and arson.
Hate crime has been a hot-button issue in Pennsylvania.
Conservative groups have been fighting to keep gays from being a protected class since at least 2005, when an evangelist and four followers were arrested on charges of ethnic intimidation after they disrupted a Philadelphia gay pride event.
HARRISBURG -- Attack someone because of their skin color, religion or national origin and it's considered a hate crime, which can warrant additional charges in Pennsylvania.
Attack the same person because of ancestry, disability, sexual orientation or gender and it isn't.
State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, wants to change that by increasing the list of protected classes. Now.
He's asking fellow lawmakers in both chambers to make that their first order of business in the legislative session, which begins Jan. 6.
"Hate crimes," Mr. Ferlo said, "can often be far more violent than typical crimes and attempt to dehumanize victims. By grading these offenses more strictly, I hope we can further discourage crimes based on hate as we continue to grow into a more open and accepting society."
The Southern Poverty Law Center has documented more than 70 hate groups in Pennsylvania alone.
Ancestry, disability, sexual orientation, gender and gender identity used to be protected classes under a 2002 state hate-crimes law that was struck down for procedural reasons, Mr. Ferlo said.
"We have a moral and ethical obligation to step up and re-enact this important set of protections," he said.
Hate-crime laws allow the state to treat certain offenses more seriously when they motivated by hatred toward a protected class. In Pennsylvania, those crimes include harassment, assault, murder, trespass, criminal mischief and arson.
Hate crime has been a hot-button issue in Pennsylvania.
Conservative groups have been fighting to keep gays from being a protected class since at least 2005, when an evangelist and four followers were arrested on charges of ethnic intimidation after they disrupted a Philadelphia gay pride event.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Big GLBTQ / Ally Rally in Pittsburgh Saturday Jan. 10 - We Need You Venango County!
from Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents:
Here's the scoop ... there's going to be a BIG QUEER RALLY on Saturday, January 10 from 2 - 4 PM at the Schenley Quad in Oakland (near the libraries). This is a follow up event to the Join the Impact rally in early November which turned out nearly 500 people.
The focus of the rally is twofold. The national goal is to bring attention to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as a tie-in to the Proposition 8 issue. Locally, however, we are much more concerned about the upcoming public hearing to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in the Allegheny County Human Relations Act. That hearing date is set for January 15, 2009 and has been the focus of vigorous attack by the right wing extremist organization, the American "Family" Association of Pennsylvania, run by Diane Gramley of Venango County.
So please spread the word about the big queer rally. Tell your friends and family. Bring signs. Bring the kids. Bring your grandma. Just be there and be present as part of the message that EVERYONE deserves equality and fairness.
The event emcee is local comedian and actor Gab Bonesso. Confirmed speakers include long-time LGBT ally and media pundit, John McIntire. Other leaders from the faith community, the political world, the local business community and individuals who wish to share their stories of being discriminated against in the workplace, in housing or in public because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. If you would like to be a speaker, please email me sue @ sitnscoop.com and I'll hook you up with the appropriate folks on the organizing committee.
We cannot sit back in our comfortable, warm homes on January 10 and let other people stand up for us. We cannot be "Prop 8ed" here in Allegheny County. Be there and be part of the solution.
Update:
Reverend Janet Edwards has just confirmed that she will be speaking at the upcoming rally on January 10, 2009. As you may recall, Janet was the target of a church trial because of her decision to preside at the wedding of two local lesbians. She was cleared of those charges.
I believe she will prove to be a powerful voice in the call for equality of all persons who are LGBTQ whether it be in terms of the freedom to marry or the freedom to work without fear of persecution for being gay.
I hope that the rally will be well attended by persons of faith, particularly as Ms. Diane Gramley, right wing extremist based in Venango County, has been utilizing religion as a weapon in her quest againt any gay rights in Pennsylvania. Please stand up for faith experiences grounded in equality, fairness and peace.
Here's the scoop ... there's going to be a BIG QUEER RALLY on Saturday, January 10 from 2 - 4 PM at the Schenley Quad in Oakland (near the libraries). This is a follow up event to the Join the Impact rally in early November which turned out nearly 500 people.
The focus of the rally is twofold. The national goal is to bring attention to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as a tie-in to the Proposition 8 issue. Locally, however, we are much more concerned about the upcoming public hearing to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in the Allegheny County Human Relations Act. That hearing date is set for January 15, 2009 and has been the focus of vigorous attack by the right wing extremist organization, the American "Family" Association of Pennsylvania, run by Diane Gramley of Venango County.
So please spread the word about the big queer rally. Tell your friends and family. Bring signs. Bring the kids. Bring your grandma. Just be there and be present as part of the message that EVERYONE deserves equality and fairness.
The event emcee is local comedian and actor Gab Bonesso. Confirmed speakers include long-time LGBT ally and media pundit, John McIntire. Other leaders from the faith community, the political world, the local business community and individuals who wish to share their stories of being discriminated against in the workplace, in housing or in public because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. If you would like to be a speaker, please email me sue @ sitnscoop.com and I'll hook you up with the appropriate folks on the organizing committee.
We cannot sit back in our comfortable, warm homes on January 10 and let other people stand up for us. We cannot be "Prop 8ed" here in Allegheny County. Be there and be part of the solution.
Update:
Reverend Janet Edwards has just confirmed that she will be speaking at the upcoming rally on January 10, 2009. As you may recall, Janet was the target of a church trial because of her decision to preside at the wedding of two local lesbians. She was cleared of those charges.
I believe she will prove to be a powerful voice in the call for equality of all persons who are LGBTQ whether it be in terms of the freedom to marry or the freedom to work without fear of persecution for being gay.
I hope that the rally will be well attended by persons of faith, particularly as Ms. Diane Gramley, right wing extremist based in Venango County, has been utilizing religion as a weapon in her quest againt any gay rights in Pennsylvania. Please stand up for faith experiences grounded in equality, fairness and peace.
10 New Year's Resolutions for Fairness & Equality
from Queerty:
'Tis the season to make promises to yourself. Whether it's losing weight, taking up scuba diving or calling your mother, the new year is a time to resolve to do new things and be a better person. We've got the personal covered, but what about the gay community as a whole?
2008 will be remembered as a big year for the gays—we won rights, then lost them and then caught the world's attention by making our voices heard. At the same time, the world of gay media continues to shrink, LGBT folks continue to be beaten and killed both at home and abroad, gay leadership often seems missing in action and, if you're a gay minority, you're getting the short end of two already pretty-damn-short sticks. We can't control Obama or Congress or the homophobes who will call us names, deny us our rights or, in far too many cases, still turn to physical violence. But the best way of controlling our destiny is to start with ourselves. Here are 10 new year's resolutions we'd like to see the gay community keep:
Build an army.
You can blame gay organizations for not achieving goals faster than they have, or for only asking you to open your wallet, but let's face facts: If you only have a limited pool of people actually willing to work for equal rights, your best bet is to make sure they're well funded and to pass the heavy lifting over to professional experts. We lost marriage equality in California partly because we handed the reins of the campaign over to paid professionals. Sure, we should take advice from political experts, but you can't buy equal rights. You have to work for it. Let's see the gay community take a page from the Obama campaign and organize grassroots activists; let's see meetings of 10 or 15 people at a time talking about what they can do on their block, street or town to make a difference. Multiply that across the globe and talk to one another, and there's nothing we can not achieve.
Don't fear visibility.
The most important thing the gay community can do to help itself out is to continue to be present and vocal. We should use every opportunity that we can to make the case that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry, the right to serve our country and the right to live without fear of retribution is an attack on civil rights. That means when a transexual woman is beaten and killed, her death can't pass into the night forgotten; that means when a priest who compares gays and lesbians to pedophiles is invited to speak before the whole country, we speak up too; that means talking to your friends and family about the issues that are important to you. Harvey Milk was right: There is no downside to being visible.
"You're not being a good friend if you let someone go on doing something that's stupid, ineffective or dangerous…"
Realize that equal rights is not a popularity contest.
More than a few well-meaning gays and lesbians seem to think that if only homophobes could see what nice people we are, they would step aside and allow us our rights. Join the Impact's series of increasingly silent and passive protests are a step in the right direction (there's only so many times you can march back and forth and still be effective), but the attitude that by being the best little boy or girl in the world will confer upon you a gold seal of approval is so last century. Stop asking for equal rights and start demanding them. This doesn't mean simply yelling louder than the opposition, but it does mean making the case for equality forcefully, and remembering that there's nothing wrong with you—it's the homophobes who need to change.
Treat the gays just like straights.
We need to stop giving a special pass to gay and lesbian organizations, be they charities, media or businesses. The charge that you're being "divisive" when criticizing the gay and lesbian community is foolish. We should hold ourselves to the same standards we hold the rest of the world. This isn't just a nice principle, it has real benefits. If gay and lesbian groups aren't scrutinized, questioned or criticized, they risk being loved to death. You're not being a good friend if you let someone go on doing something that's stupid, ineffective or dangerous simply because you don't want to hurt their feelings.
Make allies everywhere.
Here's another fact that has to be faced: Gays and lesbians will always be in the minority, no matter how much Baptist ministers would have you believe that we're going to turn all the children gay. The good news is that more people are willing to stand up for equality—some because they have friends or family who are gay and some because they think it's wrong to treat any group of people like second-class citizens. The biggest challenge now is reaching and engaging both communities of color and religious groups. It's prejudiced to think that people in these groups can't have their hearts turned, and the truth is, we haven't tried all that hard to reach them.
Define the agenda.
As long as the gay community is unclear about its goals, homophobes will continue to define them for us. All they have going for them is fear and they'll continue to tell people who don't know any better that the goal of the gay community is to teach homosexuality to children, force churches to marry gays and lesbians and any number of other ridiculous lies. Yes, there's a gay agenda, but there's no reason it should be a secret. We need to find a clear way to articulate what it is we believe to be full, fair and equal treatment under the law, and then we need to tell everybody.
Get a winning attitude.
I remember standing on the street in L.A. with a few hundred other Prop. 8 protesters and talking to a slightly older guy, who had joined us as he saw us marching on the street. He told me and a few others that the thing we need to realize is that "in the scheme of things, this will only take a minute." He's right. The plain and simple truth is that we've come a long way in a short time and that a lot of the impatience we have now is because, at long last, there's a finish line in sight. Even though we lose ballot initiative after ballot initiative, we should remember that these initiatives are a response to our success. The story of America, the thrust of our history, is toward more equality and freedom. Be angry, be outraged, but don't lose sight that you're on the winning team.
"We should remember that these initiatives are a response to our success."
Hate the bigotry, love the bigot.
No matter how virulent, homophobia always comes down to ignorance. This means nobody should be written off, but it also means that no matter how good or decent or kind a person is in their other walks of life, their homophobia still deserves to be called out. I'm talking about Rev. Warren, obviously. The truth is, Warren's done a lot of good for the world and I believe he's a decent man, but when it comes to his views on gays and lesbians, and the extent to which he's gone to deny gays and lesbians their rights, he is fundamentally wrong. We should do our best, even when they're fighting against us (even more so when they're fighting against us), to help people who are letting hate and fear control them.
Remember that it's not all about you.
Just as the fight for LGBT rights doesn't boil down to overturning a gay marriage ban in California, there's more to equality and fairness than just the needs of gays and lesbians. You can practice your politics in whatever way you choose, but if you support full and equal protection for gays and lesbians, you owe it to yourself and your fellow citizens to looks at the many other gross inequalities around the globe and do something about them as well. It's easy to be self-serving, but if you expect straight people to care about you, you should try caring about something that doesn't directly effect you as well. And don't just empathize, do something tangible.
You can have your cake *ahem* and eat it, too.
Finally, let's resolve to be diverse. The argument over whether we should be "mainstream" or "radical" is tedious. We can be both. We can be Democrat and Republican. We can forcefully advocate change through civil disobedience while also working within the system for change. Of all the groups of people in the world, it seems that ours has the greatest capacity for being able to hold two ideas in our head at the same time. We're a better, stronger and more interesting community when we are both the loud-mouthed flamboyant hairdresser and the buttoned-down country club preppy. We wouldn't be fabulous if we all did it in the exact same way. It's a big community and no one single person or group gets to own it. That's why we all own it.
'Tis the season to make promises to yourself. Whether it's losing weight, taking up scuba diving or calling your mother, the new year is a time to resolve to do new things and be a better person. We've got the personal covered, but what about the gay community as a whole?
2008 will be remembered as a big year for the gays—we won rights, then lost them and then caught the world's attention by making our voices heard. At the same time, the world of gay media continues to shrink, LGBT folks continue to be beaten and killed both at home and abroad, gay leadership often seems missing in action and, if you're a gay minority, you're getting the short end of two already pretty-damn-short sticks. We can't control Obama or Congress or the homophobes who will call us names, deny us our rights or, in far too many cases, still turn to physical violence. But the best way of controlling our destiny is to start with ourselves. Here are 10 new year's resolutions we'd like to see the gay community keep:
Build an army.
You can blame gay organizations for not achieving goals faster than they have, or for only asking you to open your wallet, but let's face facts: If you only have a limited pool of people actually willing to work for equal rights, your best bet is to make sure they're well funded and to pass the heavy lifting over to professional experts. We lost marriage equality in California partly because we handed the reins of the campaign over to paid professionals. Sure, we should take advice from political experts, but you can't buy equal rights. You have to work for it. Let's see the gay community take a page from the Obama campaign and organize grassroots activists; let's see meetings of 10 or 15 people at a time talking about what they can do on their block, street or town to make a difference. Multiply that across the globe and talk to one another, and there's nothing we can not achieve.
Don't fear visibility.
The most important thing the gay community can do to help itself out is to continue to be present and vocal. We should use every opportunity that we can to make the case that denying gays and lesbians the right to marry, the right to serve our country and the right to live without fear of retribution is an attack on civil rights. That means when a transexual woman is beaten and killed, her death can't pass into the night forgotten; that means when a priest who compares gays and lesbians to pedophiles is invited to speak before the whole country, we speak up too; that means talking to your friends and family about the issues that are important to you. Harvey Milk was right: There is no downside to being visible.
"You're not being a good friend if you let someone go on doing something that's stupid, ineffective or dangerous…"
Realize that equal rights is not a popularity contest.
More than a few well-meaning gays and lesbians seem to think that if only homophobes could see what nice people we are, they would step aside and allow us our rights. Join the Impact's series of increasingly silent and passive protests are a step in the right direction (there's only so many times you can march back and forth and still be effective), but the attitude that by being the best little boy or girl in the world will confer upon you a gold seal of approval is so last century. Stop asking for equal rights and start demanding them. This doesn't mean simply yelling louder than the opposition, but it does mean making the case for equality forcefully, and remembering that there's nothing wrong with you—it's the homophobes who need to change.
Treat the gays just like straights.
We need to stop giving a special pass to gay and lesbian organizations, be they charities, media or businesses. The charge that you're being "divisive" when criticizing the gay and lesbian community is foolish. We should hold ourselves to the same standards we hold the rest of the world. This isn't just a nice principle, it has real benefits. If gay and lesbian groups aren't scrutinized, questioned or criticized, they risk being loved to death. You're not being a good friend if you let someone go on doing something that's stupid, ineffective or dangerous simply because you don't want to hurt their feelings.
Make allies everywhere.
Here's another fact that has to be faced: Gays and lesbians will always be in the minority, no matter how much Baptist ministers would have you believe that we're going to turn all the children gay. The good news is that more people are willing to stand up for equality—some because they have friends or family who are gay and some because they think it's wrong to treat any group of people like second-class citizens. The biggest challenge now is reaching and engaging both communities of color and religious groups. It's prejudiced to think that people in these groups can't have their hearts turned, and the truth is, we haven't tried all that hard to reach them.
Define the agenda.
As long as the gay community is unclear about its goals, homophobes will continue to define them for us. All they have going for them is fear and they'll continue to tell people who don't know any better that the goal of the gay community is to teach homosexuality to children, force churches to marry gays and lesbians and any number of other ridiculous lies. Yes, there's a gay agenda, but there's no reason it should be a secret. We need to find a clear way to articulate what it is we believe to be full, fair and equal treatment under the law, and then we need to tell everybody.
Get a winning attitude.
I remember standing on the street in L.A. with a few hundred other Prop. 8 protesters and talking to a slightly older guy, who had joined us as he saw us marching on the street. He told me and a few others that the thing we need to realize is that "in the scheme of things, this will only take a minute." He's right. The plain and simple truth is that we've come a long way in a short time and that a lot of the impatience we have now is because, at long last, there's a finish line in sight. Even though we lose ballot initiative after ballot initiative, we should remember that these initiatives are a response to our success. The story of America, the thrust of our history, is toward more equality and freedom. Be angry, be outraged, but don't lose sight that you're on the winning team.
"We should remember that these initiatives are a response to our success."
Hate the bigotry, love the bigot.
No matter how virulent, homophobia always comes down to ignorance. This means nobody should be written off, but it also means that no matter how good or decent or kind a person is in their other walks of life, their homophobia still deserves to be called out. I'm talking about Rev. Warren, obviously. The truth is, Warren's done a lot of good for the world and I believe he's a decent man, but when it comes to his views on gays and lesbians, and the extent to which he's gone to deny gays and lesbians their rights, he is fundamentally wrong. We should do our best, even when they're fighting against us (even more so when they're fighting against us), to help people who are letting hate and fear control them.
Remember that it's not all about you.
Just as the fight for LGBT rights doesn't boil down to overturning a gay marriage ban in California, there's more to equality and fairness than just the needs of gays and lesbians. You can practice your politics in whatever way you choose, but if you support full and equal protection for gays and lesbians, you owe it to yourself and your fellow citizens to looks at the many other gross inequalities around the globe and do something about them as well. It's easy to be self-serving, but if you expect straight people to care about you, you should try caring about something that doesn't directly effect you as well. And don't just empathize, do something tangible.
You can have your cake *ahem* and eat it, too.
Finally, let's resolve to be diverse. The argument over whether we should be "mainstream" or "radical" is tedious. We can be both. We can be Democrat and Republican. We can forcefully advocate change through civil disobedience while also working within the system for change. Of all the groups of people in the world, it seems that ours has the greatest capacity for being able to hold two ideas in our head at the same time. We're a better, stronger and more interesting community when we are both the loud-mouthed flamboyant hairdresser and the buttoned-down country club preppy. We wouldn't be fabulous if we all did it in the exact same way. It's a big community and no one single person or group gets to own it. That's why we all own it.
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