DADT and ABC's Good Morning America Sunday

On ABC Good Morning America on Sunday morning, newscaster Bill Ware suggested that there are 65,000 closeted LGBTQ people in the military service.

Really?

He was interviewing a retired Colonel in Montana who was defending DADT, saying that the military service is conservative and traditional by nature.

Robert Gates and Adm. McMullen will be raising it to Congress this Tue., saying it will be repealed by 2012, giving a list of all the things that will have to be reconfigured in welcoming openly LGBTQ people. That doesn't make much sense, except as a stalling tactic, because LGBTQ have already been serving, and all you have to do is provide the services to LGBTQ people that you give to straight people. 2 years to figure that out?

Really?

Morning!

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Intersecting Life: Pilgrimage and Gay Folks

2010 top places to visit from New York Times includes: Nepal!

31. Nepal
San Francisco, Amsterdam and Provincetown? Been there. Mykonos and Ibiza? Done that. Looking for the next gay destination? How about the Himalayan country of Nepal? Yes, Nepal.

In the roughly two years since the nation’s supreme court ordered that gay, lesbians and transgendered people be afforded equal rights, this conservative, mostly-Hindu country appears to be moving ahead full throttle.

Gay friendly clubs now dot its capital. (Go to www.utopia-asia.com for listings.) A “third gender” category is an option on national I.D. cards. Recently, a transgender beauty queen even got a photo op with the prime minister. And now there’s a tourist agency in Katmandu that is promoting gay tourism to Nepal.

Started by Sunil Babu Pant, an openly-gay legislator, Pink Mountain Travels and Tours (www.pinkyatra.com) promises to marry adventure travel with gay weddings. With talk that Nepal may legalize same-sex marriage this year as the country hammers out a new constitution (and, perhaps more importantly, deals with recent bouts of civil unrest), Mr. Pant is offering to hold nuptials at the Mount Everest base camp, jungle safari honeymoons and bridal processions on elephant back. — Aric Chen

Cool.

Pace!

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Sundance Film Festival: "The Kids Are All Right"

I want to see this film!

The Kids Are All Right.

Lesbians raising kids, kids are well.

Here's a review for towleroad.com:

But the joy of watching The Kids Are All Right is to see both comedy and drama spring from inside of each of the five distinct flawed characters (we all have our issues) until it ricochets off of all of the others. Things get complicated and messy very quickly. Everyone gets hurt. Despite the escalating drama, the film's great charm lies in how breezy and laid-back it feels even when it's approaching all of this tension. If this movie were a person, it'd be someone you'd want as a friend, someone who can find the funny in dark moments and who'd have your back even when they're pissed at you. As sentimental as that sounds, the film earns the good vibes. Writer/director Lisa Cholodenko (who previously gave us High Art and Laurel Canyon) makes sure you love each and every character. Even Paul, who a lesser film would vilify for rocking the boat so carelessly, inspires affection and sympathy.

It's not much of a spoiler to tell you that the film ends with Joni leaving for college (since her imminent departure is what prompts Laser's plot-kickoff request). Wasikowska's final closeup is one of the most beautiful things you'll see in a movie this year. No matter how long it's been since you first left home, that flood of confusing exciting contradictory emotions will come rushing back to you, it's so accessibly written on her face. All credit to Lisa Cholodenko for making a film that is both recognizably gay and universal in its understanding of family. After all, gay or straight, every marriage has rocky patches, every family loves and aggravates each other and every new relationship can cause ripples in older ones. Eventually we all have to leave home... whether we have one mommy or two.

Our families are alike, gay and straight.

It is past time for us to approve of our families, according to a straight world view.

"Every marriage has rocky patches, every family loves and aggravates each other..."

Love it.

Pace!

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The Gay-dy Bunch: Rosie, Kelli, the Kids, a New Relationship...Well, You Know

Found this on Huffington Post re: Rosie, Kelli, and their kids, and how they are moving on in life with Kelli and Rosie's new way of being co-parents even though they are no longer partners.

There were some telling moments, or moments I want to tell about like this in the dissolution and re-imaginging the relationships:

"It was a long transition and we tried for a long time to see different ways we could make it work," she said. "We're still a family, and the kids always knew that and they knew we were trying to be happy and not have fights."

Rosie and Kelli still live near each other in Nyack, New York, and spend plenty of time together with their kids as a family. Rosie said that gay couples have an easier time maintaining a friendship after the relationship is over.

"Gay breakups are not really very similar to heterosexual breakups because the paradigm with heterosexuals is there is a specific date when everything ends," she said. "That's not how it was with us. We're still a family, and the kids always knew that and they knew we were trying to be happy and not have fights."

Click here for more.

Well done, Rosie and Kelli and kids.

Curioser and Curioser: Equal Rights in Marriage in CA and Prop 8 Trial

I found this on andrewsullivan.com, who found it on boxturtlebulletin.com re: the Prop 8 trial. When David Blankenhorn--who are written about boy's development in USA--was asked by David Boies about gay marriage and civil unions, even though he would be on the side of the defense, Blankenhorn conceded that LGBTQ marriage would be a good thing in many ways, and better than civil union, which "blurs the line":

Blankenhorn agreed that same-sex marriage would provide a large number of benefits including more committed relationship, less promiscuity, higher living standards, reduced burden on the state, less prejudice and hate crimes, more scholarship and discussion on the value of marriage, an expansion of the American idea, and less heterosexual marital unhappiness due to gay people heterosexually marrying.

He even agreed that civil unions and domestic partnerships harmfully blur the distinctions of marriage.

But he believes that same-sex marriage will harm the institution of marriage. Boies asked him to indicate in his list of references which scholars make this claim, he included Alan Carlson from the Howard Center (an ultra-conservative think tank) and Maggie Gallagher. (It’s amazing how circular the anti-gay argument is. They all rely on each other for validation of their opinion with little to no actual research.)

Boies had Blankenhorn list his three “rules of the game” (essential structures of marriage): 1) rule of opposites, man and woman; 2) set of two; 3) sexual relationship.

When asked if there were exceptions to rule one prior to 50 years ago, he listed a tribe in Africa with possible man-boy temporary marriages as part of a warrior caste.

When asked about rule two, he admitted that previously to 100 years ago, 83% of societies were polygamous. But Blankenhorn doesn’t think that polygamy violates the rule of two because it is a bunch of separate one-man-one-woman marriages. (This is, I believe, a distinction without a difference. It is the fallback position for those who try and imply that marriage has always been the 1950s nuclear family in the face of incredulous historians.)

In referencing Blankenhorn’s third rule, Boies noted that the Supreme Court had already determined that incarcerated persons may marry without the presumption that they would ever have sex.

Fascinating!

Click here for more.

This trial bodes well for helping educate people about the normality of our relationships.

Pace!

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President Obama: DADT

"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are."

President Obama, Jan. 27, 2010, State of the Union.

But the Congress postponed a hearing about it the other day. And according to the LGBTQ blogs, the Pentagon has been discussing it, and some of the members of the Joint Chiefs is not excited about repealing it.

So he will work with Congress and the military...but when will they pass it?

When?

Now to get the Church to follow suit.

Justice.

It is coming.

But it hasn't come...yet.

Pace!

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Presbyterian Church (USA) and Catholic Church in the News...and It Ain't All Good News Either

From the Pres-Outllok.com, there was this report on the Committee assigned to look at the definition of marriage:
LOUISVILLE – The General Assembly Special Committee on Civil Union and Christian Marriage has approved its final report — ending its journey with civility and mutual respect, but also with the clear possibility of a minority report.

The committee did not recommend any change in the definition of Christian marriage currently in the constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). That definition – that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman – was off-limits to the committee, according to its mandate from the 2008 General Assembly.

Nevertheless, three evangelical members of the committee voted against the committee’s recommendations, expressing concern they might lead to some form of local option, and insisting that the church needs to speak a strong message that sex outside of heterosexual marriage is wrong.

“Let us boldly proclaim that God has a place for sex,” said a substitute proposal offered by one of the dissenters, Tracie Mayes Stewart, a pastor from South Carolina. “It is within marriage between a man and a woman and that commitment is for life.”

The recommendations the committee did pass do not call for dramatic changes in PC(USA) policy, but move more in the direction of urging further discussion and the development of resources that could help presbyteries and congregations know what they are and are not allowed to do in the complicated areas of civil unions and gay marriage, and in ministering to gays and lesbians and their families.

Click here for more.

And from change.org, this article on the new Catholic Archbishop of Belgium, and his words caustic words for those of us who are LGBTQ: he compares homosexuality with anorexia.

elgium has a new Archbishop, and he's not wasting any time in telling the world his thoughts about homosexuality. He's also not passing up an opportunity to offend half the world.

Speaking to his flock via Belgian television, Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard said that LGBT people and people suffering from anorexia have something in common: both are disordered.

"Homosexuality is not the same as normal sex in the same way that anorexia is not a normal appetite," the Archbishop said, showing both an immature understanding of human sexuality and of the biology behind eating disorders like anorexia.

Click here for more.

I must admit that I think that Jesus simply weeps when he watches our actions against one another.

In the Presbyterian Church (USA), there is great schism between members. While we do not use those words, it is a schism. Thus it wasn't surprising that three evangelicals didn't approve. Though I count myself as one of those in support of progressive trends in the church, I don't like the description in the article of proposing that "progressives" and "evangelicals" are in two different camps. We're all for the Gospel!

As for the Catholic Church and Archbishops who live in denial, well, that's what this is: denial of the reality of the situation. Homosexuality is nothing like anorexia.

For pity's sake, people...

Pace!

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A Single Man: Bravo!

I agree with the critics that there were some slow parts in this film, but some parts of this film were very good!

Bravo, Tom Ford! Bravo, Christopher Isherwood! And Bravo, Colin Firth!

It is a love story: partner loses his partner due to a car accident. It is the 60s, and the idea of a middle class Colorado family accepting that their Navy son is gay, and in relationship, beyond the pale of reason or possibility. When our young professor is told he cannot come to the funeral by the one family member because "the funeral is only open to the family," hit me hard in the heart. When the character Charly played by Julianne Moore talks about having a "real relationship" with her, Firth's cry that he had been with his partner Jim for 15 years, and that was "real enough." Beautiful.

See this film!

Thumbs up.

Pace!

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"Outrage": A Must See

We saw the movie/DVD "Outrage" last night, and it is a must see. In a nutshell, this is a movie that "outs" and explores the outrage of those gay (no lesbians, trans, or bisexuals, or queer questioning/expressing) activists who are "outing" the closeted gay politicians (David Dreier, Larry Craig, Charlie Crist, to name a few), and news reporters (Shepherd Smith and Anderson Cooper). "DADT" is alive and well not only in the military service but other branches of government and leadership in faith communities.

I have witnessed many closeted LGBTQ people who have voted for "chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage" clauses in the Church.

Should we have such "outings" in communities of faith?

See "Outrage". Get "Outraged".

Pace!

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Modernity Meets Ancient: Banning Condoms in the Catholic Church

In a recent news item in the newsobserver.com, there was this story about the Catholic diocese of NC that is promoting a ban on the use of condoms.

That's right: under the presumption that sex is really only about pro-creation--a line that most of my Catholic friends titter at, but don't tell the Bishop or the Pop--the Diocese of NC is sticking to its guns: no condoms.

Really?

Birth control and Catholics: Not going to happen...except for the rhythm method.

From the newsobserver.com:

The Catholic Church teaches that all forms of birth control, including condoms, are immoral because they prevent conception. Sex, the church teaches, is intended primarily for procreation, though it allows married couples to engage in sex during times when women are infertile.

Though the church opposes condom distribution, it has not said condoms may never be used as a form of disease prevention in instances where, for example, one married partner is infected with the virus and the other is not.

As a policy, though, the church frowns on condom use. During his trip to Africa last year, Pope Benedict XVI told reporters that using condoms might actually increase the incidence of HIV infection. "The traditional teaching of the church has proven to be the only fail-safe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS," Benedict said then, adding his endorsement of "Christian marriage and fidelity" and "chastity."

Regardless, many Catholics believe contraception is a matter of choice. Recent polls show 75 percent of U.S. Catholics say it's possible to disobey church teachings on contraception and remain a good Catholic.

"The vast majority of Catholics have weighed in," said David Gibson, a Catholic journalist who covers religion for the Web site politicsdaily.com. "For them, the use of condoms is a settled issue."

Four group members met with Burbidge last month. He informed them that Catholic teachings are divine truth that can never change. Group members said the discussion was respectful and polite but neither side succeeded in persuading the other.

True, for Catholics, this is Divine truth.

But Catholic teaching also changes and can be reformed. Just like at Vatican II.

I'm a Christian in the Reformed tradition, and I believe in the use of condoms.

Pace!

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Prelude to a Kiss: Ghost and Spice Production at Common Ground Theater, Durham, NC! A Must See Event

Last night we went and saw a performance of Craig Lucas' play, "Prelude to a Kiss." As many of you remember, in this story an older gentleman and a bride spontaneously kiss at a wedding, her wedding, and the souls of these two people switch places. What ensues for most of Act II is the hysterical and poignant moments of love betrayed and loved extolled. In the older man's body is the soul of a young woman, and vice versa.

Lucas wrote this in the early days of the AIDS crisis, reminding us of the people who were stricken by the disease who were still the people they always were and are and will be. In other words, it is learning to love the entirety of a person, and not simply the outter shell, the object of someone's desire.

In coming out of our closets, what many of us told those who love us and whom we love is simply this: now you know more of who I am, and I can be more fully who I am, who God created me to be, in this world.

Amen to all that.

Brett

Prop 8 Proponent: Coming Out of the (Bigots) Closet

This was cited on huffingtonpost.com, in which one of primary Prop 8 proponents, Hak-Shing William Tam of San Francisco "spent five hours testifying Thursday as a hostile plaintiffs' witness to prove that bias toward gays fueled the 2008 campaign to pass the voter-approved measure, known as Proposition 8." Tam adheres to an erroneous American Chinese Christian website that tries to connect pedophilia and LGBTQ people.

From Huffingtonpost.com:

Tam, who was one of five individuals who signed on as official proponents of the ban and whose names appeared alongside ballot arguments for Proposition 8, acknowledged that he subscribes to beliefs about an alleged link between homosexuality and pedophilia posted on the Internet by a Chinese-American Christian group for which he serves as secretary.

"Do you believe that homosexuals are 12 times more likely to molest children?" attorney David Boies asked.

"Yeah, based on the different literature that I have read," Tam replied.

Earlier in the trial, a Cambridge University professor testified that there is no evidence to suggest that gays are more likely to molest children than heterosexuals. Boies pressed Tam to cite books, articles or authors he had read to substantiate the views, but Tam said he could not remember specifics.

Click here for more.

Again, the source for this mis-information campaign? The Church, of which we are "individually members one of another" (Romans 12).

This kind of harsh bigotry must stop, must be addressed, encountered, and shown to the world what it is: hatred.

Pace!

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Mayor Gavin Newsom

I saw this originally on towleroad.com, and then read Mo Dowd's essay in nyt.com, and Newsom right on the mark in the political beast that is Obama:

I (Maureen Dowd) asked whether President Obama, who said at a Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration that the civil rights movement was partly about “changing people’s hearts and minds and breaking out of old customs and old habits,” had disappointed him given that the president is a triumph of civil rights himself.

“Oh, I can’t get in trouble here,” Newsom said with a playful wince. “I want him to succeed. But I am very upset by what he’s not done in terms of rights of gays and lesbians. I understand it tactically in a campaign, but at this point I don’t know. There is some belief that he actually doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage. But it’s fundamentally inexcusable for a member of the Democratic Party to stand on the principle that separate is now equal, but only on the basis of sexual orientation. We’ve always fought for the rights of minorities and against the whims of majorities.”

In all we've seen this past year with Obama, we know he is a political beast, and is pragmatic as a political beast. He knows that if he came out "pro-equal rights in marriage," those who call themselves "independent," who recently aligned with Scott Brown in MA for U.S. Senate, would leave Obama in 2012, as they well might leave the Democrats behind in 2010 mid-term elections. This is why they are stalling on DADT, ENDA, overturning DOMA: politics.

In the words of King, though, whose life we are celebrating this week: justice delayed is justice denied. When King was told to be patient by a white supporter, it gave birth to a letter from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama.

We who support equal rights in marriage, who support the overturning of DADT, who support employment protection, will have to force Obama's hand with votes, with rallies, and with letters/emails pushing the politics and politicians, Republican, Democrats, and Independents alike...or move to Nepal (read previous blog).

Best, Brett

Cleve Jones at UNC

Cleve Jones--a man who has lived and breathed teh LGBTQ rights movement--was on UNC's campus last night as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Week's activities. It seems only right and natural to have Cleve Jones here as part of the celebrations of the week commemorating King's legacy and work. He was here as part ofht eCAmpus Y's 29th celebration of King's life.

Jones is well known for his connection with Harvey Milk, another leader and activist of great notoriety, and with the AIDS/HIV quilt project, the largest community arts project in the world.

As Jones clearly understands, we are all connected with the message of Milk and King.

Click here for more.

Pace, B

The Yaks in Tibet...and Meanwhile, in Nepal

On future pilgrimages, one of the places I'd like to go on a crescent of pilgrimage sites, starting in India, then north to Nepal, and then on to China/Lhasa.

While I never a little bit of the social and cultural issues in Nepal, I was surprised to find that LGBTQ people have found a place of protection in the writing of the constitution in Nepal! It is the first in Asia to protect LGBTQ people.

This from advocate.com:

Nepal is scheduled to draft its new constitution by May. It will include antidiscrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex citizens.

“Rights for LGBTIs have been well drafted in the new constitution. They will ensure nondiscrimination and separate citizenship IDs for third-gendered people,” Sunil Babu Pant, Nepal’s first openly gay lawmaker, said in the article.

Imagine: protection IN the constitution.

Of course, under the umbrella, "all men (sic) are created equal," we have protection in this country (USA) too, though you wouldn't know it from the way we are treated.

Pace!

B

p.s., the line about yaks comes from a youth group song...

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Justice

King said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

In Iraq, there is continued injustice against LGBTQ people.

This was found on towleroad.com, found in Gay City News, an article by Douglas Osborne:
As concern over the killings of gay Iraqis grew in 2006 and 2007, the US Department of State appears to have done little more than develop media talking points and squabble over who at that agency should handle press interviews.

“[I]t is outrageous to see that by walking away from their responsibility to further investigate, document, and then ultimately discuss the human rights abuses with the Iraqi government, the US government missed a great opportunity to prevent the mass-scale attacks against LGBT community, which happened earlier this year in Iraq,” wrote Hossein Alizadeh, regional coordinator for Middle East and North Africa at the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), in an email.

Writing in Gay City News, Doug Ireland first broke the story in March of 2006 that Iraqi gays were being killed by death squads. Ireland and other gay press outlets continued covering the story in 2006 and into 2007, with the mainstream press offering occasional stories. The killings and the gay press reports on them have continued into 2009.

Click here for more.

There is injustice against LGBTQ people in:
Iran;
Malawi;
Uganda...
and the USA, in which LGBTQ people are treated as second class citizens, without the equal rights "under the law" that heterosexuals enjoy.

There is injustice everywhere toward LGBTQ people around the world.

And because there is injustice somewhere, we all experience an injustice for and with our brothers and sisters.

It is time to change.

It is time to right wrongs.

It is time to fight for justice with words, with speeches, with votes, with demonstrations of peace.

Now is the time.

Justice delayed is justice denied, uttered King.

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Wedding Feast at Cana

Today's Gospel reading was from the Gospel of John 2:1-11, the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus' first miracle in John.

What was interesting about the sermon today at United Church of Chapel Hill is that one illustration of God and his relationship with humankind is that of the "bride and the bride groom." The sermon illustration focused on a young husband, and missionary, in Haiti, who, when hearing about the earthquake rushed back to the capitol to find his wife who was crushed in a building. The next illustration? God rushing to his Beloved's side when "she" is in trouble was the also used as an example.

It was then that it struck me how uncomfortable I was in all the heterosexual examples, and how powerful the marriage example was in the sermon.

Then I turned to figure out why I was "hooked" on the example?

Because marriage is almost a fetish in American society, especially now in light of the equal marriage rights issue.

I then realized I've never heard of an example of "marriage" in a sermon that pulls on or points to a same sex couple.

While I am sad for the plight of the Haitians, and I am eager to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., tomorrow, I suddenly found myself focused on marriage, something I am not able to partake in as part of a "couple."

What will a sermon on the marriage feast at Cana, a small town outside of Nazareth, sound like when the example includes me and the person I love?

Maybe God is coming to rescue us this very minute?

Pace,

B

Gay Couple in Malawi

I have been following this story on towleroad.com, fascinated by the sense of hatred and bigotry among humankind.

Knowing that they are pioneers for us in this conservative country, these two men, Mr. Chimbalanga and Mr. Monjeza, married one another in a country that forbids it.

As a result, they are now on trial. And one of them fainted today in court because of all the jeering and abuse. From the times.com:

A trial involving Malawi’s first married gay couple was adjourned today after one of the accused collapsed in court and was subjected to homophobic abuse from the public gallery.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga, who has spent more than a week in one of the country’s most congested prisons, vomited and stumbled onto the dusty court floor just before the case was due to start.

As he lay on the ground he was jeered by members of the public who had crowded in to watch what has become a cause célèbre and a test case for gay rights in the African nation.

“Auntie Tiwo ali ndi mimba” — or "Auntie Tiwo is pregnant" — people said.

Click here for more.

Amid prayers for the people of Haiti, I also ask prayers for this couple who are brave and courageous.

Pace!

Brett

Stalling Tactics in the Pentagon Re: DADT

This from AP/nyt.com, and towleroad.com: stalling tactics by the Pentagon in terms of reversing DADT (Don't Ask Don't Tell).

But I believe Adm. McMullen has already made clear he will delay the process.

As has Sec. Gates.

They will stall, delay, deny, hold back, block the reversal of DADT. They already made that clear.

Why is THIS a surprise?

It isn't.

Nor is the Church delaying the open ordination of LGBTQ people: same people in the Pentagon go to Church, synagogue or mosque. Many hold power in both institutions.

And both are delaying the inevitable.

Justice, and equality for all.

Click here for more.

Pace!

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Haiti

Connected with the PCUSA link to assist in the trauma of Haiti in this time of earthquake recovery: http://pcusahaitinetwork.ning.com/, or link by clicking here.

Brett

Sometimes the alb slips...

Read this on andrewsullivan.com, and thought it was a wonderful "uh-huh" moment...but not an "Aha!" moment.

Just confirmed everything I already knew, not only among Catholic clergy, but Protestants as well.

13 Jan 2010 10:03 am

How Gay Is The Catholic Priesthood?

Every now and again, the vestments slip. Check out this Amazon page where priests can buy communion wafers. Now check out what the frequent buyers of such wafers also bought.

(Hat tip: Buzzfeed.)

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DADT and the Dems

I do want to openly express that my kids, and the kids in other families, are watching what is happening in our society and faith communities in terms of how people with disabilities are treated, or not treated, and with it is with kindness or shame.

The kids are watching.

So when I read about the DADT being brought up in Congress by the Democrats--come on Republicans, you know it is the right thing to do, as do you Independents--I want to be sure you all know: the kids are watching.

From huffingtonpost.com

Congressional negotiators and White House officials are moving forward with plans to add the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell to the upcoming defense authorization bill, Democratic sources tell the Huffington Post.

In Congress, members are being whipped to ensure that the votes will be there for passage, should the legislation be placed in the bill. At this juncture, aides say, the prospects look good. Meanwhile, a source close to the White House says the president has instructed the Defense Department that he believes the repeal of DADT should be placed in the authorization bill.

Pace!

B

The Trial of Prop. 8 in CA

Saw this on andrewsullivan.com, and thought "I need music today."

From the trial in California, enjoy!

Pace!

B

Justice Moving in CA

Today a very important trial/hearing begins in CA (from talkingpointsmemo.com): The first federal trial to determine if the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from outlawing same-sex marriage gets under way Monday, and the two gay couples on whose behalf the case was brought will be among the first witnesses.

Those of us in other states where there is no marriage equality, let alone civil unions, are watching and listening. And apparently we can do this in real-time since they are allowing broadcast of the hearing.

The issue? Constitutional law and equal rights.

Plain and simple really.

But not in this country on this issue.

The issue is also this: do minorities have certain rights as equal citizens?

Click here for more.

Pace!

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Catholic Priest Charged with Molesting Boy: Why Don't Ask Don't Tell Doesn't Work in Faith Communiites

I don't care if the Roman Catholics are led by Pope Paul VI, John Paul II, or Benedict, or any other Protestant or Eastern Orthodox Church, in which there is our own version of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" among priests, pastors, or religious members and leaders.

It doesn't work.

It never has worked.

It will never work.

There is this story into today's News and Observer:

Bolivia, N.C. — A priest at Catholic churches in Wayne and Duplin counties has been arrested and suspended from his job on allegations that he molested a boy in Brunswick County.

Rev. Edgar Sepulveda, 47, of 208 Cavenaugh St. in Beulaville, was arrested Friday on one count each of second-degree sexual offense and sexual battery. He was released from jail on a $100,00 secured bond.

Sepulveda has been suspended from his pastoral duties at Maria Reina Parish in Mount Olive, Santa Teresa Mission in Beulaville and Santa Clara Mission in Magnolia, the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh also announced Friday.

Brunswick County Sheriff John Ingram said the offenses occurred while Sepulveda was visiting church members in the county.

Diocese officials said they were told about the allegations on Sept. 9, 2009, and immediately contacted authorities. Counseling was offered to the victim and his family, and Sepulveda was put on administrative leave during the law enforcement investigation. At the time, he denied the allegations.

Criminal background checks for Sepulveda came up clean in 2004 and 2006, diocese officials said.

Since 2004, Sepulveda has also worked at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Newton Grove, St. Mary Catholic Church and its Mission of Posada Guadalupana in Mount Olive, and Mission Santa Teresa in Pink Hill.

Again:

LGBTQ people are not molesters. Heterosexuals are not molesters.

Molesters are molesters.

However, some people who suppress their being LGBTQ and try to hide and repress it, or some people who are frustrated heterosexuals who do not know where else to act out their own sexual issues, will some times revert to risky and harmful behaviors. And such actions hurt both the abuser and the abused.

Click here for more.

Pace!

B

NJ Said No to Equal Marriage

NJ said "no" to equal marriage tonight. From advocate.com:

In a vote held Thursday afternoon, the New Jersey senate failed to gather enough votes to advance a same-sex marriage bill, effectively killing chances for gay nuptials in the state for the next few years. The measure failed 14 to 20.

Click here for more.

But here is what is interesting: students at UNC-Chapel Hill were asked if they did or did not support equal marriage rights, and 67% said they did support such rights.

So even if NJ Senate voted it down today, the momentum is on our side.

Sooner, rather than later, there will be equal rights for marriage for all in this country.

Time is on our side.

Love is on our side.

Pace!

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US Federal Jobs No Longer Showing a Bias Toward Issues of Gender Identity

This is huge.

We all watched it at home as we turned into the Rachel Maddow show.

This is a big development.

People--LGB and T--are protected in a unique way in our--our--government. This is the same government we pay money to in taxes. This is the same government with the line, "We, the people."

Here it is from the nyt.com with thanks to the Rachel Maddow show:

The Obama administration has inserted language into the federal jobs Web site explicitly banning employment discrimination based on gender identity.

The protection is expected to apply to the small transgender population — people who identify their gender differently from the information on their birth certificates — and it merely formalizes what had been increasingly unchallenged government practice over several years.

But civil liberties and gender rights groups welcomed it on Tuesday as the clearest statement yet by the Obama administration that such discrimination in the federal workplace would not be accepted.

Of course, employing a trans person--male to female--in an important job recently because she was the best qualified, and not because of a quota, didn't hurt the Obama Administration either.

This matters to our families.

Click here for more.

Pace!

B

"The Word Is Pogrom"

When I was "but a boy," one of my favorite shows, game shows, to watch with my Grandmother was "Password," in which one contestant knew the "word" that the other person had to guess from all kinds of clues. And the secret voice that spoke over the air that we the audience heard was "And the word is..." with the word mentioned that the contestants had to guess.

In our household last night, the word was "Pogrom," a word that my son learned and discussed in high school yesterday among vocab words.

And the context in which it was applied was "Uganda." We watched and listened to the Rachel Maddow show last night, and her interview with a member of the evangelical group, "The Family" on C. St. in D.C., and their support of the Ugandan government, who just crafted this bill to kill gays. Though the Family is now trying to tamper this down, nonetheless, my high school son looked at me adn said 'That is a pogrom: killing gays as an minority group simply because of who they are. Didn't they learn anything from the Holocaust?"

That a government would go out of their way to kill gays because they are gays is liking killing Jews simply because they are Jews, or Cambodians for being Cambodian, or in Rwanda, or in Darfus, or in...

Uganda.

Our children are learning.

Let's help them learn today's word: "Pogrom".

B

Good News from Rhode Island!

A land, a state, of liberty, Rhode Island, did the right thing today by overriding the veto of the Governor concerning a bill that would advance the rights of LGBTQ people. From the advocate.com:

On their first day back to work, Rhode Island’s house members — followed by the state senate — voted to override Republican governor Donald Carcieri’s veto of a series of bills, including one that would give domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of and make funeral arrangements for each other.

The house vote was 67 to 3, and the senate vote was 29 to 3.

Carcieri vetoed the bill last year, saying, "This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue. If the general assembly believes it would like to address the issue of domestic partnerships, it should place the issue on the ballot and let the people of the state of Rhode Island decide."

The bill came about because of the story told to lawmakers by Mark S. Goldberg of his months-long battle last fall to persuade state authorities to release to him for cremation the body of his partner of 17 years, Ron Hanby.

Finally, a legislature did the right thing.

Just don't tell NOM!

Pace!

B

Uganda and Gays

From the NYT.com, the story continues regarding the background of how the government of Uganda began to hatch the policy of apartheid against LGBTQ people: it begins not only with the conservative politics and society of Uganda, but also with the aid of evangelicals from the US, especially Exodus reparative therapy programs, and the like:

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior.

Click here for more.

In talking with lots of LGBTQ groups in spreading publicity of ON BEING A GAY PARENT, I was aware that many LGBTQ people were investing money in politics in the US, with hopes of changing the politics of the US in making it friendlier toward LGBTQ people. Trying to get people to invest in religious issues, confronting and addressing and speaking to the harder aspects of poor biblical interpretation skills did not seem as interesting to those investing money in changing politics. I think the root of the problem is still the Church. This article confirms it.

Imagine what our children think of us LGBTQ parents, especially in light of the fact that some people want us killed simply for being LGBTQ?

Pace, B