105 20 2617 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d121cb1dc564676a50f988126c950bf1.pdf bf106cd89b1ace17114ef19feabf0908 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Second Stone Description An account of the resource Issues of the Second Stone publication. Issue An issue of a recurring publication. Issue Number The number of the issue (within a volume) 9 Publication Year The year the issue was published 1990 Publication Date The date the issue was published Mar/Apr 1990 Text Any textual data included in the document THE NATIONAL NEWSPAPER FOR GAV AND LESBIAN CHRISTIANS $2.25 · ··· Many Gays & Lesbians 'Unreachable' · By Churches' Best Efforts By Jim Bailey Editor Even with the extensive media coverage of recent ordinations of gay and lesbian clergy, many a conservative church-goer would still express surprise that the words "gay" or "lesbian" and "Christian" could be spoken together. What is unsettling is the number of Gays and Lesbians who express a similar surprise, apparently completely unaware of resources that support Gays and Lesbians of Christian faith. Although twenty years have passed since the founding of major Gay and Lesbian ministries, churches and religious groups in many areas are still struggling to find their place in the community. SEE COVER STORY, Page 9 ·11 The 1990 Census: Im Transformation: Tell The Census Bureau The Gay Community Learns To Love Who You Really Are I Commentary by Ivy Young By Bill Urban - I Fr. Joseph Leo Killian, Jr. AIDS Claims First President Of Dignity/USA Father Joseph Leo Killian, Jr. died in late December at the Veteran's Hospital in Westwood , California. In 1969, he was secretary, treasurer and membership director of the committee that was to form the first Dignity group . Two years later, Killian embarked on an outreach program, getting Dignity to participate in the · Cay and Lesbian Pride Parade, arran - ging a retreat at the remote St. Andrews Benedictine Prio r y, and combing the country in search of similar groups. To permit a branch .of the organization to open in Kentucky he created the chapter program still in use, making Dignity a national organization. When . officers were elected for Dignity/ National in 1972, Killian became the group's first elected president. At the end of 1971, there were nearly 200 members. Today there are about 7,000 members in 110 chapters, as well as affiliated groups around the world. Honored at Dignity's 20th anniversary banquet last year, he challenged members to be open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the face of official opposition and reminded them that Dignity 's original Declaration states, "We believe that gay and lesbian Catholics are members of Christ's mystical body, numbered among the SEE KILLIAN, Page 20 Coalition for Traditional Values Gays Rally .Against Conservative Hate Group WASHINGTON, D.C. - Gay and lesbian and . other civil rights groups held a press conference, rally and march . in the nation's capital to confront the prejudice espoused by the Coalition for Traditional Values (CTV) at a CTV symposium entitled, "The National Task Force for the Preservation of the Heterosexual Ethic." Between 500 and 750 Gays and Lesbians rallied against CTV and its leader, the Rev. Louis Sheldon, at a demonstration against homophobia in Washington's Dupont Circle . The demonstration was sponsored by a coalition of D.C.-based gay and lesbian groups, including the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. SEE COALIDON, Page 20 SUBSCRIBE TODAY! ONE YEAR ONLY $12.60! BOX 8340 • NEW ORLEANS, LA 70182 P.O. Box 83~0 N!lw OrlNns LA 70182 - - In Our Next Issue: P-FLAG Mother's and Father's Day stories from parents whose love overcame their fears - and the group who helped them do it - Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PA ID NEW ORLEANS, LA PERMIT No. 511 From The Editor "To Champion The Cause Of Homosexuality" AFA Doesn't Want Gays and Lesbians On The Tube There is a continuing perception among many Gays and Lesbians that, for them, being a Christian is impossible. Nowhere is this perneption perpetuated any stronger than through the work of conservative Christian groups as they continue their hate-filled campaigns against gay rights, or anything gay. They say they "love the homosexual, but hate the sin of homosexuality;" but their lie becomes obvious when they find themselves unable to point to a single aspect of their work designed to draw Gays _and Lesbians into the Christian community. - Donald E. Wildmon, Executive Director of the American Family Association said in a recent editorial that his group is doing "what every person in a free democratic society has the right to do, trying to influence our society toward the direction we feel is best." His publication, The AFA Journal, started in 1977 as a one page newsletter with 150 readers . The AF A claims its most recent issue was the first to reach one million readers. revenues of other stores continuing to sell them. The AF A also does not like programs that "champion the cause of homosexuality." Any positive portrayal of a gay or lesbian person or couple or situation is likely to trigger a campaign against advertisers. The AFA wants homosexuality portrayed on television as an immoral life, full of despair. In the February issue, The Journal informed its readers that 43% of homosexuals have 500 or more different partners in their lifetime and that they meet their partners in a city park (77%) or public restroom (31%.) any other image. They're comfortable with miserable .. people meeting anonymous sexual partners in a bathroom or city park once a month or so and troubled by Gays and Lesbians being seen as happy, well-adjusted, successful and committed in relationship. What an odd twist for someone promoting family living! The lesson of Christ was to lead people fr~m despair. The right wing's solution to homosexuality is for it to disappear. It's the only answer they have. They dispute the estimate ·that 10 percent of the population of the United States is gay or lesbian. Okay - let's say that it's In This Issue FEATURES COVER STORY A TRANSFORMATION five percent - or even one percent. That's still a couple of million people. And ex-gay ministries can't change them. Certainly there is no answer for these people in the hate that the AFA displays towards Gays, Lesbians, non-Christians and others. Finally, in an editorial about the December protests at New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral The Journal says, "Our enemies are out of the closet; they are all in the open now." While it sounds like the AFA would like to line up Gays and Lesbians and shoot them, God's call is for love, compassion and reconciliation. For the AF A, this is going to be a tough one. □ The AFA crusades against sex, Page9 violence and anti-Christian bigotry in the media. Their letter campaigns to adverti sers hit television executives where it hurts - iri the pocketbook. Their boycotts against 'retailers of pornographic magazines have been effective in getting magazines out of some stores and hurting the The same -issue also attacked ABC's movie about Rock Hudson saying that the movie "evidences · the suffering that comes with AIDS, yet never indicts the homosexual lifestyle that has made AIDS epidemic." And concerning an episode of Doctor, Doctor, the Journal says that in a "blatant insult to viewers' intelligence" the show spouted the "ludicrous falsehood, 'AIDS doesn 't discriminate' ... No rational mind can truly believe that, yet - the networks continue their campaign to push that lie in family time 'entertainment-' programming." IN TIIE GAY COMMUNITY Page 10._ Letters Granville, North Dakota Masthead Still Not Inclusive Dear Second Stone, Thank you for a newspaper which is always very informative. It is very helpful to my ministry for me to have a news.paper such as yours so that I can find out about news 'The AFA, like so many other right wing groups, is comfortable with homosexuality being dismissed as a life of despair, and very troubled by □ speaking to me, although the masfhad doesn't indicate it . Yours Truly, Rev. Grant Speece Denver, Colorado Reader Corrects Our Mistake affect ing Lesbians and Gays. I do, Dear Second Stone, however, have one small suggestion. In your masthead, could you _ This letter is intended to correct an somehow indicate that your error made recently in your newspaper ·is also for Christians who, newspaper. The Reverend Julian while not lesbian or gay themselves, Rush is not the Senior Pastor of are concerned about the Christian Metropolitan Community Church of lesbian and gay community because of the Rockies . For the past sixteen their friendships with . and ministries years the Reverend Elder Dr. Charles to the lesbian and gay .commu p,ity? l , R. i>,Ar,ehart has ',,been our Senior am a heterosexual, but my ministry is . Pastor and we are very proud of that with people of all sexual preferences . fact. Within the UFMCC, Reverend My friendships with some very A,rehart has .the second longest compassionate Lesbians rtho I first pastorate, second only to the met in seminary has allowed me to Reverend Elder Freda Smith. have a special c9cncern for the civil Thank you for ·your attention to rights of Lesbians and Gays. These this .matter. friendships have also allowed me to In the Service of Christ, discard any theological baggage I once had with regard to Lesbians and Gays. Because of this, I find your news paper Dan Mahoney Assistant Minister COLUMNS FROM THE EDITOR COMMENTARY CLOSER LOOK FAMILIES TRAVEL PARTING THOUGHT DEPARTMENTS LETTERS NEWS BRIEFS - ORGANIZATION NEWS CALENDAR BOOK REVIEW CLASSIFIED fJ THE SECOND STONE Page 2 Page 3 Page 14 Page 15 Page 17 Page 19 Page 2 Page4 _.'q Page 12 Page 13 Page 16 · Page 19 Commentary · · , · □ Tell The Census Who You . Really Are By IzyYoung Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Families Project As you can see, 1990 ends in a zero. That means it's time for the decennial count, by the Census Bureau, of the entire U.S. population. Ordinarily, the Census Bureau ritual would be of little or no consequence to the lesbian and gay community. But this year things are slightly different. Unlike past national counts, the 1990 census could have a direct impact on some of the issues affecting Lesbians and gay men. For the first time ever, the Census Bureau has added the category . "unmarried partner" to the relationship section of the questionnaire. Expanding the selection choice beyond "ro.ommate/partner" or "roomer/boarder," the new category is, according to some sources, the Bureau's attempt to get an accurate count of the number of heterosexual couples living together without "benefit of marriage." By simple deduction, however, Census officials will also be able to determine the number of same-sex couples living together in committed relationships. That same-sex cou. pies information will be published along · with the statistics on heterosexual unmarried partners. For those of us working in the lesbian and gay families arena, that information could prove vital to the success of our efforts in the future. The Census Bureau has been round I y criticized · for its failure to THE SECOND STONE Newspaper is published every other month by Bailey Communications, P. 0. Box 8340, New Orleans, LA 70182. Copyright1990 by The Second Stone, a registered trademark. ISSN No. 1047-3971 SUBSCRIPTIONS, U.S.A. $12.60 per year, six issues. Foreign subscribers add $8.00 for postage. All payments U.S. currency only. ADVERTISING, Display advertising one time rates: Full Page, $595.00; Half Page, $304.00; Quarter Page, $155.00; Eighth Page, $81,00; Sixteenth Page, $42.00. Send inquiries to: Box 8340, New Orteans, LA 70182. Classified advertising is 35 eents per word. EDITORIAL, send letters, calendar announcements, and church/organization news to (Department title) The Second Stone, P. 0. Box 8340, New Orleans, LA 70182. Manuscripts to be returned should be accompanied by a stamped, self addressed envelope. · THE SECOND STONE, an ecumenical newspaper committed to expanding Christian ministry in the Gay community · and to the spiritual growth and development of Gay persons, their families and friends · PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Jim Bailey alert affected groups that the question even exists, or, for that matter, what "unmarried partner" actually means. There has been no outreach effort, no community education, no discussion with lesbian and gay activists in particular, about how best to ensure that the question is understood and answered accurately. The Census Bureau does n(jt perceive, or more likely, does not care that for lesbian and gay couples answering the survey hqnestly involves more than a simple check off. The issue of government intrusion and privacy is a crucial one for many Lesbians and gay men; yet, census officials have ·made no effort to counter the fear and apprehension that could lead to a serious undercount of same-sex couples. · Some .lesbians and gay activists have predicted that as few as ten percent of . those couples affected by the "unmarried partner" question will respond honestly. But, a recent poll conducted by the Washington Blade found that of the couples responding, seventy-five percent said they would answer the question truthfully. Granted, the Blade survey was conducted in a major metropolitan area with a history of gay visibility. Similar results may not emerge from some small town or hamlet. Then again; they might. Our responsibility now is to provide for our community what Census Bureau officials did not - information and education. Our community must be persuaded to put aside the fear of being exposed and answer the Census · honestly. We have nothing to lose by being truthful. The struggle to have our relationships and our families recognized and protected will assume much greater urgency in the decade to come. Accurate statistics gathered from the 1990 Census .could provide us with a small, but important, weapon to help wage that ,struggle. New Report Highlights Homophobic Violence ATLANTA - A new report from the Center for Democratic Renewal ties the rising tide of violence against Gays . and Lesbians to far right and white supremacist organizations that are using anti-gay bigotry to attract new recruits. The report is entitled Quarantines and Death : The Far Right 's Homophobic Agenda. "Gay people have increasingly become the target of bigoted violence," explained Daniel Levitas, executive director of the Atlanta -based CDR. "This report describes the theoretical framework of the far right's homophobic agenda and outlines the basic steps needed to confront anti-gay bigotry." The 40-page monograph was written be CDK research director Leonard Zeskind and Mab Segrest, a long-time hum .an rights activist, who is currently director of research and . publications for North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence, based in Durham. "Homophobic violence challenges all citizens who wish to preserve the fabric of democracy to act," says · Segrest, who serves on the board of directors of the CDR. The Center for Democratic Renewal, formerly known as the National Anti-Klan Network, was founded 10 years ago as the ·nation's principal clearinghouse for information on community-based responses to hate group activity and bigoted violence. Quarantines and Death examines such issues as why gay men and Lesbians have been targeted by far right groups, t.he nature of homophobic violence, and the ideology of the new right and the far right regarding homosexuality, AIDS and civil rights. According to Zeskind, white supremacists believe that AIDS is a "racial disease" carried by Jews and Blacks. "The Christian new right ·maintains it is a punishment sent by God for the sin of homosexuality," adds Zeskind. "Whatever the perception, a steady stream of murders and assaults has been the result." The Center for Democratic Renewal is a non-profit organization with offices in Kansas City, Missouri, Seattle, Washington, and Atlanta, Georgia. The CDR implements programs of research, training, public education, community organizing and technical assistance to counter w.hite supremacy, religious intolerance and homophobic violence. Quarantines and Death is available for $5.00 (including postage and handling) from the Center for Democratic Renewal, P. 0. Box 50469, Atlanta, GA 30302. OPEN and AFFIRMING REGIONAL CONFERENCES 1990 CONGREGATIONS "ONA" Open and Affirming (ONA) congregations in the United Church of Christ · WELCOME gay, lesbian and bisexual people into the church's life and ministry. There are now more th~n 35 ONA churches nationwide. WHAT DO THEY SAY ABOUT BECOMING "ONA?" . ", .. one of the most interesting and worthwhile things we ever did." • "It was the most spirit-filled experience our church has ever been through." COME AND FIND OUT MORE. JOIN IN .EXPLORING and PROCLAIMING GOD'S INCLUSIVE LOVE! For information I registration in your area: ONA '90 - EAST: June 1 - 3 (Worcester, MA) (Write: P.O. Box 403, Holden.MA 01520) ONA '90 - MIDWEST: May 4 - 6 (Chicago, IL) (Write: 1630 West Pierce, Chicago, IL 60622) ONA '90 - WEST: April 29 ° May 2 (Burlingame, CA) (Write: 751 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont, .CA 94002) ONA '90 ~resented by the United Church Coalition for LesbiaiVGay Concerns, (UCCUGC) March/ April 1990 ... , • Newsbriefs Vatican Will Let Women Perform Weddings The Vatican has granted the far-flung Roman Catholic archdiocese of Alaska permission for six female parish administrators to officiate at weddings when priests or deacons are not available. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops had asked for such permission at its November meeting, responding to a request from Archbishop Francis Hurley of Anchorage . The Catholic Church "has a history of adjusting to extraordinary situations," Hurley was quoted as saying in a church newspaper. -Associated Press Conservatives Declare "Spiritual Warfare" · On Gay Games VANCOUVER , B.C. - Full page advertisements calling for "spiritual warfare" and attacking the 1990 Gay Games III ran in the Vancouver Sun and Province, identifying those behind the anti-gay ads only as "Christian leaders who live in Gre ater Vancouver." The ads, billed to Robert Birch, pastor of the Burnaby Christian Fellowship in Vancouver , were denounced by mainstream church leaders as well as some fu ndamentalists who are also pro t esting the 1990 Vancouver Gay Games . . Asked about the charges of cowardice in not clearly identifying those respons ible for the ads, a spokesperson said the people who placed the ad "might show their courage in another way in the future ." -Pittsburgh 's Out Lesbian Conference Committee Meets ATLANTA - The National Lesbian Conference interim task committee met here to further define the membership of the steering committee that will guide the planning proce ss for the conference, which is scheduled for April 24 -28, 1991 in Atlanta. Regional planners will be chosen at meeting s which are being organized before the next large national planning meeting. The first steering committee session is scheduled to be I am with You Fear Not! (A Corrective Look at the Lesbian and Gay Clobber Passages) Professionally produced Video-tape Audia.tape & Workbook A new book by the Rev. Brnce Roller Pastor of Reconciliation MCC Grand Rapids, Ml - ~ ' • c.p .n.1 )-I/ZIii THE MESSAGE OF #-1 V V"' U RECONCILIATION VHS Video (90 min.l $24 .95 Al.dio Tape $5.00 • Wondx:d( $5.00 Loving OJrselves $6.95 Add 25% for 5h!pping & harxjlng. Faithful Publications P.O . Box 3701 Grand Rapids, Ml 49501 held in Kansas City, Mo., on Friday , April 27. . The third national planning meeting, to which Lesbians from around the country are invited , will be held in Kansas City the same weekend, April 28 and 29. For information about the conference or to get involved, contact Michelle Crone at (518) 463-1051. HUD Chiefs Shun Family Leave Provision WASHINGTON, D.C. - The two top officials of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently denounced a labor contract that would extend domestic partnership benefits to the federal agency's gay and lesbian employees. Jack Kemp, Secretary of HUD, alo11g with Under Secretary Alfred A. DelliBovi, claimed the contract with the HUD employee union illegally "redefines the family ." The controversy was sparked by a clause in the contract of the American Federation of Government Employees . AFGE's proposed definition of "family" would provide lesbian and gay employees with familial leave benefits identical to the privileges already offered heterosexual workers. The AFGE contract is currently under legal review. According to Barbara · Davidson, AFGE union representative, the portion of the contract allowing employees in non-traditional relationships to receive equal familial leave benefits should stand up to legal scrutiny . NGLTF encourages Lesbia ns and Gays to write HUD and urge the department to include Gays and Lesbians in its familial leave policy. Write to The Honorable Alfred A. DelliBovf, Under Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC 20410 . New Legal Director Takes Reins At NGRA SAN FRANCISCO- David A. Bryan, former executive and legal director of the Texas Human Rights Foundation, moved into the top legal position as Legal Director of Nationa l Gay Rights Advocates. Bryan helped prosecute the Texas Human Rights Foundation's disciplinary complaint against Judge Jack Hampton of Dallas, who was publicly censured last Novemb e r for anti-gay bias . Founded in 1977 in San Francisco, N atio nal Gay Rights Advocates fights for the r ig hts of gay men, Lesbians and , through the AIDS Civil Rights Project , persons with HIV disease . NGRA aggressively pursues impact litigation in employment and .11 THE SECOND STONE □ housing discrimination, family partnerships, reform of sodomy laws, anti-gay violence, and first amendment rights. Imani Temple Will Ordain Women The Rev. George Stallings, a Ca tholic priest who last summer broke with the Roman Catholic Church and formed his own congregation said his church will encourage the ord ination of women and allow birth control and abortion. He also said the lmani Temple will permit optional celibacy , which means priests will be able to decide whether or not they want to marry . Stallings defended his church's stance on birth control and abortion, saying, "The Bible has nothing to say about abortion or birth control. The positions we are taking are not counter-Biblical; they are allowed within the expression of faith." -Associated Press Fathers' Stories Sought Tw o women are collecting short stories written by fathers of gay or lesbian children . The collection of writings will be used to help other families understand and accept a gay son or da1,1ghter. , Thoughts from a . variety of ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds are being sought. Writers may contribute anonymously under a pseudonym . For information contact Ann Davidson, P.O. Box 8265, Sanford, CA 94305 (415)857-1058. Lutheran Churches Face Disciplinary Action SAN FRANCISCO - Bishop Lyle Miller of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Sierra Pacific Synod has filed disciplinary charges against two congregations that ordained gay and lesbian pastors in spite of a church policy against calling "practicing homosexuals." First United Lutheran Church and St. Francis Lutheran Church were charged with "willfully disregarding and violating a criterion for recognition" as a congregation of the ELCA The recently ordained pastors, Ruth Frost, Phyllis Zillhart, and Jeff Johnson, had at one time been found qualified for the ministry by Lutheran Church authorities, but newly developed guid ,. foes by the ELCA require homose xual clergy to abstain from sexual activity . As a result, the local Bishop of the ELCA had refused to ordain the candidates or to recommend them for pastoral positions. -The Lutheran and other reports Newsbriefs , · □ ·Gay Ordination A Top News Story for Lutherans The challenging by two San Francisco Lutheran Churches of a churchwide policy barring practicing Gays and Lesbians from ordained ministry was the number . two denominational news story of the past year according to The Lutheran, the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The denomination's $15 _million deficit was the . number one story. World's Only Gay and Lesbian Arab Group Seeks Members WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Gay and Lesbian Arabic Society (GLAS) of the U.S., the first such group in the world, including the Middle East, is looking for members and other people interested in Gay Arab issues. GLAS, formed in the nation's capital a year ago, currently has dozens of members around the country. The group is open to Gays and Lesbians of Arabic orgin or descent, and their supporters. To accommodate increasing West Coast interest, GLAS has recently opened a San Francisco chapter. · For more information on GLAS or to become a · member, write to The Arabic Society, P.O. Box 4971, Washington, D.C. 20008. In San Francisco, contact Huda Jadallah at (415) 864-3112: . Farmers Insurance ' Company Faces Gay Discrimination Suit SAN FRANCISCO - A Sacramento Superior Court judge has turned down a request by Farmers Insurance Company to dismiss a lawsuit alleging discrimination against a gay couple. The couple, Boyce Hinman and Larry Beaty, filed the suit after Farmers refused to sell them a joint "umbrella" liability policy. Farmers has taken the position that they will only issue Hinman and Beaty separate policies - at twice the cost - because they are not married. In the suit, the National Gay Rights Advocates contends that Farmers has violated both the Unruh Civil Rights Act and the anti-discrimination provisions of the insurance code. "Boyce Hinman and Larry Beaty have lived together for eighteen years," commented NGRA Executive Director Leonard Graff. 'They own a home, two cars, and all of their furniture together; they share the . common necessities of life and are each others' primary beneficiaries in their wills and insurance policies. Farmers has already issued them joint homeowners and automobile insurance policies. Making them buy two separate umbrella policies, at twice the cost, is, quite plainly, arbitrary discrimination." Robinson New Dean of Samaritan LOS ANGELES - The Rev. Sandra Robinson, Executive Director of the Department of People of Color, Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, has been named Dean of Samaritan College. New Program Targets Young Activists A new education and training program for young lesbian and gay activists has been launched by the California-based Critical Literacy Institu .te in the first national effort to locate and encourage the next generation of gay and lesbian leaders. The New Pacific Academy for Lesbian and Gay Community Service and Activism will open in June, 1990, with a one month intensive training . program at the ·• University of California campus in Berkeley, California. The 1990 "Basic Training" will be offered to 200 young people, 18 to 30 · years old, with demonstrated commitment to social service or political activism benefiting the gay and lesbian community. While no tuition is. required of participants, New Pacific is soliciting donations to . help defray travel costs. For information on attending, presenting a workshop, volunteering in support work, or making a donation, contact Donna Ozawa at New Pacific Academy, 2338 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114, (415)252-1690. Bon Jovi Sorry For Calling N.Y.Giants 'Faggots' A row over anti-gay comments ·made in Dublin, Ireland, by the heavy metal band Bon Jovi ended when their lead singer apologized to the gay community in · Ireland for his remarks. Ireland's National Gay Federation had asked police · to investigate reports of the remarks, saying they appeared to be a violation of anti-hate legislation passed last year. The comments were made by group member Jon Bon Jovi at a concert in Dublin before a crowd of some 8000 people. The remarks were reported in the national media to have included reference to the National Football League's New York Giants as being "a bunch of... faggots" among other insults. Under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1988, which came into effect at the end of December, it is an offense to make public comments which are threatening, abusive or insulting and which also are likely to incite hatred of certain groups, including Gays. Following extensive media coverage of the NGFs anger, Jon Bon Jovi issued a statement two days after the concert, saying he felt he owed the NGF an apology. He said he had never intended to arouse any hatred or animosity toward the community and explained that his remarks had been in the context of hearing of his favorite football team, the New York Giants, losing to the Los Angeles Rams. Health Institute Has Toll Free Number The National Institutes of Health has instituted an 800 number - 1-800-AIDS-NIH (1-800-243~7644) in order to make information about studies more readily available to "An indispensable handbook" health care providers and prospective patients. A staff member will be available to answer questions for callers Monday through Friday, from noon to 3:00 p.m. Eastern time. If a patient is accepted for a protocol and enrolls in the study, all· subsequent travel expenses are paid by NIH. In addition, all medical care provided at NIH is free. The National Institutes of Health has provided national and international leadership in the fight against AIDS. Right Wing Produces Slick, Anti-gay Video Jeremiah Films, a right-wing fundamentalist film and video production company has produced an anti-gay video featuring misleading information about AIDS. The company managed to gain access to gay and lesbian organizations by · adopting the phony gay lookalike name of Pink Triangle Liberation . Productions. The video,AIDS: What You Haven't Been Told, contains interviews with leaders of the National March on Washington and · extensive footage of the protest and people with AIDS. -Pittsburgh •s Out AIDS: SHARING THE PAIN A Gulde for Caregivers Bill Kirkpatrick Practical and sensitive guidel.ines for the care of those infected by human immuno-deficiency virus-HIV. "An indispensable handbook ... positive, practical, compassionate, pastorally sensitive and Christian:· -WILLIAM D. HORTON in Franciscan $8.95 paper "Extrem useful" AIS ISSUES Conlrondng tbe Challenge edited by David G. Hallman Drawn from the historic ecumenical consultation on AIDS which included theologians, social ethicists, persons with AIDS; health care professionals, community service representatives and church denominational members, AIDS Issues argues for the churches to take progressive steps and assist the reader to confront the challenge of AIDS with intelligence and compassion. "This book is extremely useful in helping people to identify and become ilWOlved:'-DR. JONATHAN MANN, Director, Global Program on AIDS, World Health Organization $12.95 paper i, fol bool<Slores a d•oct~ from •The Pilgrim Press C 475 Riverside Dr.-10lh floor, New York, NY 10115 March/ April 1 .990 AT LAST. A MONTHLY TRAVEL MAGAZINE _THATELLS YOU:ABOUT TRAVEL Discover OUR WORLD Gay Travel Magazine MEMBER [Gui\ ___ ....... ---- We've finally come out! We're the Monthly International Gay Travel Magazine. Month by month, we invite you to visit with.us and discover an exctti~g world available _to gay men and lesbian travelers. Enjoy color photos of a ro_mantic hotel in Spa_1n, a rustic resort 1n California, a trendy hotel on the English Riviera, an elegant Victorian mansion 1n San Fraoc1sco, a magnificent French chateau, and more! • h nd Investigate gourmet restaurants, intimate bars and glittering nightspots. Acquire first a knowledge, travel tips, and up to date information from gay travel agents, and tour operators. . , You get all this at the special subscriber rate of only $44 for one full year (12 issues). Thats a saving of 25% off the newsstand price. Act now! Discover OUR WORLD today! MAIL TO: OUR WORLD PUBLISHING, 1104 North Nova Road, Suite 251 Daytona Beach, Florida 32117 USA (904) 441-5367 0 Yes! Please start my subscription for 1 year (12 issues). I have enclosed my .check or money order for $44. (U.S.A.) Sample copy $4.95. Canada, Mexico, Overseas (surface) - US $52 Europe (airmail) - US $70 Pacific (airmail) US $80 First issue mails in 4-6 weeks in plain sealed envelope. Our subscriber list is kept confidential. (please print) Name, _ _____ _ ___ _ _______ _ _ -:- ___ _ Address __ _ __ _ __ _ ___ _ ________ __ _ _ _ __ _ ___ __ __ __ __ _ _ _ Code _____ _ Country, __ __ -,---:-:--------------,-------== News briefs Activists Aim For Passage of Federal Gay Rights Bill in 1990's WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force will celebrate on March 25-27 the 15th Anniversary of the introduction of the Federal Lesbian and Gay Civil · Rights Bill with a series of commemorative events designed to increase momentum and awareness of the anti-discrimination legislation. Among other things, NGLTF will launch a massive gay and lesbian constituent post card campaign to increase support for the bill in the U.S. Congress. The objective of the Task Force is to pass the bill during this decade. The bill, officially known as The Civil Rights Amendments Act of · 1990, was introduced into the 94th Congress in 1975 by thenRepresentative BeUa Abzug, the bill's first sponsor . Support for the bill has grown steadily over the years. The act would prohibit discrimination on the basis of affectional or sexual orientation in the areas of housing, employment, credit, public · accomodations and federally assisted progr<1rns. As part of its commemorative post card campaign, NGLTF will distribute thousands of cards to gay and lesbian organizations nationwide. Constituents are asked to complete the cards and forward them to their lawmakers, urging them to cosponsor the bill. · For . more information and to obtain lobbying kits and post cards, contact NGLTF at 1517 U St. NW, Washingotn, D.C., 20009, Attention: 15th Anniversary, or call (202)332-6483. Gays Protest at California Churches Greater Religious . Responsibility, a group of gay activis _ts in the Los Angeles area, claimed responsibility for splattering red paint and posting anti-church posters on church buildings in California. Safe sex posters and red handprints were found on the exterior ·of the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco building. -The Latest Issue Exhibit Features Lesbian Art NEW YORK - The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center National Museum of Lesbian and Gay History is currently exhibiting "Works By Lesbian Artists" curated by LAV A (Lesbians About Visual Art). II THE SECOND STONE The exhibit, a national juried show which includes paintings, drawings, photographs, ceramic and mixed media works created by approximately twenty lesbian artists from across the country, runs through March 22nd. For furthur information about LAV A contact Kathryn Kirk at (718) 963-4712: Survey Seeks Info From Black Gay & Bisexual Men LOS ANGELES - AIDS in the United States is disproportionately affecting the Black community, particularly Black gay men, according to the Black C.A.R.E (Community AIDS Research and Edu cation) Project, which is . committed to the fight against AIDS in the Black community . The group is gathering information directly from the community through a national, anonymous survey, the Black Men's Health Survey , of Black gay an9- bisexual men. To parti"cipate in the survey, write to Dr . Vickie M. Mayes, Black C.A.R.E Project, 1283 Franz, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1563 or call (213) 206-5162. . Florida County Extends Housing Protection To Gay Men and Lesbians . Palm Beach County became the first county in Florida to prohibit discrimination in housing, the financing of housing, and public accomodations when the county commission amended its fair housing laws on January 16, 1990. "For the first time since the anti-gay Anita Bryant crusade in 1977, some gay men and lesbian Floridians are able to enjoy equal protection under the law ," said Rand Hoch, attorney for the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. The Council, along with the gay oriented Atlantic Coast Democratic Club, were the two organizations instrumental in lobbying for tl}e changes in the !aw. A hearing related to the ordmance on January 16 lasted almost four hours . Thirty people spoke in favor of the ordinance, while only 17 opposed it. Speakers from both sides quoted the Bible. Only one member of the clergy spoke against the ordinance, while two rabbis, a Presbyterian minister, an Episcopalian Bishop, and a minister from the Metropolitan Community Church called for adoption of the ordinance. A law prohibiting discrimination against gay men · and Lesbians was approved in 1977 in Dade County, Florida, but it was repealed at a referendum later that year after a bitter campaign mounted by singer Anita Bryant. Newsbriefs ABA To Add Discrimination Protections WASHINGTON , D.C. - Successful lobbying by the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA) caused the American Bar Association to include a ban against discrimination based on sexual orientation in its draft Model Code of Judicial Conduct. Specific protection in the code means that Lesbians and gay men can expect and demand fair treatment in . the judical system. The code applies to judges throughout the country and subjects them to discipline if they violate its ethical canons. It is hoped that this action will send an explicit message to judges that they will be held personally accountable if they discriminate against gay people. Suzanne Bryant, one of Washington's two regional board members for NLGLA said that, "Because Lesbians and gay men have received unfair treatment in the . court system, many have not availed themselves of existing legal protections. Finally, we can expect and demand equal treatment under the law." For more information about the Code changes or the NLGLA write to 14 Beacon St., Suite 720, Boston, MA 02108. Texas Bishop Opposes Ordination Of Woman, Gays Episcopal Bishop Clarence C. Pope of Fort Worth has formed a new synod in the church because he opposes changes such as the ordination of woman and gay people. "We believe our seminaries, bishops and standing committees have not been overly scrupulous ... in screening out some of those whom are inappropriate for holy orders," he said . - Montrose Voice Gay Activist's Home Torched After weeks of vocal opposition from anti-gay Christians, the efforts of gay activists, led by Brad Evans , were successful in allowing the gay play , The Normal Heart, to be presented at the Southwest Missouri State University. As the curtain went up, Brad Evan's home burnt down. Investigators found evidence that a flammable liquid had been poured throughout the house. Evans lost all of his possessions, including his two cats. Some 1,200 people showed up at the college in support of a protest called by the fundamentalist, antipornography group, Citizens Demanding Standards, to denounce the play as "obscene." State Representati ye Jean Dixon protested the work saying its purpose is "to promote the homosexual lifestyle as a viable, legitimate lifestyle." -Latest Issue National Gay Family Registry WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Human Rights Campaign Fund has decided to develop a nationwide family registry program to build grass roots support for the concept of lesbian and gay families. The national group hopes the Registry will play an important role in building national support for domestic partnership laws and changes in federal law to end discrimination against lesbian and gay relationships . "Many · Lesbians and Gays have created true families, with strong . bonds of love and commitment that withstand society's pressure to destroy them, " said Tim Mcfeeley, executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund. "While we fight to broaden society's definiton of the family to encompass lesbian and gay relationships, we must provide support and validation to our own community," he said . Lesbians and Gays who would like to participate should contact Kathleen Stoll at HRC in Washington, (202)628-4160. Senate Passes Hate Crimes Act WASHINGTON, D .C. - The U.S. Senate voted 92 to 4 to pass the Federal Hate Crime Statistics Act. Before voting for passage, senate law makers rejected, by 77 to 19, a move by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC) to attach a four-part anti-gay amendment to the bill. The landslide vote marks the first time in the history of the Senate that the pervasive problem of anti-gay and lesbian violence has been .addressed, the first time gay-positive legislation has passed the Senate, and the first time the gay and lesbian community has defeated Helms on a gay-related issue. The bill requires the U.S. Department of Justice to "acquire data about certain crimes which manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity." Repeal Effort Fails In Georgia ATLANTA, Ga. - The Georgia House of Representatives rejected a move to repeal the state's "ancient statute" that outlaws sodomy . Before the vote, House Speaker · Tom Murphy told the Atlanta Constitution/Journal he didn't "know enough about sodomy to talk about. Believe me, I don't know about it." In response to an Atlanta gay and lesbian demonstration against sodomy laws, Murphy said, "Those gay people, I didn't go around them. I didn 't want to get too close." In its post -vote editorial, The Atlanta Constitution said of speaker Tom Murphy, "Ignorance is a fully plausible explanation for [the sodomy] vote, though it is rio comfort to be confronted so brazenly by a legislator boasting of his stupidity ." Toy's Aren't Us The Vice President of Advertising and Marketing for Toys R Us has apologized to a viewer who complained that the company had sponsored an episode of Thirty Something in which two gay men were shown in bed. Ernest V. Speranza wrote, ''Needless to say, we were very disappointed with the content of the episode in question." Toys R Us, whose Chairman is Charles Lazarus, (461 Fram Road, Paramus, NJ 07652, (210)599-6954) has cancelled future •adverstising on Thirty Something . The American Family Association · has called on its members to complain to other sponsors of the show, American Home Products, (Anacin, Dimetapp) and Beatrice Companies, Inc ., (Hunt, LaChoy, Orville Redenbacher, Wesson.) Toys R Us President Robert Nakasone said the company had nothing against gay and lesbian people and denied that the decision to stop advertising on Thirty Something was connected .to the letters from APA members. ACT UP Protests At St. Patrick's NEW YORK - Some 2000 demonstrators gathered at St. Patrick's Cathedral . to protest . pronouncements by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatican that condoms should not be used as protection <1-gainst AIDS. -Baltimore Alternative Andy Rooney Reinstated NEW YORK - CBS News reinstated · Andy Rooney three weeks into a three month susp ension without pay for .aHeg e.dly making anti-gay remarks . Rooney denied making the comments, which were reported in a national gay magazine . Letters to 60 Minutes had been running in favor of Rooney. You spend only · this much of your advertising dollar to reach a Second Stone reader! • Readers in every state across the USA and in many foreign countries • An ad this size costs less than 2¢ per reader! · • No charge for layout, composition, proof s • A unique opportunity to reach a precisely defined audience •State zoning a\lllilable for pre-print in se rts • Each edition circulated for up to four months • Reach the NEW Gay & Lesbian market in the USA! THE SECOND S10NE Box 8340 • New Orleans, LA 70182 March/ April 1990 a Gay Couple Serve As Godparents Walter Baker and Gerald Bowman, a gay couple who marked their 10th anniversary last fall, served as Godparents at the Baptism of Margaret Catherine Twigs Sevco at Christ Episcopal Church in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, population 3000, in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. Baker, a member of Integrity, was - :(,'-' elected for a three year term on the Vestry of Christ Church last year in an open election with. six candidates running for four open positions. A year ago, the Vestry elected him to be one of the two delegates to the Diocesan Convention. He was also nominated to the Standing Committee and, although not elected this first time around, continues to Margaret Catherine Twigs Sevco with (left to right) parents Thomas and Margaret Sevco, Godparents Walter Baker and Gerald Bowman, and the · Vicar of Christ Church, The Rev. Herbert Geer McCarriar, Jr. WHAT·'s THE BEST Men's magazine - . the one that deals most honestly with how men . relate to each other. to women. and to kids; the one that's gay-affirmative and opposes sex-role stereotypes .... the one that movingly explores men's hurts and joys . . . ~-- --- --------~ 1, OrQr at no obligation . If you change your mind. jusR~: us I We'll ref und the subscription price I I : Name -- · Enclosed:_ S16 : I Address ____________________ I I City _____________ State_ Zip __ I I Moll to: Chon in Men 306 N. Brooks 305A Madison WI 5 '!,_ .J ---------------------- be active in parish life, serving as usher and lector in tum with others. Bowman, who is also active at Christ Church, was confirmed this past September. He is Vice President of the Coudersport Fine Arts Council. The two are co-owners of the Hotel Crittenden in Coudersport , Both have found satisfaction in the Episcopal Church, through the supportive outreach and welcome by the Vicar; The Rev . Herbert G. McCarriar, Jr., who has for three years presented more people for confirmation/reception than any other priest in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. The parents of the baby have been active at Christ Church for more than a year, and were confirmed/received this past September. Thomas Sevco is a hairdresser and Margaret is an English teacher at Coudersport Ar.ea High School. Made "Dumb" Comments, Bishop Says Newly Ordained Priest Fired At the request of the board of Oasis, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese . of Newark with the lesbian and gay community, the Rev. J. Robert Williams has resigned as its Executive Director. He has also been suspended from performing all priestly functions by his bishop. Williams addressed a conference in Detroit in mid-January sponsored by Integrity/Detroit and a local parish. During his remarks , Williams expressed the view that celibacy was only rarely a positive option, and that virtually all persons' lives would be improved by sexual relationships. He also said that, "Monogamy is as unnatural as celibacy. If peole want to try, OK. But the fact is, people are not monogamous. It is crazy to hold this ideal and pretend · it's what we're doing and we're n bt." Williams was ordained on December 16, 1989 by the bishop of Newark, the Rt. Rev. John S. Spong in a highly publicized service. The intense media attention was based on the mistaken notion that Fr. Williams' ordination was the first of an openly non-celibate gay man in · the Episcopal Church. It was, in fact, merely the first such ordination in the Diocese of Newark. The widespread reporting of Williams' remarks at the conference led Bishop Spong to admonish Williams, calling his remarks "dumb." Williams refused to retract his remarks. He said, "I'm not making a decision to leave the [Episcopal] church unless they force me to leave." But he added, "Before I .., ~ Evangelicals .. 'I(/ loge/her Inc. SUPPORT COMMUNITY & SERVICE FOR Gay & Lesbian Christians In Southern Califomia ... since 1979 Sult., 109-Box.16 79B5 Santa Monica Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90046 213/656-.8570 ~ got ordained, I was thinking of starting my own church, and that may be something I'll have to do after all, in order to tell the truth." Various bishops have been calling for a church trial for Bishop Spong . Williams has accused Spong of _ "looking for someone to sacrifice to take some of the heat off of him." On January 29, a group of anti-gay bishops met with the Primate of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Edmond Browning. In a release at the end of the meeting, Bishop Browning expressed his "deep regret and sorrow" over what he called "the intemperate and tasteless comments of Robert Williams." However, he also said that "the issues for us as a church are deeper" than the ordination of Robert Williams or "his demeanor, regardless of how very sad that has been." Among the deeper issues he cited were the church's pastoral response to homosexuals and the appropriateness of ordaining them. The board of Integrity, Inc., the nationwide lesbian and gay ministry of the Episcopal Church, issued a unanimous resolution stating its agony over the division among Williams, a long-time Intergrity member and founder of Integrity /Dalla s; Spong, one of Integrity's principal supporters in the House of Bishops; and the board of Oasis, which includes several Integrity members, most notably Integrity's founder, Dr. Louie Crew. Kirn Byham, Integrity's president, said, "The media created Robert Williams and it destroyed him. He was certainly not the 'first openly gay non-celibate male to be ordained in the Episcopal Church.' The other bishops became upset only because there was so much publicity about the ordination. Bishop Spong became upset only because there was so much publicity about Robert's remarks," Business or Personal ... Try a Second Stone dassified Ad II THE SECOND STONE Cover Story Let Your Light Shine How To Get Mo·re Recognition For Your Church Or Group By Jim Bailey Editor The good work your church or group does to impact your neighborhood and entire · community is newsworthy and deserves recognition. Food drives for the hungry, emergency housing you provide for the homeless, disaster relief programs, and important guest speakers or · musical groups are examples of things you do that would interest people beyond your immediate church membership. and information, regular readers may already know about the church or group. Here are some suggestions for reaching new prospects. · The Daily Newspaper group and your activity' in the community. You may be invited to discuss any number of topics including the homeless, AIDS projects, abortion, etc., depending on your ministy. Don't limit your interest to discussions on religion/ homosexuality. (And watch out for "shock" radio and TV shows. Hosts who specialize in confrontation have their minds m;ide up - and so do their listeners/ viewers!) Mosf radio and television stations accept and a,r free of charge Public Service Announcements, PSAs, from non-profit organizations. If sponsoring an event to benefit some community project, you may want to investigate having a PSA produced and aired . Plan well in advance. church councils provides a valuable interface with other clergy and . congregations and displays your willingness to work together for the good of the entire community. Your involvement . in softball leagues, bowling tournaments, etc. keeps the name of your church or group before the community. It gives -others an . opportunity to see that gay and lesbian ministries are just like their own . The Yellow Pages Make sure your church or group is listed in the Yellow Pages. Insist on a heading identifying your special gay and lesbian outreach. Some directories already have such a heading. If your directory doesn't, you may have ask - and you may Leaders of local churches and organizations with special ministries for Gays and Lesbians too often limit exposure of their hard work to the media they are most comfortable With: the local gay newspaper. While this is an important outlet for news Have you met the editor .or religion writer of your daily newspaper? While some writers may not be, receptive to your gay and lesbian focus, most will be very interested in meeting you and learning of your work. Cultivate a good working relationship with the religion writer. Keep him or her informed of your church or group's impact on the community. (But don't bother him/her with in-house news such as council elections, etc.) If your newspaper has a religion page and you can afford a small ad, it may attract new members. Insist on including copy on your special gay and lesbian outreach in the ad. Radio and Television Make local radio and television talk show hosts aware of your church or Some tal e nted individual in your group may want to consider putting together a special program or regular program based in your ministry for community access TV. Community .Events . Participation in area wide organizations such as interfaith • have a battle on your hands. If so, you should consult with a group like the National Gay Rights Advocates or the American -Civil Liberties Union . COVER STORY From Pagel Church and organization leaders may claim that receptivity is a problem, although a bigger problem may be the ineffectiveness of these ministries in making the community aware of their presence and activities. Christian outreach to Gays and Lesbians is all too often targeted toward those who are already aware of resources available to them: uncloseted Gays and Lesbians who take an active part - socially, politically, and otherwise- in the established gay community. But what about the majority of Gays and Lesbians - those who remain closeted to some degree; those who are reluctant to stop at . a bookstore or bar even for the few moments it would take to pick up a copy of the local gay periodical? Ranging in age from high school and college students to people well into careers (which may be jeopardized by their "coming out"), they represent the silent majority of Gays and Lesbians, often scorned by , their uncloseted counterparts. They also represent the gay and lesbian community's greatest potential for development, and for Christian outreach, a particularly difficult challenge. ' Although outreach in the strictest sense - discovery of and contact with a person who is in need of a fellowship of care, support and spiritual growth - is perhaps most effectively done on a personal level by leaders and members of local churches and group chapters, an important task of national church and religious organization execus tives is to bring wide recognition to their ministry on a national level; to stimulate inquiry by Gays and Lesbians who have not seen a community churches' classified ad in the back of the local gay newspaper. Efforts to do this on the · national levei" have ranged from stellar to lackluster. A major outreach effort was scheduled to be launched by The Evangelical Network at its annual gathering in March. According to TEN's chairperson, Rev. Fred Pattison, Senior Pastor of Casa de Cristo Church in Phoenix, Arizona, TAG 2000 (Tell All Gays by the year 2000) will be a bold effort during the decade of the '90s to witness to the gay · and lesbian community across the nation. "The church is foreign to alot of people," Patti~on said. "A goal of TAG 2000 is to challenge people to evangelize within their own communities . We're developing teams to provide workshops to help local groups with their outreach," he said. · TAG 2000 was developed after the larger plan by Evangelicals to "reach the unreachable people of th'e world by the year 2000" left Gays and Lesbians out. TEN's plan now is to bind local churches together in a solid push to witness to the gay and lesbian community . To be successful, however, TEN will have to concentrate now on funding their effort and making TAG 2000 known across the nation . Dignity /USA was successful in running a full page ad in a major circulation national newsmagazine and , making the most of adversity, has drawn media attention to the banishment of the group from Catholic church- owned property across the country. Not March/ April 1990 only has Dignity been successful in mal-:ing their ministry known to the wider public, they have also seen anger over church actions jar formerly complacent gay and lesbian clergy firmly into their comer. Lutherans Concerned of North America will no doubt benefit greatly from their involvement in and support of January's ordinations of a gay man and lesbian couple in San Francisco . The ordinations . received much media attention, including an inordinately long piece on the CBS Evening News. Although the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has resisted the ordinations, the message to gay and lesbian Lutherans is .that they are not alone in the church; that there arli! those willing to push for fairness and inclusivity. As with Dignity, Lutherans Concerned is now is a powerful position to push gay and lesbian clergy and church members from straddling the fence into concerned work. Integrity , Inc. has an active and effective media office. With an increasing number of events occurring in the Episcopal Church signifying a more meaningful place for women, Gays and Lesbians, Integrity is also in a position to garner coverage of their ministry. The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is largely overlooked by the mainstream media. Though many wo ·uld blame homophobic writers and reporters, the fault may lie with the UFMCC itself which, like their local churches, tends to restrict coverage of their ministry to the gay and lesbian press. News of. last summer's General Conference went only to members of the Gay and Lesbian Press Association, not the nation's 500 plus religion writers and reporters. The conference was . held in a hotel adjoined, by only a few yards of walkway, by St. Paul's d aily newspaper, The Pioneer · Dispatch, yet the conference received no coverage even locally. The UFMCC has depend ed almost exclusivel y on local churches for outreach activity. And local churches have depended on adve r tising and stories in the gay and lesbian press to attract members - a practice which explains, in SEE COVER STORY, Page 11 No Cowardly Spirit A Transformation In Th:_e Gay Community How long, 0 Lord? I cry for help but you do not Jisten! I cry out to you •."violence!" but you do not .intervene. Why do you let me see ruin: Why must I · look at misery? -Habakkuk THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, · the more they remain the same. The world of Habakkuk and the world.we live in today are not -that much different from one another. Just as Habakkuk, we live in a world of wars and pestilence caused by the .social and moral corruption of a society out of control. But a world that allows that same society political control. Habakkuk dares to take issue with God. If God is so -almighty and good, .then why does he aliow eVJi to exist .and the righteous to die.. . I was thrust foto the world of AIDS, unexpectedly in 1982 when a dear ·friend was stricken by a'then -"unknown" and "untreatable" disease. I vividly remember walking into the funeral home to find a closed ·casket placed strategically in an ·archway between two rooms. One ·room was assigned to family -members, the other to his friends. I was very hurt. My friend's death ·should have served as a catalyst to ·bring us together. Instead it was used as a weapon to separate us. There we were - divided by disease and death. His family was shamed by his death. Embarrassed by his ·homosexuality. , On that day it became my mission to .fight - unashamed - the social and political mores of a society so blinded by fear and prejudice that it would refuse to bury its own. Here we are seven years and 60,000 deaths later. It has not been an easy struggle, but like Habakkuk, "I look over the nations and I see and am .utterly amazed." I cast my eye about and see the goodness of God at work. I see a once narcissistic and self-indulgent community transformed. A hedonistic society whose values - once based upon :avarice and greed, changed into a WI BY BILL URBAN community committed to the love and care of their brothers. I see a community renewed in - and strengthened by - its faith. Most importantly, I see how their love and religious spirit has slowly modified the masses. Politicians and religious leaders who at one time were afraid to even say the "A" word, are now openly supporting our fundraisers and assisting us in our causes. Someone once gave me a button that read: "Being gay is not for sissies!" I certainly can vouch for that . Second Timothy reveals to us that, "The spirit God has given us is no cowardly spirit, rather one that makes us strong, loving and wise ." I LIKE TO TELL the story of when my parents arrived at Johns Hopkins and the doctors were explaining my diagnosis to them. I lay severely ill in the Intensiv.e Care Unit and was not expected to live through the weekend. Upon hearing this, my mother exclaimed, "He will not only survive this pneumonia, but AIDS as well!" The doctor, not wanting her to be disillusioned, persisted, "I know your son to be a strong-willed individual, but he has never come up against anything like AIDS before. My mom, fully composed, looked that doctor right in the eye and said, "Well, AIDS has never come up against anything like. my son before." I did make it through that weekend. For weeks thereafter, I laid in my hospital room, frightened . and depressed . Thinking how unfair all this was. I was just getting my life turned around, I had my own newspaper and the life partner I had always dreamed of. It just wasn't fair. I contemplated my next maneuver with a great deal of consideration and discretion. When I became ambulatory, I took a walk to the top to the Hopkins parking garage. Eight stories high . I stared down at the ground for what seemed like .hours waiting for and desperately wanting one reason not to jump , When I had my left leg over the side, the Holy Spirit manifested itself to me. How long, 0 Lord, must I be beat back by political zealots, and you do not listen! I cry out to-you "Discrimination!" but you do not intervene. Why must I look at sickness and death? The Holy Spirit answered me with, "As long as man allows the physical and spiritual devastation of his fellow man." It is for mortals to resolve mortal problems. Allow me to be so bold as to make a comparison from a verse in Timothy which says, "I have been appointed preacher and apostle and teacher, and for its sake I undergo present hardships. But I am not ashamed." The same firery Spirit which came upon me that dismal day in-June of 1987 is with me today. THE NAMES PROJECT QUILT now covers 14 acres and represents the lives of 15,000 men, women and children. One of those quilts, · personally stitched by me, represents the life of a man I once loved. A kind and-decent human , being who never hurt a soul in his entire life, and who died, tragically and painfully, in my arms. I pray for a miracle, but instead I receive smaller blessings one at a time. In 1983 there wasn't much hope for people with PCP, (Pneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia.) I watched as my once strong and virile partner wasted away to a mere 58 pounds. I sat by his side reciting the rosary, and reading prayers because the machines attached to him did not allow the benefit of speech. I called his family upon his death and was told by his father, "He's your problem now, you handle it."• This man's death was not without merit. For four years following his death I fought for a little known treatm ent known as Areosolized Pentemidine which prevents the onslaught of PCP. Finally, in 1987, Baltimore Medical Institutions reluctantly began prescribing this treatment. Today it is customary practice. Deaths due to PCP are down THE SECOND STONE dramatically. I pray for a miracle, but instead I receive smaller blessings one at a time. I have fought and prayed hard for FDA approval of undergound drugs. Even if combined with other drugs they would at least prolong life. GREAT STRIDES HAVE . BEEN made in science and medicine since 1983, but the political, social and religious fronts still have a long way to go. In his day, Habakkuk faced the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were a powerful, vicious, cruel and ruthless people. There are no Chaldeans today. We have the Jerry Falwells, theJimmy Swaggerts, the Jesse Helmses, and their supporters. The ignorant and frightened need to see for themselves that people like me are intrinsically good and our mission is simply to spread God's love · -not AIDS. When Iwas growing up and things didn't seem to work out right; I would · complain to my dad that life wasn't fair. He'd say to me, "No son, life isn't always fair. But if you feel that God has given you lemons, well then, make lemonade. You have to do the best you can with what you got where you are." The Holy Spirit l:)as helped me realize that God has spared my life for a reason. I understand that my personal lemon is AIDS and I have to make lemonade. Enough for all to drink. I make lemonade by my public speaking. Speaking serves to educate and sensitize people. It changes public opinion. It allows conservatives, evangelicals and their fundamentalist counterparts to see for themselves, the Holy Spirit that dwells within me . That Spirit of Strength - that Spirit of Love - that Spirit of Wisdom! That same spirit within each and every one of us. Each one of us has been touched by AIDS. Each of us has their own personal lemon to deal with. Look deep into your hearts. You will find a way to make lemonade . Then, when AIDS is eradicated from society as we know it today, we can all say with great pride and Christian love, "We have done no more than our duty," "In Every Classroom" Rutgers Report Examines Lesbian and Gay University Life NEW BRUNS\NICK, - N.J. - A comprehensive study of the lesbian and gay community at Rutgers, released by the Pres.ident' .s. Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, places Rutgers on "the cutting edge of universities addressing these issues nationwide," according to James D. Anderson, committee chairman. The committee, which · included Rutgers faculty, staff, students and alumni, studied the entire university, Anderson said. "In Every Classroom: The Report of the President's Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, Rutgers University;" includes the -results of a survey of all university employees on various issues impacting the lesbian and gay community . The faculty. and staff survey asked about such issues as harassment and discrimination in the work place and the classroom, as wen · as integration of the .lesbian and gay experience in the academic life of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey . "That's a first," said Anderson. "We don't know of any other institution that has surveyed every single employee," Anderson is associat~ dean and professor with the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies . Kevin Berrill, director of the Campus and Anti-Violence Project' of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called the document "one of the most comprehensive studies to date of lesbian and gay life on college campuses" and predicted it will serve as a model for other universities throughout the country. The report is among the first to link student life, student policy, employee benefits, curriculum , career counseling, residence life and other universitywide concerns in a broad COVER STORY, From Page,) study of issues impacting the gay and lesbian community, according to Ron Nieberding, committee member, editor of the report, and a university student. The university must ensure an environment in which all members of the community, including lesbian and gay people, can participate and develop intellectually and emotionally, free from fear, violence or harassment, the report said. It also includes a survey of similar efforts under way throughout the country. Offices and programs for lesbian and gay concerns already exist at the University of Massachusetts-Amhe 1st, at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Nieberding said. The report, the result of more than 18 months of work by the committee, recommends that the university develop a similar office, with a least one full-time staff person, to focus on the concerns of the lesbian and gay community and to coordinate efforts already underway at each of _the university's schools .. Other key recommendations include: Developing incentives for scholars to pursue research:on the contributions of lesbian and gay people to science, history, literature and the arts; Integrating the experience of lesbian · and gay people into all relevant areas of undergraduate and graduate curricula; Fighting homophoia with sensitivity workshops aimed at incomipg students, fraternities, sororities, faculty, staff and administration; Creating safe space , not exclusive space but an area where Lesbians, gay men and bisexuals may int e ract without harassment and the threat of hostility; and providing the same personnel benefits and services to domestic partners of lesbian and gay employees as are offered to the spouses of other employees. "No one - whatever their race, sex, .religion, ·color, national origin, ancestry, age, disability or sexual orientation - should be subject to ... treatment that deprives them of their dignity or humanity," the report stated . "It is psychologically healthier for everyone not to hate," said committee member Catharine R. Stimpson, vice provost for graduate -education and dean of the Graduate School -in New Brunswick. "The hater gets hurt by hating ." The report - now goes to Rutgers President Edward J. Bloustein for review. Bloustein, in a letter to Anderson, praised the - "comprehensive scope and high quality" of the committee's work. "The report will be received gratefully and will get the careful and deliberate study it deserves," Bloustein said . The material wili be sent to campus provosts, deans, directors, student leaders and governing bodies throughout the university for furthur study prior to any decision on the best approach to implementing i t s recommendations, Bloustein said . The select committee was appointed by Bloustein in the spring of 1988. He directed the group to study the needs of the gay and lesbian community and to advise the administration on the full implementation of the university's 1981 policy that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. The - group and its various subcommittees have met more than 70 times since then, Anderson said. The committee's work is part of a larger effort, the Program to Advance Our Common Purposes, begun in 1987 at Rutgers to fight bigotry and intolerance and to encourage a respect for diversity at the university. The lesbian and gay community has been organized at Rutgers since 1969, when a student organization formed shortly after the Stonewall riots in New York City. Today, the Rutgers University Lesbian/Gay Alliance, a student organization, is the second-oldest active lesbian and gay organization affiliated with an American universtiy, Anderson said . The full text of the report is available for $10.00 from the Rutgers University Office of Student Life Policy and Services, va ·n · Nest Hall, Room 301, College A venue, New Brunswick, NJ 08903. Home For Clergy and Religious With AIDS To Open Soon A consortium of religious communities, including the . Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers, the Missionary Brothers of Charity, the Franciscan Friars, and the S,isters of Mercy, are joining the Diocese of Oakland in establishing an innovative national center for clergy and religious with AIDS/ ARC in Oakland, California. · Former Maryknoll Brother Jim Mansmann has been charged with getting the project off the ground . The center will be called Bethany and will house up to three priests/brothers from anywhere in the United States who have been diagnosed in the early stages of the HIV disease. For further information about Bethany, contact Jim Mansmann, P.O. Box 5215, Oakland, CA 94605, (415) 635-6341. -Communication Newsletter part, MCC's dominance in the "openly" gay and lesbian community. It also explains why many closeted Gays and Lesbians are unaware of MCC. For mainstream Christians, evangelizing is a difficult task; in the gay and lesbian community it is doubly so. Substantial emotional barriers have appear ed ov er the past years betwe en those who witness the gospel and those are in need . Most Christians today can hardly make sense of the hateful antics of the Traditional Values Coalition, the oppression of the American Family Association, the rise and fall of Jim and Tammy and the sins of Jimmy Swaggart . Non-Christians , both gay and straight, see these examples as "religion": as what it means to be a Christian . Add to that the fact tha t the church - the oppressor of Gays and Lesbians for centuries - is only now, reluctantly, beginning to address the issue, it is easily seen why non-Christians in general, and Gays and Lesbians in particular,.are not beating a path to th e church doors. Revealing to others that these groups and individuals are not t ruly representative of Christ's teachings is now a necessary par t of outreach . Also, according to Rev. Pattison , outr ea ch in the gay and lesbian community suff e rs - because those not involved in a worship experience perceive those who are as no different from themselves. This "inconsistency in living" is an issue that church leaders are reluctant to address but one that they must face if their ministry is to be seen as credible by the community. It is ultimately an outreach of deed, not word , that will guide a prospect beyond all of the emotional barriers and obstacles that they may see in religion . It is in having some ne ed met, a friendly contact, or warm support in a time of crisis that outreach can make a lasting impression. And that connnection can't be made if national and local church and group leaders fail to ke ep their ministries in a highly visible position. March/April 1990 m Church & Organization News _ Darlene Garner , New Pastor of .. MCC Baltimore Rev. Darlene Garner has been installed as the new pastor of MCC Baltimore. Rev: Elder Nancy Wilson presided over the special ceremony held at St: John's United Methodist Church . Rev. Garner attended Samaritan College in Los Angeles and is currently working on her Master of Divinity at Lancaster Theologcial Seminary in Lancaster, Penn. , : ·. -Baltimore Alternative Southern California Lesbian Catholic Group Meets Lesbian Catholics Together has begun its fourth year as a group and continues to offer monthly home liturgies and paraliturgies in and A friend for the · journey. Subscribe today to THE SECOND STONE. YES, I want to receive The Second Stone, the national newspaper for Gay and Lesbian Christians ... send me: [ ] One year (6 issues) for $12.60 [ ] Two years (12 issues) for $23.00 [ ] Three years (18 issues) for $32.00 Name ......................................................................... . Address ........... '. .......................................................... . City, State & Zip ...................................................... .. Check here if you prefer plain envelope for mailing: [ ] Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery of your first issue. Add $8.00 per year for postage in Canadand all other foreign countries. U.S. currency only. Box 8340, New Orleans, LA 70182 ._ ______________________ ___ around the greater Los Angeles area. The primary focus remains that of providing spiritual support and growth opportunties not currently offered within traditional Catholic ministries. The group is especially sensative to the issues of woman and homosexuality as they relate to Roman Catholicism. In ad.dition to liturgies and potlucks, LCT also sponsors an on-going support group with an open format and an annual weekend retreat. All women, including current religious, are welcome. For more information and a calender of 1990 .liturgies write to LCT, 19942 Acre Street, Northridge, CA 91324'. Reconciliation MCC , Donates $iOOO GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Four AIDS support organizations have benefited from a $1000.00 donation from Reconciliation MCC. Recipients were People With People With AIDS, the Grand Rapids Minority AIDS Project, the AIDS Foundation of Kent County, and the UFMCC AIDS Ministry. MCC Pittsburgh Celebrates 15th MCC Pittsburgh has been active for 15 years. Mid-Atlantic District Coordinator R. Adam DeBaugh granted charter church status to MCC Pittsburgh in recognition of 15 years of growth and commitment. -Pittsburgh's Out Lutherans Concerned Affirms Support for Bay Area Lesbian and Gay Ministry SAN FRANCISCO - The Board of Directors of Lutherans Concerned/ North America adopted an affirmation of support for the Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministry, a newly organized cooperative ministry supported by several Bay Area Lutheran congregations and many individuals through the United States and Canada. The Board also sent letters of commendation to two San Francisco congregations which have encountered disciplinary action by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by ordaining lesbian and gay pastors without requiring a promise of sexual abstinence, as required by current ELCA clergy guidelines. "Members of our Board were moved to . learn of your support for LLGM and its work," wrote the Board. "Even more, we rejoice in your clear and unequivocal commitment to m THE SECOND STONE justice for gay and lesbian people ." Language of the Lutherans Concerned Board's affirmation of support is identical to the LLGM "Covenant of Support" which has been signed by more than 300 clergy and lay people, except that the paragraph endorsing the ordination of Jeff Johnson has been broadened: "Upon the issue of a call by a congregation of the ELCA or ELCIC, we commit ourselves to suppqrt and participate in the ordination of gay men and lesbian women who are called to and qualified for the ministry of word and sacrament. We further support as appropriate and ilS a gift their lives as celibate individuals or lives in relationship while serving as ordained clergy." New Charismatic Church For Portland Crown Of Praise, a charismatic church with an outreach to the entire community, has opened in Portland, Oregon. Pastor Judy Allen feels that "full gospel" is an appropr'iate description for the beliefs of Crown of Praise and Pastor Juanita Gates said the church is not a "gay" church, that "God calls peop!e to be spiritual beings, not sexual beings." The church is located at 2300 NW 30th Ave, (206) 892-6861 -Just Out · Oregon Church Joins Reconciling Congregations The 60 member Estacada United Methodist Church in Oregon has become the first reconciling congregation in the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church. Pastor B. David Williams said, "This is God's good news to Lesbians and gay men. Fear and hatred do not reflect intent for his commuity of faith." -Just Out Use Of MCC/ Pittsburgh's Food Bank Doubles MCC/Pittsburgh estimated use of its food bank would double in frequency over the preceding year. Chairperson Rick Varner said, "Through increased publicity, the food bank became better known in the community. More people realized we were available to help and started to call on us." Of the exceptionally supportive community, Pastor Roberta Dunn said, "We are indeed very appreciative of this support be.cause that's what keeps the food bank operating." -Pittsburgh's Out Calendar The following announcements have been submitted by sponsoring or affiliated groups. Southeastern Conference for Lesbians and Gay Men MARCH 22-25, "Working Together to Strengthen Our Southeastern · ·Communities" is the theme of the 15th annual SECLGM gathering to be held at the Raleigh (North Carolina) Civic Convention Center. A wide variety of entertainment events, major speakers, exhibits and workshops will be offered . A large portion of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt will be displayed. Registration cost for the four day conference is $80.00 if paid before March 20; $100.00 if paid at the conference . A brochure detailing complete information about the conference is available from SECLGM, Inc. '90, P.O.Box 28863, Raleigh, NC 2761H8636r (919) 833-1209. · Palm Sunday Weekend for Gay and Lesbian Christians APRIL 6-8, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and John McNeil together lead a weekend retreat. Fellowship, bjble study, worship, reflection and healing. Cost including accomodations and meals is$165.00 Contact Beaver Conference Farm, Underhill Ave., Yorktown Hts ., NY 10598 or call (914)962s6033. Conference with John McNeil APRIL 20 & 21, Dignity /Westside in · Los Angeles sponsors a conference for the gay and lesbian community on the topic of discerning God ' s presence in life. The main facilitator will be John McNeil, author of Taking a Chance on God. The purpose of the conference is to provide an opportunity for Dignity members and for Gays and Lesbians outside of Dignity to come together and explore ways to discern God's presence in life. For information, call Dignity/Westside, (213) 871-6930. ... , • More Light Churches Conference APRIL 27-29, Central Presbyterian Church, Louisville, Ky., is the host of this conference, themed "Integrating Sexuality and Spirituality: A Call To The Churches ." Six workshops will be offered. For information call Jim Oxyer, (502) 897-5719 / (502) 569-5005 or Nick Wilkerson, (502) 635-7003/ (502) 568-7590. Changing Church Attitudes? APRIL 27-29, A weekend residential conference in Dunblane, Scotland featuring four noted speakers, Mary Hunt, Norman Shanks, Clare Sealy and Harvey Gillman . The conference will examine the churches' collusion with all that causes discrimniation against lesbian and gay people . A reconvening of a pioneering ecumenical conference held ten years ago in Pitlochry, Perthshire. One hundred participants spent a memorable weekend meeting in Scotland to discuss this important subject. Who would have known the sweeping changes that were to reshape the lesbian and gay community in the decade of the 80s? Open to people of all sexualities and Christian backgrounds. Contact The Secretary, CCA 1990 Conference, 58a Broughton St., Edinburgh EHl 3SA England. Open and Affirming Conferences APRIL 29 - MAY 2, The United Church Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns sponsors a. conference to increase awareness bf the Open and Affirming movement within the United Church of Christ. There are 36 Open and Affirming congregations presently in th 1.7 million member UCC. For information on the Western regional conference to be held at Mercy Center, Burlingame, Cal., contact Rev. Wendy Taylor, 751 Alameda .de las Pulgas, Belmont, CA 94002. Also, MAY 4-6, at St. Paul's Church, Chicago, II. Contact Rev. Talka Kreiensieck, 1630 W . Pierce, Chicago, IL 60622, and JUNE 1-3, at United Congregational Church, Worcester, Mass . Corttact Rev. Ann B. Day, P.O . Box 403, Holden, MA 01520. UCCL/GC welcomes participants from other denominations, as well as UCC pastors, lay people, and conference personnel. For more .information, contact UCCL/GC's national office, 18 N. College, Athens, OH 45701 or call (614)593-7301. ' Sixth Annual Desert and Mountain States Lesbian and Gay Conference MAY 11-13, A six-state Lesbian and Gay conference themed "Growing Together as Lesbians and Gays" will be held at the El Rancho Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Kay Weaver, a major new talent in the gay and lesbian entertainment industry, will be featured in a major concert on the second night of the conference. Steven Tierney, PhD, an activist from Boston, Mass., and Urvashi Vaid, Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, will be the featured keynote speakers. Workshops include Health and Wellness, Politics and the Environment ;: Spritt.tality and Humanism and Racism, Oppression and Privilege. Early registration is $55; $65 at the conference. Contact DMSLGC, P.O. Box 19360, Las Vegas, NV 89132c..()360, (702)791-0083 or (702)737-7780. Conference for Catholic Lesbians MAY 25-28, The Conference for Catholic Lesbians, a national organiz;ition for women of Catholic heritage, sponsors Conference '90, "Power & Empowerment" to be held in Estes Park, Colorado, featuring workshops, liturgies, and entertainment. Contact CCL Conference '90, P. 0. Box 436, Planetarium Station, New York, NY 10024, (212) 562-8922 Men and Masculinity 15th Annual Conference · · · MAY 31- JUNE 3, "Ending Men's Violence: Pathways to a Gender-Just World" is the theme of this conference of the National Organization for Changing Men to be held at Oglethorpe University, Atlanta, Ga . For information , write to: Men Stopping Violence, 1020 DeKalb Ave., #25, Atlanta, GA 30307 or phone (404)688-1376. CMl's 1990 Retreats JUNE 3-6, Co-dependency retreat in Palm Springs, Cal., JUNE 11-14, Embodied Spirituality and Sexuality retreat for men and women at St. Joseph's Retreat House, San Antonio, Texas, AUGUST 17-19, Codependency and Spiritual Wholeness retreat at Weber House, Baltimore, Maryland. For information on Communication Ministries' retreats, write to CMI Retreats, P.O. Box 60125, Chicago, IL 60660c..()125. American Baptist's National Retreat JUNE 25 -27, American Baptists Concerned, a national organization of gay and lesbian Baptists, their families and friends, will hold its second national retreat in the San Francisco Bay Area. The focus of the retreat will be community building among gay and lesbian Baptists. The March/ April 1990 □ retreat facilitator will be the Rev. Dr. Jane Spahr, a nationally known resource person on issues related to the gay and lesbian community. An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rev. Spahr is the founder of the Ministry of Light, a ministry to gay men, Lesbians and their familes in San Anselmo, Calif. The retreat site is Westerbeke Ranch, located north of San Francisco. The retreat will be proceeded -by San Francisco's annual Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. ABConcerned/SFBA will help with transportation to and from the retreat. Cost is $100.00, which includes two nights lodging and six meals . For information write to ABConcemed National Retreat, 686 Waller St., San Francisco, CA 94117. Thornfield Workshop on Sexuality JULY 9-15, The .highly acclaimed annual training workshop on sexuality at the Thornfield Conference Center in Cazenovia, NY will focus on gender, orientation and lifestyle and their relationship to sexism, heterosexism and homophobia . Designed as an advanced course for both individual and professional growth, the workshop sttracts teachers, students, counselors, clel"gy, hea:ltlfpersonnel and others. Among the noted ·staff are Mary Lee Tatum, nationally-recognized family life educator, lecturer and consultant from Falls Church, Va.; Brian McNaught, consultant and author of the book and video, On Being Gay: and the Rev. Bill Stayton, author, theologian and sex therapist . Registration is limited to 60 persons. For further information, contact Alison Deming, P.O.Box 447, Fayetteville, NY 13066, or call (315) 637-8990. Lutherans Concerned Assembly '90 JULY 19-22, Lutherans Concerned/ North America hosts the largest group of gay and lesbian Lutherans ever assembled. The setting is the campus of University of Illinois at Chicago. "I Ain In Your Midst" is the theme . Assembly '90 marks LC/NA's sixteenth year of working for lesbian and gay understanding within the church.The design and intent of the assembly is to create an atmosphere where people can experience a familiar yet fresh approach to spirituality and community. Facilitator is Rev. Linda Strohrnier. A variety of workshops will be offered. Forinformation write to: Assembly '90, P.O . Box 10197, Fort Dearborn Station, Chicago, IL 60610. . IE Closer Look Whither Thou Goest: A Lesbian Love Story? By Rev, Bruce Roller Contributing Writer In its introduction to the book of Ruth, the PTL Partner's Edition Counselor Bible (King James Version), states, "When Naomi turns again homeward to Bethlehem, bereft of all she brought to Moab, Ruth refuses to foresake her; and, in her determination to stay with Naomi, Ruth . spoke the immortal words which have echoed across the centuries at marriage altars: 'Whither thou goest I will go .. .' Such · an insight into the life of an ordinary family of that ancient day is a' priceless gift." By this statement the ultra-conservative writer has inadvertantly introduced an interesting, and often invisible, highlight to the story of Naomi and Ruth. It is not my intention in any of these articles to be controversial for the sake of controversy so I will be stating again and again that when I speak of lesbian and gay love, sensuality, and sexuality in relation to the people . whose stories are recorded in the bible, I am not saying implicitly that these people engaged in physical sexual expression with each other. (Though I will st~te that explicitly about some of those of whom I write this year.) That the physical expression of sexuality is what makes an individual or relationship homosexual is one of the myths of heterosexism and homophobia. The Reverend Sylvia Pennington has made the truer statement that homosexuality is much more concerned about "with whom one chooses to nest." Notice the special courage of For Work With Gay and Lesbian Youth Leo Treadway Receives Human Services Award Leo Treadway, Ministry Associate of St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran ·church, St. Paul, Minnesota, and past Co -chair of Lutherans Concerned/ North America received a $5000.00 McKnight Foundation Award in Human Services. He was one of ten Minnesotans selected from nearly 200 candidates. Ex-Gays? There Are None Lambda Christian Fellowship is pleased to announce a new book by Rev. Sylvia Pennington - an examination of ex-gay ministries - what they do - what they don't do. You'll meet people who, only through God's grace, have survived and stopped trying to be ex-gays, because, in truth, there is no such thing as an ex-gay rx,rson. Now Available From Lambda Christian Fellowship P . 0 . Box 1967 Hawthorne, CA 90250 $15.00 plus $1.50 for postage and handling. California residents add 6% sales tax. In the award citation, the McKnight Foundation recognized Treadway "for his courage and commitment to improving the lives of gay and lesbian youth who are at risk of exploitation and suicide. Treadway and a number of social service colleagues have established gathering places for lesbian and gay youth between ages 15 and 21 in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. These groups, which meet weekly, provide a supportive atmosphere for youth who identify themselves as gay or lesbian to discuss being "out" in school, relating to_ their parents, how to know if you are lesbian or gay, and how to deal with homophobia, as well as issues of AIDS education. , · The McKnight Foundation Human Serv'ice Awards have been given annually since 1985. They are given, acctjrding to the Foundation, to individuals in Minnesota "who are mak jng significant contributions to the : human services by directly assi*ing others to become productive and I participating members of the com~unities in wh ich they reside. · PATLAR VOICE OF GAV AMERICA MONTHLY NEWSMAGAZINE FREE AT OUR DISTRIBUTION POINTS SUBSCRIPTIONS $35 ANNUALLY SAMPLE(t4Jp<?u~~ 18tr¼Tt~ usA $4 FOR INFO ON ADVERTISING CALL (916) 391-9755 OR 452-0769 PO BOX 22402 SACRAMENTO CA 95822 Naomi, who, rather than staying in Moab to which her late husband had brought her, decided (very independent ly for a woman of that day) to go back to the land of her birth. Both daughters-in-law had apparently become close to their mother-in-law Naomi; · both wept, but it was fairly easy to convince Orpah to go back and try in her own land to find another husband . Her alliance with her mother- in-law was important, but her apparent connection with her family and friends in Moab was more comfortable . Not so with Ruth. It was after Orpah's departure, after much urging from Naomi to do the "sensible" thing and remain in Moab with her family, friends, and familiar customs, that Ruth spoke the words that couples all over the world speak to one another in weddings and other commitment ceremonies, "Entreat me . not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee : for whither 'thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God : Where thou diest, will I . die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so · to me, and more also if aught but death part thee and me, (Ruth 1:16-17) ." Lovers the woi-id over, committing themselves to one another as a result of romantic love, are correctly assessing these words, I think, as the passionate response of a person committing herself for life to another person . The sentiments . need not lose their romantic flavor because they are spoken by one strong woman to another. Of course , because of the economic, political, and religious system in place in Israel at the time reflected in . the book of Ruth, both women seem particularly interested in Ruth's gaining the favor of a powerful man. There are, however, some interesting gleanings even in this. For instance, Boaz (the man Ruth eventually marries) remarks to Ruth how all the people of the city "know thou art a virtuous woman, (3:11) ." (As a teenager reading this passage, I was struck with the 'resemblance to myself. In a , very conservative church I had a very strong reputation for being "a perfect gentleman" on dates with girls!) He further commends · her for not running after the young men, but choosing the older, richer and more powerful Boaz. Ruth "followedst not young men, whether poor or rich, (3:10).'' Earlier when Boaz asked about Ruth "Whose damsel is this?" the servant's reply was essentially, "Naomi 's, (2:5-6)." Certainly in what could only be interpreted as a very sexual situation with Boaz (lying at his feet all night until morning), m THE SECOND STONE Ruth's virtue remains intact; and the reward of the evening is offered to Naomi. "These six measures of barley gave he un to me; for he said to me, Go not empty unto thy mother-in-law, (3:17)," Ruth tells Naomi. The result of sexual intercourse between Ruth and Boaz was the birth of a, baby boy Obed who is listed in 4:22 as the grandfather of King David. Notice, however, that the recognition , particularly of the women of the city, was an understanding that Ruth loved Naomi. Hear the · song of the women: "There is a son born [not to Boaz, but] to Naomi, (4:17) ." What have our observations and speculations in this -article shown? Certainly there is no conclusive proof that Naomi and Ruth had a lesbian relationship. In fact, there is no conclusive proof that Naomi and - Ruth were actual people. Some scholars believe that the little story of Ruth was written after the return from Exile to counter some of the harshness of Ezra/Nehemiah's inter-marriage reforms. Some things we have seen, however, that may be of particular interest to lesbian women: 1.) The Hebrew Scriptures include a: wonderful story of loving commitment between two strong, courageous, and independent women. 2.) Ruth is · portrayed as having littl~ romantic or erotic interest in men, and as being deeply identified with and committed to · Naomi . 3.) An overwhelming insight for this ancient book is the realization of the women of the city that Ruth's child is truly Naomi's and Ruth's (excluding the name of Boaz from any of the birth celebration.) The writer of this little book; under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, certainly makes a strong case for the deep, loving, life-long commitment of one strong woman to another. Permit me a question for your meditation. If , after the birth of Obed, Ru th had had to choose between Boaz and Naomi, would she have repeated her statement to Naomi: "Whither thou goest, I will go ... "?? · The Reverend Bruce Roller is pastor of Reconciliation MCC in Grand Rapids, MI . He has prepared a workbook on 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that is available for $3.50 plus 25% handling and . shipping. This book allows the student to draw conclusions themselves from the Word of God, and has helped many people over the ir fear of condemnation from this passage of Scripture. The workbook is available from Faithful Publications, P.O . Box 3701, Grand Rapids, MI 49501. Families. Holy Unions A Special Start For Gay/Lesbian Couples By Rev. !eylvia Pennington Columnist I remember the first Holy Union which I attended about thirteen years ago. It was a ceremony for two elderly white -haired gentlemen who were celebrating the 37th Anniversary of a union which had started when Cardinal SpeHman secretly married them in his private chambers . At last, that which had been done secretly, could be done openly. As people, most of us have a basic need to "get married." Of course, in the gay community, marriage isn't a -contract between two people and the state in which they live . That doesn't make it any less a commitment to a covenant relationship a relationship, when inviting the Lord to enter into, is called a Holy Union. (A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.) In my early years of public ministry with MCC, I always felt that we never experienced God's presence in our midst as much as we did during a Holy Union ceremony . One of the more joyful aspects oci:ur when parents and family members participate. I remember one dad who stood up and said, "I never thought I could be so happy being the father of the grooms!" Yet this family matter is often the saddest aspect too . I found - it was often impossible to start our services on time, as one member of the couple pleaded for us to wait just a little longer - "My mom said she'd try to come." We'd wait - although I knew it was probably futile . If they weren 't part of the planning, or there early, most likely they wouldn't come. Lack of family participation was so frequently the dark cloud hanging over us amidst the love and joy we · celebrated. This didn't mean that the . non-attending family members had rejected their kids. Often, the family had worked through their initial negative responses and were trying to be as loving and supportive as possible. They'd come a long way - but not to the point where they could handle something as potentially life-time lasting as a "marriage" inferred to them. Balancing that were the people who were there - often making a commitment to be the couple's family in their Jove and support. As I travel most of the tlme now , . the Holy Unions I'm part of are oft~n held in homes in areas where there 1s not a church available, although some wedding chapels are rented. Usually no one is quite sure what to expect. I always include traditional vows so that the whole sense of it being a real wedding in manifested, but as often happens in today's marriages, couples also say their personal vows. It's very important to me that in the gay community our Holy Unions are beautiful, inspiring and done in the best taste we know how to present. The occasion is real - it is a celebration ,' it is a joy - not only to us, but also I believe, to God and the whole Heavenly Host. If there are children, they actively participate in the service - excited little gremlins usually , delighting in their families and the special occasion. Each Hol y Union is as individual as are the people joining their lives together, as each love story is special and the participants "uncloned" but we all have our favorite stories and I'd like to close by sharing the tale of two of _the most unique Lesbians I've met . Last year I received a Christmas card from two women who live in a very small town in Arkansas. They used considerable space trying to remind me who they were . I read their message tearfully - could they possibly believe I'd forget them? From the time of our first phone enco unter, they were "unique ." My sister Jean answered the ir original phone call, then called me to say I needed to hear their story personally, so I called them right away . They'd me t ,-when they were eleven and twelve years old . The eleven year old's dad was the Assembly of God pastor when the twelve year old and her mother began to attend their church. I heard from them 27 years later . Two little Christian girls who were "different." God had done something special with them because they always loved each other rather than boys and men. They'd questioned homosexuality just once and knew that wasn 't them because homosexuals were just sex people but they deeply loved one another. How shocking it was for them, in their late thirties, to meet two other women who also loved each other and considered themselves Lesbians. The Le sbians went _ to work enlightening the tw o unique oneseven to the point of telling them that there were churches where gay people worshipped together, and right there in Arkansas too! Shocking! The almost enlightened unique women made an appointment to see the MCC pastor in Little Rock. I'd been to their church a week before ·and when the Pastor couldn't convince the women, he gave them my first book to read. They read the book and called. They were still shocked to learn that they were Lesbians and not just unique. What's mo re, it had to be wrong because they weren't married. I exp lained Holy Unions to them, told them to pray about it and if they wanted, I'd marry them on my return to California a few months later. One month later, they set the date. I'd be stopping in St. Louis, Mo. the day before the wedding and would have a comfortable day's drive to easily be in Arkansas for a 7:00 p.m. wedding. · Enroute to this unusual Holy Union the car broke down, I kept calling the women as the repairs took much longer than originally stated. Finally, we were enroute, but we'd be a few hours late. We hit torrential rains for hours which slowed us drastically, as we drove slowly with almost zero visibility , We finally found their little town ·and house. It was 4:00 a.m.! The wedding party had sat patiently waiting in their beautifully wedding decorated house. Everything was wonderfully planned . Despite the hour and our tiredness, it was one of the most glorious Holy Unions I'd .experienced. After we ate the wedding cake, we sat and talked until 8:00 a.m. as they still had many questions. Forget them! How could I possibly? A 4:00 a.m. wedding! God did a very lovely thing for two beautiful Christian women . Isn't is always a wonder how much our God does for us! For God's special gay kids, a Holy Union is a very wond erful gift, as two . "unique" wome·n in Arkansas can testify . Rev. Sylvia Pennington is the author of But Lord, They 're Gay, Good News For Modern Gays and Ex-Gays: There Are None. Rev . Pennington's · books ar e available at most gay bookstores or can be ordered from Lambda Christian Fellowship, PO Box 1967 , Hawthorne, CA 90250. Catholic Lesbians To Gather Lesbians from all over the country will gather in Estes Park, Colorado on May 25th to celebrate the 5th national biannual conference sponsored by the Conference for Catholic Lesbians. CCL is a natipnal orgahization _of women who acknowledge the importance ' of the Catholic tradition in shaping their lives, and who seek to develop and nurture a spiritual life that enhances and affirms their identity as Lesbians. The organization wa s formed in 1983 as a result of the historic first conference, which was -held in Kirkridge in Bangor, Pennsylvania in the fall of !he THE previous year . Feminist liturg i es created by members of CCL will be celebrated each day of the conference . Ample free time will be alloted during the course o·f the conference for participants to enjoy the available recreational facilities as well as the - chance to network with Catholic Lesbians from around the country . For further information, write to Conference Coordinator, · CCL, Inc., P.O.Box 436 Planetarium Station, New York, NY 10024 or call Erna at (212) 562-8922. BOOK SERVICE Your Source for Gay/Lesbian Christian Materials Welconie to the expanding world of quality Christian materials for gay/lesbian people and those who car e about them. At THE BOOK SERVICE , we specialize in fast, friendly services and provide materials usually unavailable through other sources. Since the start of this service our distribution has quickly grown to 50,000 plus catalogs. Our primary goals are to provide a source of quality materials to Christian people, support the growth of spirituality in the gay/l e sbian community, support the integration of gay/le sbian people within the traditional Christian community. TO RECEIVE YOUR FREE CATALOG CALL }-800-728-0038 March/ April 1990 Book Review A Shallow Pool . Of Time Fran Peavey, author; Introduction by . Joanna Macy. Santa Cruz, Cal.: New Society Publishers, 1990. 150 p. $11.95, paper; $34 .95, cloth. ISBN 0-86571-166-6. In 1984, AIDS was seen as a "gay cancer" quickly spreading through the homosexual community of San Francisco . Little was widely known about the AIDS virus at the time, and false information and misconceptions spr e ad faster that the disease itself . Social change activist and worldtravelled comedian Fran Peav ey began to keep a journal on the epidemic, explaining to her friends , "It will be interesting to keep track of over time, and interesting to people in the future - just as it would be for us to have a journal of an ordinary person who lived through the Plague ." Four years later, and still working on her journal, Peavey was diagnosed as HIV positive, probably having contracted the virus six years earlier from a contamina .ted blood transfusion. Her journal became intensely personal as she continued to document the epi<;lemic, but now with a new understanding of the disease · and those who ·have it. "I am embarassed by my P!''ejudice, .especially toward gay men.,:: and by my uncaring attitudes '· toward friends who suffered in the early history of the disease," writes Peavey. "It is both tragic and terribly wrong that people already marginalized and oppressed by society are not seen as victims , No one deliberately brought this suffering ori him or herself;'' Her captivating, · sometimes funny and often moving reflections pull us through the denial, anger, fear and deep sense of injustice she has experienced. A Shallow Pool of Time is made up of Fran Peavey's journal through early 1989, together with essays focusing on the social aspects of AIDS as reflected through personal experience. Peavey shares many of her most intimate moments in her ongoing struggle to cope with the fears, questions, lessons and emotional swings that have come ·A Presbyterian Promise "We will work to increase the acceptance and participation in the church of all persons regardless of racial-ethnic origins, sex, class, age, disability, marital status or sexual orientation" - 195th General Assembly (1983), Atlanta, Georgia If this is your promise, too, we invite you to join Presbyterians for Lesbian/Gay Concerns Write to Elder James D. Anderson PLGC , P.O. Box ~8, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0038, 201/846-1510 with the knowledge that she is HIV+. Her captivating , sometimes funny and often moving reflections pull us through the denial, anger, fear and deep sense of injustice she has experienced . Reading A Shallow Pool of Time we share Peavey's s truggles with and insights into issues such as telling friends, family, co-workers and others; asking for and giving support; deciding what and whom to believe, and where and how · to find informat ion; facing ·both the possibility of death and the disheartening popular equation of HIV+ with AIDS with death ; exploring the dimensions of safe sex; reassessing personal and social responsibility; and discovering both the types and potential limits to socia l hysteria . It is an important book because it allows us to gain an inside awareness and understanding of the experiences of individuals who ?.re HIV+, while at the same time dealing with the iinpact of AIDS and AIDS hysteria on society as a whole . Many readers will remember Peavey's humorous and .insightful first book Heart Politics . Known worldwide as the "Atomic Comic," Fran Peavey has long been involved in grassroots politics as a comedian, teacher and activist . Catherine Maier, Coordinator of the Women 's Services Program, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, notes that "Building on her losses, Fran chooses to look to the future with hope and to live with lov e and understanding for others and for herself. A Shallow Pool of Time will touch everyone who rea:ls it." Susan Griffin calls A Shallow Pool of Time "a de e ply moving soul-journey rich with insight, complexity, and courage ." · Faith, Love, AIDS, and the Catholic Church An Angry Young Poet's Discourse With God Thomas O'Neil, author. Illustrations by Ty Wilson. New, York, NY: Indulgence Press, 1989. 107 p. $5.95, paper. ISBN 0-9622398-0-1. · Sex With God is an odyssey through gay New York of the 1980s, a quest through its "stand a:nd stare" bars and other pickup spots until the poet ultimately finds his future lover . En route, Thornas O'Neil puts the story in a religious perspective: the love he seeks is condemned by the church he loves. As a result , he rages against it and calls God directly into account. The title comes from the book's opening poem, which . ends: "There is nothing in the world/ like talking/ sex with God ." In one of the book's most angry outbursts, O'Neil takes o.n Card inal John J. O'Connor for closing . down , masses organized and attended by gay men in New York City. In "Mass Confusion," he writes : "Seems the man who wears/ the most expensive gowns in town/ wants to fortify the gates of Heaven/ against thos e femmes who ·exchange th .e sign of peace on 13th Street./ Mass may now be . offered/ again in cata combs, they say ... " It's the closed church doors that .seem to trouble O'Neil the most, particularly in the age of AIDS. In "Open the Door: An Anthem," the re ader joins AIDS sufferers in front of ·a church : Open the door God Here on these steps to an elusive Heaven Your altar boys are now grown up and, felled by the Love Disease, have come home to die ... Open the door God Surely You remember what death was like, the seering flesh, Your cry to Heaven: Why have Ypu forsaken us? Thomas O'Neil Most shocking is O'Neil's subsequent description of the end of the world, followed by two outrageous post scripts that close the book. H e then graciou s ly gives God the last word - and in the literal sense of ''The Word" - but the ' biblical quote, lineated in the form of a poem, is stinging and pointed. Cl e arl y, O'Neil's grudge is not ex clusively with the Catholic Church, but with Scripture, too. With God. THE SECOND STONE Travel Where To Stay In L.A. By Cynthia A. Marquard and Danni Munson Contributing Writers Los Angeles is everywhere and yet nowhere. By that we mean it is a sprawling metropolitan area with no real downtown. But there are so many famous attractions sc~tter~d over this part of southern Cahforn1a that a visitor could stay anywhere in the Los Angeles area and be close to something they want to see, yet 50 or more miles from something else. So the big question is, where to make "home base ." The answer for Gay/Lesbian travelers could very well be WEST HOLLYWOOD. Incorporated only five years ago, this new city is one of the gayest spots on earth. We did an in-depth exploration of West Hollywood on a recent trip to Los Angeles . Similar in size _ to Chicago's Newtown area it covers 1.9 square miles. Restaurants here are considered "food boutiques" where each must offer very unique menus. Shaped like a revolver lying on its side, this area is bounded by Hollywood on the East and Beverly Hills on the West. Its often called "Creative City". The fomous Pacific Design Center, where -many design professionals have offices and where it is said "creativity gets down to business," is in the center of the city. Where To Stay We stayed at the new Ramada West Hollywood, the area's hottest new and very gay-friendly property, with 177 upscale rooms. The hotel is all done in black and white with · vivid primary colors for accent .. If you want to impress your travelmg · companion, order one of the loft . suites. They contain on the first floor, full living rooms with wet bar/bath and pull out sofa. In addition you climb to the loft where there is a king bed and remote control TV. Those with contacts in Hollywood will like the fact there is a telephone in all bathrooms and call waiting on every phone. Room rates start at $69 dollars per night, with the loft suites going for $159 per night. The hotel also provides complimentary membership to the largest health club in Los Angeles which happens to be across the street. ... If you like nothing but upscale hotels, try the L'Ermitage chain. ~e have seven hotels in this 1.9 mile area. These are all totally renovated condo buildings. All have a private pool and jaccuzzi on t~e roof. Y_ou receive a key to the private parkmg lot undernea th the building when you check in. You can enter the_lot and go into the elevator anytime without going . through the lobby I I The movie stars love it ... you might too. If gay/lesbian bed and breakfasts catch your _ fancy we recomme~d Whittier House. Located m Whittier, Calif., it is a stone's throw from West Hollywood by the freeways but has a ~onderf':11 spacious and relaxed settmg. It 1s owned by two lesbians, Laurie and Diane, and both men and women are welcome. Whittier House has a great video library, including the March on Washington tape. The rates are reasonable. They also give one night free for every six booked. Places To Eat All up and down Santa Monica Blvd. are great California eating places . We dined at La Fabula, a Gay owned Mexican restaurant in the 7900 block of Santa Monica. The place was filled with gay and lesbians, and excellent food was served at reasonable prices. The menu was simple--5 entrees--but everyone agreed all were excellent. Next door is the French Market, a great "food to stick to your ribs" place--also gay owned. Roast beef and roast pork dinners were both under 8 dollars, and the waiter brought so much food that is was impossible to join the clean plate club. A romantic stop if you are on a holiday with a lover would be the Rose Tatto on Robertson in West Hollywood. This restaurant and bar acquired this past year by three women is very upscale. One of the owners is Ginny Foat, part owner of _ the Langtry, the world's finest women's guest house in San Francisco. She has taken her experience with the guest house and applied it to the restaurant and bar at Rose Tattoo. The main room of the restaurant is done in rose, beige and black and kept softly lit. the "other" place under the sun ... :i~:~r.:~ts~' M; ~x~:=cb • Pool & ·cozy Jacuz::r:I •Frc-c contlnental bnakfast Write or call for brochure. 120 E. Atol St., P. 0. Box 2326 South Padre Island, Texas 78597 (512)761-L YLE Air connections via American Continental Southwest Things To Do West Hollywood also has many events geared to gays during the year. The most famous is the fabulous Gay /Lesbian Pride parade the last Sunday of June. Halloween is also an occasion for a big celebration . Santa Monica Boulevard is shut down as more than 40,000 people stroll the avenue, most of them in outrageous costumes. From January 1990 though March, the West Hollywood City Hall will feature an exhibit of 20 women artists, culminating in a grand Women's History Month Celebration. You can request a calendar of events from the very gayfriendly City Hall, 8611 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood CA 90069- 4109. All in all we found WEST HOLLYWOOD a great place to get a taste of Los Angeles. And by the way, their favorite saying is: "No one walks in Los Angeles; everyone walks in West Hollywood." So take your best sneakers and have a look around. Cynthia A. Marquard is the owner/manager of Envoy Travel, Inc., in Chicago and vice-president of the International Gay Travel Assn. Danni Munson is the publisher of The Lesbian and Gay Almanac and Events of 1990. March/April 1990 P. 0. Box 118 SL Bethlehem, NH 03574 (603) 869-3978 □ Lesbian and Gay -Chdstian Movement U.K. Group Target of Church Harassment In November, 1987, at a General Synod meeting of the Church of England, an Evangelical priest, Tony Higton, put · forward a resolution asking the Church to declare that "homosexual acts are sinful in all circumstances" and that clergy must adhere to this belief as a condition of remaining in the ministry. This action over two years ago was the first salvo in a debate and controversy that continues to rage in the United Kingdom and the Church of England. A 1978 Report of the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops had given hope to Gays and Lesbians in the Church, stating "Today we do not expect everyone to conform to a norm - a sort of _average humanness - but rather to rejoice in variety; so the status and rights of homosexuals are being reconsidered." On August 4, 1988, the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops meeting at Canterbury reaffirmed this position and called for "each Province to reassess .. .its care for and attitudes towards persons of homosexual orientation ." In practice, - however, Gays and Lesbians in the Anglican Church were heading for some setbacks. Although Higton's resolution w11sn't _ adopted, a motion that said "homosexual genital acts" fall short of the ideal of sex "within a permanent married relationship" did pass and a resolution supporting all committed relationships, without specifically mentioning homosexuality, was overwhelmingly defeated. The General Synod debate unleashed a torrent of tabloid homophobia. Although only four percent of Britons attend church, the press assumes that people are still interested in whether the vicar is gay. As a result, and on their own inijjgl_tives, various bishops began "gay hunts" to root out offending clergy, to the humiliation of many who had sacrificially served the Church for, in some cases, 30 years and more. England 's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement was founded (as the Gay Christian Movement) in 1976. It had two parents, a nebulous liberal grouping called Reach and people in the (radical) Student Christian Movement grouped around a . book and a conference called Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation. Soon after it was founded the Vicar of St. Botolph's Church, Aldgate, Christian Study Group Formed An initiative from leading figures in Church life to create an organization for promoting understanding of sexuality and its theological meaning has been launched in England. Over 60 supporters have begun The Institute for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality. The Institute has no official connection with the Church of England. · It brings together an umbrella group of noted Roman Catholics, Methodists, and Anglicans . The Institute sees itself as being the focus for debate around the complex and divisive issues of how the churches should respond to changing expectations in regard to gender roles, a Christian ethic for both opposite and same-sex relationships, Christianity and the ·future of the nuclear and .extended family, sexuality and the- experience of power and the power, potential and symbolism of sex. At a time of unprecedented controversy in the churches, ·with confusing if-not contradictory teachings on many sex-related matters coming from different sections of the Christian community the ISCS is clearly destined to have a crucial responsibility to help heal divisions, engage in research, provide educational .material, and help people become wholly self-accepting while ·remaining God-loving. Canon Rowan Williams, Professor of Divinity at Oxford University and a trustee and founder of the Institute said, "Christian ·churches of all traditions have been very slow in developing any full~scale reflection on how our sexual nature as human beings relates to the whole business of growing as a man or woman and growing in fellowship with God - everything that the word 'spirituality' normally sums up. •:we have had a lot of thinking aboμt the rights and wrongs of sexual behavior; but this has often relied eithbr on a somewhat legalistic use of collf!ctions of biblical texts ·or else on appjeals to 'natural law.' In either case, there has not been .much attempt to connect what has been said with the central affir mations of Christian faith ... " Noted theologian and author Janet Morley, also a trustee, added; "For many years now, Christian feminist women have been exploring a range of issues to do with women's sexuality Rev. Malcolm Johnson, was brave . enough to offer the new Movement a vacant room up a tortuous spiral staircase in the tower of his church for use as an office. It was the kind of space not many would want, despite its location in the heart of London. (Reportedly their literature table was quite visible when the Queen made a visit to St. Botolph's a few years ago.) For 11 years the office operated well. For nearly ten out of those years Rev. Richard Kirker had operated there as General Secretary of the Movement - trying to ensure that most church. leaders and Jots of worried Christians knew where to turn to, and trying to make sure the lesbian and gay communities knew of the Movement's existence. Beyond the homophobia sweeping the Church of England, Britons began hearing of the now notorious Clause 28. Conservatives saw Britian's excellent, widely distributed and often graphic AIDS education materials as "promoting" homosexuality and a measure banning all lo.cal spending for anything supporting gay or lesbian concerns soon gained the support of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party. and the Christian faith - and this is because our sexuality has historically been used by the church as a reason for excluding us: at times from studying theology, still now often from preaching in church or from leadership positions, or from ordination, and certainly from being present in-any language we use about God. So women can hardly avoid contemplating the connections between our faith and our sexuality, because the latter has so often been presented to us as a handicap. In ISCS we shall want to challenge this perception ." Trustee -Canon Douglas Rhymes said, "A major task of lSCS will be to bring a realistic approach to pastoral issues and counselling. We shall aim for an affirmative and positive view · of sexuality based up.on the needs of the person for stable and loving . relationship, whether opposite or same sex, as the only true basis of a Christian ethic." For information on the Institute for the Study of Christianity and Sexuality, wrjte to ISCS, Oxford House, Derbyshire St., London E2 6HG, England. Im THE SECOND STONE The Bishop of London, Graham Leonard appointed as his Archdeacon a hardline Ulsterman, George - Cassidy. He was given lots of encouragement and a free hand to clean up the Church, starting with the Gays and Lesbians in St. Botolph's . A long-ignored piece of church law was unearthed. Apparently a formal permission (a faculty) had to be granted to allow any part of a church building to be used for anything other than things like worship. The Bishop's lawyers presented the matter to LGCM and to St. Botolph's as being a formality, so an application was made for a 'faculty.' LGCM then discovered that the Archdeacon, urged on by the Bishop, had made a formal objection to the application. The Movement could not find the enormous sum of money required to fight the case. It was unwinable. The judge's view of homosexuality was made clear in private hearings. So in September, 1988,LGCM vacated its home in St. Botolph's with an emotional liturgy of Exodus . At the same time LGCM was gainjng support among City clergy who· had n0t previously realised , how despicable the Church could be in the way it treats Lesbians and Gays . There was, however, one more 11ssault on LGCM. A motion was put before the General Synod that the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement be removed from the Church of England Year Book. Muriel Curtis, who proposed the motion told The Observer. "For me this is a symbolic gesture. I feel we must distan .ce ourselves from people who are promoting homosexuality in schools." With a victory now Jong overdue, LGCM won the right to· keep its name in the Year· Book after a vote by the General Synod. The long conflict within the Church of England has provided no answers. An article in The Times by Cliff Longley summed it up this . way: "If the Church of England had approached the matter in the logical order, it would first have -sought a theology of sexuality which would have answered these objections (to homosexuality) by finding alternative Christian criteria for the moral judgement .of sexual acts . Instead it proceeded as if the problem did not even exist. And so at the end of it no-one is any the wiser ... and some people got hurt.'' -From reports by Kim Byham, Malcolm McCourt , and others. Parting Thought □ Butterflies By Dr. Martin Fowler Contributing Writer In the hymn, "It Is Well With My Soul," one awkwardly constructed verse has us singing, "My sin, 0, the bliss of this glorious thought..." But thinking about sin is no bliss for gay Christians. Because we've been unjustly condemned as "sinners" for so long, thinking about sin only makes us angry. As a result, we're sick of hearing about sins. We want reasons to celebrate life. Several years ago, some talented MCC members made beautiful Easter banners graced with butterflies and balloons. The congregation liked the banners so much that no one wanted to take them down. After several months, the pastor declared that the banners had been on display long enough. The church, she said, couldn't keep celebrating Easter forever. ARE YOU MOVING? The Post Office will not forward The Second Stone. You must notify us for uninterrupted service if you · move. Please notify us four weeks in advance for uninterrupted delivery. Send both old and new addresses . 11 possible attach mailing label in space provided PRINT NEW ADDRESS - ~ Q ~- f (b '< ~ w N ;;· 0 0 0. "' Send co.rnpleled form to: THE SECOND.STONE .Box 8340 New Orleans, LA 70182 and B-ailoons However, sin keeps us from celebrating Easter at all. We're so preoccupied with · the fake · "sin" of being gay that we forget to deal with our real sins. We still lie about who we are arid disqualify ourselves from too many of the joys and responsibilities of life. We complain that living like this is unfair and that it makes us feel lonely and ashamed. But regardless of who's to blame, lying and hiding is not just a miserable way to live. It is literally a sinful way of life because it is dishonest and unloving. And that, strangely enough, truly is a glorious thought. Because Christ can handle real sins. When we repent of lying, Jesus gives us a new courage to be truthful about ourselves. When we repent of hiding, Jesus helps to makes us furious, but facing up to change our fear of responsibility and real sins liberates us to celebrate commitment into real love and care Easter with all the butterflies and for others. Being accused of false sins balloons - forever. Classifieds Books & Publications CHRIST'iAN'NEW AGE c:iUARTERL Y explores the issues arising between Christians and New Agers with authentic information, forthright honesty and, yes, real appreciation for both sides. Penetrating, yet fun, our □ · · features and columns forge a bridge for genuine dialogue. Subs: $9.50/yr. Sample: $2.50. CHRISTIAWNEW AGE QUARTERLY, P. 0. Box 276, Clifton, NJ 07011-0276. TF '90 • 'Power & Empowerment', Memorial Day Weekend, May 25-28, 1990; Estes Park, Colorado. Workshops, liturgies, entertainment. For information please contact CCL-Conference '90, P.O. Box 436, Planetarium Station, New York, NY 10024, (212)562-8922. The Conference for Catholic Lesbians (CCL) is a national organization for women of Catholic heritage. 6190 Cartoon _Show At Community Center NEW YORK - The Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center National Museum of Lesbian and Gay History has announced an exhibition of cartoon art called The Cartoon Show. The exhibit will open on April 12 and will run through May 25 at the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, 208W. 13th Street in New York City. The Cartoon Show is the most comprehensive exhibition in the U.S. to date of cartoon art drawn from lesbian and gay life. For information about the exhibit contact Mark Johnson at (212) 953-9002. o©Tti SIDES N@W t.ocal, national, & internatiaial news & events, AIDS informatioo, b:::ok reviews & rrore in Maui 's rrai.thly gay/bi/lesbian l'le'«Sletter $10/ year (sant,le issue S1) to BSN SubscriptiCXlS, ro Box 5042, Kahului, Maui HI 96732. ,-A /)c~ j( .,..~ • / EMERGE! A healing journal of EMERGENCE International: Christian Scientists Supporting Lesbians and Gay Men. For information and subscriptions write P.O. Box 581, Kentfield, CA 94914, or call (415) 485-1881. 2/91 Efll>loymert FULL TIME MINISTER with seminary degree, sought for small independent, interdenominational, congregational church with gay/lesbian population. Send letter of application and resume to Pastor Search Committee, P.O. Box 781252, Wichita, Kansas 67278-1252. 4/90 Friends/Relationships GAY MEN OR WOMEN who desire to live the teaching of the Church in a loving way and who are interested in forming a support group for mutual caring and sharing in Sacramento, California area. Write: C. Raphael, P.O.Box &,8, Rough and Ready, CA 95975 4/90 GWM, 5'10", 146, 40s, caring, masculine, tender, desires to network with similar men. Box 18669, Denver, CO 80218 4/90 Organizations THE CO~FERENCE FOR CATHOLIC LESBIANS (CCL) invites you to Conference ~etreats VIRGINIA RAMEY MOLLENKOTT & JOHN McNEIL together lead a weekend retreat 'PALM SUNDAY WEEKEND FOR GAY & · LESBIAN CHRISTIANS' on April 6-8, 1990. If you tend to stay away from the holy celebrations because of their exclusivity, then treat yourself to a Palm Sunday weekend celebration that won1 shut its doors on you. Fellowship, bible study, worship, reflection, healing. Room, Board, and Registration, $165.00. Register by March 20th. Inquire at: Beaver Conference Farm, Underhill Avenue, Yorktown Hts., NY 10598; 914/962-6033 4/90 Situations Wanted 1990 M. DIV. SEMINARY GRAD, evangelical Reformed theology, progressive social vision, parish ministry orientation. Educated m both evangelical (Trinity, Deerfield) and liberal (Iliff, Denver) seminaries. 30 ylo, single,.healthy, will relocate. Seeks parish situation, either staff or sole. Mark Lee, 2466 S. York, Denver, co 80210. 6190 Business or Personal... Try a Second Stone dassified Ad Classified Order Form Please place my ad in these issues: [] Jan/Feb [] Mar/Apr [] May/Jun [ l Jul/Aug [] Sept/Oct [] Nov/Dec FOR ONLY 35 CEN'fS PER WORD, your ad can appear in the next edition of THE SECOND STONE. Take advantage of our low cost (but high profile) classified section by placing your advertising order . today! Mail To: THE SECOND STONE P.O . Box&'340 New Orleans, IA 70182 Name ___ _ --------- Address __________ _ City/St./Zip ________ _ AD COPY ________ _ ----------------------- --- . -------- __ words X .35= $ ____ _ .20 word minimum . All classifi eds m.ust be pre-paid. Deadline one month prior to cover date . We will mail you a copy of the edition(s) in which your ad appears March/April 1990 CLASSIFICATIONS [ J Books & Publications [ J Business Opportunities [ ] Employment [ l Friends/Relationships [ ] General Interest [ ] Mail Order .· [] Merchandise [] Organizations [ ] Professional Services [ l Real Estate [ l Retreats [ ] Roommates [ ]Travel Threat To 0 T~aditional Families'' . Comes ,Fr'om Within By Ivy Young Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's Family Project The "traditional family'': father - breadwinner; mother - ·homemaker; and the children. That construct of the nuclear family defines approximately ten percent of American families today. Ninety percent of us, then, live outside Rev. Lou Sheldon's view of how the world should be. So how do Americans define family? According to a 1989 poll conducted by the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, the majority of those surveyed (74%) defined family, not in a legalistic sense, but by function, as a group of people who love and care for one another. For Lesbians arid gay men that definition is no different. For us, family is a social institution of inclusion, not exclusion. The families we create are not, as Representative William Dannemeyer would have . you believe, " ... filled with despair," On the contrary, in our families there is a keen sense of joy and celebration. Because despite the revages of hatred, ·and in the face of virulent homophobia, we create and sustain gentle and nurturing unions. As for our children, there are thousands and thousands of them in this country who are part of lesbian and gay families: We hope we are teaching our children · the values of love and compassion, not bigotry and hatefulness. We hope we are teaching . our children not just to tolerate, but tq respect. and celebrate tl,,.e diversity of life on this planet. What is happening in many of Mr. Sheldon's "traditional families" in America today? Fifty percent of American marriages e.nd in divorce. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, three to four million women a year are abused by their · husbands . or boyfriends; every 18 seconds a woman is battered by her spouse; thirty percent · of female · homicide victims die at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. That's four women a day who die as a result of domestic violence. Spousal abuse, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, is the number one cause of injury to women in the U.S. KILLIAN, FromPagel I won't burden you with all the current statistics on child abuse and sexual assault. Here are just a few: according . to a survey conducted by Richard Gelles .and Murray Strauss, more than ten . parents per one thousand said they · beat their child at least once a year. And, ~very year, orie child in one thousand faces a parent with a . wei;ipon. According to the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the typical incestuous family tends to be that family which rigidly adheres to traditional family roles and gender stereotypes. And the upstanding, church-going, traditional family man is the person most likely to be a wife and child abuser. · Unfortunately, the statistics I've cited are the reality of what is happening in thousands of homes across the nation. These are not the family values Lesbians and gay men wish to perpetuate. Here are some of the efforts the Coalition for Traditional Values has made in its attempt to "strengthen and support" the family. In California, CTV has urged its followers to oppose a state child care bill similar to the federal measure that garnered overwhelming support in Congress. Does that stance by CTV aid the thousands of working parents in California who struggle daily to find adequate, affordable daycare for their children? Does it strengthen those families? Again in California, the Coalition for Traditional Values vehemently opposes a bill that would recognize Vesper marriages. The idea of Vesper marriage had been put forward as a way to resolve some of the problems faced by, many of our senior citizens. Widows and widowers who find companions to share . the autumn of their lives are threatened with the loss of pensions and other entitlements if they remarry. Vesper · marriage would recognize · the relationships those elders create, while not jeopardizing the benefits they so desperately need. But, CTV says absolutely no. Mr. Sheldon . says he speaks for compassion and righteousness. Where is the compassion in that opposition? Needless to say, CTV cohorts in San Francisco led the charge against the Domestic Partnership Ordinance that was unanimm1sly passed by that city's Board of Supervisors. (The law was repealed by a mere 1700 votes.) What was the danger as perceived by the Coalition for Traditional . Values? The ordinance provided only that unmarried couples, heterosexual and homosexual, could register as a couple and declare their commitment. It also provided bereavement leave and hospital visitation rights to those same committed couples. Is that such an enormous threat? Is Mr. Sheldon's "traditional family" so fragile that it could not survive the mere thought of an unmarried partner visiting his or her lover in a hospital? Finally, I would ask you to think back to other times when the call to defend traditional values filled the air : "Kinder, Kirke, Kuche" (Children, Church and Kitchen) was the cry of fascists in Europe as they exterminated all those who were different . Much closer to home, and unfortunately, not too long ago men like Bull Connor, Ross Barnett, George Wallace and Lester Maddox also urged their followers ,to uphold the traditional values that ·allowed racism and bigotry to flourish in this country. Threats to the American family do not c.ome from the desire of Lesbians and gay ·men to create loving relationships. No, the threat to the family is poverty and economic injustice, ignorance and inadequate education, homelessness and hunger. Let Mr. Sheldon and the Coalition for Traditional Values put what energy and resources they have into combatting these scourages of American family life. We would all ·benefit from that agenda . U.S. Civil Rights .. Chairman In Anti-Gay Symppsium . WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force strongly condemned the appearance of U.S. Civil Rights Commission Chairman William Allen at an anti-gay and lesbian symposium, saying Allen's participation is "sad and appalling','' and deeply antithetical to principles of equality and fairness." Allen's pres ·entation, entitled "Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What Is A Minority?," was made at the "West Coast Symposium on Homosexuality and Public Policy Implications" in Anaheim, California . The conference was sponsored by the California Coalition for Traditional Values, led by Rev .. Louis Sheldon, a strident fo~ of gay and lesbian civil rights . Sheldon is a proponent of the belief .that homosexuality is an "illness" that should be "prevented and cured ." In the . past, Allen · and the Commission have been strongly reprehended by the civil rights community - in particular the lesbian and gay movement - for their controversia:l stands on various issues. Most recently, Allen was quoted as saying that "the issue of civil rights for homosexuals is open to criminal and psychiatric debate" (MG W Newspaper). . Allen's recent appearance at the symposium sparked a fresh firestorm of ·criticism in ·the national press and on Capitol Hill. Rep. Don Edwards (D-Calif./10), who chairs the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, stated in a letter to Allen that his participation in the anti-gay conference "appear$ to· be outside the scope of · the Commission's jurisdiction, and is an inappropriate use of limited Commission resources." Many of Allen',s own colleagues on the Commission rebuked the chairman for appearing at the conference · and called the title of his speech "thoughtless, disgusting · and unnecessarily inflammatory." More than 150 Gays, Lesbians and their supporters demonstrated outside the Pan Pacific Hotel, site of the c'onference, reported the L () s Angeles Times . · people of God." At the interment service at the Wadsworth veteran's cemetary in Westwood, his friend, Fr. Ed Barrett, Jr. of the Veteran's Administration commended Killian's devotion to service, which he called "the essence of Christian life" and called him '"a fine Christian gentleman," one who "rose above the scandal of the organized church" and its exclusion of Gays and Lesbians. COALITION, FromPagel The rally was followed by a march up Connect\cut Avenue to the SheratonWashington Hotel, site of the CTV symposium. the domestic partnership referendum in San Francisco, which lost last November, and the repeal of the Irvine, Calif., gay and lesbian civil rights ordinance. CTV, based in Orange County, Calif., has been the subject of recent articles in the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles magazine, which called Sheldon the "Son of Falwell." Gay and lesbian activists view the Washington symposium as CTV's bid for national Killian was born April 11, 1940 and is survived by his four sisters and two brothers. CTV has been involved in recent gay and lesbian political fights, in par~cular March / A'.p r ii 1 9 9 0 attention. . · Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Second Stone #9 - Mar/Apr 1990 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/87a7603eba4493fc0d81353e3eb16370.jpg 6d90fa094fe71ca68e8bf73736861097 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). URL https://www.lionsroar.com/see-us-clearly-a-buddhists-view-of-transgender-visibility/ Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource See Us Clearly: A Buddhist’s View of Transgender Visibility Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived See Us Clearly: A Buddhist’s View of Transgender Visibility, by Ray Bruckner. Lion's Roar, July 27, 2017. https://www.lionsroar.com/see-us-clearly-a-buddhists-view-of-transgender-visibility/ Photo courtesy of the author. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d2da44b4a9a10a500318a7f4bf1d3d33.jpeg 12a8a1f2a9d55bd570ccc0a8b8f4c0ef Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Queer Sacramentality: The Church of the Beloved Disciple Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CBD_069 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970s Title A name given to the resource Seminarians of the Church of the Beloved Disciple Description An account of the resource This photograph shows members of the Church of the Beloved Disciple's seminary gathered around the altar during a liturgical service in New York City in the late 1970s. The community developed a formal program of ministerial formation to prepare openly gay and lesbian members of the church for ordained ministry within the Eucharistic Catholic tradition at a time when most Roman Catholic and Orthodox seminaries excluded homosexual candidates. Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Church of the Beloved Disciple Archive, https://beloved-disciple.com https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/14d4f55bb563f2246b9075088ddd58f0.jpg cc078eced74c68ef1091a95e4ac73e56 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/83697748e1fe74417335c33887b1361d.jpg 7cbeb8251d645cc77bc66b5d9667ccd8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Seminarians who must remain closeted Stole Text <p><strong>FEAR = SILENCE = DEATH</strong></p> <p>A PRAYER FOR ALL SEMINARIANS WHO FEEL THEY MUST REMAIN CLOSETED IN ORDER TO BRING THEIR GIFTS TO THE CHURCH.</p> Denomination Presbyterian Church (USA) Contribution Date 1995 Contribution Story <p></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">This stole was one of the original 80 stoles that were on display on Sept. 16, 1995 when I set aside my ordination before Heartland Presbytery (see stole #1 for details).</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Katie Morrison made this stole when she, herself, was a seminarian at San Francisco Theological Seminary.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><strong><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Martha Juillerat</span></strong><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;"></span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Founder, Shower of Stoles Project</span></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p class="editor" style="margin:0in 0in .0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">2006</span></p> <p></p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 44 Title A name given to the resource Seminarians who must remain closeted Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant San Francisco, California (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Katie Morrison California Morrison, Katie Presbyterian Presbyterian Church (USA) San Francisco https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a5d308f5b1d97a2001fa3ff9a8295fe5.jpg 870ecfc998ce5641e6b81c24f6b10752 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. YouTube ID Eleven-character ID assigned by YouTube iKLPUjmt5ao Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Seneca (or Senegal) Village was built in a rural area outside the city proper beyond a palisade or wall. Subject The topic of the resource Two-thirds of the homeowners and residents were black middle-class people. The land was purchased by the African Methodist Church which sold plots to blacks. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKLPUjmt5ao Description An account of the resource The movements of its free and enslaved residents, even when and where they could bury their dead, was highly regulated in an attempt to preclude insurrections. This community existed in an area gutted by immanent domain when the city took the land for a nominal fee to create Central Park. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a8d51347201956eda09c32981b8a2013.jpg 57aad9ec0dcc3522a435ca16248bc635 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Sephardic Jews Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sephardic Jews in Spain Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.africanexponent.com/bpost/4517-the-history-of-sephardic-jews Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). URL https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=4DFF8155-1DD8-B71B-0B4C2713F34EA25C Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Series: LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History Subject The topic of the resource Featuring 32 essays on LGBTQ history related to the National Park Service. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=4DFF8155-1DD8-B71B-0B4C2713F34EA25C https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c50e668bd324af6aae151a747db7a64b.pdf cac25dfb0d2a1363862ee938996b8637 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Sermon of the Month First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles Stephen H. Fritchman, Minister The Quakers Break the Taboo on Sex A Book Review Sermon of TOWARD A QUAKER VIEW OF SEX Edited by Alastair Heron Delivered September 29, 1963 by Stephen H. Fritchman Dr. Spock has an article in this month's REDBOOK Magazine on "How My Thinking Has Changed". Anyone hearing my first sermons in the year 1920 in Craryville, New York and now listening to what I shall say this morning might suggest that I too write an article on "How My Thinking Has Changed." One footnote to this sermon is in order. There is nothing original in today's address, however startling some of the content may be. I have been reading and thinking about the Sexual Revolution of the Twentieth Century for many years, and have discussed various aspects of it in addresses on marriage, the family, and our inter-personal relations, although I did not always label the contents with the three letter word. I am told that a few years ago, when I used the word "sex" in a morning sermon, one woman rose up and departed, and has only now, many years later, started to resume attendance at services. I trust her thinking has changed along with Dr. Spock's, since I intend to use the word sex fairly often again this morning, and if this fact disturbs anyone, this might be a good time for him or her to go over to Channing Hall for a premature cup of coffee. Let me also, at this moment, offer my thanks and give the proper credits to the Rev. John Morgan, our Minister in Toronto; to the editors of LOOK Magazine for their September 24th issue which is mentioned in today's Order of Service, and to the British Quakers for their recent booklets, Toward a Quaker View of Sex. Several copies of this hard-to-get book are now on our book table, but probably will not be by one o'clock today. This excellent publication is indeed the Quaker view of sex expressed by an esteemed group of British Quakers--anthropologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and teachers, but it is not the view of sex of the Quaker girls I dated in greater Philadelphia in the early nineteen-twenties, not of their fathers, nor of their grandfathers. All of which is to say that the Twentieth Century has seen many revolutions: political and economic in Russia, China and Cuba; racial, as in the United States and Africa today, and sexual as everyone I know about--Asia, Africa, Europe, South American, and most familiarly, the United States and Canada. Since I have found sex to be far more controversial than politics in this church over the years, allow me to say to first-time visitors that in a Unitarian church the views of the pulpit are not necessarily those of the congregation, nor are all of the views quoted necessarily shared by the speaker as his own. This ought to be obvious, but I find it needs to be said fairly often, since I sometimes learn that I have been quoted as supporting a large number of things that I don't support, such as taking LSD for kicks, or simultaneous polygamy, or playing the slot machines at Las Vegas or believing that the Los Angeles Dodgers have a supernatural guarantee of winning the World Series. There have been quite a number of Unitarian sermons around the continent in recent months on the subject of the Twentieth Century sexual revolution, some of them extremely well done. The reason is clear. The long, long silence about matters dealing with relations between the sexes has been broken, even in church. The price of silence during a revolutionary period has been found too high, in terms of human welfare. The Rev. John Mordan, one of the most unequivocating ministers in our denomination, said it well, "A careful silence about 'sex' is still maintained between many adults and teen-agers. Those adults who publicly break the silence with unconventional opinions, whether teachers or commentators, risk attracting the wrath of the especially fearful. But surely teen-agers deserve better from adults than private panic and censorship." A brilliant writer for MacLean's Magazine in Canada, Pierre Breton, whose column I quoted to our College Center group of this church last June as expressing the moral issues of the changing sex ethic, was dropped from the magazine's staff because of reader protest. He had been neither flippant nor sensational, simply honest and outspoken. The pinched nerve of conscience created a loud explosion, and MacLean's let him go. Silence again took over. The subject of sexual mores simply cannot be discussed in a vacuum, separate from other human problems. Let me, therefore, call your attention for a moment to the special issue of LOOK magazine for September 24, on "Morality USA" by Robert Moskin, LOOK's senior editor. Allow me to quote several sentences of this essay by Mr. Moskin: "Each of us must make difficult moral decisions. We are witnessing the end of the old morality. In our world of jet travel, nuclear power and fragmented families, conditions are changing so fast that the established moral guide-lines have been yanked from our hands. No single authority rules our conduct. No church lays down the moral law for all. No tribal customs or taboos define the limits of our immoralities. We are free to be prejudiced or promiscuous, to cheat or to chisel. We are left floundering in a money-motivated, sex-obsessed, big-city dominated society. We must figure out for ourselves how to apply the traditional moral principles to the problems of our time." "Out of today's moral confusion will come either a society of license and brutality, or, if we are wise and lucky, a new moral code based on the realities of a new world." Two examples amongst many in Mr. Moskin's articles illustrates for me the reality of the new moral challenge. He quotes Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer's phrasing of the dilemma "Thou shalt not kill, but a general says we can kill 400 million people." His second illustration refers to the space marathon to the moon. He asks, "Should we race the Russians to the moon, or spend the same talent and money fighting cancer and mental illness? The space race compares less to Columbus' voyages than to the vainglorious building of the pyramids. To race the Russians to the moon and to let our old people live on almost nothing is immoral. The astronauts become the new gladiators." (I might way that President Kennedy's proposal at the United Nations to have the Russians and Americans pool their efforts in this lunar space venture does not necessarily alter the immorality of the enterprise, as sick and hungry Americans and sick and hungry Russians would probably agree." It is, however, on the subject of the sexual revolution that I found Mr. Moskin especially cogent. Listen to his opening words on this subject," American society no longer is accepting the Christian morality of sexual life--that sex should not be outside of marriage. Divorce is completely accepted; freedom of sexual intercourse between young men and women is fully accepted." Professor Lester Kirkendall of Oregon State College is quoted by Mr. Moskin, "There is much more youthful discussion of sex because the young people are trying to work out for themselves a new sexual code. There is much more pre-marital sexual experience, but our young people are not sex-obsessed. Our culture is." I certainly would agreed with Dr. Kirkendall from my talks with students at Grinnell College, at Reed College, and from our own Los Angeles schools and colleges. Many of them come from liberal homes where, they tell me, silence on sex ethics is monumental, and they do not exempt the churches from this blackout of helpful guidance and discussion. They are more serious than many of their elders about sexual matters, far more honest about their practices, and very eager to create a self-imposed discipline of ethos of sex that will produce a durable as well as a happy marriage. One divorce out of every four marriages does not assure these young people that all wisdom lies with the older generation. "The greatest change in sexual morality," Dr. Kirkendall points out, "is with young women. Many parents who do not always seem to know it are pushing their daughters into earlier sexual activity. Then they are appalled when those daughters get into difficulties. It is a distorted society morally that gives sixteen-year-olds automobiles to drive, provides them with opportunities to go out with the opposite sex, but does not teach them anything about sex or contraception. By the time they are in their teens they move very close to a full physical relationship. Many a girl feels extremely pressured to demonstrate that she has the kind of attractiveness that is going to satisfy a boy. Mrs. Katherine Oettinger, Chief of the U.S. Children's Bureau, says, "We are often too lax about situations where experimentation goes on--the business of early dating, allowing youngsters so much freedom, sometimes promoting a boyfriend at all costs. The youngsters who are unsophisticated have babies and are punished. The number of illegitimate births has tripled since 1940." Dr. Milten Senn at Yale's Child Study Center reports that gifts of twelve and thirteen, from all kinds of families, are dropping out of school because of pregnancies. Premarital pregnancy is now involved in 85% of all marriages in which the partners are high school students. As Dr. Kirkendall has noted, "Parents go along with Twentieth Century attitudes until the girl gets pregnant, then Nineteenth Century morality comes into play," and he then states, regarding college students, "A college should not make a rule that chastity should be the rule, because then you have to think if an act has or has not been performed, in order to determine whether a student is virtuous or not. Rather than being concerned whether an act has been performed, I should like to be concerned that we use all our powers and capacities with responsible concern for others." It is this last phrase of Dr. Kirkendall which I should like to stress. "This," he emphasizes, "is not permissiveness, because relationships have rules." He then states, "I'm more fearful about our inability to handle our aggressive and hostile impulses that our sexual impulses. You can use sex i n a hostile way just as you use a bludgeon." He adds, with telling force, "Our moral confusion over sex is not limited to the young. As long as the adults focus on the youth they don't have to look at themselves. Sex is essentially an adult problem. When a person uses sex in marriage to punish, control or manipulate, this becomes immorality too." I agree fully with the marriage experts who find that the crux of the sex problems in marriage is one of communication, or its absence. Sex all to often is used in exploitation of the partner. Partly as a result of this adult failure in sexual communication our last census reports almost two million divorced women in this country and thirteen million children who belong to broken homes. We certainly shall not achieve a satisfying sexual morality in our new age of science and the growing equality of men and women until we face directly the need for true communication between men and women, and face the costliness of sexual exploitation. We certainly will not find a mature sexual morality through silence between partners, or between parents and the children. Meeting the sadness, frustration and anger of many children of miserable inadequate marriages is about the hardest experience I have to accept in my ministry. Little wonder these children grow up resolved to find another pattern than the one they have seen or heard at firsthand. There is a prevailing ignorance about sex needs, habits and practices in our present-day world, in spite of a multi-million-dollar exploitation of sex by commercial advertising, and an enormous amount of conversation on the subject, with knowing references to Ovid, Rabelais, and Dr. Kinsey. My colleagues, Rev. A. Phillip Hewett of Vancouver, British Columbia, recently preached a sermon, Sexual Conduct: A Quaker Assessment in which he declared: "A member of this congregation made headlines a few days ago by pointing out that in spite of our obsession with sex there is an appalling degree of ignorance on this subject. That too is part of our inheritance in this particular culture. So also are the veiled allusions and misunderstanding which deny any attempt to cope intelligently with these matters. You will have read in the newspapers a report, no doubt grossly distorted as newspaper reports usually area, of what Dean McCrae is alleged to have said about the preoccupation of the girl students at the University of British Columbia. From the comments on this statement it is quite obvious that in the minds of some people a preoccupation with sex means a continuous orgy of sexual promiscuity. Such confusions have their comic side, like that of the man who was filling our a form with name, address, age, etc., and when he came to 'sex' he wrote 'occasionally.'" One of the most unexpected sources of insight, in my studies, was a little book issued recently by the British Quakers, entitled "Toward a Quaker View of Sex. I wish to say only enough today to read it in its entirety. The Unitarians and Universalists would do well to prepare as frank and as realistic a publication themselves. The origins of the Quaker study were the problems raised by young Quaker students faced with homosexual difficulties, who came to older Quakers for help and guidance. It was soon apparent that the Society of Friends, the actual name of the religious movement, had very little to say to people in sexual difficulties--homosexual or heterosexual. A group of Quakers from their own schools, some in social work, some in psychiatry, some in marriage and parent organizations, decided to make study in order to know what could effectively say, especially to homosexuals, who found society condemned their feelings and who also found themselves victimized, blackmailed, and sometimes imprisoned. But the advising group soon found that the study of homosexuality and its moral problems could not be divorced from a survey of the whole field of sexual activity. Hence the final character of the book. As the introduction states, "We realized there was much needless suffering and human failure which we would like to relieve, and that in subscribing to a moral code, some of which we no longer accept, society merits the charge of hypocrisy, and its authority is thereby weakened. The insincerity of the sexual moral code may well be a cause of the widespread contempt of the younger generation for society's rules and prohibitions generally." The editors then tell us, in this same British understatement and unimpassioned prose (which has great merit in discussing often-avoided problems) that these appear to be the developments we are faced with today, "1. A great increase in adolescent sexual intimacy. 2. An increase in transient pre-marital intimacies generally. It is fairly common in both young men and women, with high standards of general conduct and integrity, to have one or two love affairs, involving intercourse, before they find he person they will ultimately marry." (I would insert here that there is not a Unitarian minister in this country who does not know this to be true.) The Quaker study continues, "3. It is even more common for those who intend to marry to have sexual intercourse before the ceremony. This is true, probably, of the majority of young people in all classes of society, including those who often have a deep sense of responsibility. 4. The incidence of extra-marital intercourse is great, but it is not possible to estimate whether there is an increase. There are many instances which do not lead to divorce or obvious harm, and which are kept secret." The editors then add, "The central concept of sexual morality in Christian countries in the integrity of the family. Most people, religious or otherwise, in our own or other countries, would agree that the family as a social unit should be safeguarded, and sexual practices that threaten its stability be vigorously discouraged." Immediately after setting this Christian Quaker goal the writers of the pamphlet state what I have seen in no church publication during my entire ministry, and the honest and humility of the Quakers once again impress me. They say, "Over long periods of history, illegitimate children in Christian countries have been shockingly treated compared with their counterparts in a polygamous African community. A Christian pattern has evolved which is most cruel to those outside its pattern. Christian parents have subjected their children to barbarous punishments and created conditions which were defensive, restricted and inhibited, and not in any way a source for 'the abundant life.' Sexual problems are infinitely more common than is realized, and the isolation of the individual, arising from society's repressive outlook toward the sexually troubled, is more apparent than real. This still repressive and inhibited outlook towards sex, whether heterosexual or homosexual, has brought serious difficulties to students of human behavior." The editors then points out what you and I in this country also know to be true, that "a repressive outlook has invested a normal function of men with guilt, mystery and ignorance. It has devalued the sexual currency to the level of sensationalism and pornography. When one considers the universality of the sexual drive, it is appalling how little understand there is of its origins, manifestations and possibilities for human happiness. Sexual behavior and moral outlook have much more to do with upbringing and prevailing cultural beliefs than most people realize. Only now are adults, as well as students in our schools, learning about other human communities of the past and present." The sacrosanct character of our professed sexual mores is now being weighed by thoughtful people who have studies some anthropology and literature previously hidden or unknown. Western man in the Twentieth Century has a great deal to learn from other cultures about challenging and employing the sexual drives of human nature. It took me at least thirty years to identify the astigmatisms of St. Paul and St. Augustine on the sex e3thic, to say nothing of the rigidity and intolerance of the ancient Hebrews. The fact that the Jews were often advanced in their ethical insights does not mean that they always were. Our Quaker friends then say what some Unitarians are now saying, "Marriage is to be taken seriously, but not always in grim earnest; its problems take perspective from fun, adventure and fulfillment, and joy and sorrow are mingled together. For some there is a monogamy so entire that no other love ever touches it; but others fall in love time and again, and most learn to make rickes of their affections without destroying their marriages or their friends. Let us thank God for what we share, which enables us to understand, and for the infinite variety in which each marriage stands alone." The above statement has disturbed some Quakers, and others, but it has the virtue of candor and of facing the facts that exist, and it is an effort to stress communication between the sexes without harsh moral judgements which end all understanding. The Quakers, in this book of theirs and in much general practice, show little enthusiasm for the ancient Christian habit of laying down strict rules of moral conduct and then being unhumanly intolerant of all who break those rules. Those who wrote this book go further. They say that sexuality looked at dispassionately is neither good not edit; it is a fact of nature. They emphasize that we need to avoid the judgemental attitude so common this area of sex, and to do a little more understanding. The Quakers seek to explore the true meaning of having a loving relationship, in or out of wedlock. They stress the need for warmth and intimacy, for open-heartedness and overwhelming generosity of hand and spirit. Loving involves a commitment to the other person, involving that person's life. We must go beyond the sociability of modern life to commitment and concern. We need to understand human energy, creative powers, and the need for sharing. Such attitudes will project young and old from crass exploitation and what I would call "Profumism", or the marketing impulse in sexual relations--whether or not money changes hands. If some would say that the Quakers are simply blessing "free love" and promiscuity, they know the human psyche very little. I might say here what my colleague, Rev. John Morgan of Toronto, said in his recent sermon, "I have long since concluded that in our society there is probably very little free love. It is a very hard thing for people to love freely in this culture--there is always a price, psychological and social." The Rev. Morgan's development of his ideas proved enlightening to me and I hope you will find them so. "We are not in the Garden of Eden. We are a complex race of people with the imprint of a long history in our spirits. Sexual actions stir us far below the level of consciousness, and may do more than we know to shape our future. There is an almost overwhelming urge throughout society towards the trivializing of sexual actions and the separating of them from the rest of life. A young doctor whose whole working life is given to a preparation for the most responsible of careers may think it all right to propose 'going to bed' to a nurse he has only just met and whose surname is unknown to him. We think it probable that to use one's capacity for loving in a relationship that is personally so tenuous is to reduce ultimately one's capacity for any depth of feeling or commitment, for in many such liaisons there is a deliberate intention to steer clear of being involved, to have fun without commitment. "We have been unable to avoid the continued challenge of this question: 'When is it right to have sexual intercourse, if it is not to be wholly confined to marriage?' Every counsellor will have to face it. He may himself believe that it should be confined to marriage; if so, he must say so quietly and humbly while entering with understanding into the problem of his questioner who is less sure that one rule meets all cases. Counsellors--and parents--do well to hesitate before passing judgement... "When as a group we face the question as to when it is right for intercourse to take place, we find it easier to feel sure when it should not take place. First we feel impelled to say something like this: that it should not happen until the partners have come to know each other so well that the sexual contact becomes a consummation, a deeply meaningful total expression of a friendship in which each has accepted the other's reality and shared the other's interests. Could we may also that at least in spirit each should be committed to the other--should be open to the other in heart and mind? This would mean that each cared deeply about what might happen to the other and would do everything possible to meet the other's needs and lessen any suffering that had to be faced. It would mean a willingness to accept responsibility and some fore-knowledge of what responsibility implied." The Quaker develop the limitations of any religion or church that casts people out for their failure to meet the requirements of the moral code, or who are deviants from norms in things sexual. It is the lack of love in early years in the family and beyond it that mutilates and destroys so many lives. We know that this lack if mentally destructive as well. Many of the aberrations we deplore in other people's sexual behavior are of our making, and we never know it! The Quaker booklet goes on to discuss at some length the meaning of normal sexual development, the realities of adolescence, the phenomenon of masturbation, the very problems of the single man and woman, the sexual difficulties and opportunities of married life in later years, and the particular issues confronting the homosexual. The information about homosexuality in other cultures, past and present, learned from the anthopologist, is present without special pleading but with genuine sympathy. The sexual needs of children are discussed with a simplicity I have not encountered outside of technical studies and textbooks. The Oedipus and the Electra situations are defined in a way that the average reader can understand without a course in Greek literature or through advanced psychoanalysis. Let this suffice for a brief sermon review. What are we to conclude? Permit me to say, as we come to the end of our discussion, that there is need for far more discussion of these problems in our own churches than has been realized. Parents, teachers, ministers, doctors, young people as well as older members and friends, have contributed to the atmosphere of silence, and to the false assumption that we already possess an agreed-upon sexual morality in our country, or even in the liberal church. It is not so! And by our failure to discuss these matters we have failed to help parents and their children. We have failed to help young men and women who are having real problems in their marriages. One reason why our trustees set up our Counseling Service last year was a recognition of this fact. And the Service is being used. I strongly suspect that none of us has a perfect score in our handling of sexual ethics. If this is so, we should not expect a perfect score from our teen-agers or our college youth. We are fallibly human beings trying, I hope, to do our best in a revolutionary situation; trying to retain the best of the past, and to shape a morality that does justice to human nature and to our capacities to achieve the good life. It surely not come by silence, or by ignoring difficult issues. We need courage, not hospitality. We need wisdom which comes through listening to shoe we respect, and above all we must learn that there is never just one right answer. From that knowledge we can hope for some progress--in our own lives and those of our children. (Copies of Towards a Quaker View of Sex are available from the First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles, 2936 West Eighth Street, Los Angeles 5, California @ $.85.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sermon at First Unitarian Los Angeles Description An account of the resource Stephen Fritchman, minister at First Unitarian Church Los Angeles, presented this sermon review on September 29, 1963. Fritchman focused on the sexual practice and morality concerns and said little about homosexuality. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived clipping in Keith Wedmore Papers https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/4ad14d041479282eae8b1de06ae67183.pdf b68e70d145475ef6d77569a0cbe5beba Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Sermon from Anne Bennett https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e8b9ac6666a496b731756f8a8e74933e.jpg 0d0069de5fabe55f254bd15219dfeab1 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document A CELEBRATION OF LOVING DEDICATION Charlie and Steve October 8, 1977 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Service booklet for early commitment ceremony at CBST Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CBST Archives https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2209ce7f796f31e262895ec3b09bd6e0.jpg a4b4f324621dc1c34385649f001e055c Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Service in the Early 1990s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CBST Archives https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/b2727ff6df9f764843f77fa6ef6fb0bc.jpeg dd3fb1e6fb67f24c9834f872b4a18b94 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Queer Sacramentality: The Church of the Beloved Disciple Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CBD_005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976-11-21 Title A name given to the resource Service of Holy Union for John and Israel Description An account of the resource Fr. John Darcy Noble officiates the Holy Union of John C. Fout and Israel at the Church of the Beloved Disciple, 348 West 14th Street, New York City. By the mid-1970s, the Church's Holy Union liturgy had become a well-established sacramental rite through which same-sex couples celebrated their love for one another. Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Church of the Beloved Disciple Archive, https://beloved-disciple.com https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/62ea9b1d2ef5ded6b21bfd2ea34dff5b.pdf 8182250a3e4bbc1c004eca238d9d5324 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Service Program https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d93d275c5280dffd79e39f2c76f906e8.png f4148d35a0d531b0a8ba97ee7f463997 YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LiuHh8Gocwo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 1: Welcome Justin Tanis Pamela Lightsey RTSA Session 1 RTSA Welcome https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/4417008c9ebd7729df8cb573d303a588.png 9ad092ec05ba49dafae127272f9bb36f YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j0wOBmDclfo" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 2: Ritual of Remembrance Jimmy Creech Ritual of Remembrance RTSA Session 2 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d97899b79b4a6016ece4596a8b7820cc.png 1e1a42cd8d7bcc6a54b6708d3341ce72 YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fo_6RRMsad8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Some of the earliest activists in the LGBTQIA Christian movement discuss what it was like to organize LGBT spiritual community even before Stonewall. Much of it originated in California in the 1960s and two strategies soon emerged: establishing separate communities or trying to change existing denominations from within. Historian Dr. Heather White and Rev. Jim Mitulski interviews leaders from the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, Dignity for Lesbian and Gay Catholics, the Metropolitan Community Churches and the United Church of Christ about their experiences, starting separate churches, engaging both sympathetic and hostile religious and political leaders inside and outside the movement, why they chose the strategies they chose, the tensions between women and men, what sustained them, how their visions have changed over the years, and their hopes for the future. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 3: Before Stonewall ... 1960s and 1970s Before Stonewall RTSA Session 3 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3f93e93eff9eb1d6cae152f13430c7fe.png 06a04a28d354a66a08601e878a0ff2ec YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iD9ePPee0d8" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /><br /><em>with <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1398">Rev. Allen V. Harris</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1434">Leo Treadway</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1400">Ann Thomson Cook</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1388">Obie Holmen</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1451">Peggy Campolo</a>, Casey Lopata, rev. rosi Olmsted</em> <br /><br />Starting in the 1970’s, advocates started to challenge denominations to declare explicitly that they welcomed LGBT folks. In 1980’s, advocates worked with churches to be open to LGBT folks. This session examines how churches were nurtured by Welcoming Program leaders, parents and other allies emerged, grew and became a vital movement. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 4A: Welcoming Congregations: The Journey to Safer Spaces Allen V. Harris Ann Thomson-Cook Casey Lopata Leo Treadway Obie Holmen Peggy Campolo rosi Olmsted RTSA Session 4A Welcoming Congregations: The Journey to Safer Spaces https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d9b91a37085c26e7f2bc733108b9e11a.png 2bd386253a828347ee36f5c7e99dc01a YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MesMiH2_-VE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /> <p><em>with <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1344">Rev. Jim Mitulski</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1431">Rev. Karen Ziegler</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1402">Barbara Satin</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1458">Bishop Zachary Jones</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1353">Rev. Dr. Rick Mixon</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1403">Rev. William R. Johnson</a></em></p> <p>Together we consider the ways that the AIDS epidemic shaped and continues to shape our analysis of how race, class, gender, and religion form and deform our lives and the social fabric. We consider how our feelings and experiences of AIDS help us to discern what is going on now, and how to move forward in our spiritual lives and our activism. What does/did AIDS teach us about how to do an analysis of current events and how to shape our lives and activism today? How does AIDS puts us in the heart of intersectionality?<br /><br />Gabrielle Garcia, 2021 summer intern who transcribed this session, wrote this <a href="https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/media/page/get-involved/Connection,%20Reflection, and Anger Our Lives Were Forever Changed By AIDS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reflection on hearing the stories</a> told in this session.</p> Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Rolling the Stone Away Conference: Session 4B Our Lives Were Forever Changed by AIDS with Rev. Jim Mitulski, Rev. Karen Ziegler, Barbara Satin, Bishop Zachary Jones, Rev. Dr. Rick Mixon, Rev. William R. Johnson Wednesday, November 1, 2017 Video link: https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1367 Together we consider the ways that the AIDS epidemic shaped and continues to shape our analysis of how race, class, gender, and religion form and deform our lives and the social fabric. We consider how our feelings and experiences of AIDS help us to discern what is going on now, and how to move forward in our spiritual lives and our activism. What does/did AIDS teach us about how to do an analysis of current events and how to shape our lives and activism today? How does AIDS put us in the heart of intersectionality? Transcribed by: Gabrielle Garcia Summer 2021 Rev. Jim Mitulski: Our lives were changed forever by AIDS. Together we will consider the ways that the AIDS epidemic shaped and continue to shape our analysis of how race, class, gender, and ability form and de-form our lives and the social family. We will consider how our feelings and experiences of AIDS help us to discern what is going on now and how to move forward in our spiritual lives or activism, what does it [AIDS] teach us about how to do an analysis of current events, and how to shape our lives and activism today, how does AIDS put us in the heart of intersectionality. We appreciate that you’ve given enough time in the course of this conference to be here. We know that it was essentially, initially a conference about LGBTQ issues with sexuality and religion, a history conference. And yet I'm sure none of us are all flawless. HIV/AIDS is an interrelated topic. So we look at this past 50 year period. So we wanted to be sure that it was included and for those of us who are the panelists it served as part of our AIDS experience and we also know that there is significant experience represented in the room. And that’s why this is called a conversation. We are part of a planned conversation. We also of course want you all doing this piece as well. So we have some prepared questions that we’ll respond to and then we want to involve you in it. And for us it is about our pasts and as you’ll hear it’s also very much about the present. We’ve come a ways to make that point clear. First, our group chant. Act up. Fight back. Fight AIDS. [x2] But wait there’s more. Act up. Fight back. End AIDS. [x3] And then perhaps you saw in the news in the last just a couple of weeks something that brought a number of us back 30 years. What brought us back to the 30 years was that if you were working in AIDS politics in the 1980s, you might recall in California there was a state count, a state ballot proposition called proposition 64 that was sponsored by a politician named Lyndon LaRouche. Rev. Karen Ziegler: You know, I’m afraid we’re gonna lose this if we don’t turn it off because I keep losing this– Rev. Jim Mitulski: All right, which was about 14 people with HIV. So two weeks ago that failed. Numbers really don’t matter. Two weeks ago Benny Price, state legislator from Georgia had this to share, “...of partners tracking contacts, that sort of thing. What are we legally able to do and I want to say the quarantine word, but I guess I just said it. Is there an ability since I would guess that full public tax dollars are expended heavily in prophylaxis and treatment of this condition. And so we have a public interest in curtailing the spread. What would you advise or– are there any methods legally that you could do that would curtail the spread? Seems to me it’s almost a frightening number of people living there potentially carriers– potential to spread whereas over the past they died more readily. And then at that point they weren’t posing a risk, so you got a huge population of those at risk, then they’re not—” Rev. Karen Ziegler: Well you take away their health insurance so then they won’t be able to pay for their treatment. Rev. Jim Mitulski: You can find this online. It’s a livestream from a hearing before the state legislature in Georgia. Benny Price is a medical doctor. Audience member: You’re kidding me. Rev. Jim Mitulski: We hate to do this, but she is the wife of Thomas Price of Health and Human Services, who just got moved or resigned one step ahead being removed from the Trump administration cabinet for his misuse of air. Private jets. So the fact that this discourse two weeks ago by a medical doctor in the state legislature for whatever reason is being used again or being tested out again or being used again and not being challenged in any significant way. May us all in our planning group realize oh this is not just a history piece this is happening here now again. So we didn't need that, but we just thought to get your blood boiling before we started, raising the temperature of the room. So I'm gonna ask each of us in one sentence—and I’m going to take a risk—to say in one sentence before our panelists do their introductions, in a sentence your name and why you came to this workshop. Okay alright because we're a small group. This might not go around all the way. Is there plenty of cord? And then when we get to the panelists, when it hits them, we’re going to ask them to do their longer first go around, which was your name, your context, your first AIDS story alright. Lynn Gerber: Alright my name is Lynn Gerber. I'm here because I'm writing a history of MCC San Francisco and AIDS and I'm here in part because I really want history, our present, and future to be in conversation with each other and I'm trying to learn how to do that with everyone here. Nancy Wilson: I'm Nancy Wilson, Metropolitan Community Churches. This is a 12-step group for people who are survivors around HIV and AIDS and Jim Mikulski once told me that someday maybe we'd have 15 minutes to process what happened so I'm here for that. Bobby Raymer: I'm Bobby Raymer and I'm a 27-year survivor. I have had zero viral load for well over 20 years and just here to be part of things and to talk about the past maybe and to kind of catch up on what's going on, I moved to Ogden, Utah in 2009 so I feel I'm kind of in a backwater. Aubrey Thonvald: My name is Aubrey Thonvald and I came because my hope is that, one to learn and to listen, to learn through this need, and then just to think about what I can bring forward through my organization for World AIDS Day. Jeanette Mott Oxford: Jeanette Mott Oxford and Empower Missouri is staffing the effort to reform Missouri's HIV specific criminal codes so I'm here to be inspired about that current work. Heather White: Heather White. I'm here because you all are amazing. Brian McKnight: Brian McKnight. When I was the mayor of Boston’s liason to the gay community in 1982, I started the first Task Force on AIDS in the United States at a city level. And there were only three cases in Massachusetts and people were saying you're overreacting and we did some pretty amazing work, including write the blood donation code at the time. Kevin Pilot: I'm Kevin Pilot, a 31 year survivor and just here to learn and to share. Micah Horton: I'm Micah Horton and I came into Metropolitan Community Church in 1984 so I was actually starting to begin ministry right in the AIDS crisis in the Metropolitan Community Church and I wondered where were all the Christians that were helping us, that were supposed to help us in this time and all I knew is at that point I was Gina and not Micah and we were the ones that stood up to take care of our brothers and sisters that were dying. And my first hands on was Darrell Stephens. He was the partner of a district coordinator, Bob Arthur and he had the AIDS virus had gotten to his head. And so I called him and said do you want to come to Montana and be in my home, and Irene Anaria[?] and I’ll take care of you. And so he came to my house on the 26th of May and he had died by June 12th, but I did all the care of myself. The church let me have the time off and they preached his sermons and I did full care totally crossed over, met his parents over the phone, and then got the arrangements made for him to be shipped back to Los Angeles where he didn't want to go because they put his brother in a nursing home. So that was my first hands-on with loving someone as they cross over and it's been a series of that since. Dwayne Davis: I'm Dwayne Davis and I'm here because you know well when I came of age, I came from age and was coming out the cocktail just changed that it was like I didn't really have to experience what so many people gone through. But when I became a pastor and really became a pastor to African-American gay, bi, MSMs [men who have sex with men], and the spread of HIV I just am in this place of frustration and trying to want to know everything that you all did and how you face this challenge because we have a challenge right now that I'm on the ground for in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and in St. Paul and it just it's very frustrating to see that kind of ignorance and I see it every day you know just in working with people in organizations and government. So I just want to know as much, learn as much so that we can do that work and make some change the way the earlier generation did. Justin Tanis: My name is Justin Tanis and I'm here because I know I continue to be impacted by the trauma and the grief that I experienced in the 80s and 90s in ministry. I know that continues to impact me in both positive and difficult ways and because I still have loved ones who are living with HIV who I love very much. Alex McNeal: Hey everybody I'm Alex McNeal and I serve as executive director of More Light Presbyterians and I think part of my role as a younger person working with people across decades is to be a story sharer and collect as many stories and experiences as I can to reflect those back to churches that are trying to figure out how to welcome people, are trying to figure out how to be their best selves. And I often reflect about how much the experience of AIDS in the 80s has impacted our movement and I want to do everything I can to keep learning about that. Lina Lassroom: Hi, I'm Lina Lassroom. First, I second everything you just said as the younger person in the movement I think it’s important to remember the the trauma and also how we can continue to heal the generational trauma that's in our movement and to keep telling the stories of those who are no longer with us so that's why I'm here. John D’Amelio: Hi, I am John D'Amelio. You know AIDS is the most important thing in our history of the last hundred years and more than twice as many people in the US. died of AIDS then US [soldiers] who died fighting in Vietnam in the 60s and early 70s. You can teach the 60s and you always teach about Vietnam. You teach the 80s and it doesn't even appear in books about the Reagan years. It's insane. Steve Fourtner: I'm Steve Fourtner. I was Dignity MCC, now back Dignity again, living beyond AIDS and moving past all of that and saying let's look at the future. We look at AIDS and get stuck in it. We don't look at living beyond that part of AIDS. AIDS holds us. I want to look at further down the road. Rev. Jim Mitulski: Here beginneth our panel. Rev. Karen Ziegler: You beginneth. So that means— Rick is gonna go. Hey don’t whine. [inaudible] Rev. Jim Mitulski: So I’m gonna ask you to change modes slightly: name, context, as we did in our Zoom conferences, what was your AIDS story? It doesn’t have to be comprehensive, just representative. Rev. Dr. Rick Mixon: Oh come on I wanna be comprehensive. I'm Rick Mixon, he/him/his. What do I say? I'm the pastor of First Baptist Church of Palo Alto California currently. But for about 10-12 years I did AIDS work in Berkeley in San Francisco. I was— I did a PhD in Religion and Personality [inaudible] Counseling at GTU (Georgetown University) and my dissertation title which is “Learning the Language of Lament: On Suffering and Human Hold Us” deals with how gay and bisexual men responded to the HIV crisis in particular and what we learned from suffering and the capacity to— for the necessity of learning how to lament, to cry out, to name our suffering so that we could move on. And the story I wanted to tell— [inaudible] told us briefly— it’s in my dissertation, but it's just a story that came to me and stuck with me somewhere in the early mid 80s. I was trained in the Shanti program in San Francisco, which was kind of the premier training program for people who are going to do AIDS support work. Kind of a new agey, kind of spiritual training. And it was a tense weekend of learning how to sit with people at the very deepest level of their pain and their spiritual expression and just the deepest kind of religious, spiritual living that you can— living and dying that you can imagine. And so I was working at the Pacific's— I was a volunteer at the Pacific Center in Berkeley, the LGBTQIA mental health and support agency in Berkeley and I was one of the first group of people trained in Shanti. And I was sent out to see the first AIDS patient from Pacific Center in 1980, whatever it was, and so I went. I got all dressed up and went to Highland Hospital, the county hospital, to see this AIDS patient and of course in those days you’d mask and you’d gown’d and he was isolated in a room by himself. And I went in prepared to have this conversation of great depth and meaning. And he didn’t want to talk about that stuff at all. He had very practically served as a very practical down-to-earth kind of guy about what was going to happen to his apartment, what's gonna happen to his stuff and it was a huge lesson for me and learning to be with people where they are and not come with my set of assumptions, which I think we often tend to do. And it went into my dissertation in the sense of learning something about accompaniment, being willing to be with people where they are, to walk with people where they need to go. It's part of learning as [inaudible] Sutherland said back in the day, “The church has AIDS,” and for people who are willing to be open and to learn something about this, it did have a huge impact on those churches that were open to it and it did help to shape the nature of ministry and helped us redefine what it meant to do ministry in the church. Accompaniment was a huge thing. Rev. William “Bill” R. Johnson: [inaudible] I'm Bill Johnson. Was I supposed to say something else? Rev. Jim Mitulski: A little bit about your context. Rev. William “Bill” R. Johnson: I’m his. Rev. Jim Mitulski: Pronouns, context, tell a story. [inaudible] Rev. Jim Mitulski: Tell a story that’s the most important part. Rev. William “Bill” R. Johnson: It was July 1981 and in New York we opened the New York Times and read about this new disease and 42 men out in California and New York had been diagnosed with illnesses that were not normally seen. Not long after that my very good friend and a friend to several people in this room, Reverend Michael Collins was diagnosed with the strange new disease that had no name. And I became part of his support circle. One day I walked— he was in the hospital— I went to see him and I walked into his room and he was lying in his own excrement. There was a food tray out by the door. He was crying and very distraught and the nurses were not responding to his calls. And that is the day that I became that angry AIDS activist. Up until that time I wasn't quite sure how all this was going to dovetail with all of the LGBT work we were doing in the church. And you know there was part of me though that was sort of happy that this epidemic emerged. Don't over-do that when you hear it and that at least the AIDS epidemic gave us an opportunity to talk about sex in the church in a way that the LGBT conversation never had really gotten to. Now sex was really in people's— well people were thinking a lot more about sex because they were thinking about safe sex and what does that mean. And the church had to start thinking about if we're gonna protect the lives of people or help people protect themselves, we have to teach them more about sex and safe sex and all of that. And eventually I developed a course on safe, safer, and safest sex, which I gave to young people, to teenagers who lapped it up. No pun intended. But the thing about the epidemic from my perspective is you know there were not only colleagues and friends, there are relatives of mine who died of HIV. You know one day when the first person that I knew died I wrote his name on a piece of paper and I added— I created— I began a list. And by the time I left New York in 1990 there were 383 names on that list of friends and neighbors and acquaintances and loved ones that literally died. So the other thing I want to say before I pass the microphone is, and our group has talked about this, I came up— I described it yesterday as post traumatic grief syndrome. I've never, I've never gotten over the grief and I don't know but I ever will get over the grief that I experienced in my life and I suspect that that's a huge part of the ministry that has to be done today with literally hundreds of thousands of people and I'm not sure we're doing it. Bishop Zachary Jones: Thank you. Good morning, I’m Bishop Zachary Jones of Community Fellowship Church Movement. My pronouns are he, his, him, miss thing, girl please, or any of the other— No, not honey girl have you lost your mind. I actually had thought that I could avoid this conversation ever again in my life because I came to this work in 1987 when I buried my lover and common-law husband at that time. But I came to it because I came to the conference as a stand-in for Carl B and when I did finally arrive Mark had already assigned me to be— to this particular panel so it doesn't look like we can get away from it even when we want to because I am still healing. I asked that question in the earlier session this morning because to even dream or imagine a world, our lives, without HIV and AIDS must be just that the dream for some of us, but certainly to touch those who lived pre-AIDS, one can only imagine what that must of been like even with all of the challenges that they had. I guess I could write my story in my introduction and I'll say more as we move forward, but yes. Barbara Satin: Good morning I'm Barbara Satin with the National LGBTQ Task Force. I do the faith work for the task force. My involvement started way before I came out. I was on the board of the Regional Blood Center for the Red Cross and the Upper Midwest and was offended and traumatized by the way in which the Red Cross was handling its notification of people who came— were diagnosed and basically they had no understanding of the impact that that diagnosis was going to have on people. So they would send letters or they would make phone calls and just leave a voicemail saying by the way you know you have been diagnosed with HIV not realizing that you know in many cases people were living at home with families or they with people that didn't want to know this. So we started an AIDS Oversight Committee to try and work throughout the Red Cross to try and help them understand the impact that this was going to have. That was the beginning of my involvement. When I came out I have had the honor of being on the board of number of organizations including Serving with Duane and Minneapolis Nuclear Housing, doing work with the Aliveness Project, and I do a lot of work around aging issues. And I've been struck by the fact that one of the major tragedies is the fact that there are— people don't understand the fact that there are many people who have— who are now living with AIDS and living as old people. There's nothing wrong with the word old. Anybody from Moloch would tell you that. I was struck by an article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a person saying I'm the unluckiest lucky person in the world because I'm living with AIDS, but I didn't expect to and it's a challenge for them because they've lost support systems, they've lost financials, their financial resources. They just didn't expect to be old. And so that's a current focus of the work that I’m trying to do. Rev. Karen Ziegler: I'm Karen Ziegler, she/hers. I was pastor of MCC New York most of the 80s and what I feel that we witnessed during that time was really genocide because people started to die and die at accelerating rates and nothing was being done and we were just watching with horror. You know Michael Collins was also a friend of mine and we couldn't believe it. We couldn't believe it. A few years before I had lived in Philadelphia during the Legionnaires disease when a few white businessmen died and it was on the front page every single day. And that contrast did not escape me as hundreds and then thousands of men died and walked through Greenwich Village with their Hickman catheter. But the story that I want to tell is not one of the many many many stories of being in dingy Chelsea apartments with friends with uncontrollable diarrhea or the funerals or the suffering or the anger. What I want to tell about was one time when I was with a young man, David DeLuca, who was a cabaret singer. Gorgeous man, bright blue eyes, curly dark hair, and he was covered, his face and his entire body covered with Kaposi’s. And what I saw in him was— what I saw many many many times and it's really my dominant memory of AIDS, which was a luminous quality of his face. He just shone and my experience was that those young men who weren't afraid of going to hell— and there were a lot of young men afraid of going to hell whose parents had sent them tracks that said you are going to hell and you deserve this, but the young men who got through that we're not afraid. They were not afraid on the whole. They were amazing people who taught me such profound lessons of what it really means to be a human being. And on that day he looked at me and he said you know, I think I volunteered for this. He said, “I have the sense that this epidemic and our suffering and our death is going to change human beings and will create compassion.” And for that moment I just believed him because he spoke with such conviction. And just one other little story about him was he called me up and he was in the hospital and I knew he was very close to death and I said how are you and he said I'm excited. And I thought I misunderstood him because he was really close to death and I said what, but he said I'm excited I'm going to see him. And in that moment of that conversation on the phone the veil completely lifted for me because it had completely lifted for him. And it was as though we were peering together. And for me I think the reason why... why I don't cry very much it's because I think, I think that what was happening in those years that he showed me, and that other young men showed me, and then I learned about what death is and what human life really is became the dominant memory for me. And I just want to say one thing about trauma and I'm so glad that this young woman mentioned trauma because I've been thinking a lot about intergenerational trauma and about how young gay people are traumatized by us in the same way as children of Holocaust survivors who are traumatized by their parents experiences. And there are people writing about this now and I've been thinking a lot about post traumatic slave trauma and the trauma of people of color, and especially Black people in this country, in relation to that. And what I realize is that Black people in this country did survive so much trauma, but also lived because of that same luminous survivor spiritual strength. And that is our legacy to our young people as well as the violence and the genocide and the death and the suffering. Audience member: I’m still thinking. I’m feeling [inaudible] Rev. Karen Ziegler: So I also really want to say that we are revisiting a time of genocide. It is completely clear to me that— and William Barber says you know the reason why they want to cut off people's life insurance— I mean health insurance is because the people who will die as a result of this are not Republican voters. And that is not a cynical statement. That is a statement of historical fact. This is what happened to health plans for people who had been slaves and they were discontinued when those people started voting and when people lose their health insurance they die. So I feel like that spirit of activism that was in ACT UP and that many of us participated in. Audience member: We don’t want people to hear what we were saying. Audience member: Were we being too loud? Rev. Karen Ziegler: The spirit of activism— I’m sorry. [...] Rev. Karen Ziegler: But that spirit of activism the people with AIDS, the people in ACT UP, the people fighting for their lives we have to fight for the people's lives who, look now there's a huge train called genocide heading down and you know we're on the tracks but so we're a whole lot of other people. Rev. Jim Mitulski: So my name is Jim Mitulski, and I was the pastor out of the MCC Church in San Francisco in the 80s and 90s for 15 years. So principally eight years I've done other AIDS things, but that probably has shaped my life more than anything. [begins to cry] Sorry. It started back then [points to another speaker] and it’s just been [gestures by moving arm in a wave-like fashion]. I hate this. So I cry all the time. I know, but I do I cry all the time. Three times a day at least. I haven’t yet today. So it was this morning’s now. And I didn't before AIDS so maybe I should’ve. So an AIDS story, I have to say it’s also shaped not only my life, but my spiritual life. This is not what I had to say, but I do think it has shaped my spiritual life being with so many people on a journey of living from the time I was in my 20s. Probably when maybe we were too young or who knows if you’re too young or too old, but certainly just affecting— I think twisted me in some ways, but I was not prepared in my 20s to accompany so many people, to do hundreds of funerals, which I literally did do. Saturday was funeral day. Sunday was Church day right. And the people that I was doing funerals for in the 80s were my age you know. Where does that— and also it kicked up a need in me for constant prayer. You know I went to a very liberal seminary, as they say a silver spoon of religion, and what characterized us as MCC students was we were— that we were churchgoers unlike our fellow students. That we went to church. How weird was that, you know, in the 80s that was weird you know. And I still— I go to Mass every day. How weird is that, you know, I'm not a Catholic anymore, but maybe once a Catholic, always a Catholic. Yeah because— I go and I sit in the back. I don’t take communion. I cry. I sit there and I cry because it's like it's high peace and I order my day and I feel close to my— to my Saints and I don't mean like the alabaster ones. And I know that comes from my AIDS experience. It's like this is the only way I find peace in it, when I pray the rosary. You know down at the hour of our death, that little phrase that you learn as a child, it was like a seed planted that came back to comfort me being at the death of so many people, you know, and not lose your mind right. Okay so there's one AIDS story. It’s a funeral story I told before, but you know you do all these funerals and what I love about MCC is we did not have a prayer book. We had the freedom to show Al Parker clips at Al Parker’s funeral. I did Al Parker’s funeral and darned if we didn’t show Al Parker clips at it, you know because he wanted to be remembered in his vigor, you know. And I did not learn how to do that funeral at PSR, I’ll tell you that. The funeral I remember— I did this couple’s wedding because we did a lot of deathbed weddings right, before they were legal. And it wasn't quite deathbed, but one— the first guy lived about three weeks and at his funeral, the first guy’s funeral, everyone got an orchid and because you want people to have something lovely when they left, something beautiful because it was not pretty. And at the door his lover, as he agreed to hold the door afterwards, his lover said, “Orchids, just like him, high maintenance,” and I just burst out laughing you know. And I remember Jerry, it was affectionate, but it was funny I mean it's pretty funny. Hey, your lover’s funeral, you know. And I remember the importance of laughter even in the midst of very deep sadness. And a couple months later, we had his funeral, and he had provided for this, and he swore me to secrecy, his lifelong collection of Fiestaware in the sanctuary. And you know only gay men have the cult of Fiestaware. They don't just like it okay, they worship it. It was all there and you know at gay funerals we did— we had stuff, you know like a leather jacket on a chair, you know the memorabilia. All kinds of them were doing it. So the queens came in and were like maybe I'll get some afterwards because that was what they thought. Of course they missed their friend, but it's nice to get a little bonus at the memorial. And at the end—he had instructed me to do this—I picked up a piece, so this is— you don't know much he loved this, and I broke it. The gasp. The Fiestaware. Then I broke another piece and I said let's all do this because—Jerry Robinson was his name—he said he wanted us to get angry. He wanted us to feel our anger, nothing pretty. Like we did— I can’t remember [inaudible] at his lover’s funeral, you know but he wanted us to get angry and feel our anger. And so there we were breaking dishes at the funeral in the sanctuary. And that anger— also I felt it again this morning when Chuck Lewis talked about smashing the light bulbs. Oh I just felt so alive. Did you feel it for a second? So unassuming should the anger and I thought oh this is why we did this panel, so that we can see that and feel it. And that's kind of when you asked Dwane about, you know, how do you do this. Anger is an important part of it. Find your anger. I know that's probably dysfunctional, but I swear to god that is how I got through it— that and you know [inaudible] but I think my anger has kept me alive as much as medical science you know. Brian McKnight: I was trained as a buddy. I think probably a lot of us in this room were trained as hospice workers, as best could be done. And one of the men that I took under wing and brought to my home and spent time with, without me knowing it, asked his parents about if I would be the one who led his funeral, you know. So there are— and it was not unusual for people who were not clergy to be asked to be the person who spoke for them. And for those of you who don't know the time, what happened at the time his parents said to me that please do not say that he was gay or how he died. My first buddy that we buried, we had the same instructions: do not say that he was gay and do not say how he died. And one can get self-righteous in those situations and defy the will of the parents or you can figure out a way to do what needs to be done without anybody getting upset. So the second guy that I spoke for was a florist and his gay friends were back of the room and his great-aunts were in front of the room. And I talked about his uniqueness as a flower and how in bouquets you know we all come in different shapes and colors and sizes and the gay men were nodding their heads in the back of the room, the aunts we're thinking that this was quite colorful, how sweet. But it wasn't a time in which— in San Francisco was different than Boston, New York was different than Boston, and Boston was different than Cleveland, and you did what you could do and needed to do where you were with the needs of the people that you said you were there to help. So I didn't get angry. It's not my style, it's just never been. I do go underwater and scream. That's my scream room: water. But going to the question the man in the back asked about how do you handle the situation. We didn't have ACT UP in Boston because we kept the community informed from day one. I wrote a weekly column. I started a column to the gay community of Boston telling them what was— we knew— what we knew you know. What was the name, why was it called this, you know, what did— what do we think is going on, so that people didn't live in a vacuum of no information. And so the dynamics of a community, I think, create how you respond. But it's important to know that at that time, you just didn't talk about it without knowing or feeling that the needs of the parents and the needs of the family had to be taken into consideration. [Our sincere apologies due to technical difficulties the remainder of this session was not recorded.] Executive Producer: Mark Bowman Director & Editor: AhSa-Ti Tyehimba-Form Videographer: John Peckham Copyright 2017 LGBT Religious Archives Network at Pacific School of Religion. All rights reserved. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 4B: Our Lives Were Forever Changed by AIDS Barbara Satin Bill Johnson Jim Mitulski Karen Ziegler Our Lives Were Forever Changed by AIDS Rick Mixon RTSA Session 4B William R. Johnson Zachary Jones https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/fa3207dcb56f3515db63b48639139037.png 2130a427b072c9fdb72514012fc36fb1 YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hg1B6eQOBcg" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /><br /> <p><em>with <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1428">Jimmy Creech</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1351">Marianne Duddy-Burke</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1426">Jeannine Gramick</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1454">Rick Huskey</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1427">Rev. Jeff Johnson</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1425">Rev. Dr. Janie Spahr</a></em></p> <p>Faith leaders share their stories and interact with each other about the persecution or sanctions they faced at the hands of religious authorities. Participants reflect on their own experiences of oppression from their religious institutions and if, or how, they felt God’s grace helping them rise from the opposition they faced.</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 4C: From Trials and Tribulations to Trail Blazing From Trials and Tribulations to Trail Blazing Janie Spahr Jeannine Gramick Jeff Johnson Jimmy Creech Marianne Duddy-Burke Rick Huskey RTSA Session 4C Trials and Tribulations to Trail Blazing https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/dbfb0a79563c0e896726afde3869cadf.png 926f1a1196ebfce9325ae44d91a6d3dd YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. Embed Code The html embed codes for this object. <iframe width="600" height="337" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aCA9ohkXBNs" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe><br /><br /> <p><em>with <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1419">Rev. Freda Smith</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1424">Jan Griesinger</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1406">Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1418">Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1412">Rev. Elder Darlene Garner</a>, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1415">Rev. Debra Peevey</a></em></p> <p>Our lives and loves, our faith and work, have been shaped by ongoing struggles against white supremacist patriarchal misogyny, racism, and homophobia. Where did our journeys begin? What were the conditions of the world/church at the time? What have been some lessons from the past? Why must a passion for justice for all women be kept central to our communities? What can we learn from some historic tensions between lesbian feminist and transgender movements that can help us cultivate community? What resources can help us keep our courage? This panel includes brief presentations from each of us, some time for exchange among us, and an opportunity for questions and reflections from the audience.</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Session 4D: Keeping Our Courage: Lesbian Feminism and Trans Women Carter Heyward Darlene Garner Debra Peevey Erin Swenson Freda Smith Jan Griesinger Keeping Our Courage: Lesbian Feminism and Trans Women RTSA Session 4D