Review of "The God Box"

I'm a bit late with this, but in case you have not heard about the novel "The God Box" by Alex Sanchez, you should. I haven't had time to read and review it, so I'm linking to a review written by my friend David W. Shelton.

In Alex Sanchez’ newest novel for young readers, The God Box introduces a
teenage boy to the greatest struggle of his life: his sexuality. The Lambda
Award-winning author of Getting It tackles a subject ripped from headlines in
this exciting and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be both
Christian and gay in a small, Southern town.

I’m not sure if I can adequately relate just how refreshing it was to read
a book that so accurately portrays the struggle that young gay Christians
endure. I’ve seen so many stories about young gay teens and adults that are all
about the sex, drugs, and clubbing that is so often associated with the gay
community.

To me, “refreshing,” is neither accurate nor appropriate to describe my
feelings as I read through its pages. A far better word is “living.” This is a
story about life, faith, and love in a way that is as crisp as it is
timely.

You can read the rest of the review on Clarkesville Online.

Students Finding Strength and Acceptance in Gay-Straight Alliance

Sometimes kids get it better than adults. Here's a group outside San Francisco that is building a thriving Gay-Straight Alliance group in their high school.

From the San Mateo County Times:

For many of the student members of Half Moon Bay High School's
Gay-Straight Alliance, life inside the club is a lot easier than life outside
it.

Whether they are gay or straight, club members often find themselves mocked
by the student body for possessing the very quality that helps them make friends
with other club members: being different.

"I think people are put down if they're gay, especially in high school. I'm
not gay, but I want to stop the criticism. If we were all gay, we would make fun
of straight people. That doesn't make any sense, so why should we make fun of
gay people?" asked club member Russell Crispin, 15, who says he has several gay
and lesbian family members. Since founding the Gay-Straight Alliance in
September, the club's 30-odd members have developed other traits in common: They
are opinionated, and they are determined to defend and support students' rights
to a harassment-free high school experience. They also love to have fun.

A recent after-school meeting saw both laughter and moments of sadness as
club members shared their accounts of what it is like to be gay or to be a
friend to someone who is gay. They kept themselves busy making rose-a-grams —
roses with little notes attached that students purchased to give their friends,
in honor of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1. The effort raised $125 toward AIDS
research.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Survivor: Another Gay Man Wins!

Jim and Brenda know that Erica and I enjoy watching Survivor on television. This season's winner, Todd, was interviewed on Logo Online and I read the interview with great interest. Todd is a 22-year old gay Mormon.

What I found interesting about him is that he didn't seem overt about his sexuality on the show, as so many gay players have been in the past. It turns out that it was edited that way. He came out to the women of his tribe the first night! He was asked how a women named Leslie, who was identified as a Christian radio host, responded to his being gay. He said that she loves everyone and talked about how incredible she is and that she feels everyone is God's child. What a testimony that is to everyone who reads it! It really struck me when I read this interview that I had been predjudicial toward Leslie because I assumed that she would not react well if she found out because, after all, she was a Christian radio host. She couldn't possibly be an enlightented Christian, right? Well, shut my mouth. It was good to see that I was wrong.

If you care to read the article, there were other good tibits in it. It's found at: http://www.afterelton.com/people/2007/12/toddherzog.

More Local Action: Palm Beach County Bans Transgender Discrimination

From the Palm Beach County (FL) Human Rights Council:


At this morning's public hearing, the Palm Beach County Commissioners unanimously approved amendments to two county ordinances which will prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on gender identity or expression.

Jeff Koons, Vice Chair of the Board of County Commissioners, had introduced the amendments to the County's Equal Employment Ordinance and Fair Housing Ordinance at the request of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.

"No one should be fired, harassed, or denied promotion simply because they don't fit the stereotypes for masculinity or femininity," Council President Rand Hoch told Koons.


The new law, which covers public and private employers with fifteen or more employees, and most real estate transactions, goes into effect on January 1.

"In a matter of days, all Palm Beach County residents will be judged on the quality of their work and will given an equal chance to succeed," said Hoch. "No longer will an employer be able to fire an employee solely because she is a woman with a masculine walk or he is a man with an effeminate voice."


With almost 1.3 million people, Palm Beach County will become one of the nation's largest jurisdictions to prohibit discrimination against transgender persons.

When the Palm Beach County ordinances take effect, close to 40% of the US population will live in jurisdictions where it is illegal to discriminate based on gender identity or expression.

Thirteen states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) and the District of Columbia have enacted laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

In addition similar laws exist in more than 90 cities and counties across America.


In Florida, the cities of Gulfport, Key West, Lake Worth, Miami Beach and West Palm Beach, as well as Monroe County prohibit both public and private employers from discriminating based on gender identity or expression.


The cities of Largo, Oakland Park and Wilton Manors, as well as the Village of Tequesta protect their municipal employees from discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

The Gainesville City Commission is expected to adopt an ordinance early next year which will prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on gender identity or expression.


Civil rights activists are also working in both Broward and Pinellas Counties to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or expression.

The Catholics Think I Am Committing a Moral Sin

No, really, they think I am doing some bad, bad stuff. There's this quote from the Roman Catholic Coadjutor Archbishop John Nienstedt:

"Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts or such activity with a homosexual lifestyle formally cooperate in grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin."

Well then, let's just move directly to Go, collect the $200, and then head straight to Hell. Not only GLBT but their allies, like me, are doomed.

Makes you wonder where all those gay priests fit into the scheme of things, especially those who don't stay celebate, but that's another post for another day.

Here is an excellent response to that statement by the Roman Catholic church by Ann Marie DeGroot, the executive director of OutFront Minnesota, an entire organization made up of people considered guilty of mortal sins.

I am careful to specify that this is the work of the Roman Catholics. I have run across some independent Catholic churches and smaller denominations with Catholic principles that are open and affirming, so let's not throw them under the bus.

You know, like the Roman Catholics did with us.

Taking Positive Action to Help GLBT Teens

I've posted several stories about troubled GLBT youth. Here's someone who is doing something to help them in Ogden, Utah.

It’s a busy night at Ogden’s OUTReach Resource Center for teens. The minute director Gary Horenkamp answers the telephone, 25 youngsters march into the drop-in center’s space at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ogden in search of something fun to do on a cold December night.

“That's a lot for the center. Usually we get about 10 or 12. Let's see... four or five are playing pool next door. Some are singing and dancing, a couple are playing the X-Box and I think arts and crafts are about to break out," says Horenkamp, designated this particular Wednesday for making Holiday decorations. “It looks like they’re making snowmen, wreaths, maybe some green and red stuff.” Seconds later, a teen wanders into Horenkamp’s office in search of a cheese grater.

“I’m guessing he wanted to make chili,” Horenkamp laughs. The center has many kitchen utensils and a lot of snacks for noshing, but unfortunately no grater, so the teen will have to try something else.

It’s all in a night’s work for Horenkamp, who has worked with the resource center since its founding in September, 2004.

As Horenkamp explains it, OUTReach, while not a religious program, was the brain child of the Unitarian Universalist church that houses it. Three years ago, the church’s social action committee decided that they wanted to provide a service for the city’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens. Although a number of resources existed to serve Ogden’s 60,000 young people, such as The Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Youth Impact, Horenkamp said none at the time existed specifically for queer youngsters.

“Don’t get me wrong, the other organizations don’t discourage them from coming, but this is the place that is always in tune with their issues and needs,” he says.

Read more about this heartwarming story from Q Salt Lake.

Another Right Wing Writer Tells Gays What They Want

One of the great things about being a right-wing zealot is being granted the ability to know what everyone is thinking and what everyone's motivation is for their actions. The latest example of that is Baptist Press columnist Kelly Boggs, who is clearly exorcised that the Boy Scouts are losing their free rent of a city government-owned building in Philadelphia because of the organizations prejudice against gays. He writes in an article linked to by Good As You:

Homosexual activists do not want tolerance. They want to force groups, like the Boy Scouts, to accept and validate their lifestyle. If homosexuals and atheists are so opposed to the principles of the Boy Scouts, why don't they go and start their own scouting groups? Then they, as affirmed by the Supreme Court, can set their own membership rules.

Why do homosexual activists insist on attacking the Boy Scouts? It is a will to power. Either you embrace their lifestyle or they will make every effort to destroy your life and reputation. Thus far, the Scouts -- along with conservative Christian organizations and churches -- are one of the few groups to defy the activists’ demands.

Of course, it is actually the Boy Scouts who are not showing tolerance by refusing to allow gay boys to join, but that's not even the issue here. The matter of public funds subsidizing prejudice and exclusion of any group of people is actually the issue.

Yes, the Boy Scouts do have the right to homophobic policies if they want, and GLBT activists have the right to disagree with them. The Scouts, or any other organization that adopts bigoted practices, does NOT have the right to have their prejudice subsidized by taxpayers.

Right wing political organizations like the Southern Baptists (I remember when they used to be a religion, one which I belonged to for many years--I've come a long way, but sadly they have not) don't let the facts get in the way of trying to create, then play the victim card.

Fortunately, more and more people are becoming tired of hearing it, and I hope more municipalities like the city of Philadelphia stand up and stop supporting organizations that practice discrimination.

If you hit groups hard enough in the pocket book, they may have to take a different approach.

Ex-Ex-Gay Minister Tells His Story: It's Not Pretty

If you know of anyone who is struggling with their sexual orientation and considering going the "ex-gay" route, forward this story to them. It should make their blood run cold.

Scott Harrison desperately tried to change his sexual orientation in
various "ex-gay" ministries for eight years, three of them as a ministry leader
in Southern California. Most of his experience with ex-gay groups — Christian
organizations that see homosexuality as a choice that can be changed with proper
therapy — was with Living Waters and Desert Stream, two curricula of a national
ex-gay network that has more than 80 branches today. When Harrison joined in
1982, he felt ex-gay ministers were then a band of compassionate outsiders
attending to the first AIDS victims. But by the end of that decade, Harrison had
taken note of the movement's increasing radicalism, symbolized for him by the
minister at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship in San Pedro, Calif., who
performed an exorcism on him in an attempt to cast out the "demons" said to be
the cause of his homosexuality. Harrison finally quit the movement in 1990 after
deciding he could, after all, reconcile his sexuality with his Christian faith.
Today, he speaks to parents of gay and lesbian children about the dangers he
sees in the ex-gay movement. Harrison says the relatively recent alignment of
Exodus International, one of the largest ex-gay groups with some 120 ministries
in North America alone, with anti-gay Christian "dominionists" — people who want
to impose Christian rules on the secular institutions of society — has led to
ex-gay ministers pursuing a hard-line message with young people that can only
end in mental anguish and failure.

Read more of this story at the Southern Poverty Law Center's website.

There's An Organization That Wants LESS Funding for AIDS Research

I've posted plenty of stories here discussing the need for people and legislators to move away from apathy and devote more funding to HIV/AIDS research, but to my disgust I actually ran across an organization devoted to REDUCING funding.

This group is called FAIR (Fair Allocation in Research), and the following information is from their website.

The group was founded by Dr Richard Darling

a California dentist, founded the FAIR Foundation after surviving hepatitis C, diabetes, cirrhosis and cancer of the liver, coma, heart attack, hepatorenal syndrome, Muscular Dystrophy (myasthenia gravis) and three liver transplant operations.

That's quite a list, one that is difficult to believe. He was motivated by the following:

In 1999 when Dr. Darling was becoming very ill yet again, he viewed an ABC network 20/20 segment by reporter John Stossel (a noted right-wing advocate) entitled “Disease Politics.” It was produced with facts supplied by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and graphically illustrated the unfair governmental bias that significantly favors AIDS over all other diseases, including the sixteen that kill more Americans than AIDS.

“Disease Politics” introduced a courageous Parkinson’s Disease patient, Joan Samuelson, and her unending efforts to get more funding for Parkinson’s Disease, which is grossly under funded by the NIH. Dr. Darling was so inspired by Ms. Samuelson’ fight for justice and John Stossel’s reporting that he vowed to start a national organization to correct the unfair NIH and Congressional allocation inequities if he was blessed with a third transplant. Dr. Darling received the “Gift of Life” and, thus, the FAIR Foundation was born.

A prime example of what they consider a funding "inequity" is included in the introduction on their website:

The favoritism given AIDS over all other diseases, including the sixteen diseases that kill a million more Americans than AIDS annually

Although further down on their home page they acknowledge that mortality rate should not be the only determining factor for research funding, those numbers appear to be the rationalization for their push to reroute funding from AIDS research.

Please understand, like most of you lives of people I love has been impacted by several of the 16 diseases that rank higher than the AIDS mortality rate, and the more resources that can be devoted to preventing and curing them the better.

It is clear to me that this effort is motivated by bigotry being disguised with statistics. From a Christian perspective, this is one way Satan uses people to do his work, disguising hate and prejudice in a way that it can become more presentable and palateable.

This hate must be met with a vigilant effort to reach out and love those who are impacted by the HIV/AIDS virus and the desire to prevent others from enduring this still deadly and debilitating disease.

Jesus reached out to the lepers and others considered socially unacceptable, and if we want to follow His example, we must do the same.

Homelessness A Major Problem for GLBT Youth in New York City

Youth who are struggling to understand their sexuality face a great challenge in our society, which becomes much more daunting if they don't have a roof over their heads and a bed to call their own.

In this report posted by PageOneQ, over 1/3 of homeless youth in New York City are GLBT--a grossly disproportionate number to their representation in the overall population. Especially as the holidays approach, if you are considering giving some of your time and/or money to a good cause, considering a group that assists these kids could be a good direction to go.

An estimated 3,800 people under age 24 go homeless each night in New York
City, but they blend in so well they are hard for social workers to find,
according to the city's first-ever census of homeless youth.

Three-fourths come from minority groups, with black youths accounting for
nearly half the total and Latino youths representing a quarter, said the survey,
released Friday.

Gay, lesbian and bisexual youths were especially vulnerable,
accounting for nearly a third of homeless cases.

"Young people who are homeless take great care to look like everyone
else. They're unbelievably creative in their ability to find ways to make it
look like they're not homeless at all," said Margo Hirsch, executive director of
the Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services, which conducted the
survey for the city.

While many homeless youth found temporary shelter with a friend or a
relative, some 1,600 reported spending nights on the street, in an abandoned
building or in a bus or train.

Selling sex, another 150 spent nights with a clients.

The count was conducted in July and surveyed just under 1,000 youth who
were either homeless or at risk for homelessness.

Earlier this year, the New York City Department of Homeless Services
reported that 3,755 New Yorkers of all ages, out of a total population of 8.2
million people, were living without shelter on any given night, down from 4,395
in 2005.

Rick Warren: Church "Here to Stay" On AIDS Ministry

Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Church in California, is best known for writing "The Purpose Driven Life" (worth reading if you're one of the handful people that haven't done so), but if he's not careful, he could eventually be at least as well known for mobilizing evangelicals into AIDS activism.

Here's a report from Ethics Daily:

California megachurch pastor Rick Warren, speaking Wednesday at a White
House discussion on HIV/AIDS, said the church has been a latecomer to addressing
the pandemic but is now "here to stay."

"The church was late to the table on this issue and we have repented of
that, but we are here to stay," he said. "This is not flavor of the week for me.
This is a long-term battle, the eradication of HIV/AIDS."

Warren and his wife, Kay, recently co-hosted an AIDS summit at their Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif. They traveled to Washington to join more than 130
ambassadors, federal officials and ministry leaders for a roundtable discussion
hosted by the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.

Speakers cited examples of international and national partnerships
between faith-based groups, businesses and governments to work on prevention and treatment of AIDS and urged continued efforts to reduce the stigma some attach
to the disease.

"This is a problem that demands our attention, and the local church is among the actors making a big difference," said Jay Hein, director of the White House faith-based office.

Marty McGeein, the executive director of the Presidential Advisory Council on AIDS, said groups like the Salvation Army and Esperanza, a Hispanic faith-based organization, are working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on HIV prevention.

"We need faith leaders to address the stigma that continues to allow HIV to spread," said McGeein, a deputy assistant secretary at HHS.

Dr. Adnan Hammad, director of the ACCESS Community Health & Research Center in Dearborn, Mich., said leaders have to go through a "journey" with religious officials to help them come to a point where they can address the AIDS crisis. Once, he said, mosques burned fliers about AIDS that were left in their buildings.

"Now we screen for HIV in our local mosques," he said.

European Leaders Sign on For Gay Rights

Surprisingly, Great Britian was one of the nations that did not sign this European Union treaty. Here is the story from 365gay.com.

The European Union has become the first international body to have a treaty
containing explicit language prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual
orientation.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights of signed Wednesday at a ceremony in
Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament.

Parliamentary President Hans-Gert Poettering, European Commission President
Jose Manuel Barroso, and the current head of the Council of EU member
states, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates put their signatures to the
document amid cheers from some member states and jeers from others.

Britain and Poland had wanted the charter put to a referendum and have
refused to sign onto the document.

The Charter brings together into a single document all of the separate EU
laws and regulations on human-rights but despite the fanfare it has no legal
force. That will only happen when the parliaments of all 27 member states
ratify a concord called the Lisbon Treaty that reforms the way the EU
operates.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association - Europe hailed the Charter
on Wednesday and urged member states to ratify the Lisbon Treaty saying that the
document will advance the rights of LGBT people throughout Europe.

“While welcoming the first ever international treaty containing an explicit
ban on sexual orientation discrimination, we are disappointed by the decision of
the UK and Polish governments to opt out of their duty to provide their citizens
with the same rights as the rest of EU citizens," said Patricia Prendiville,
Executive Director of ILGA-Europe.

"While the reasons for not ratifying the Charter are different in both
countries, we believe the lack of unanimity among the EU member states weakens
the strength and authority of this significant document.“

The dissident government could still hold national referendums on the
Charter. Even so, they have negotiated an opt out clause that could be
used to negate some of the Charter's rights.

Help for GLBT Victims of Domestic Abuse

According to Galop, about one in ever four LGBT people will experience domestic abuse of a sexual, emotional, financial or physical nature.

One in four? Wow, that's disturbing! I hope I'm not being naive expressing my surprise at that statistic, according to this report from the London organization, included in this story at PinkNews.

Victims of sexual abuse can now find help at Galop, a safety charity for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

A new caseworker at the London-based charity is available to help LGBT victims of sexual violence make anonymous reports to the police and provide them with advice.

According to the caseworker, Jamey Fisher, the aim of the service is to "help LGBT people who have experienced sexual abuse at any point in their lives."

Ms Fisher can also provide information about other services which offer support to those suffering from sexual abuse.

These include the Metropolitan Police LGBT Liaison Officers, Sapphire Units - teams of police officers that investigate sexual crimes and look after victims - and Sexual Assault Referral Centres.

All of these centres employ fully trained staff to work with LGBT people and reports of sexual abuse are always taken seriously, even if the abuse happened in the past.

Galop can also offer help to individuals experiencing violence from partners or members of their family.

According to Galop, about one in ever four LGBT people will experience domestic abuse of a sexual, emotional, financial or physical nature.

Galop's caseworkers are able to help victims of violence make a safety plan, speak to police and determine way to keep themselves safe.

The charity is also able to take reports of homophobic or transphobic hate crimes and sexual abuse and pass them onto the police through a third party reporting scheme.

In this way, victims are not obliged to speak to the police or give out any personal details in order for incidents to be recorded and investigated.

"What is most important right now is to get the word out so that we can help as many people as possible," said Ms Fisher.

To contact Galop for help you can called the Shoutline on 020 7704 2040 or fill in an anonymous reporting form on their site.

For more information about Galop please visit www.galop.org.uk.

Attitudes Changing in Scotland

Good progress is being made in changing attitudes in Scotland, as views are moving steadily toward acceptance of GLBT people.


From PinkNews:


Results from the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey which show the country is becoming more accepting of the LGBT community were announced this morning.


The survey, conducted for the Scottish Government, found that the number of people who think same-sex relationships are always or mostly wrong has dropped 11% since 2002 to 30%.


65% of people who took part think Scotland should do everything it can to tackle all kinds of prejudice.


There has been an 8% drop in the number of people who think people of the same sex should not have the right to marry, to 21%, and a 7% drop in the number who think gay and lesbian people are not suitable to be primary school teachers, to 21%.


However, considerable prejudice remains, especially against transsexual people.


There's still work to be done, but progress is being made.

Acting Locally

Last week, in my rant about the failure of the hate crimes bill to make it through Congress, I shared my thought that effective change would have to come from grass roots efforts at the local level. This story in a press release from Equality Maryland is a good example of that:



Just one month before the Maryland General Assembly convenes in Annapolis to debate the issue of civil marriage for same-sex couples, another Maryland jurisdiction has passed a resolution calling on legislators to enact The Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act. The town of Kensington joins the city of Takoma Park in formally supporting the expansion of civil marriage to include same-sex couples. The Council unanimously passed the resolution at its Monday meeting.


"The Town Council and I support this resolution because it is time to end the hardships faced by same-sex couples in Kensington and in Maryland who are legal strangers to one another," said Mayor Peter Fosselman. "We are proud to join other communities around the state and country who have expressed support for the freedom to marry, and hope Annapolis lawmakers will act swiftly in 2008 to pass marriage equality legislation."


"I think it's enormously significant for an entire community of individuals to come together and stand up for the freedom to marry," said Executive Director Dan Furmansky. "More and more Marylanders understand that the time to expand the freedom to marry is now, so loving same-sex couples may inherit one another's social security, make medical decisions for one another, inherit properly without crippling tax penalties, and provide for their children two parents with a legalized relationship."



Obviously this action is not legally binding in any way, but I'm sure the state legislators from that jurisdiction noticed.

An Unlikely Ally

There are a lot of things one might expect a Christian man who is married, a father of seven, and a lifelong Republican to do, but filing suit to get his state's ban against same-sex marriage declared unconstitutional is not one of them. However, that is exactly Bill McKoskey, a political science instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (by gosh), it doing these days.


From Box Turtle Bulletin:

Q: You’ve described yourself as a Christian, straight, married, father of
seven. You’re kind of an unlikely figure to be leading the charge on gay
rights.

A: I’ve also been a Republican all my life, and people have said,
that’s certainly a conflict but I don’t think so. The reason I don’t is because
it’s consistent with my view of human dignity and human rights as opposed to
government and the power of government. This is really an overreaching
amendment.

Q: What was your motivation to file suit?

A: I thought it was horrible when it first came out, because of the
implication of the precedent that it sets. If you don’t like gay people, who’s
next? Short people? Or maybe we can go back to black people or to Jews or
something. As a student of history and as an educated person, I know the history
and the implications of that mind-set. It began with that. I also have a gay
daughter. People have asked me, would you have filed this suit if it wasn’t for
your daughter? To be real honest, maybe not. Maybe I would have just ranted and
raved in my classrooms and written letters to the editor and fumed off to the
side. But because of her, it also became a personal issue and I feel like I’m
fighting for my kid. I’m a family man above all.

First U. S. Episcopal Diocese Breaks With the Church

It appeared this was only a matter of time. Now the legal hassles and speculation about other dioceses to follow will begin in earnest, leaving a lot less time for worshiping God.

From the Washington Blade:

The conservative Diocese of San Joaquin voted Saturday to split from the
liberal-leaning Episcopal Church, becoming the first full diocese to secede from
the denomination in the debate over the Bible and homosexuality.

Clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin voted 173-22
at their annual convention to remove all references to the national church from
the diocese's constitution, said the Rev. Van McCalister, a diocesan spokesman.

The diocese, based in Fresno, plans to align with the like-minded Anglican
Province of the Southern Cone, based in South America.

The decision is almost certain to spark a court fight over control of the
diocese's multimillion-dollar real estate holdings and other assets.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. member of the global Anglican Communion, a
77 million-member fellowship that traces its roots to the Church of England.

Anglicans have been moving toward a worldwide schism since 2003, when the
Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of
New Hampshire. San Joaquin is also one of the three Episcopal dioceses that will
not ordain women.

The Episcopal rift over theology began decades ago and is now focused on
whether the Bible condemns gay relationships.

"We have leadership in the Episcopal Church that has drastically and
radically changed directions," McCalister said. "They have pulled the rug out
from under us. They've started teaching something very different, something very
new and novel, and it's impossible for us to follow a leadership that has so
drastically reinvented itself."

Episcopal and Anglican advocates for accepting gay relationships say they
are guided by biblical teachings on social justice and tolerance.
Traditionalists believe that gay relationships violate Scripture.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected last year as the first
woman to lead the church, had warned San Joaquin Bishop John-David Schofield
against secession but did not outline specific consequences. Jefferts Schori
supports ordaining partnered gays and lesbians.

"We deeply regret their unwillingness or inability to live within the
historical Anglican
understanding of comprehensiveness," she said in a statement after the
vote. "We wish them to know of our prayers for them and their journey."

Clergy delegates at the convention voted 70-12 to break away and lay
delegates voted 103-10 in support of the move. The outcome leaves in question
the status of the five or so parishes in the San Joaquin diocese that wish to
remain aligned with the Episcopal Church. Local clergy who agree to leave could
lose their ministerial credentials and their pensions.

Jefferts Schori indicated in her statement that the national denomination
will not give up the diocese. "The Episcopal Church will continue in the Diocese
of San Joaquin, albeit with new leadership," she said.

The diocese serves about 8,500 parishioners in 47 congregations in central
California.
Nancy Key, a member of Holy Family Episcopal Church in Fresno
and co-founder of Remain Episcopal, which fought the secession, said she was
"very disappointed."

"This has been threatening to split our diocese apart for a long time," she
said. "We feel like what we want to do is follow Christ, who included all, and
used all of us for his ministry. And that didn't happen today."

The Episcopal Church was divided along North-South lines during the Civil
War, as several other Protestant groups were, but the denomination was not
considered formally split over theological differences, making San Joaquin the
first full Episcopal diocese to break away.

Nationally, about 55 conservative Episcopal parishes, out of more than
7,000 around the country, have split off from the church in the last few years,
and some have affiliated directly with Anglican provinces overseas, according to
national church statistics. Courts have mostly ruled against allowing the
breakaway congregations to take their property when they go.

Three other dioceses have taken initial steps toward splitting from the
U.S. church. They are Fort Worth, Texas; Quincy, Ill.; and Pittsburgh.

In his address to the convention, Schofield said the vote was "all about
freedom."

"It is about freedom to remain who we are in Christ. It is freedom to honor
the authority of Scripture," he said. "It is freedom to worship with the Prayer
Book we know and freedom from innovations and services that are contrary to the
Word of God."

Do You Want Someone Like This to be President?

How would you like it if the President of the United States had said this:

"I agree with the leadership of our military, who believe it is not in the best interest of the armed forces to have homosexuals serving on active duty," he said at the time. "I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government. I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

Don't care much for that? Then you'll just hate this quote about HIV from the same person:

"It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population," Huckabee said during the same interview. "This deadly disease, for which there is no cure, is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents. If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague."

Both of these quotes are attributed to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee by the organization People for the American Way and reported by PageOneQ. To be fair, both of these quotes go back to 1992, but as naive as I was to GLBT issues back then, I still new better than that, and I hardly consider myself qualified to be president, then or now.

Neither is Mike Huckabee, yet he is moving up in most polls among Republican candiates, which says a lot (none of it good) about the right wing of the party, which is apparently still breathing.

A judgemental, pious homophobe can't get elected president, can he? At least not again?

Here is more on Huckabee from the PFAW. It doesn't get any prettier.

Politically, It's Not All About Equality

That's what this new survey of GBLT voters came up with. Rather than be single issue voters focused strictly on equality (more important to lesbian respondents than gay male ones), GLBT voters, surprise, surprise, are just like everyone else and share deep concerns about the economy, the war in Iraq, and the other important issues that affect day-to-day life in the United States.

Perhaps some of the right-wing voters who fail to look beyond a candidates stances on gay marriage and abortion, could learn something from that approach.

A new poll is offering an unprecedented look at the political leanings and
priorities of gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans.

The poll, funded by Human Rights Campaign and controlled by City
University of New York’s Hunter College, found the 768 gays, lesbians and
bisexuals who responded care strongly about securing new civil rights and
protections.

But the poll, conducted Nov. 15-26 and released last week, shows
respondents care just as much politically about the economy, health care and
Iraq.

Ken Sherrill, a Hunter College political science professor who is gay and
helping to analyze the poll’s results, said the politically diverse interests
are understandable.

“They’re citizens of the United States,” he said. “The country’s at war,
the economy is in the toilet, the health care system is in crisis. It’s not as
if we’re dealing with a single issue.”

About 25 percent of respondents said “the economy and jobs” is the issue
“most important” to their 2008 presidential vote. Another 24 percent chose
“health care” and 18 percent put Iraq as their top concern. Others chose “taxes
and government spending” or “the environment and global warming.”

When later allowed to choose gay, lesbian and bisexual rights, about 21
percent of respondents made that their top issue.

Such concerns, while generally shared by gays, lesbians and bisexuals,
varied by each group.

Click on the link above to read more details.

How Dangerous is it to be Gay in Iran?

According to this story, very. The government was so eager to do this poor man in that they ignored the few laws they had on the books that would have offered him any protection at all. I'm posting an excerpt here, and there's more detail in the Gay City News story I've linked.

The Islamic Republic of Iran murdered Makwan Moloudzadeh, a lad of 21, on
the cold morning of December 5. Makwan was dragged at dawn from his jail cell in
the Kermanshah Central Prison and hanged in secret within the prison, without
the required presence of his lawyer and family, for the so-called "crime" of
having had anal sexual relations, which the authorities claimed was rape, with
boys of his own age eight years ago, when he was 13.

Given witness recantings during his trial, it is impossible to know what,
if in fact anything, actually transpired.

Amnesty International released a statement denouncing the execution as a
"mockery of justice." The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission's executive director, Paula Ettelbrick, said in a statement, "This is
a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights
law. How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community
takes action?"