A Death In the Family

My blogging will be sporadic, if at all, over the next few days. My brother, who I've written about on this blog, passed away suddenly yesterday. He was 57 years old. I'm heading up to Rochester to wrap up his affairs and hopefully give strength to his partner, as he did for me when my wife Bette passed away a few years ago.

I would appreciate your prayers, especially for Mike as he transitions into his new life without my brother.

Bishop John Shelby Spong at the Dignity USA Conference

For those of you who don't know, there are GLBT Roman Catholics who are out and working for change in their church. Their organization, Dignity USA, has this for their vision statement:



DignityUSA envisions and works for a time when Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Catholics are affirmed and experience dignity through the integration of their spirituality with their sexuality, and as beloved persons of God participate fully in all aspects of life within the Church and Society.



The organization, which has been around since 1969, recently held their annual convention in Austin, Texas. Their keynote speaker was the well known author and retired Episcopal bishop John Shelby Spong. Over at The Wild Reed, there is extensive coverage of his comments, and I encourage you to check them out, but this excerpt really jumped out at me:



Dignity’s members are not threatening to leave their Church, they are threatening to stay! “This is our Church too,” they say, and “the hierarchy cannot define Catholicism in such a way as to exclude us.” They live out their Catholic lives in faithfulness, not in order to be troublesome, but to help to bring to Catholicism the inclusion that is called for in the gospel of Jesus. They are confident they will win this struggle for the soul of their Church and are encouraged by the incontrovertible fact that changes in consciousness are never reversed.



Inevitably every part of the Christian Church will lay aside its homosexual prejudices and embrace its gay, lesbian, transgender and bi-sexual brothers and sisters as the creation of God, the beloved of Christ and as those empowered to be all that they can be in the Holy Spirit. Benedict XVI is not the voice of the Catholic future; indeed, he will ultimately be little more than a negative footnote in Catholic history.



Every prejudice that is publicly debated is already dying, so this victory is inevitable. Diehard, retrogressive elements in every Christian Church lose ground daily. They will not prevail in this struggle. Christians cannot continue to sing, “Just as I am without one plea, O Lamb of God, I come,” and not live out that invitation.



The embarrassment of the Christian Church in our time will not result from the feared split over homosexuality; it will result rather from those Christian leaders who continue to value unity and institutional peace over truth and justice. Those are the people destined to discover that they do not, cannot and will not own the future. That future will belong to DignityUSA, to John McNeill, Sister Jeannine Gramick, Daniel Helminiak and their counterparts in every Christian tradition, who act without fear to make the Christian Church whole and to call it to be a sign of the Kingdom of God in our divided world. Indeed we live today at the dawn of a new era.



The comments of Pope Benedict that Bishop Spong referred to was his recent statement reminding everyone of the belief, held by the Catholic church for centuries, that it is the only truly Christian faith. That belief is clearly stated in the Nicene Creed that is recited at every Mass, one which I echoed (with some reservation) for several years after being received into the church (and since leaving it). There was no new ground broken here. Rather, it was an old row being replowed.



Thankfully, I believe no one man or group of men have all the answers, and that there is more than one path to God. I also firmly believe and know in my heart that there is a path for my GLBT brothers and sisters to come as they are into fellowship with God. I pray that Bishop Spong is correct and their full inclusion into the church is inevitable.

"Gay Rights Promote Fairness For All"

The following op-ed piece was published in the Salem, Oregon StatesmanJournal. The writer, Gloria Holland, is a straight woman who is an activist in the state, which is one of the more GLBT friendly ones in the nation. Like the parents in Michigan I wrote about yesterday, she has had first-hand experience in dealing with GLBT issues since her daughter came out to her as a lesbian.

Gay Rights Promote Fairness For All

About 10 years ago, I was presented with an opportunity to learn a great deal about a segment of our society about which I was very ill informed.

During my life and career as an educator, I had known many gay and lesbian friends and colleagues. Yet, it wasn't until my daughter was brave enough to tell me that she might become involved with a woman that I began to educate myself around the specific issues faced by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens of our state.

I learned that gays were discriminated against in housing, health care, jobs, hospital emergencies, retirement benefits and much more.

I learned that same-sex couples who have been in committed relationships as long as my husband and I, who raised children together and worshipped together, were forced to lead secret, closeted existences out of fear and were often left to fend for themselves with no legal rights during life's hardest times.

I learned that gay kids are far more likely than their heterosexual counterparts to be injured with a weapon, drop out of school or commit suicide.

I also learned that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people wish only to care for their own loved ones, not to undermine my or anyone else's ability to do the same. The people I have come to know during the past 10 years simply want to live, as I do, in an Oregon that is free from discrimination, values equality and moves forward toward fairness for all our families.

Fortunately, our Legislature recently passed two new laws that bring Oregon one step closer to fair and equal rights for all, and many of our families one step closer to real security.

Our new Domestic Partnership law recognizes families as families. This legal recognition is an important tool, one from which many families have been shut out, to better cope during emergencies and better protect and care for loved ones.

Oregon's second new law ends discrimination in the areas of housing, employment and public accommodations. Such language has existed in Oregon law for many years to protect our citizens on the basis of race, gender, creed and age. This new language simply adds to existing law assurance that Oregonians won't be fired, evicted or denied service at a restaurant or hotel just because of their sexual orientation.

Sadly, a divisive effort has already begun to force these laws to ballot, certainly to be followed by an aggressive campaign to overturn them. I absolutely will not be signing these petitions, and invite others to join me.

As a community, we all suffer when one group of people is set apart and shut out from basic human rights. It's past time to end our culture of divisiveness and work toward a fairer Oregon. I urge you to look past the political arguments and see how personal these laws are for so many families, just like yours or mine.

It's a lot harder to discriminate against a group when you put live faces on the issues and remember that these are flesh and blood people just like everyone else.

There's A Gay Think-Tank Working for GLBT Equality

If you are a TV political talk-show junkie, you've no doubt seen representatives from conservative "think-tanks" like the Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institute, etc. waxing philisophic on the issues of the day. Well, it turns out there is an institute that is working to counter the right-wing and work for LGBT equality.

The Rockway Institute is based in San Francisco. Here is their mission statement from the organization's website:

The nonpartisan Rockway Institute brings together scientific research and professional expertise to counter antigay prejudice and inform public policies affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. The Institute's view is that public opinion, policies, and programs should be shaped by the facts about LGBT lives, not by political ideology. A primary goal is to organize the most knowledgeable social scientists, mental health professionals, and physicians in the United States to provide accurate information about LGBT issues to the media, legislatures, and courts. The Institute also conducts targeted research projects to address the nation's most pressing LGBT public policy questions.

I encourage you to check out their website and learn more about the resources they are employing to balance the public debate on issues affecting the LGBT community.

Parents Choose Gay Son Over Church and Friends

This is a moving story about how a family stood up for one of their own, placing their love for a son above everything else, and losing most of it as a result.

An article in the Muskegon (MI) Chronicle tells us how a 10th grade boy came out to his family (dude, you could have picked a better day than Super Bowl Sunday for crying out loud, but I digress) who, instead of disowning him, circled around him with love and support.

The cost was high. The parents lost most of their counseling clients, the father lost his position as a minister, and most of the family's friends deserted them.

"We moved here because (West Michigan) is a great place to raise a family, and that's true, unless one of them turns out to be gay," said Colette Beighley who is originally from San Francisco. "We live in an area that demands assimilation."

"I'm so proud of my kids," Colette Beighley said. "That's the coolest thing that came out of this -- how much they love each other."

I've written a lot here about the importance of straight allies, but the most significant ones for a GLBT person are often the ones in their own family.

Click here to read details of the journey the Beighley family took with their gay son in the Muskegon Chronicle article.

Thanks to the Triangle foundation for the tip. Colette Beighley is an active member of the Triangle Foundation and has her own blog here.

Questioning the "Sanctity" of Marriage

One of the right-wing arguements against same-sex marriage is that it would destroy "the sanctity of marriage." An op-ed piece by Chris Kocher of the Binghamton (NY) Press & Sun-Bulletin questions that premise:



So I'm always a little puzzled when people talk about the "sanctity" of marriage. At least half of Americans are not taking the "until death do us part" portion of the wedding vows to heart. Marriage has become just another part of our throwaway culture -- some people even have "starter marriages" in their 20s and settle into the "real thing" the second time around.


Which brings us around to same-sex marriage. I say, let gay couples give it a shot -- at this point, can they screw it up any more than the heterosexuals? Perhaps so, but they should get a chance to have both sides of the coin: happiness and sadness, love and breakup. It seems only fair.


I understand how some people object to same-sex marriage on religious grounds, but we're living in a country with a clear separation of church and state. What one religion believes -- and there's some debate about that, as recent back-and-forth articles on these pages can attest -- should not dictate to everyone. As I recall, about half the country did not want civil rights for blacks in the 1960s (some people still don't), but that became the law of the land because it was the right thing to do.



We've solicited readers' opinions about same-sex marriage for a feature that will run next week, and we've had a number of responses from both sides of the issue. As a preview, I'd like to share a favorite one, from Ronald Kracht of Windsor:


"One of the things I have learned in the past 35 years is that no other relationship, happy or unhappy, married or unmarried, straight or gay, has any impact on the strength or sanctity of my marriage. I don't believe that any 'separate but equal' institution is warranted or appropriate. Any religious body which chooses not to approve of same-sex marriage should be allowed to refuse to perform such marriages."


I could not have said it better myself.



Neither could I.

"Corporate America: The New Gay Activists"

From Yahoo/The Huffington Post by way of PageOneQ



In a recent study by Gallup, almost ninety percent of Americans said they believe gay people should have equal rights in the workplace. Interestingly, only forty-seven percent of these same people believe that being gay is "morally acceptable." So what has convinced nearly nine out of ten people across the country that gays and lesbians deserve equality at work even when they don't believe gay is OK? Charting a course unplanned but nevertheless successful, Corporate America is shaping up to be the most persuasive gay activists of the decade.



How are they doing it? With a simple three-step formula: credibility + education + action. It's a winning combination that actually fuels progress toward achieving equality in other arenas including politically charged topics like same-sex marriage. Having recently returned from a speaking tour that included stops at some of the most historically conservative firms in the country, I found that Corporate America's message supporting the rights of their gay employees is transcending political, economic and even religious barriers.



While many veteran activists will scream and yell over this shift in battlefields from outside the establishment to inside the establishment, a new era of gay activism has dawned. Thanks in large part to Corporate America, the road to anti-gay hate crimes, same-sex marriage, and even gay adoption may already be paved. Not through Washington, but through Wall Street. After all, they've convinced nine out of ten people that gay people deserve to be treated fairly at work so why not speed things up and make the most out of their successful formula. The G Suite folks seem to have the right idea, capitalize on the rising profile of gay people in business and help them up the corporate ladder to the top office. An out-of-the-closet CEO of any blue-chip company will be a watershed day for gay equality. More than likely, all of those other watershed days we've been waiting for will then simply fall into place.



Having spent 30 years in the business world myself (I started telecommuting from my playpen), one thing I've learned and had reinforced time and time again is that business does what's good for business. If it helps anyone else, that's a bouns. If GLBT equality is good for business, and this trend clearly shows that it is, wouldn't it make sense that it should be good for other areas of society?

Focus on the Family Works to Keep Hate Alive

In their latest step to protect their right to be hateful bigots, Focus on the Family's CitizenLink aired a snarky video, trying their best to demean the entire concept of hate crimes.

Thanks to Good As You, here's the link. If you even casually care about GLBT rights, prepare to get really aggravated if you watch it.

If you don't want to raise your bloodpressure too much, here's the summary, quoted by Good As You:

Judges have enough work to do just figuring out who did what to whom, without having to figure out what "who" was thinking when they did "what" to "whom."

If we’re going to have equal justice for all, it needs to be based on what "who" did. Which shines the light on a simple truth; hate crimes legislation is not really about hate or crime. What it’s really about is getting the federal government to grant civil rights status to a particular behavior. Which is the off-ramp that leads to the end of marriage and family.

Let that last sentence sink in for a moment so you can appreciate how absurd it is.

Don't dismiss it, though. As I've said before, people really believe this crap.

I really like the point made by Good As You; imagine this piece running if you substituted "black" or "christian" for "gay" victim regarding this issue.

Radio stations would be pulling the good Dr. Dobson off the air faster that you can say good riddance.

Sort of emphasizes why we need the legislation in the first place, doesn't it?

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us

If you remember that line from the old "Pogo" cartoon, you're dating yourself, but that can be our little secret. That's the point made by this column on The Bilerico Project by guest writer Michael Crawford (an African-American activist, not the Broadway singer).

Crawford is concerned with the amount of infighting he sees among progressive LGBT activists right now, especially with the hate crimes bill ready to come up for a vote in the Senate. Crawford feels important resources and energy is being diverted from that lobbying effort to debate/complain about the structure of the upcoming Democratic presidential debate devoted to LGBT issues.

This just goes to show that we are not nearly as politically sophisticated as we would like to believe ourselves to be and that our activism is steeped in personal self-expression rather than a focus on political effectiveness. We have the best chance ever of getting a major piece of LGBT legislation through both chambers of Congress and instead of fighting tooth and nail to make it, some of are engaged in another round on intramural bloodletting under the guise of holding organizations "accountable."

This forum is a sign of our growing political strength and, yes, some credit should go to HRC for the work that it has done over the years in a hostile political environment to build that political strength. Rather than simply attacking our national organizations, we should be focused on how we can help to make them better, faster, stronger and more effective. The homo-haters at Focus on the Family alone have a budget that is larger than HRC, NGLTF, SLDN, GLAAD, Lambda Legal, National Black Justice Coalition and GLSEN combined. And that's just one of the organizations that the religious right has built over the years to obliterate us.

Of course, every political organization or interest group has disagreement and infighting, but that hurts a minority group like GLBT activists harder because their resources, although stronger than they used to be, pale in comparision to some of their more aggressive opponents, as Crawford points out.

While I was disappointed at the makeup of the panel, I think it is important to see the upcoming LOGO debate as a starting point and not the end destination. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a trend, not a unique, one-time event. I feel it would be more benefitial for GLBT activists to focus on finding a way to be supportive of this event, then seeking improvements for the next one.

Energy and resources need to be spent on reaching equality for GLBT people, not in pushing individual agendas.

"Gay Christians Reclaim the Bible"

I was delighted to find an article with that title in a gay newspaper, "The Edge," published and distributed in Boston, Massachusetts. Here's an excerpt:

The Bible has been used, early and often, to attack civil parity for GLBT people, especially in terms of marriage equality. But other points of view are possible, say gay-friendly congregations.

A Boston Globe article from last November addresses this topic, quoting Rev. Jeff Miner or the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church.

"Most people think that the attitude of gay Christians is, ’Who cares what the Bible says?’ when in reality, we care deeply what the Bible says," says Miner, a pastor with the GLBT-friendly, Indianapolis-based church, who led a forum on the issue last November at the Arlington Street Church.

Continued Miner, "We think there are a lot of powerful, affirming things that are in the Bible that have been ignored."

Miner and co-author John Tyler Connoley wrote the book, or at least a book, on the subject; in 2002, The Children Are Free: Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-Sex Relationships was published by the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church.

Miner and Connoley look at both Old and New Testaments for source material to bolster their argument that not only are GLBT people God’s children, too, but that in fact they are exactly who and what God intended for them to be.

Their book "The Children Are Free" is an outstanding book, one of the ones I used when I first started attending a gay affirming church and needed to put my arms around God's acceptance of GLBT people. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in serious studying that issue.

But it’s the behavior of heterosexual Christians that concern some people. The Globe article quoted Pam Garramone, executive director of Greater Boston Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, which sponsored the forum at the Arlington Street Church.

Garramone related how she had received a phone call from a distraught mother whose husband had exiled their daughter from the family home for being a lesbian.

Recounted Garramone, "She said, ’My instinct is to love and accept her, but I can’t because my church won’t let me.’"

Continued Garramone, "That’s the kind of parent who needs to hear this message--you don’t have to choose your child over your religion."

There is no choice needed--God loves gay people just as much as he does straights without changing them.

Click here to read some of the examples Miner and Connoley included in their book from The Edge's article.

Get Out of Reverse

A few weeks ago, I announced the ministry initiative Pastor Brenda and I are working to start up, the Affirming Christian Network. Check it out if you haven't already--we've recently posted a few new items there.



I've written my first essay for the ministry, "Get Out of Reverse:"



How many blessings have we missed because we were too fixated on our past to seek God’s plans for our future?I’m sure we’ve all also done things that we are ashamed of and that we have come to know were outside (sometimes waaaaaay outside) God’s will. The Apostle Paul certainly did. Before his career change, he was one of the most zealous persecutors of Christians, even killing some of them. If you ever doubt whether God can use you to serve his kingdom, just think of Paul.



Click here to read "Get Out of Reverse."

Brighten The Corner Where You Are

Don't be content to sit on the back pew. Don't be afraid to have your voice heard in your church. If your church doesn't want to hear your voice because you are gay, find a place that does. That's what I gleaned out of an excellent essay on Whosoever by Lori Heine.



Most of us are searching for a place where our unique, individual talents can be made useful. We want to be recognized. We need to be appreciated. And so we search on and on, following the passion for Christ that God has placed in our hearts. We are so accustomed to being unwelcome that when we find a church in which we are welcome, the pressure we feel to go along to get along - even if it compromises much of what we believe - can be overwhelming.


Those of us who choose to stand up for orthodoxy and tradition, within a church or denomination that welcomes us (and thinks that ought to be enough), can find ourselves plunked down smack on the opposite side of the fence from those who support our inclusion. We may be driven, by conscience, to stand beside the very people who oppose our welcome. Our usual allies may react as if we have betrayed them. What all too often occurs to nobody else is that, for GLBT Christians to have genuine freedom of worship, we must follow our convictions regardless of who else in the church likes it and who doesn't. We owe our loyalty, after all, not to any particular faction within the church, but to God.



Wherever in the church's theological and political spectrum you happen to decide you belong, make sure you make your membership matter. Make your voice heard. Don't let anybody shame or guilt you into compliance with anything you cannot support in good conscience or respect. The Holy Spirit may indeed take you somewhere very far from the tradition in which you were raised. But it makes a great deal of difference whether you go there because it genuinely seems right to you, or whether it is because you have been made, by those whose acceptance of you is strictly conditional, to feel that you must in order to please them.



Click here to read the rest of the essay on Whosoever.



We are ALL an important part of God's kingdom, and he has plans for how He wants to use ALL of us in his Kingdom. Seek out those plans and find the place where He wants to use you.

Here's What We're Up Against

By we, I mean folks like the ones I work with in ministry efforts to reach out to GLBT people. Some of them/you have been sooooo hurt and damaged by people preaching their misguided interpretation of God's word, or just using the Lord to justify their own hate and bigotry. Here's an excerpt from a fairly innocuous blog post I ran across earlier that weighed heavily on me during worship today.

From the post "What Would We Do Without Christians?"

Sometimes I wonder to myself if church aren't just meeting places for horrible people rather than places of worship and repentance. I've read the Bible and Jesus sure says a lot about not creating a fuss, being pious, honest and civil. He talks of neighbourliness and kindness. When was the last time I saw a Christian who had truly accepted these ideals? I honestly can't remember. Go around the internet and read what Christians write... mostly it's hateful, dishonest and distasteful. Grr...

While I think this generalization reaches too far, we've all seen people, perhaps even congregations, that fit this description. I'm sure the young man who wrote this has experience to back up his feelings.

This perspective, from my experience, both direct and anecdotal, is very deeply ingrained into a large part of the GLBT community. That is why I believe it is so important for churches that are affirming and accepting to move beyond their four walls and reach out to people like Jae, not by hitting him over the head with the same Bible he's already been beaten up with but by showing the kind of love, acceptance, and humility that he associates with Christ but not with Christians.

Do you know that wonderful old hymn "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love?" I can understand how GLBT people could scoff at that, wanting to make the last word of the title hate instead of love.

We need to show the unchurched GLBT community Jesus' love, and the only way they can see it is through the love, not hate and condemnation, of His people.

Coverage of a City's First "Gay" Church

The Metropolitan Community Church continues its international outreach by opening a new church in Worcester, England. According to this report by the Worcester News, it's the first of its kind in that city.



Rev Chris Dowd, an Australian who came to the UK 12 years ago and who is leading the services, said: "It's appalling that there simply isn't a place where openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people can come to church and be accepted for who they are. For a substantial number of gay and lesbian people spirituality is very important.


"There is a difference between being tolerant of sexuality and celebrating it."



He said: "The church is on the liberal side but people don't have to be gay to come to it. Some gay people feel that they are expected to sit at the back of the church and say nothing.


"The fact that people don't see a need for a gay church is the problem. A lot of people who attend the church have been on the receiving end of bigotry from people. Most people in my church - particularly the gays and lesbians - have suffered terrible stress from other denominations and feel they can't worship freely.



As I've written before, I don't want to be tolerated, I want to be accepted for who I am. If I were gay, I would seek no less but often be disappointed. ALL people deserve to have a church where they can go to worship God in the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of who they are as individuals. To accomplish the first part of that, I strongly believe one needs to be able to do the second part.



This is one of the primary reasons that here in the U. S. there are still many churches that are primarily African-American. Historically, they needed their own churches to not feel like second-class citizens in congregations controlled by white people. It's hard not to see the irony in the fact that "gay" houses of worship and GLBT activists face some of their stiffest opposition from the leaders of those African-American churches.



I put "gay" in quotes here because, though I understand why these churches are described that way, I don't believe it's accurate. That phrase implices the exclusion of anyone who is not gay, and I have not found that to be the case.



When I first started attending Believers Covenant Fellowship, I was warmly received and accepted, not tolerated, even though it would fall under the "gay church" classification and I was a straight man. I have bonded with these wonderful people and call them "my strange little church family." They have loved me and helped me grow in my walk with God, and I have enjoyed poking fun at them as they have at me over our differences.



To me, congregations like BCF are not "gay churches," they are accepting and affirming.



Shouldn't all our places of worship be like that, regardless of race and/or sexual orientation.



After all, God is.



Thanks to PageOneQ for the tip.

Knowing You Are Is Worth the Cost

That's the moral of the story told by the life of Brandon Kneefel, a 20 year-old in Michigan. From the Detroit Free Press:



"I was 14 when my parents asked me if I was gay," said Kneefel, who was born in Dearborn and raised in Livonia. "I said that I was, and they immediately wanted to get me counseling."


For Kneefel, a popular student who holds track and field records at Livonia's Stevenson High School, it should have been a relief finally to acknowledge outwardly what he'd felt inside since he was 4. Instead, it unleashed a nightmare.


His family was humiliated and repulsed by his homosexuality. They objected to him running for student body president, fearing he would negatively influence other students. They didn't want him to play football for similar reasons.


"All I saw was their fear," he said.



Click on the link above to read the rest of the story. Amazingly, it is one of validation, not tragedy.

"David Vitter, Another Victim of Gay Marriage"

If you've been watching the news in recent days (always a dangerous proposition), you've probably heard of the latest right winger to get caught with his zipper down, Louisiana Senator David Vitter. His phone number showed up on the recently released records of a Washington, DC "madam," who he contacted to obtain the services of a prostitute. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the Christian Coalition had rated Vitter 100% for his pro-family voting record.

Here is a clever tounge-in-cheek essay by Jon Swift, who blames the whole mess on gay marriage. The post is good, and so are some of the comments although someone took the essay far too seriously.

I link to these type of stories because I have a sarcastic sense of humor and more so because writings like this help point out how absurd the whole "gay marriage will destroy society" is when put in the context of a real situation. Here's a taste of the essay:

Though it is very magnanimous of Vitter to accept responsibility for his transgressions, is he really to blame? After the Hollywood left redefined marriage, it must have been a very difficult and confusing time for him. The failure of the passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment must have taken a severe toll on him as he struggled to figure out what marriage really is if even gays can do it. As he grappled with the issue, is it any surprise that he found solace in the embrace of a disinterested paid companion?

Sadly, you just KNOW there are some nitwits out there who actually believe this.

Featured Organization: The Naming Project

Ross from the website In Lay Terms gave me a heads up about a wonderful organization he works with in the Minneapolis area called The Naming Project. The following is from their website:

The Naming Project is a faith-based youth group serving youth of all sexual and gender identities. The primary focus is to provide a place for youth who are gay/lesbian/bisexual/ transgender/ queer/questioning to learn, grow, and share their experiences. In this way The Naming Project is a space in which youth can comfortably discuss faith and who they understand themselves to be--whether gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender...or straight.

The Naming Project is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is a mission and outreach of Bethany Lutheran Church in the Seward neighborhood. However, The Naming Project reaches out to youth across the United States through its programs.

Programs of The Naming Project Include:
* Local meetings on Sunday evenings in Minneapolis
* Outings to Worship and Fellowship Experiences
* E-mail check-ins and resources for youth and parents
* Workshops and conversations for youth in schools, communities, and churches
* Workshops for youth workers, parents, and congregations
* A five-day summer camp for youth

There is also a film about the camp titled Camp Out that will premier on the LOGO network on Saturday, July 28th.

I think this kind of work is so very important. One of the biggest issues I've run across in the GLBT community is the difficulty people have in unlearning who they thought they were supposed to be and coming to understand who they really are. Groups like this can help avoid much of that pain by encouraging youth to accept who they are at an earlier age and learn to love themselves and others.

If you know of an organization that is working for the benefit of the GLBT community, please let me know at straight_notnarrow@yahoo.com and I'll be happy to feature them here.

The U. S. As a Safe Haven for GLBT People

As I've chronicled here over time, even with the limitations on civil rights GLBT face in the United States, there are many nations where the situation is much, much worse. That makes the U. S. an attractive destination for seeking political asylum, according to the Washington Post.



Harassment and abuse of gay men and lesbians is becoming increasingly accepted as grounds for legal asylum in the United States, even at a time of conservative judicial activism, fear about HIV/AIDS transmission and increased scrutiny of asylum seekers. The government does not disclose a breakdown of reasons for granting asylum petitions, but legal advocacy groups in several major U.S. cities said they have won dozens of cases.


Homosexuality, once a de facto condition for barring foreigners from entering the country, is now officially recognized by the U.S. government as a category that might subject individuals to persecution in their homeland, just as if they were political dissidents in a dictatorship or religious minority members in a theocracy.


But although petitioning for asylum on the basis of sexual orientation has become far easier since 1994, when then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered that a groundbreaking case involving a gay Cuban refugee be viewed as a legal precedent, such asylum cases are still extremely difficult to win, according to lawyers in Washington and elsewhere.


One reason is that applicants face multiple burdens of proof. They must demonstrate that they were abused or harassed by authorities, not merely by angry relatives or drunken hooligans, or that the authorities failed to protect them. They must also prove that they were abused because they are homosexual -- and thus prove that they are, in fact, gay.



It is still an uphill struggle for GBLT people to immigrate into the United States, and the organization Immigration Equality is working to improve that situation. Click on the link if you are interested in learning more about this issue.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Gay Rights

In case you missed this excerpt from a Vanity Fair article in which actor/activist Brad Pitt interviewed Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, here it is via the site Josh & Josh are Rich & Famous:


Brad Pitt: So certainly discrimination has no place in Christianity. There's a big argument going on in America right now, on gay rights and equality.


Desmond Tutu: For me, I couldn't ever keep quiet. I came from a situation where for a very long time people were discriminated against, made to suffer for something about which they could do nothing--their ethnicity. We were made to suffer because we were not white. Then, for a very long time in our church, we didn't ordain women, and we were penalizing a huge section of humanity for something about which they could do nothing--their gender. And I'm glad that now the church has changed all that. I'm glad that apartheid has ended. I could not for any part of me be able to keep quiet, because people were being penalized, ostracized, treated as if they were less than human, because of something they could do nothing to change--their sexual orientation. For me, I can't imagine the Lord that I worship, this Jesus Christ, actually concurring with the persecution of a minority that is already being persecuted. The Jesus who I worship is a Jesus who was forever on the side of those who were being clobbered, and he got into trouble precisely because of that. Our church, the Anglican Church, is experiencing a very, very serious crisis. It is all to do with human sexuality. I think God is weeping. He is weeping that we should be spending so much energy, time, resources on this subject at a time when the world is aching.


Brad Pitt: I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you for saying that.


I beileve that God does weep when His children are denied basic rights, especially when it is done in His name.

"50 Voices For Equality" In Oregon

From Basic Rights Oregon:

Today, the Basic Rights Education Fund launched a large-scale statewide, public education campaign, entitled" 50 Voices For Equality", a campaign made up of 50 straight Oregonians from ever corner of the state--who are standing up for GLBT equality.

The Fifty Voices for Equality website features biographies and statements of support for fairness in Oregon, as well as photos of the 50 Voices. Each of the Voices will engage in educational activities in their communities throughout 2007 and 2008. The campaign will include other educational components, to be launched in the coming months in combination with other campaigns.

The voices come from diverse perspectives, and include leading businesspeople, parents and grandparents, faith leaders, elected officials, community activists and public safety officers. Voices are geographically diverse as well, hailing from Bend, Philomath, Otis, Woodburn, Portland, Eugene, Baker City, Salem, Warm Springs, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Lincoln City, Ashland, Corvallis, Troutdale, Lake Oswego, The Dalles, Coos Bay, and Keizer.

We've also released a video to launch the campaign that we invite you to watch and share. Click here to watch the launch video!