Bans Lifted

"This is about equal rights, equal justice and saying to the American people, 'if you want to serve this country, if you want to give your life for this country, you may do so regardless of who you love.'" - Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Regardless of whom you kill, for that matter. (That would include oppressed queer brothers and sisters, citizens of countries with which the USA is at war or occupies illegally.) As the Senate voted today to repeal DADT, a federal appeals court has lifted the ban on military recruiting of minors in schools. That means that LBGT youth, who are harassed and abused and bullied in schools (some committing suicide), can sign up to be killed in Obama's wars.

QUEER VISIBILITY AND VICTORIES

In Vermont Pride Week officially kicked off on Sunday evening. There are all sorts of events going on this week. I'll be joining Integrity/Vermont (and St Paul's Episcopal Cathedral) for a pre-parade breakfast on Saturday and then we'll all head out to march at Noon.

I'm thrilled to see one of our queer activist leaders in Vermont, Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak (former director of Outright) write in Seven Days, "There's more to our movement than matrimony." It's been a long time coming that the elites of the Vermont LBGTQ community should recognise this. [My emphasis in bold.]

Legalizing same-sex marriage was a long-overdue, critical victory in the fight for gay rights. But I fear that many members of the queer community — the ones with financial, political and social means — see marriage as the end of the fight for a safe, fair and equal Vermont. To them, I would say: You, the adult queer with your chosen family, a job and home, may be better off, but I don’t think we are.

Marriage doesn’t address the unresolved needs of the queer youth, trans people, single queers, gender-variant individuals, alternative family and relationship seekers, perceived-to-be-queer people, queer service members and their families, food, and housing-insecure queers, and many other subsectors of Vermont’s queer community.

For example, the CDC’s 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey reports that queer students are still twice as likely as their heterosexual peers to be bullied in our public schools. A gay Vermonter in the military, if outed, can still be dishonorably discharged, stripped of medical coverage and denied the education he or she deserves through the GI Bill. My male friend who wears a pink bike helmet around Burlington regularly hears screams of “faggot!” from passing cars. [...]

Right now, our history is being commercialized and packaged into a corporate fad. Remember how Gap made it cool to care about people dying of AIDS in Africa? Well, gay marriage looks like the next hip social cause. With celebrities taping their mouths over with “NO H8” in protest of California’s Proposition 8 gay- marriage ban and Pride, go-go boys sporting undies with “legalize gay” across their tight butts, I fear that the marriage movement is quickly becoming a fad. And what happens to fads? Maybe I will write about that on my LiveJournal or, better yet, write a song to post on MySpace.

Marriage alone can’t bring us a vibrant queer community. Think about gay neighborhoods in bigger cities, or smaller destinations such as Provincetown. What is it that makes those places feel welcoming? It isn’t marriage — Massachusetts only just legalized that. It’s visibility. It’s queer people proudly displaying rainbow flags on their businesses and homes. It’s queer people walking hand in hand everywhere (not just down the main drag). It’s queer people gathering at gay bars, events and community centers to see each other and, more importantly, be seen.

Constance McMillen gets a win...

BOSTON GLOBE (ASSOCIATED PRESS):

JACKSON, Miss. — A rural school district that canceled its prom rather than allow a lesbian student to attend with her girlfriend has agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit the ACLU filed on her behalf.

The district also agreed to follow a nondiscrimination policy as part of the settlement, though it argues that such a policy was already in place.

Constance McMillen, 18, said the victory came at the price of her being shunned in her small hometown of Fulton.

“I knew it was a good cause, but sometimes it really got to me. I knew it would change things for others in the future, and I kept going and I kept pushing,’’ McMillen said yesterday.

But it's a bittersweet victory... From QUEERTY:

Technically, this falls into the "win" column: Constance succeeded in having her school confess its sins and pay her for failing one of its students (though really, it failed all of its students). And while Constance did manage to graduate from another high school a tad more accepting, and did get to dance at a number of proms, and did get to serve as grand marshal in gay pride parades, and did become a beacon of hope for all queer teens, she was also a high school senior victimized by her own school, and that's never something to be happy about.

IOWA, TOO

Iowa, a new tourist destination? Not really. Every four years, at the start of the presidential campaign, it's a destination for wannabe candidates. But yesterday, on the same day that the Vermont House gave civil unions "a respecful burial" and voted for marriage equality (without a court order, I might add), the Iowa Supremee Court upheld same-sex couples' right to marry, prompting some people to say that midwestern LBGTs now have a place to tie the knot.

Two theologies

John M Gessell writing in The Covenant Journal - The present crisis in the Episcopal Church (and, indeed, in the worldwide Anglican Communion) is not just about the moral status of homosexuality and its expression.

Homosexuality and scriptural authority in this perspective are wedge issues in a struggle to gain power and to preserve patriarchy in the Church. The blows to male domination which have occurred in the past fifty years threaten patriarchal control and underlie the present hysteria. The end of patriarchal power has engendered conflict, and attempts to force the Church to adopt novel theories of Scriptural authority and to adopt novel systems in its polity under the claim of historical legitimacy and of traditionalism. Those who cannot agree to this takeover are called, ironically, "revisionists."

This conflict is played out through alternative doctrines of God. Though not articulated openly, there is a face-off between the God of love and justice, and the God of judgment and wrath. Both may be found in the Old Testament. On the one hand we can read of a blazing, thunderous, blasting storm-God who strikes down in wrath all who fail to meet his demands. This jealous God of wrath is in contrast to a God of compassion, of a humane God who makes the rainbow promise not to destroy his people. This is God as rescuer, as redeemer, who is relenting and who is ever wooing his people and in whom there is plenteous forgiveness.

God as male authority figure. God as lover. Images of God have consequences that matter. The conflicting images of God profoundly inform the present debate in the Church and its sex wars. The Windsor Report seems to project a God who is judgmental, censorious, legalizing, casting down sinners to keep his Church holy and pure. This is a gospel of intolerance. On the other hand, the Episcopal Church's response to Windsor, "To Set our Hope on Christ," is deeply thoughtful, considering scripture and tradition carefully in its explanation of the Church's actions. It presents a God who is not judgmental, but forgiving, caring, accepting, loving, who seeks to bring all to himself. This God is the firm foundation of a Church that is inclusive and accepting and which calls all to God's table. At this present, the two images are remote from one another and establish unbridgeable gaps in faith.

To put the conflict in alternative terms, we can draw a circle of love and include all of God's children, or we can cast out those we dislike and of whom we disapprove.

PDF link: To Set our Hope on Christ

Humiliation transformed into glory: the push from prophetic voices

From the Presiding Bishop's sermon at Executive Council meeting in Portland, Oregon --

On Friday I went over to Good Sam hospital to visit John Scannell. I took the MAX and the Portland Streetcar for the first time. I've actually never lived in this city, and my previous forays around here were always by car. I found a remarkably clean and efficient system, not just conventional public transit, but with some amazing adaptations. You know, there are hooks to hang your bicycle from if you want to commute a longer distance than just on MAX. There are electric ramps that permit wheeled vehicles like strollers and walkers and wheelchairs to get on the train more easily. And at some point I was looking out the window and I noticed just how many electric wheelchairs there are on the streets of Portland – far more than I see in New York or in Las Vegas or any other city in this country. I saw people going about their daily business in a city that takes accessibility very seriously. In some very important way, the need to use a wheelchair has gone from a major problem to an accepted challenge in this city. The city as a whole has adapted to the needs of a few, in the sense that the whole is better off when the few are encouraged and enabled to live full and equal lives. As the Philippians writer says, a body of humiliation has been transformed into a body of glory. The city has taken the needs of a part of its population so seriously that it has moved beyond mere words of welcome to deeds of welcome.

Now, I imagine that the adaptation required in this city wasn't easy, that it involved a series of struggles over how much it would cost, and who would be inconvenienced, and even why should we bother. And I imagine that a piece of the process had to do with the legal requirements of the Americans with Disability Act. Sometimes systems need legal sanctions before they will respond. Whatever's been involved, however, this city has become a beacon of light and hope for the differently abled, and it's had something to do with the push that's come from prophetic voices.

Full text

The value of the word "homophobia"

Related to my post a few days ago about Beaudry's homophobia, Dennis of psychology, dogs, politics and wine has a few words indeed to say about the value of the word "homophobia" --

Call out homophobia - do not be ashamed to identify it, even when the bigots claim that it is not what they are "feeling." Make it obvious, based on their behaviors. And make it obvious so that their children and grandchildren will be ashamed to carry on the behaviors and bigotry of this generation, as many of the children and grandchildren of racists have become.

You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught.
-- YOU'VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT South Pacific (Rodgers & Hammerstein)

No doubt you remember the furore last year when Outright Vermont, an organization providing social activities and support for LGBTIQQA or queer youth, encountered opposition to its presentation on anti-bullying and diversity at the Williston Central School. After initially canceling the presentation, that school rescheduled with Outright Vermont following a large community forum where the majority of those in attendance voiced their support of the presentation.

Well, the pressure is on Outright Vermont again, this time from a local conservative radio host, whacko Paul Beaudry. Thanks to Vermont Snarky Boy for alerting me to this story in yesterday's Burlington Free Press.

The lede --

SWANTON -- A proposed presentation about gender and sexual orientation-based bullying has come under fire at Missisquoi Valley Union High School after a conservative radio talk show host skewered the school district for scheduling a two-day series of panel discussions with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender youth organization and called for the school to revoke its invitation.

Paul Beaudry, host of the "Comments Show" on WRSA in St. Albans and "True North Radio" on WDEV in Waterbury, objected to a plan to allow the LGBT youth advocacy organization Outright Vermont to present a series of workshops aimed at combating bullying and violence. Beaudry said he couldn't believe the school was allowing the group to come in.

We have a very, very long way to go to raise awareness so that reason will exist in Vermont. As a gay man, I ache at the pain that Beaudry's hate-filled speech has caused in our state. I also hunger for a world where people with vastly different opinions can sit together and share their stories. The workshops offered by Outright Vermont in schools allow for that. It is only through that connectedness, a one-on-one encounter, that people's hearts will be changed. When they sit with a gay or lesbian person and hear their stories, they begin to ask questions and that opens up some possibility of change. So, I'm with Snarky Boy --

This whole episode should be a lesson to Vermonters about how far we have to go before true tolerance and inclusion can be a reality for ALL of us. Let’s hope the Beaudrys of Vermont will actually tone down their screaming long enough to attend an Outright Vermont workshop and learn a little something about truly loving your neighbors. Similarly, I hope everyone opposing Beaudry and his wingnut views will do so in a manner that is creative, effective AND legal. We do, you know, have reason on our side.

It is noteworthy that not one of the mainstream Vermont bloggers has had the balls to decry Beaudry's abhorrent behaviour. And as for the Burlington Free Press? I won't hold my breath.

Unity over integrity

From today's Guardian leader -

Compromise is often necessary and rarely glorious; but the outcome of the meeting of Anglican primates, which has just ended in Tanzania, does not even have the merit of balance.[...I]n the face of all the challenges facing humankind, not least in Africa, primates spent five days obsessing about their attitude to gay sex. Religion and homosexuality have long enjoyed a close, if covert, relationship, but while much of the modern world has come to adopt an approach that supports an open understanding of gay and lesbian people, Anglicanism seems to have retreated from it.

Why should I stay in this farce? I'm a cradle Episcopalian. I'm also gay. It's not simple, but I choose to remain in the Episcopal Church to bear witness to the love of God and the inclusive gospel of Jesus Christ. I try to think of other liturgical, sacramental churches I could attend, and then I realise the rest are even worse off than TEC.

After the bombshell yesterday from Dar es Salaam, I read Libby Purves with my morning Whittard. I didn't know Ms Purves wrote for a Murdoch paper. I've been delighted for years by her broadcasts on BBC R4. She's just the kind of person who'd have sat down with the dinnerladies at my school, after the washing-up. --

Pray lift your eyes above the belt
The Churches’ sexual obsession makes me despair

At the conclusion of her commentary, she writes --

Let the Churches concentrate on condemning promiscuity, infidelity, exploitation, predation — whether gay or straight. Nobody asks them to go the full Gay Pride, bathhouse-culture route; but let them recognise kindness and mutual support as virtues, and bless all honest unions. Let them condemn proselytising from either side, making it clear that there is nothing cool or clever about random sexual tourism, any more than there is anything evil in being born gay. It just happens. Being gay can, without doing any violence to the Gospels, be accepted as a potential route to holiness.

It won’t be. They’ll squabble and fudge and cling to their hierarchies and their terrors, and some will scuttle to Rome and Rome will feel smug. And the rest of society will sigh and turn away, thinking that Christianity has nothing to offer.

She's a keeper alright. Three cheers for Libby. Go gurl!

Marriage Equality/Rutland Herald Poll

Regarding LBGT marriage equality, the 2004 Green Party Platform stated

In keeping with the Green Key Values of diversity, social justice and feminism, we support full legal and political equality for all persons, regardless of sex, gender, or sexual orientation.

We support the recognition of equal rights of persons gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender to housing, jobs, civil marriage, medical benefits, child custody, and in all areas of life provided to all other citizens.

The Rutland Herald is currently conducting a "poll" about the marriage equality bill that was introduced last week in the Vermont legislature. Right now, the poll numbers don't look good for “gays.” If you are willing, please take 2 seconds to log on to www.rutlandherald.com If you scroll down to the right, you'll see the "poll." You can vote with the click of a mouse. Thanks so much!

While you may not personally feel the urge to make a trip down the aisle, many LGBTQ couples would like the opportunity (and the legal right!). This message needs to be presented to the general public. Make it work…

Link: Rutland Herald