Rhode Island Churches Back Marriage Rights

Churches back gay nuptials

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

By Bruce Landis

Providence, R.I., Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — Religious leaders from several denominations reaffirmed their support for same-gender marriage yesterday and announced an advertising campaign intended to get that word out and to dispel any impression that religion doesn’t support the policy change.

“We wanted to make the point that there are religious folks who are in favor of same-gender marriage,” said the Rev. Eugene T. Dyszlewski, pastor of the Riverside Congregational United Church of Christ and chairman of the Rhode Island Religious Coalition for Same-Gender Marriage.

“It’s a different kind of pulpit,” Dyszlewski said of the advertising campaign. “We want to put a public face on it.”

A dozen religious leaders and supporters showed off their signs on buses at the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority headquarters on Elmwood Avenue yesterday afternoon. The advertisements will run on 10 RIPTA buses for a month, the agency said. The advertisements depict two dozen religious leaders and carry the message, “Rhode Island Religious Leaders Supporting Same-Gender Marriages.”

OUUT Second Sunday movie for July 8 Hate Crime

Full Synopsis:

A quiet community reveals an ugly underside in the wake of a horrible crime in this independent drama. Robbie Levinson (Seth Peterson) and Trey McCoy (Brian J. Smith) are a gay couple who've been together for six years; they've been sharing a comfortable home in suburban Dallas most of that time, and are planning to get married once the legalities work themselves. Robbie and Trey are good neighbors who get along well with the other folks in the community until Chris Boyd (Chad Donella) moves in next door. Chris is a youth pastor at a church run by his father (Bruce Davison), a fundamentalist Christian who preaches often and with great vehemence about the evils of homosexuality. Chris doesn't keep his feelings about gays to himself, and when Trey is found dead in a nearby park, the victim of a sadistic beating with a baseball bat, Robbie believes Chris may be involved. However, Chris' father and mother provide an alibi for him, and the police hand the case from Detective Fisher (Farah White), who investigates hate crimes, to Sgt. Esposito (Giancarlo Esposito) in the homicide department. Robbie is appalled to discover he's now the leading suspect in the murder, and begins making his own investigation into Trey's death. Hate Crime was the first feature film from writer and director Tommy Stovall. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Running Time:

104 mins

2nd Sunday movie for June 10

Ken Hanes wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his controversial play about a reporter who finds himself torn between the firmly held beliefs of two psychologists. Frank Johnston (Andrew Elvis Miller) is an investigative journalist who is involved in a long-term relationship with Dr. Jonathan Baldwin (Paul Provenza), a psychologist. Both Frank and Jonathan are have an interest in the work of Dr. Arthur Apsey (Dan Butler), another psychologist who has become controversial for his claims that he can "cure" gay men of their homosexual orientation. Jonathan thinks Apsey is a fraud, and Frank thinks there's an exposé to be written about Apsey, so they come up with a plan: Frank will begin seeing Apsey as a patient, claiming he wants to be wants to be rid for his desires for other men, and Jonathan will use Frank's inside data on Apsey to reveal the flawed thinking behind his techniques. However, Frank soon discovers Apsey is shrewder than he imagined; it doesn't take long for the doctor to figure out what Frank is trying to do, and as he begins to question Frank, he forces the journalist to examine the flaws in his relationship with Jonathan that he's been willing to ignore, as well as poking holes in Frank's assumptions about Apsey's work. Fixing Frank was screened at the 2001 L.A. Outfest, a festival for gay- and lesbian-themed films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Running Time:
104 mins

Nebraska Dept of Health and Human Services Bans Discussion about Gay Parenting

Diversity committees for state of Nebraska Health and Human Services can celebrate food from around the world. They can bring in Polynesian dancers for a program on Pacific Rim and Asian cultures. They can talk about Mardi Gras, black history and the Chinese New Year. But they cannot provide any information that relates to people who are gay.

In fact, Nebraska state HHS leaders recently ordered a Lincoln-based diversity committee to remove one speaker from an informational forum focusing on family diversity because the woman was in a same-sex partnership. The team was told to remove the speaker involved in same-sex parenting from the lineup, even though the agency policy statement says the team should promote and encourage the appreciation of human diversity in the workplace and communities served by HHS, said Cathy Kingery, diversity committee co-chairwoman.

The forum was neither condoning nor condemning gay life but simply recognizing its existence and the special circumstances families may encounter, Kingery said in an e-mail description of the issue. The administration was unwilling to waiver, she said.
Concerned they were being asked to discriminate when their goal was to recognize and encourage appreciation of diversity, 11 of 18 committee members, including the two co-chairmen, resigned. In Omaha, at least 10 of 24 team members quit when administrators stopped a program and panel focusing on gay and lesbian issues.

One of the invited speakers said the administration first stopped a daylong training and then said the group could not host a shorter program offered after work hours.

Committee members were told they could not discuss gay, lesbian and transgendered issues on state time, said Betty Dorr, past president of Omaha PFLAG, a group representing parents, family and friends of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons.

"This is just another episode of the state denying an opportunity for stories to be told by the wonderful gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people we have in our community, in Nebraska," Dorr said.

HHS CEO Chris Peterson says the agency’s diversity teams must limit topics to the protected classes in federal law, which does not include homosexuals.

In response to a request for a short interview with Heineman on the diversity controversy, the governor’s chief spokesperson said: "I don’t think that is going to happen."

"I don’t think the governor is interested in commenting," spokeswoman Jen Rae Hein said. "The governor believes the director is handling it appropriately."

Hein was also unwilling to say whether Heineman agreed or disagreed with the policy.

"The governor does not want to interject himself into this discussion," she said repeatedly, offering a one-note answer to a number of questions about the governor’s attitude on the issue.

"He is not going to interject himself into this discussion."
At their most logical, these assaults on gay rights and the "gay lifestyle" are meant to make members of the LGBT community rethink their own identity... to second guess themselves. And in this sense they have succeeded: they have convinced many bright young men and women to question their identity as Nebraskans.

And who can blame them? If the wingnuts leading this anti-homosexual crusade really believed their rhetoric (that gay marriage is a threat to civilization itself, that gay adoption is a pox upon the children) there would be no need to silence this discussion. Those confident of their positions don't shy away from debate, they embrace the opportunity to respond and persuade.

But the anti-gay rights movement isn't about discussion; isn't about debate. It isn't really about anything. It's a senseless and classless attempt to use the law to bully a population that makes some people uncomfortable.

And it's worked. Discrimination is enshrined in our state constitution. It is a cornerstone of our campaign rhetoric. It is the undeniable, unquestionable, fundamental truth of Cornhusker politics.

But it is not Nebraska. Not the Nebraska I know. And not the place I call home.

web links:

DailyKos: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/12/161650/821

New Nebraska Network: http://newnebraska.net/2007/05/state-agency-bans-discussion-about-gay.html

OUUT GLBT Film Festival - Second Sunday

BEFORE STONEWALL will be shown on Sunday, May 13 at 7:00 PM at First Unitarian Church in preparation for Gay Pride in June. Please join us for the film!

"Ex-Gay" Video

HIV Funding and Bush Administration

I see it has been reported that funding for a federal grant program to help city and states fight rising HIV infection rates within minority communities has been suspended only days before the Center for Disease Control released a report calling for a “heightened response” to the “major health crisis” of HIV/AIDS in African American communities.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Minority_AIDS_initiative_threatened_by_funding_0426.html


But more ominous and not reported anywhere that I can find is the fact that 60 sites of the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG)* have been de-funded, arguably the organization in which the best research on HIV and AIDS has taken place. That is 60 US sites in Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and other locations will no longer be able to offer HIV-infected persons the latest drugs and treatment approaches. At 60 sites seasoned HIV researchers, study nurses, and support staff will be left without positions. This is immoral! All because of budget cut-backs due to the Iraq war. Of course gay folks and other minorities, especially gay folks and others with HIV, have always been considered disposible by Republican administrations, beginning the Reagan himself. I would hope that if these cutbacks were more widely known, there might be some outrage expressed!

As many of you know, I previously worked at the HIV Clinic at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and had 700 patients with HIV and AIDS. Many of them participated in various clinical trials at various stages of the investigative process. Now all those patients on the prairie and upper midwest will need to go to Chicago or Denver for the closest study. This is so wrong!


*From the ACTG website http://aactg.org/index.asp

"The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), the largest HIV clinical trials organization in the world, plays a major role in setting standards of care for HIV infection and opportunistic diseases related to HIV/AIDS in the United States and the developed world. The ACTG is composed of, and directed by, leading clinical scientists in HIV/AIDS therapeutic research. The ACTG is funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases."

Ellen and Laura Dern remember Ellen's Coming Out Episode

Ellen DeGeneres & Laura Dern Recall 1997 TV Smooch

NEW YORK (AP) - Ten years after they kissed on the "Ellen'' show, Ellen DeGeneres and Laura Dern reunited Monday (4-23-07) on DeGeneres' syndicated talk show to reflect back on the smooch and its aftermath.

DeGeneres, 49, made pop-culture history in 1997 by coming out of the closet in real life while her sitcom character did likewise. In her character's coming-out episode, Dern shared a smooch with the comedian during a guest stint on the ABC series as a lesbian love interest.

Dern, 40, recounted Monday how she couldn't get an acting job for more than a year afterward. "There was certainly backlash, I guess, (that) we all felt from it,'' she told DeGeneres, who said she was sorry and "had no idea'' that Dern was snubbed in Hollywood.

Not getting work felt "awfully terrifying,'' recalled Dern, who said she's grateful for the "extraordinary experience and opportunity'' to be a part of the groundbreaking episode, which also guest starred Oprah Winfrey, Demi Moore and Melissa Etheridge.

May 13 OUUT Movie BEFORE STONEWALL

"Before Stonewall"

This documentary by Greta Schiller takes a look at the sometimes oblique American acknowledgment of homosexuals in the decades before a historical flashpoint in 1969. Late that year, the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village was stormed by police and its patrons arrested -- resulting in two days of rioting. Allen Ginsberg and other celebrities talk about past police tactics, witch-hunts, censorship, and historical "cleansing" operations that violated human rights and civil liberties -- such as routing gays and lesbians out of the State Department. A certain openness about sexual preferences started appearing in the 1920s and accelerated during World War II, eventually culminating in the organized movements of the 1960s and later demanding an end to discrimination. Older and younger generations of gays and lesbians present different viewpoints on a variety of topics, and conflicts or disagreements between gays and lesbians are outlined. The seriousness of the subject of discrimination is balanced with humor, which makes this documentary more accessible to straight audiences unfamiliar with the topic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Running Time:
87 mins
Complete Cast:
Allen Ginsberg
Barbara Gittings

Oppose Focus of the Family "Love Won Out" Campaign

Several weeks ago, Omaha PFLAG was notified that Focus on the Family’s one-day Love Won Out conference will come to Omaha on April 14.The anti-gay conference goes from city to city, drawing crowds of 1,000 or 1,500. Here, the host is Trinity Church at 156th St. and W. Dodge Rd. A lineup of speakers will try to make the case that, as the Love Won Out web site puts it, change is possible and “you don’t have to be gay.” That message unfortunately is welcomed by many parents who become confused and frightened when their child comes out as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The Love Won Out message is wrong, and it is harmful.

In response to Love Won Out -- An ecumenical worship service at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 13, at 1st Central Congregational Church, 36th and Harney Sts., that will be joyful and affirming. Spiritual leaders of at least eight congregations will take part. A young man who went through the agony of “reparative therapy” at Trinity Church in an effort to change his sexuality will give his witness. The River City Mixed Chorus and First United Methodist Church ’s choir will sing.

Please join me at the church!

Link to Omaha PFLAG site: http://www.pflag-omaha.org/president.html

Couple kicked out of IHOP over sapphic smooch

Just one kiss. That’s all it took — to get thrown out of the IHOP in Grandview.
“It was a kiss I would share with my uncle,” Blair Funk told me. Except it wasn’t her uncle she kissed. It was her honey, Eva Sandoval.

Two young women sharing a kiss didn’t seem inappropriate to the other couple in the restaurant booth that night, Jackie Smith and the woman with whom she shares her life, Toni Smith. But someone watching the scene was offended.

So later, the manager confronted them in the lobby and told them to get out. The way Blair tells it, “He said, ‘I have to tell you, we’ve had some complaints about public displays of affection, and we’re a family restaurant. We can’t accept it, and we won’t accept it.’

SNAP Productions "I Am My Own Wife"

See this once in a lifetime performance by Nick Zudina in this Pulitzer Prize winning play! Now playing at SNAP! Productions. You will not be sorry! One of the best productions ever by SNAP!

http://snapproductions.com/Season2007/WIFE/Own_Wife.html

Gay hero dies

A true hero to all gay and lesbian people died of AIDS complications this past week.

Bob Hattoy is dead
--Rick Jacobs

Bob Hattoy died this weekend. He was famous for a few minutes as the Gay Man With AIDS in the run-up to the first Clinton election who spoke at the 1992 Democratic convention. I did not know Bob then, noting only that he was bold to speak publicly about his fight with a disease that the Reagan/Bush-Bush/Quayle administrations had pretended did not exist. (Click on link above for remainder of this story)

Other links to Bob Hattoy

http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2007/03/bob-hattoy-gay-aids-hero-advisor-to.html#links

http://www.towleroad.com/2007/03/gay_activist_bo.html

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/03/bob-hattoy-someone-you-should-know.html


Bob's speech to the 1992 Democratic Convention:

(link to YouTube video of the speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUashmbh1zQ


"Presentation on AIDS by Bob Hattoy"

Mr. Hattoy: Thank you. I love you. Thank you, California. Thank you, Gay and Lesbian community. Thank you, Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. Thank you, Aretha Franklin, God.
I am here tonight because of one man's courage and conviction, one man's dedication and daring and yes, one man's true kindness. He's my boss, Bill Clinton. (Applause)


You see, I have AIDS. I could be an African American woman, a Latino man, a 10-year old boy or girl. AIDS has many faces. And AIDS knows no class or gender, race or religion, or sexual orientation. AIDS does not discriminate, but George Bush's White House does. (Applause)
AIDS is a disease of the Reagan-Bush years. The first case was detected in 1981, but it took 40,000 deaths and seven years for Ronald Reagan to say the word "AIDS." It's five years later, 70,000 more dead and George Bush doesn't talk about AIDS, much less do anything about it.
Eight years from now there will be 2 million cases in America. If George Bush wins, we're all at risk in America. It's that simple. It's that serious. It's that terrible. (Applause)
(Chants of "No second term!")

This is hard. I'm a Gay man with AIDS and if there's any honor in having this disease it's because it's an honor being part of the Gay and Lesbian community in America. (Applause)
We have watched our friends and lovers die, but we have not given up hope. Gay men and Lesbians created community health clinics, provided educational materials, opened food kitchens, and held the hands of the dying in hospices. The Gay and Lesbian community is an American family in the best sense of the word. (Applause)

President Bush, we are a million points of light; you are just too morally blind to see us. Mr. President, you don't see AIDS for what it is - it's a crisis in public health that demands medical experts, not moral judges - and it's time to move beyond your politics of denial, division and death. It's time to move George Bush out of the White House. (Applause)

We need a President who will take action, a President strong enough to take on the insurance companies that drop people with the HIV virus, a President courageous enough to take on the drug companies who drive AIDS patients into poverty and deny them lifesaving medicine. And we need a President who isn't terrified of the word "condom." (Applause)

Every single person with AIDS is someone worthy of caring for. After all, we are your sons and daughters, fathers and mothers. We are doctors and lawyers, folks in the military, ministers and priests and rabbis. We are Democrats, and yes, Mr. President, Republicans. We are part of the American family and, Mr. President, your family has AIDS and we're dying and you're doing nothing about it. (Applause)

Listen. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. But I don't want to live in an America where the President sees me as the enemy. I can face dying because of a disease, but not because of politics.

So I stand here tonight in support of Bill Clinton, a man who sees the value in each and every member of the American family. And although I am a person with AIDS, I am a person with hope, because I know how different my life and all our lives could be if I could call my boss Mr. President.

Martin Luther King once said that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Fifty thousands people took to the streets in New York today because they will no longer be silent about AIDS. (Applause)

Their actions give me hope. All of you came here tonight; millions more are watching in America. Obviously, we have hope and hope gives me the chance of life. I think it's really important to understand that this year, more than any other year, we must vote as if our life depends on it. Mine does; your could - and we all have so much to live for. Thank you.
(Standing ovation)


Act Up. Fight Back. Fight AIDS. Thank you.

Queer 101: A Guide for Heteros

Conservative Americans may demonize gay people -- but how much do progressives really know about queer culture?

As last November's election neared and a Democratic victory appeared more and more likely, Republicans warned that Speaker Pelosi would impose her "San Francisco values" on average Americans. Americans to the right of the left coast felt in their gut that San Francisco values were a shameful thing, without really knowing what they were. If you remember that difference is good, you will strive to maintain American diversity while you also tend to the social safety net. In fact, many Americans fall through the cracks of government policies because those policies rely on legislators' limited guesses about who people are and what they need.
The lover of difference does not believe that all Americans do, or should, share the same set of values and habits. Who knows, if more Americans let go of their terror of the unknown, they might begin to find their own queerdom -- and find it both a liberating and meaningful way to connect with others.

Click on the title above for Cameron Scott's interesting piece for AlterNet or the link below

http://alternet.org/sex/48474/

Mexican Pop Star Outs Himself

A 22-year-old pop star's announcement that he is gay, making him the first high-profile member of Mexico's show-business elite to "come out" in public, has caused a stir in the deeply conservative Catholic country. Christian Chavez, one of six members of the glitzy pop band RBD, told fans he was gay after photographs were published on a gossip Web site purporting to show him tying the knot with his partner in a ceremony in Canada.

First Combat Injured in Iraq Asks End To "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Defending His Country,

but Not Its 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Once a Marine, always a Marine. That pretty much sums up the life of retired Sgt. Eric Alva, who was sworn into the Marine Corps at 19, stationed in Somalia and Japan and lost his right leg when he stepped on a land mine on March 21, 2003, the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
As the war's first injured soldier, Alva was an instant celebrity. He was on "Oprah." President Bush awarded him the Purple Heart. Donald Rumsfeld visited. And strangers in Alva's native San Antonio still insist on paying for his dinner at Chili's. Last fall Alva, 36, contacted the Human Rights Campaign, the gay rights group, and asked to be involved in its lobbying effort. Today he'll stand alongside Rep. Martin Meehan (D-Mass.) when he introduces a bill to repeal the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gay, lesbian and bisexual military personnel.

Q. Why didn't you come out sooner?

A.Eventually my notoriety -- "the injured soldier" -- will wear off. And I can almost hear it now -- "Oh, yeah, he's that gay Marine." I'm okay with that. The truth is, something's wrong with this ban. I have to say something. I mean, you're asking men and women to lie about their orientation, to keep their personal lives private, so they can defend the rights and freedoms of others in this country, and be told, "Well, oh, yeah, if you ever decide to really meet someone of the same sex and you want the same rights, sorry, buddy, you don't have the right." That's one factor. The other factor is, we're losing probably thousands of men and women that are skilled at certain types of jobs, from air traffic controllers to linguists, because of this broken policy.

Q.You come from a military family?

I come from a family of servicemen. My dad, Fidelis, is a Vietnam vet. My grandfather, also named Fidelis, was a World War II and Korean War veteran. I was named after them. My middle name is Fidelis. Fidelis means "always faithful."

Q. What does sexual orientation -- gay, straight, bisexual -- have to do with being a soldier? A Marine?

First, thanks for recognizing that I am a Marine. Second, to answer your question, I have tons and tons of friends that were in the military at the time who knew I was gay because I confided in them. Everybody had the same reaction: "What's the big deal?" . . . The respect was still there. Your job is what you're doing at its best. Your personal life, your private life, is something you do after work. What's funny is, when I was based in San Diego, Calif., people would go to a gay club and everyone would have a haircut like mine. They had their dog tags on. But come Monday morning, nobody talked about it, nobody dealt with it, everybody was back to work.

Q. So when you were applying to be a Marine in 1990, before "Don't ask, don't tell" was implemented, the application asked for your sexual orientation?

It did.

Q. What did you put down?

I lied, I lied. The lying is what I hated most -- why I had to do it, why I had to keep on doing it, the toll it took on me.

Q. You're wearing a wedding band. What do you tell people when they ask you about your wife?

That happens all the time. It just happened on my way here to Washington, waiting on the plank as I boarded a plane. This very nice woman next to me said she recognized me. She looked at my ring and asked about my wife. I told her I have a partner. His name is Darrell. She paused and said, "Good for you."

Link to Human Rights Campaign site: http://www.hrc.org/alva/

Welcome to the OUUT Blog

Welcome to the OUUT -- Omaha Unitarian Universalists for Tolerance -- blog. We welcome your commentary and input.