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."