"Cultural prejudice has not only succeeded in making most heterosexuals hate gays; it has succeeded in making most gay people hate themselves" Randy Shilts

¨I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who has been out for decades, and is married to her partner of many years. She asked me if it's normal for a Gay person to question if he or she is "normal," as she has those concerns. I told her that the tragic fact is that many LGBT people erroneously view themselves as abnormal, and that is largely due to the many ignorant and/or hateful messages to which they have been exposed for most all of their lives; most of these messages come from "religious" sources...please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker
·  Thanks to A Christian Voice For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, sidebar
·  Thanks to Mail Today, Australia

¨THE WORLD AROUND US¨ (should really astound us): Came into being the ´Old Fashioned Way´ -- Drop by Drop and Stroke by Stroke -- Leonardo Ricardo

¨ The World Around Us¨  (should really astound us)

4´ x 4´ Painted on Wood Panel

Close up (outside light glaring in)

Just finished this afternoon.  This is intense.  It´s loaded with Metallics and Glitter (little bombs and bubbles) and finished with polyurethane...there are random flowing lines of upholstry tacks in gold and silver outling and irregularly framing the sides (which are painted all the way around).  Hope you like it...I´m sometimes dazzled by what happens when I paint...this is one of the times.   Len

MORMONS CALLED-OUT ON INACTION: Gay suicides happen in Northern Utah about once a week, but officially, you know, it doesn´t happen..

A candlelit vigil will be held for Jack Reese on Wednesday (Photo: Facebook)

“The youth I work with all know either a victim of bullying, the loss of a friend to suicide, and most often, both. These youth are bright, creative and loving, yet too often face daily abuse from rejecting families, bullies at school and the loss of their church family. It is time for local schools to incorporate proven techniques for eliminating bullying and homophobia, for churches to preach love and acceptance, and for parents and families to love and accept their children. Each loss of life is a loss for all of us, and it must stop now”  Ms. Marian Edmonds

¨A 17-year old from Mountain Green, Utah, has killed himself due to homophobic bullying, local media organisations report.

Jack Reese is not the first person to have taken his own life in Northern Utah. One official spoke off-the-record to Marian Edmonds of Ogden OUTreach: “It happens here about once a week, but officially, you know, it doesn’t happen here.” HERE

·  Thanks to Pink News, United Kingdom, sidebar
·  Thanks to Marian Edmonds
·  Thanks to OUTreach, Utah

NO ANGLICAN COVENANT COALITION: ¨It is our view that The Episcopal Church must reject the Anglican Covenant definitively, an action that we hope will encourage other Communion churches to do likewise.´´

¨The deficiencies of the Covenant are legion, and the Anglican Communion faces the prospect of becoming a fellowship not united but divided by the Covenant. It is essential to reject the Anglican Communion Covenant in order to avoid the Communion’s permanent, institutionalized division.¨  Comprehensive Unity -- No Anglican Covenant, HERE

¨The No Anglican Covenant Coalition therefore proposes the model resolution below for consideration by the 2012 General Convention. We commend it to deputies who will, we hope, submit our resolution or a similar resolution to be considered in Indianapolis. Note that, when many resolutions are offered dealing with the same issue, the resolution brought to the floor for consideration is some amalgam of the submissions. Here is our model resolution¨:

Title: Relation to the Anglican Communion

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 77th General Convention give thanks to all who have worked to increase understanding and strengthen relationships among the churches of the Anglican Communion, and be it further


Resolved, That the General Convention reaffirm the commitment of this church to the fellowship of autonomous national and regional churches that is the Anglican Communion; and be it further


Resolved, That the General Convention believe that sister churches of the Anglican Communion are properly drawn together by bonds of affection, by participation in the common mission of the gospel, and by consultation without coercion or intimidation; and be it further


Resolved, That the General Convention, having prayerfully considered the merits of the Anglican Communion Covenant and believing said agreement to be contrary to Anglican ecclesiology and tradition and to the best interests of the Anglican Communion, respectfully decline to adopt the same; and be it further


Resolved, That the General Convention call upon the leaders of The Episcopal Church at every level to seek opportunities to reach out to strengthen and restore relationships between this church and sister churches of the Communion.

______

·  Thanks to The No Anglican Covenant Coalition, sidebar
·  Thanks to Comprehensive Unity, The No Anglican Covenant Blog
·  Thanks to Lionel Deimel, Episcopal Church convener of NACC

HERE

PLEASE MEET PAUL: ¨I hate telling this story. It is a story of guilt and shame. So why tell it? I know I am not that rare and maybe this will help someone else avoid or escape the torture chamber...¨

¨I called out to God to deliver me from my attraction to the same sex. There was never a hint of a question in my mind that I was bent, warped, deviant, and that I needed to be saved from this. I knew God would be my ally in this fight. At least I wasn't alone, God was with me. After all, wasn't it God who didn't want me to be attracted to men?¨  Paul 

¨When Peterson first suggested to me that I write a personal narrative focusing on my struggle with compulsive sexual behavior, I admit, I groused at the notion. This is not exactly what I want to be known for. But, as I considered the proposition, I realized, this needs to be talked about, maybe this will help someone else.

I know my story is not unique. I know there are many gay men out there who have this struggle because I’ve met them.

I was raised in a conservative fundamental Christian home. I 'knew' from an early age that my attraction to the same sex was bad and to act on it would be sin. At age 14 I became an ardent follower of Jesus. While I had been raised in a Christian home, my Christianity was just how I was raised. At 14 I made a personal decision to “follow Jesus.” By the time I graduated from high school, I had read the bible several times and memorized a great deal of it. Jesus was my life...¨  please read Paul´s narrative HERE

·  Thanks to Ex-Gay Survivor Narratives, http://www.beyondexgay.com/narratives
·  Thanks to Paul
·  Beyond Ex-Gay, HERE

PLEASE MEET ERIC LEOCADIO: ¨I survived, in pain, my own suicide¨

My name is Eric Leocadio. I am an Ex-Gay Survivor

¨To say that I wanted to be straight is an understatement. I knew that I was gay since I was 9 years old. Even at that early age, I knew how socially unacceptable it was for me to like other boys my age. It was never anything I had to figure out. I simply knew that I was gay and no one could know.

By the time I reached my freshman year in high school, I tried to kill myself. I was a teenager and the message that I received for so many years by my friends, my family, my classmates and myself, was that I was not acceptable because I was gay. I looked in the mirror and I hated that guy. So I wanted to die.

I was tired of feeling rejected. I was tired of feeling different. I was tired of feeling like no one really knew who I was because there was a part of me that had to stay a secret. The closet is a lonely place.

I was 14 years old when I cupped both my hands together, filled them with pills (asprin, Tylenol, and such), swallowed every one, and washed them down with water. Then I fell asleep. Three hours later I woke up in complete regret as I began the process of having my body involuntarily spew out the contents of my stomach. I vomited for several minutes, divinely timed, from 7:00 PM through 5:00 AM every hour on the hour on the dot. These were grueling sessions with what I refer to as my “porcelain punisher.” I experienced 10 hours of bile-filled hell. After living through this, I wanted to die!

I didn’t tell anyone at home what I had done. No one would have taken me to the hospital. So God, before I knew Him, pumped my stomach for me. I realized, then, that He wasn’t done with me yet...¨ please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Beyond Ex-Gay, sidebar
·  Thanks to Eric Leocadio

THE GARBAGE TRUCK BACKETH UPPETH and RUNNETH OVER: ¨Secret religious right Facebook group plotting cyber attack on gay community¨

¨Based upon information I received from an anonymous source, there is a project afoot by members of the religious right to strike at the gay community via sites like Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.¨

This project is conducted by a secret Facebook group called Truth4Time. According to the creator of the group (whose name shall remain anonymous because he is not a public figure), Truth4Time is supposed to be a library of anti-gay articles, blogs, and other materials for its members to use in their fight against the supposed "gay agenda." Apparently the group has a large lists of documents which contains anti-gay information (i.e. propaganda) that members are invited to use. The founder says that the group is supposed to be a sort of a "behind the scenes support system for the religious right. He seems to think that he is on some type of divine mission. If that is the case, I seriously doubt that it is God who is dictating his marching orders. : HERE

UPDATE!

Secret anti-gay Facebook group leader fails miserably to refute charges

Michael Brown. One of the administrators of the Truth4Time site, Michael Brown has taken it upon himself to make an attempt to refute the article written about the group in the Huffington Post. I personally think that he was being disingenuous. Allow me to break down his comments:
HERE

·  Thanks to Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters HERE
·  Thanks to  Alvin McEwen
·  Thanks to Truth Wins Out, sidebar

TRADITION AND HALACHAH: ISRAEL’S MASORTI MOVEMENT TO ORDAIN GAYS AND LESBIANS AS RABBIS

¨The Board of Trustees of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary voted Thursday night to accept gay and lesbian students for ordination beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. The Conservative movement in Israel is known as Masorti. A seminary statement said the decision comes following a “long process.”

“The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary views the serious process leading to this decision as an example of confronting social dilemmas within the framework of tradition and halachah,” or Jewish law, Hanan Alexander, chair of the seminary’s Board of Trustees, said in the statement. “This decision highlights the institution’s commitment to uphold halachah in a pluralist and changing world.”

Students are ordained by a beit din, or rabbinical court, made up of three members of the Rabbinic Advisory Committee of the seminary, all of whom are members of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Masorti/Conservative movement. The beit din members are chosen by the candidate and subject to the approval of the seminary’s dean. They have different opinions regarding the ordination of gay and lesbian students, according to the seminary.

“This unique mechanism is an expression of halachic pluralism, one of the founding principles of SRS,” the seminary said in its statement. “The Seminary is a religious institution of the Masorti/Conservative Movement, bound by Halacha, whose inclusive approach allows for a variety of Halachic opinions.” please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Behind the Mask, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Scheschter Rabbinical Seminary,  HERE
·  Thanks to Hanan Alexader

PLEASE MEET BETU AND MAYA: They provide ¨transitional housing¨ for the disowned Lesbian, Bisexual Women and Transmen of South Delhi, India

Indian Supergays create a home for women rejected by their families

¨Just how far would you go to help out your community? This is what I asked myself when I visited Betu and Maya’s home in South Delhi where they provide transitional housing for lesbian and bisexual women as well as transmen who find themselves disowned by their families or in danger after coming out. Through their organization, Sangini, Betu and Maya (pictured left) host an average of 20 “guests” a year in their home and at times risk their own safety to do so. While they rarely talk to local press so as not to disclose their location, they graciously welcomed us into their home. please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Fridae, sidebar
·  Thanks to Jennifer Chang and Lisa Dazols
·  Thanks to Sangini, South Delhi, India

The Day Of Silence Is Today

¨Today is GLSEN’s annual Day of Silence, the day when students across the country join together to remain silent to highlight their support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students and to protest the bullying and harassment of LGBT students...¨   HERE

·  Thanks to David Badash
·  Thanks to The New Civil Rights Movement, sidebar
·  Thanks to GLESEN´S National Day of Silence

SUCKING UP TO LGBT/FAMILY/FRIENDS VOTERS: Tom Ridge, Mitt Romney endorser and former governor of Pennsylvania, calls on GOP to embrace diversity and accept ¨the gay community¨




 A GOP TROJAN HORSE/ BAMBOOZLEMENT  IS WHEELED OUT

Smoozing about possible equality while promoting ¨Live and Let Live¨ politics!

¨Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security Secretary and Republican governor from Pennsylvania, called on the GOP to embrace diversity and accept “the gay community.” Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Ridge said that most Americans have adopted a “live and let live” attitude towards gay people and called on his party to do the same:

“I think, as a party, we sometimes come across as very judgmental and very self-righteous, and that doesn’t play well to a lot of people,” he said. “Not just on political grounds, but in terms of the culture. We accept diversity in many different ways, and we need to be more clear about that and careful to express that.”

In particular, Ridge urged a more expansive approach to what he termed “the gay community,” noting that increased familiarity with gay people tends to lead to less judgmental politics. “I think that’s the right way to be,” he said. “Younger Americans on both sides of the aisle are saying, ‘Live and let live.’ ” Asked about same-sex marriage, Ridge said he had no particular point of view. “It’s one of those situations where I’d leave it up to the state.” ...ain´t that sweet and ¨fair and balanced¨ of him, HERE

·  Think Progress, sidebar
·  Igor Volsky

A BRAVE MAN/ARCHBISHOP: “All life-long committed relationships deserve the welcome, pastoral care and support of the Church.” The Anglican Archbishop of Wales

The Most Reverend Dr. Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, Anglican Communion

¨Archbishop of Wales: Church should acknowledge and support gay civil marriages¨

The Archbishop of Wales has said his Church should acknowledge civil marriage equality for gay couples and work against an impression that it is ‘uncaring and unsympathetic’ and leading gay people to feel ‘unwanted, unloved, and sinful’.

According to Wales Online, Dr Morgan told the Church in Wales’ governing body: “All life-long committed relationships deserve the welcome, pastoral care and support of the Church.”

The faithful, he continued, “need to show how the Gospel of Jesus is good news for gay people”...please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Pink News, United Kingdom, sidebar
·  Thanks to Archbishop Barry Morgan, Wales
·  Thanks to Stephen Gray

TO BUILD A MULTICULTURAL AND EQUAL SOCIETY: Fair treatment for LGBT is not a privilege, it´s a basic human right.

Taiwan: Almost one in five gay people have attempted suicide

¨A large-scale survey of gay men and lesbians in Taiwan has suggested that almost one in five have attempted to take their own lives, leading to calls from advocacy groups for the government toeducate students about homosexuality and introduce laws to protect the rights of LGBT students.

The survey, conducted by the Friendly Taiwan Alliance, a coalition of several gay and trans rights groups, also found that almost a third of the respondents had contemplated suicide at some point in their lives...please read it all, HERE

·  Thanks to Pink News, United Kingdom
·  Thanks to Edmund Broch 
·  Thanks to Friendly Taiwan Alliance

THE SCOOP FROM DOWN UNDER: Archbishop/Sydney Peter Jensen has flown to England to stir up more trouble for gay clergy and laity with the ¨excluding¨ Gafcon/GS schismatics

The Anglican Gafcon Homophobes Circle London

Peter Jensen heads a group of homophobes intent on purging the Church of England of homosexuals

Peter Jensen has flown to England to sir up trouble ¨Traditionalist Anglican Leaders¨ HERE for gay clergy. He wants them sacked. Peter Jensen is totally recalcitrant ...When he is invited to England to attend the Lambeth conference, he goes to Jerusalem ...and when he's not invited he arrives to stir up trouble in other countries.

He and other bigots are holding a five-day conference starting on April 23 aimed at finding a sexist homophobe who could take over from Rowan Williams.¨ HERE

¨Traditionalist Anglican leaders to meet over homosexual bishops 'crisis’

They want to restore “orthodox” values to the worldwide Anglican Communion and outlaw liberal church leaders who have rejected traditional teaching.

They will meet for the first time since more than 200 bishops boycotted an official summit for Anglican leaders in 2008 in protest at the presence of bishops from the US Episcopal Church, which consecrated the first openly homosexual Anglican bishop.

The decision by the leaders to hold talks in Britain is likely to increase tensions between the traditionalists and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who will this year step down amid criticism he has failed to heal divisions over sexuality.

Its timing means that it will provide traditionalists with an opportunity to call for Dr Williams’s successor to be sympathetic to traditionalists. ¨ HERE

· Thanks to The Telegraph, United Kingdom
· Thanks to Edward Malnick
· Thanks to Liberal Anglicanism in Sydney, HERE

BLOWING SMOKE: ¨Many people who condemn others, who seek to deprive LGBT people of equal civil and sacramental rights, are therefore not Christians, despite what they call themselves...¨

¨...those who preach a false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and what I call “genital theology,” are “missing the mark,” which is the very definition of “sin.”

 ¨A Christian is called upon by Jesus to love and not judge others! The two Commandments Jesus gave all who would be His disciples are to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength; to love our neighbor as ourselves! Period!

No Christian is subject to the laws laid down for Jews in the Old Testament! Anyone who uses the Old Testament to in any way trash LGBT people is either a very immature Christian or is not a Christian at all!

All Christians are given their salvation by the grace, or unmerited favor, of God! We see this fact in the story of the repentant thief on the Cross. He didn’t have to know the four spiritual laws, didn’t have to get baptized, and didn’t have to confess all of his sins.

And we, too, appropriate God’s grace by having unwavering faith in God, despite seen circumstances. Hence, those who preach a false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and what I call “genital theology,” are “missing the mark,” which is the very definition of “sin.”

Many people who condemn others, who seek to deprive LGBT people of equal civil and sacramental rights, are therefore not Christians, despite what they call themselves, and despite the fact that they may even attend church each and every week. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going into a garage makes you a car!

As I have often written, Christianity is very consistent with same-sex love! There is nothing in Scripture that prevents same-sex love and same-sex marriage! Indeed, love is essential to the Christian life, and that love is by no means to be restricted to heterosexual love!

Don’t be fooled by professing Christians, many of whom are mere haters, who “bear false witness” against Gay people, thereby contravening one of the Ten Commandments. They say such outrageous things that Gay people caused Hurricane Katrina, are destroying the institution of marriage, are “disordered,” etc. These allegations are foolish on their face, and only a very limited and hateful human being could assert them or take such allegations seriously!...¨ HERE

·  Thanks to A Christian Voice for GLBT Rights, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker

FROM TAIPEI/TAIWAN WITH LOVE: The mothers of Chen Jing-hsueh and Gao Jhih-wei – a gay couple who filed a legal petition to seek legal recognition of their marriage – appeared in court on Wednesday with their sons

Chen Jing-hsueh and Gao Jhih-wei

The couple had already held a public wedding ceremony in 2006 to celebrate their marriage.

The mothers of Chen Jing-hsueh and Gao Jhih-wei – a gay couple who filed a legal petition to seek legal recognition of their marriage – appeared in court on Wednesday with their sons for the first time, and spoke to the media about accepting and supporting their sons' sexuality and decision to be married...¨ HERE

Last week, Fridae reported that Chen Jing-hsueh and Gao Jhih-wei decided to take legal action after their appeal to the Taipei City Government to have their marriage registered at the Taipei City Zhongshan District Household Registration Office last year was unsuccessful.

·  Thanks to Fridae, sidebar
·  Thanks to Chen Jing-hsueh and Gao Jhih-wei
·  Thanks to Supportive Moms in Asia

A LETTER TO ROWAN WILLIAMS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: ¨Those who voted against the Covenant were not rejecting you, it was not all about you.¨

Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

Dear Rowan:
A piece of advice from someone who has lost battles in church. Stop being a whiner or that will be your legacy -- grumpy old has-been. Accept the fact that it was neither the "radical liberals" nor the "hard line conservatives" who sank your dream. It was doomed from the beginning - not punitive enough for those who read the Bible selectively and not enough space for the Spirit to lead us into things we could not bear before (John 16:12).

Those who voted against the Covenant were not rejecting you, it was not all about you. Regular faithful church members voted against it once they read it and began to think about the ramifications of the entire document. The ACO and your arguments boiled down to "trust us" we know what we are doing and you don't, or we need it to save the communion, or it won't really change things. These are not facts but coercion.

It was not based in Anglican theology - a balance of scripture, tradition and reason. The last section had no mechanism for enforcement except a very fuzzy set of ideas centered around a small group of people. Anyone could grind any other province to a halt just by raising a complaint. The complaints were not limited in scope. They could come from any place on the spectrum of Anglican practice.

Think about it - detach your ego from Covenant. Read what people are saying now that it is no longer on the table. Perhaps you will understand why we worked to get the facts out in public - not just have people vote because someone tells them to vote a certain way with "trust me." HERE

Yours truly,

Ann

The Rev. Ann Fontaine
a vicar of small church on the Oregon Coast.
(emphasis added by Leonardo Ricardo)

ATTENTION CROWN NOMINATIONS COMMISSION (CNC): No to threats, no to tears, no to mensroom/toilet deals when you select the next Archbishop of Canterbury

Quiet please and listen!

Please Lord, not again, let my people go.


The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that I have come to know, is perplexed. 


Why is it another ¨anti-LGBT¨ Anglican ¨plant/panel member¨ has been installed by the Church of England Synod on the Crown Nominations Commission?  Why must a known anti-LGBT prejudiced person taint the clear minded and spirited directed selection of the next Archbishop of Canterbury? 


For the fair minded amongst us I beg you to reconsider. 


If you/we are trying to achieve a more spiritually and emotionally balanced leadership at Lambeth Palace and throughout the Anglican Communion, please start the process of leadership selection with  a more neutral and open-hearted  total commission.  Please commend ¨sexual orientation¨ neutral thinking members to choose with wholesomeness and clarity. 


Please refrain from supporting any CNC member who may twist arms/brains, makes you cry (again) or makes you agree to the blackballing of ¨Gay¨ men by staging covert angry meet-ups in the mensroom (even though the location seems right for that kind of eliminating and crude politics at Church).


Demeaning the fullness of our Anglican Communion humanity by including a member on the commission who thinks LGBT Anglicans can be ¨cured or changed¨ (from being ill?) is a very unhealthy prospect indeed. 


Please don´t do it.  


Opening your hearts and minds to all candidates put before  you, without prejudice, who wish to be considered as the next Archbishop of Canterbury is doing the right thing and opening to the Holy Spirit. 


Lord hear my prayer

Leonardo Ricardo
Guatemala
Central America

Glynn Harrison, Crown Nominations Commission

Archbishop panel member believes gay people can 'change' sexual desire

¨A leading member of the Church of England who believes some gay people can be counselled to suppress or possibly change their sexual orientation is helping to select the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Glynn Harrison, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Bristol University, is on the powerful Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), which will chose a successor to Rowan Williams to be approved by the prime minister and the Queen.


Harrison’s role on the 16-strong panel has triggered alarm among liberal Anglicans who fear it could deepen existing divisions over homosexuality in a church already riven by the issues of holding gay civil ceremonies in churches and the ordination of gay bishops…¨ HERE

·  Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, sidebar
·  Thanks to The Guardian, United Kingdom
·  Thanks to The Crown Nominating Commission

PEW HISPANIC CENTER: Majority Of US Hispanics Support Gay Rights

¨A majority of U.S. Hispanics say gay men and lesbians should be accepted by society, a new study has found.

The poll by the Pew Hispanic Center HERE found acceptance for gay rights among Latinos to be similar to the general public.

“Virtually identical shares of Latinos (59%) and the general public (58%) say homosexuality should be accepted by society,” the report's authors wrote.

Thirty percent of Latinos and 33 percent of the general public say gay rights should be discouraged.

While a majority (53%) of immigrant Hispanics favor gay rights, acceptance among second-generation Hispanics rises to 68 percent.

Women more than men favor such rights – 62 percent versus 55 percent.

And support is greater among younger Hispanics, with nearly seven-in-ten (69%) of 18-to-29-year-old Hispanics saying homosexuality should be accepted by society; 60 percent of Hispanics ages 30 to 49 and 54 percent of Hispanics 50 to 64 agree. Hispanics ages 65 and older are more divided, with 41 percent saying homosexuality should be accepted by society and 44 percent disagreeing.

The survey also found that 80 percent of Latinos believe gay people face discrimination, 74 percent support marriage or similar legal recognitions for gay couples, and 68 percent of Latino Catholics do not believe being gay is immoral. ¨ * HERE

·  Thanks to On Top Magazine, sidebar
·  Thanks to Pew Hispanic Center, HERE
·  Thanks to by Paul Taylor, Mark Hugo Lopez, Jessica Hamar Martínez and Gabriel Velasco
·  * Color/print size emphasis added by Leonardo Ricardo

HOMOPHOBE MELTDOWN/HEEBIE-JEEBEE ALERT: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology have found evidence that gay men and lesbians remind homophobes of themselves...

Bulletin from the Department of we told you so!

¨The claim that homophobic people are in secret attracted to members of their own sex, though they refuse to admit as much, will receive support from a series of psychological studies to be published later this month.

President Mugabe/Zimbabwe doesn´t want any of those ¨disgusting¨ queers around!
HERE

According to research to be published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, scientists across New York, Essex and California have found evidence that gay men and lesbians remind homophobes of themselves, causing an aversive reaction and instilling fear. The study also claims that the root of the problem lies in the homophobic attitudes in which they were brought up as a child.

Say no to selling your Soul! Janet Museveni, First Lady of Uganda pontificates against immoral ¨Gays¨ at a political rally HERE

The study involved four different experiments, each using 160 students in the US and Germany, and measured differences between self-reports concerning sexuality compared to how the subjects reacted during a time-controlled task where they had to look at images and words associated with homo- or heterosexuality.

Archbishop Drexel Gomez of LGBT blood drenched Jamaica/West Indies punitive ¨Anglican Covenant¨ author frets about bad behaving LGBT including ¨family¨ members -- he wants them kicked out of the Anglican Communion worldwide ¨family¨ for being fully inclusive at Church.
HERE

The second part of the experiment involved subject histories on family upbringing, after which they were invited to look at pictures of gay or straight couples. Then, levels of homophobia were measured both consciously and sub-consciously.

¨Pink Swastika¨ author, ¨Deadly¨ Scott Lively, knows the Nazi homosexuals quest -- top to bottom , front to back!
HERE

The authors of the study say that their findings might help explain why so much of bullying and hate crime is directed against LGBT people. Some homophobes who have not reconciled themselves to their true sexuality may feel the urge to hit out at gay people, who they fear might bring their repressed desires to the surface.¨  HERE

The biggest loser is:  MP/Anglican David Bahati, author of ¨Kill the Gays¨ Bill  currently (again) before the Parliament of Uganda HERE

Honorable dementia:  Schismatic/deposed TEC Bishop of Pittsburgh found a ¨place to stand¨ outside of the Anglican Communion  HERE

Anti-Gay happiness makes the heart grow fonder HERE

¨Getting Down¨ Under? HERE

Archbishop ¨Massacre at Yelwa¨ Akinola/Nigeria   HERE and Archbishop ¨Poisoness Episcopal Church U.S.A.¨ Orombi/Uganda believe there are no Holy/God Loving queers because the Bible told ´em so HERE (besides, ´Gays´ would be lower than pigs, even if God did)!

The Anglican Province of the Southern Cone-alone: ¨Don´t pray for me Argentina¨ the truth is, I never left ye! HERE  

·  Thanks to Pink News, United Kingdom, sidebar
·  Thanks to Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
·   Edmund Broch 

¨New life comes in many forms, even in seasons that seem fairly wintry...¨ The Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church

A New Day with New Life at The Foot of the Volcano

¨...In this Easter season I would encourage you to look at where you are finding new life and resurrection, where life abundant and love incarnate are springing up in your lives and the lives of your communities. There is indeed greenness, whatever the season. Give thanks for Easter. Give thanks for Resurrection. Give thanks for the presence of God incarnate in our midst.¨  please read it all,   HERE

·  Thanks to The Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Church
·  Thanks to Anglican Communion News Service, sidebar
·  Thanks to Thinking Anglicans, sidebar
·  Thanks to Simon Sarmiento
·  Thanks to Joan Fuetsch, photo

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia!

This sermon was given at Hagia Sophia, the great cathedral of Constantinople at the Easter Vigil in the year 400.  (and by Padre Mickey in Northern California in español tonight)

¨Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God?
Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival!
Is there anyone who is a grateful servant?
Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Are there any weary with fasting?
Let them now receive their wages!
If any have toiled from the first hour,
let them receive their due reward;
If any have come after the third hour,
let him with gratitude join in the Feast!
And he that arrived after the sixth hour,
let him not doubt; for he too shall sustain no loss.
And if any delayed until the ninth hour,
let him not hesitate; but let him come too.
And he who arrived only at the eleventh hour,
let him not be afraid by reason of his delay.

For the Lord is gracious and receives the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour,
as well as to him that toiled from the first.
To this one He gives, and upon another He bestows.
He accepts the works as He greets the endeavor.
The deed He honors and the intention He commends.

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord!
First and last alike receive your reward;
rich and poor, rejoice together!
Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not,
rejoice today for the Table is richly laden!
Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one.
Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith.
Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.
He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
Isaiah foretold this when he said,
"You, O Hell, have been troubled by encountering Him below."

Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
Hell took a body, and discovered God.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.
O death, where is thy sting?
O Hades, where is thy victory?

Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!
Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead;
for Christ having risen from the dead,
is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever.

Amen!

 St. John Chrysostom, the Patriarch or Arch-bishop of Constantinople in the fifth century
HERE

·   Thanks to Padre Mickey´s Dance Party, sidebar
·   Thanks to St. John Chrysostom

THE EASTER VIGIL 2012: ¨Tonight is not a recitation of doctrine or dogmas. It is a time to know the holiness into which we have been called¨

The Easter Vigil

¨This service is one of the oldest services in Christendom. The Easter Vigil was so important to the 3rd and 4th century Church because it was THE service of baptism. Baptisms were only performed by the bishop in those days and only at Easter.

A person seeking admittance to the mysteries of the Church became a catechumen on Ash Wed and spent the whole of Lent preparing to be admitted to Holy Eucharist. In those days, if you were not baptized, you were dismissed from the church before the time of Holy Communion. So full admittance to the Eucharist was an important experience for all of the Church.

In Christian communities all over, on Maundy Thursday all fires, not just the altar lights were extinguished. Hearth fires and all lights were extinguished for all of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. And until the building of the New Fire on Holy Saturday, people not only lived in darkness, they lived and slept in the cold. As soon as the new fire was lit, runners took torches to peoples’ homes, and the light and warmth of Christ’s light spread through the communities, hearth to hearth and heart to heart. Then the community gathered in their churches and the candidates for baptism returned from their retreat.

The candidates for baptism would prepare for this night with fasting and prayer and then be brought into the church in darkness following the Pascal candle. The Exultet is one of the few ancient chants that we preserve in our tradition along with the litany and the sursum corda. The Pascal candle signifies the Pillar of Fire by night that led the Children of Israel through the desert... HERE

·  Thanks to Stone of Witness, sidebar
·  Thanks to  Muthah+

THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO (still): ¨ Kill Gays Bill¨ promoters alive and spiritually/emotionally unwell in Uganda

Uganda Pastors Accuse U.S. Of Spreading ‘Gayism,’ Imposing ‘An Agenda For Homosexuals’

¨PBS’s Newshour featured a segment on Uganda’s ongoing struggle for LGBT equality Thursday, and the nation’s hostility to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s historical call to treat gay rights as human rights. Polls still show that 95 percent of Ugandans favor criminalizing homosexuality — and many back the infamous “kill gays bill,” which would impose harsh penalties on homosexual behavior.

The piece includes Pastor Joseph Serwadda, who heads an association of Pentecostal and evangelical churches, accusing the West of spreading “gayism” and imposing “an agenda for homosexuals in Uganda.” He claims that “Nobody has gone to jail; nobody has been harassed; nobody has been ostracized because of their sexual orientation” and says that he has never met a gay person. Watch it: HERE

·  Thanks to PBS, Newshour
·  Thanks to Igor Volsky
·  Thanks to Think Progress, sidebar
·  Thanks to U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton
·  Thanks to U.S. President, Barack Obama

END LIFE REALITY: LGBT Elders See More Poverty, Isolation and Bias

“Disparities and Resilience among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Older Adults.”

¨Researchers at the University of Washington School of Social Work, in Seattle, found in the first nationwide LGBT study on aging and health. It shows that LGBT seniors experience higher rates of disability, physical and mental anguish, as well lack of access to services than the non-LGBT population in the United States.¨   HERE

¨Ricardo Urrieta, 61, claims to face discrimination times four: "I am old, I'm Latino, I'm gay and I have HIV," he declared. "This is the end for many people.”

Urrieta 's life has not been easy in recent months. And his struggles reflect findings or a recent national study of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors, including significant samples of ethnic elders.

"I was a nurse, but one day I could not continue working. I fell down all the time in the hospital because a disk in my back protruded. The doctor told me I could no longer work," he recalled.

Disabled and Homeless

While Urrieta waited for his disability-insurance checks to start arriving, everything became complicated. With no income and no family, he had to leave his apartment in Los Angeles.

"I spent a week in my car, I became homeless on Skid Row. I had to join the queue for a ticket to get me a sandwich and a soda."

Eventually he got a room in a hotel for homeless people. "It did not even have windows," he said... HERE

·  Thanks to New America Media, Elders, HERE
·  Thanks to New America Media/La Opinion ,
·  Thanks to Araceli Martinez Ortega

THREE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF GAY MARRIAGE IN IOWA: Varnum v. Brien decision brought marriage equality to the Midwest/U.S.A.

¨Gay marriage celebrated its third anniversary in Iowa on Tuesday.


In was on April 3, 2009 that the Iowa Supreme Court handed down its unanimous Varnum v. Brien decision which brought marriage equality to the Midwest.

The following year, angry social conservatives successfully campaigned to oust three judges off the bench. The Republican-led House last year approved a constitutional amendment which would define marriage as a heterosexual union, but Democrats have blocked the measure in the Senate.

For Erin and Rachel Dobb-McConnell, who are raising two children, the ruling has changed their lives.

“It's very fulfilling.” Erin told Des Moines ABC affiliate WOI. “We're very proud of our family and our children. We can go to school and they have a married couple as their parents.”

The couple, who fell in love 12 years ago, married one month after the ruling was handed down.

“My marriage hasn't changed their lives at all but it sure has changed mine,” Erin said of marriage equality opponents.

“Absolutely,” Rachel added. HERE

Massachusetts will celebrate eight years of marriage equality next month.

·  Thanks to On Top Magazine, sidebar

Christianity in Crisis: ¨Christianity has been destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists...Ignore them, writes Andrew Sullivan, and embrace Him.¨



¨If you go to the second floor of the National Museum of American History inWashington, D.C., you’ll find a small room containing an 18th-century Bible whose pages are full of holes. They are carefully razor-cut empty spaces, so this was not an act of vandalism. It was, rather, a project begun by Thomas Jefferson when he was a mere 27 years old. Painstakingly removing those passages he thought reflected the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Jefferson literally cut and pasted them into a slimmer, different New Testament, and left behind the remnants (all on display until July 15). What did he edit out? He told us: “We must reduce our volume to the simple evangelists, select, even from them, the very words only of Jesus.” He removed what he felt were the “misconceptions” of Jesus’ followers, “expressing unintelligibly for others what they had not understood themselves.” And it wasn’t hard for him. He described the difference between the real Jesus and the evangelists’ embellishments as “diamonds” in a “dunghill,” glittering as “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” Yes, he was calling vast parts of the Bible religious manure. Andrew Sullivan

 Organized Religion in Decline

¨....Meanwhile, organized religion itself is in trouble. The Catholic Church’s hierarchy lost much of its authority over the American flock with the unilateral prohibition of the pill in 1968 by Pope Paul VI. But in the last decade, whatever shred of moral authority that remained has evaporated. The hierarchy was exposed as enabling, and then covering up, an international conspiracy to abuse and rape countless youths and children. I don’t know what greater indictment of a church’s authority there can be—except the refusal, even now, of the entire leadership to face their responsibility and resign. Instead, they obsess about others’ sex lives, about who is entitled to civil marriage, and about who pays for birth control in health insurance. Inequality, poverty, even the torture institutionalized by the government after 9/11: these issues attract far less of their public attention.

For their part, the mainline Protestant churches, which long promoted religious moderation, have rapidly declined in the past 50 years. Evangelical Protestantism has stepped into the vacuum, but it has serious defects of its own. As New York Times columnist Ross Douthat explores in his unsparing new book,Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, many suburban evangelicals embrace a gospel of prosperity, which teaches that living a Christian life will make you successful and rich. Others defend a rigid biblical literalism, adamantly wishing away a century and a half of scholarship that has clearly shown that the canonized Gospels were written decades after Jesus’ ministry, and are copies of copies of stories told by those with fallible memory. Still others insist that the earth is merely 6,000 years old—something we now know by the light of reason and science is simply untrue. And what group of Americans have pollsters found to be most supportive of torturing terror suspects? Evangelical Christians. Something has gone very wrong. These are impulses born of panic in the face of modernity, and fear before an amorphous “other.” This version of Christianity could not contrast more strongly with Jesus’ constant refrain: “Be not afraid.” It would make Jefferson shudder.

It would also, one imagines, baffle Jesus of Nazareth. The issues that Christianity obsesses over today simply do not appear in either Jefferson’s or the original New Testament. Jesus never spoke of homosexuality or abortion, and his only remarks on marriage were a condemnation of divorce (now commonplace among American Christians) and forgiveness for adultery. The family? He disowned his parents in public as a teen, and told his followers to abandon theirs if they wanted to follow him. Sex? He was a celibate who, along with his followers, anticipated an imminent End of the World where reproduction was completely irrelevant...¨ there is much more, HERE

·  Thanks to Frank Schaeffer, sidebar
·  Thanks to Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Beast)  HERE

SEMANA SANTA/HOLY WEEK: ¨It’s a difficult week for people who take this seriously. It ends well, but getting to the end is hard work¨

¨This is a lot nearer than we think; it happened yesterday, it's happening now¨

Holy Week:  Cling to Hope
By Josh Thomas

¨For most Christians this is Holy Week, the Week of Christ’s Passion, encompassing four of the most important events in the life of Jesus: his triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) a few days before Passover; his last supper, the seder of Passover, which he transformed into the Sacrament of His Body and Blood (Maundy Thursday, including washing his disciples’ dirty feet); his execution nailed to a cross (Good Friday); and his returning to life, the Feast of the Resurrection, or Easter Day...¨ please, read it all,   HERE

·  Thanks to Gay Spirit Diary, sidebar
·  Thanks to Josh Thomas