-——\—.--

 

_ Christians for LGBT Justice

Thanks for your affirrning men-

‘ tion of the various church groups

that marched in the rainy Pride
parade on July 9 (editorial,
August 2005)’. You correctly
note that these groups pride
themselves (pun intended) on
being “open-minded, open-door
churches. . .that came to bear
their banners as witness to their
support of lgbts-. . .”

Unfortunately, later on the
editorial makes an unqualified
reference to “Christians”
screaming that marchers would
go to hell.

Those of us Christians in
“open—minded, open—door”
churches believe deeply that our
commitment to lgbt justice is
true to the very core of our
Christian heritage. We believe
that in their exclusion of lgbt
people — or anyone else —
closed—n1inded, closed-door
churches are failing to follow
Jesus’ teaching [and practice. The
folks who stand on the sidelines

‘to protest our celebrations of

Pride are many_things: deter-
mined, vocal, and effective in
their manipulation of the media.
In their private lives, they may
be people whose faith is rich and
deeply meaningful to them, who
take scriptural mandates quite
seriously. But when they are
beating queer folk into the
ground — physically or spiritual-
ly — they are failing to live up to
the central tenets of the faith;
and in that sense, in that
moment, they are not being
“Christian.”

Our entire community stands
to benefit from the work of
Christians who put justice and
love at the center of our belief
and practice. Just as we each
struggle with internalized homo-
phobia when it rears its head, we
must also refuse to concede that
homophobic doctrine is part and
parcel of the Christian faith. To

' use “Christian” as a synonym for

“homophobe” is to give our
Oppressors a lot more moral
authority over us than their
actions warrant.

The _Rev. Elizabeth M. Stedman
Burlington »

Elizabeth Stedman is a recently
ordained deacon in St. Paul ’s
Episcopal Church.

Thanks, Peg

Thanks for publishing Peggy
Luhrs’ remarks on Pride Day.
It’s so refreshing to read some-
one who still speaks the truth
and doesn’t mince words. And
who hasn’t been burned out or
overwhelmed by the enormity of
the struggle.

Mary Schwartz
Bakersfield

Proud of Pride
Way to go on your inspirational
coverage of this year’s Pride
Celebration, in both Euan Bear’s
editorial and also Gabrielle
Celeste’s article. .
You reminded me of the fan-
ciful, practical, emotional, politi-
cal, strategic, and whimsical rea-
sons why we need Pride, year
after year. Pride strengthens us.
It builds a sense of community.
It helps us raise issues, speak our
minds, have our voices heard,

‘and simply have fun. And

frankly, we are in no danger of
having too many opportunities to
celebrate with our family of
queers and allies.

With a tiny budget, the Pride '

Committee did a tremendous V
job, and I thank them for their
work. You’ve done us proud.

Jason P. Lorber
Burlington

(

Jason P. Lorber is a member

I of the Vermont House of

Representatives.

Future Apology?

It is ironic that the Republicans
have finally, confessed to their
racial divisiveness for the last
30+ years, and apologized to the
NAACP for it now. They contin-
ue to spread hatred and fear
towards gay people. Will it take
them another 30+ years for them
to figure out they are wrong
again?

William Stosine
Iowa City, Ia

Community Support
As a longtime former Vermont

' resident, I read with interest your
— article titled “Anti—Gay Church

Evicted From Library“ (OITM
July, 2005). You are fortunate in
Burlington to have your commu-
nities’ support of this. ,
Compare this to what is hap-

pening. in my neighboring
Hillsborough County, Florida
where in June this year the
Hillsborough County Commission
voted five to one to bar county
agencies from recognizing or par-
ticipating in Gay Pride Month or
any events that portray GLBT
people in a positive light. In
Hillsborough, library exhibits fea-
turing lesbian and gay authors and
books with gay themes have been
ordered removed from display in
the wake of the new policy. To
add insult, this decision was
upheld at a subsequent
Commission meeting in July with

. the Commissioners not allowing a

single person to speak out in
protest. Hillsborough County, as
you probably know is home to
Tampa — and includes both win-_
ning Stanley Cup and Super Bowl
teams as well as many wonderful
cultural and recreational events.

More information isavailable
on this issue at the Equality
Florida website www.eqfl.org
where you can voice your disap-
proval to the politicians respon-
sible for this action.

Bernard Rivard
St. Petersburg, FL

Bras & Breasts

As a woman who is very
involved with the VT Susan G.
Komen affiliate and whose hus-
band was diagnosed 'with breast
cancer a year ago, I found this
article very interesting. In all my
readings on BC, which is much
more than the average person but
of course nothing compared to

' medical specialists, I have never

come upon this. I suggest that
this article should get national
exposure in more mainstream ,
publications. Since there are so
many unanswered questions con-
cerning the cause of BC there are
plenty of unproven theories out
there that get a lot of attention
and rightfully so. In my opinion,
this theory needs more press.

Marlene Skulnik
Dorset '

Calling All Males

Thank you for writing last
month about SafeSpace’s efforts
to start a Queer Survivor
Council. One of the reasons we
are excited to help create this
group is to increase the number
of diverse people and voices

working to end violence com-
mitted against and within the
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-
gender community in Vermont.
At SafeSpace, we are deeply
committed to working to end all
forms of violence against all
people, which includes men who
have been abused aschildren,
men who have been battered by
their partners and men who are
victims of hate crimes. One of
the myths operating in our cul-
ture, that SafeSpace is working
to dismantle, is that only men
are perpetrators of violence and
that men are not victims of
abuse. We know that this only
creates incredible barriers for
men to accesslhelp and safety,
but it also keeps men out of the
movement to end violence.

At SafeSpace we believe vio-

lence, whether in a relationship or

family, whether sexual or emo-
tional, in the form of discrimina-
tion or hate, is not a woman’s
issue. Nor is violence a men’s
issue; violence is a human issue. I

am writing this letter to OIT M to

put a special call out to all male-

identified readers. We needyour

unique and valuable voice in our-
queer anti—violence movement in
Vermont; please consider getting

involved in SafeSpace!

We need men who are sur-
vivors and men who are allies-.
We need you to join the Queer
Survivor Council, the SafeSpace
Board of Directors, to volunteer
as an Advocate, an Education/
Outreach_volunteer, and/or a
Fundraising volunteer. Although
half of the survivors calling our
Support Line are male identi-
fied, the vast majority of the
staff, Board and volunteers are
female. We know this needs to
change. K

For more information about
volunteering at SafeSpace, or to
sign up for the next Volunteer
Training starting September 17,
please call Connie at 863-0003.

Kara DeLeonardis
SafeSpace Executive Director

 

,At»Witt’s End

  

 
 

V I Leah Wittenberg

 

wrrrsneé RC-® os‘