Gays For Christ

It’s a great day for the entire world. The nightmare that has been the Bush administration is now coming to a long awaited end. Some might even say the nightmare of the Regan era is finally over.

The entire world is celebrating the election of Barack Obama.

It is however sad that Texas is once again demonstrating to the world that we are still backward, redneck, racist people. We can however rejoice in the fact that Harris County, for the most part, has swept the Republicans out of office. Let’s hope that in the next four years we can spread the enlightenment of the people of Harris County to the rest of the state and the south as a whole.

For those of us that are gay we can celebrate the coming, hopefully, more gay friendly government but at the same time we find ourselves as one the last remaining minority groups that have not yet attained equality. Nationwide all anti-gay ballot initiatives passed. Once again we find religion forcing its way into government.

As may of you already know Carl and I worked with our brother and sisters in California in an attempt to defeat Proposition 8. Well our gay community lost yet again. We lost due to the huge amounts of money that was contributed by Mormons and Christians uniting to force their religious beliefs on all Americans. This huge amount of money was used to run television ads that were nothing more then blatant lies and scare tactics and it worked. Now the world’s 7th largest economy has discrimination written into its constitution. This will surely embolden religious groups worldwide and lead to more death, imprisonment and discrimination against gay people. If you failed to do your part to support our gay brothers and sisters in California you are part of the problem. When this new found power to treat you as a second class citizens impacts your life and you haven’t done anything, ever, to stop them you have only yourself to blame.

There is still a small glimmer of hope for our brother and sisters in California. Today an lawsuit was filed with the California Supreme Court to argue that Prop. 8 would change the California Constitution in such fundamental ways – taking important rights away from a minority group – that it amounted to a constitutional revision, which requires approval by the Legislature before being submitted to the voters. The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

I urge you as fellow gay brothers and sisters to donate today to all three groups. These groups are working to achieve equality for all gays and lesbians nationwide and even worldwide.

http://www.aclu.org/lgbt/relationships/37706prs20081105.html

http://www.lambdalegal.org/publications/articles/election-2008-hopes-

challenges.html

http://www.nclrights.org/

The BBC has agreed to broadcast a service from a gay-friendly San Francisco church on Radio 4.

The recorded prayer service from the Castro Catholic Parish of the Most Holy Redeemer, will go out on Sunday morning, 29 April, on BBC Radio 4.

Established by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1900, the parish is an inclusive Catholic community , and claims to embrace all people of good faith. Catholics as well as those people interested in learning about the Catholic experience, regardless of their background, gender, race, social status or sexual orientation are welcome.

The congregation is mainly gay and lesbian.

William Joseph Levada, now the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and then Archbishop of San Francisco, allowed this parish to continue operation.

Father Donal Godfrey SJ of the University of San Francisco will preside over the radio-recorded service. James Alison, Catholic theologian and author of ‘Is it ethical to be Catholic? – Queer perspectives’, will also be speaking.

“It is the style of ministry and liturgy at places such as MHR that influenced many of us familiar with these parishes, and so inspired us to develop the kind of parish-set ministry with LGBT Catholics that we now celebrate in Central London” said a statement from the Roman Catholic caucus of the lesbian and Gay Christian Movement in the UK.

The pastor at the church, Father Stephen Meriwether drew criticism last year when he allowed a gay activist group to hold “revival bingo” games.

In his opening statement on the church’s website, Meriwether writes:

“You will find the good people of our parish old, young, married, gay, lesbian, transgender, affluent, homeless, blue-collar, converts, cradle Catholics, radical, traditional, questioning, fervent.”

“What you’re least likely to find here is complacency or indifference. We seem to be a church with no accidental parishioners: everyone singing in our pews or making sandwiches for the poor in our hall is committed to a vision of a better world and a better Church to serve it.”

The broadcast from the Catholic Parish of the Most Holy Redeemer, in San Francisco’s Castro district on Sunday morning, 29 April 2007, at 8.10 am (GMT) on BBC Radio 4. This can also be heard on the BBC’s ‘Listen Again’ facility for one week after original transmission, on: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion