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/

For a number of years, researchers have known that one-third of all teenagers who commit suicide are gay. In one sense, this statistic is incredibly shocking because, according to the Kinsey Report, gay teens only comprise one-tenth of the teen population. This means that they are 300 percent more likely to kill themselves than heterosexual youth. In another sense, it is predictable that gay teens kill themselves more often than other young people simply because their life chances are so limited by social and legal discrimination. Only when this discrimination is eliminated will these shocking statistics change.

Gay is OK!
What you need to know about gay teen suicide.
Gay Suicide Problem
Gay Teen Suicide
White Ribbon Campaign
Homosexual Factor in Teen Suicide

BOSTON – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is defending his opposition to gay marriage by citing the Scriptures.

“This isn‘t just some temporary convenience here on Earth, but we‘re people that are designed to live together as male and female and we‘re gonna have families,” he tells interviewer Mike Wallace, according to an excerpt CBS released Friday. “And that, there‘s a great line in the Bible that children are an inheritance of the Lord and happy is he who has or hath his quiver full of them.”

“What‘s at the heart of my faith is a belief that there‘s a creator, that we‘re all children of the same God, and that fundamentally the relationship you have with your spouse is important and eternal,” Romney said over the course of two interviews, one of which was taped at his vacation home in Wolfeboro, N.H.

In its main story, Time writes, “The closest he has ever come to a personal religious crisis, he recalls, was when he was in college and considering whether to go off on a mission, as his grandfather, father and brother had done. … He says he also felt guilty about the draft deferment he would get for it, when other young men his age were heading for Vietnam.”

“I didn‘t go on a mission to avoid the draft,” Romney said at the time. “I never asked my dad (Michigan Gov. George Romney) in any way to be involved with the draft board.

The Jesuits are closing a Boston church that serves a largely gay congregation and putting the building up for sale because they can no longer afford to keep it open, the order’s leader say.

The Jesuit Urban Center in the city’s South End will close at the end of July, said Rev. Thomas Regan, the superior of the New England Jesuits.

The sexual orientation of many in the congregation did not play a role in the decision, and there was no pressure from the Vatican or the Boston Archdiocese to shutter the church, Regan said.

The Roman Catholic religious order has become financially reliant on salaries paid to members who teach at Boston College, College of the Holy Cross and Fairfield University — all Jesuit schools — but as they retire or die, the order is being forced to cut back on its activities, he said.

About one-third of the order’s 342 priests in New England are retired.

“A lot of people are still in the church because of the Jesuits,” Regan said. “We do not want to abandon these people. But there’s a spirit among this group, and I think that’s going to be lost, and that’s very sad.”

Worshippers informed of the planned closing after Mass on Sunday reacted with disappointment and anger.

“I, and my friends, while not surprised, were saddened,” said Dr. Juan Jaime de Zengotita. “This comes after a few years of rough times for gay Catholics, with Vatican and local Episcopal declarations that have not been so friendly. I don’t know what will be the future of gay ministry.”

The Jesuit Urban Center costs the order about $350,000 a year to support, and its only significant remaining activity is a weekly Mass attended by 150 to 200 people who generate weekly collections of about $2,400, Regan said. The building, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, was dedicated in 1861 and needs $4 million to $8 million in renovations, he said.

Jesuits would continue to welcome gays and lesbians to worship at St. Ignatius of Loyola, the parish they oversee adjacent to Boston College on the Brighton-Newton line, Regan said.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, visiting Canada for a spiritual retreat with the country’s Anglican bishops, said he would meet with U.S. Episcopal leaders in the fall.

“My aim is to try and keep people around the table for as long as possible on this, to understand one another,’’ Williams said at a news conference at the Anglican Church of Canada headquarters.

Last month, U.S. Episcopal bishops affirmed their support for gays and rejected a compromise plan that would have required the Americans to give up some authority to theological conservatives outside the U.S. church.

The Episcopal bishops then implored Williams to meet with them to hear their views.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion. But it is at odds theologically with the vast majority of Anglican churches, which take a more conservative view on sexuality and other issues. The conflict erupted in 2003 when the Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

Williams has no direct authority to force a reconciliation, and has been struggling to negotiate a truce.

“Yes, these are difficult days,’’ Williams said. “I think the (church) in recent years has had to face the fact that the division on certain subjects, especially sexuality, has been getting much more deep and bitter and threatens to divide us.’’

The latest plan emerged from a February meeting of Anglican leaders, called primates, in Tanzania – and it included an ultimatum for the U.S. church.

Episcopalians were given until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. Otherwise, the church could have a much-reduced role in the communion.

As part of the Anglicans’ demands, Episcopalians were told to accept a “primatial vicar’’ and special committee that would oversee U.S. dioceses that reject Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who supports gay relationships.

The Episcopal House of Bishops is scheduled to meet in September in New Orleans.

“If there is to be any change on the church’s attitude on gay and lesbian behavior then I would hope it would be a change of attitude on the part of the church as a whole,’’ Williams said. “We have to determine what is for the health of the body of Christ regionally and locally.’’

Just before Williams traveled to Toronto, the head of the Anglican Church of Canada, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, criticized how Williams had handled the global rift.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph of London published April 10, Hutchison called Williams “indecisive’’ and said he had failed to properly lead the church.

At Monday’s news conference, Hutchison called Williams “a man of deep spirituality.’’

The Canadian church will hold its national meeting in Winnipeg in June, when they will consider whether to allow priests to conduct blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

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

I was born into the evangelical religion and like most everyone who is born into Christianity it becomes a part of who you are. It is the center of your life. Indoctrinated from birth the religion becomes impossible to separate from the real you. You are a Christian. That is what you are. Not a human. Not a man. Certainly not a gay man. A 100% total Christian.

As a born again southern evangelical Christian I was of course taught that homosexuality is a sin. Homosexuals burn in hell. Homosexuals choose to give into Satan and reject Jesus. Jesus is the cure for homosexuals. Homosexuals are the way they are because no one has told them about Jesus. Jesus turns homosexuals into heterosexuals. This is where the conflict begins. I was born and raised in the evangelical Christian church and I am gay. I am full of Jesus and I am gay. I know Jesus and I am gay. I didn’t choose to be gay. I was born gay and I was a gay evangelical Christian full of Jesus and still gay. We have a problem.

I hate to admit it but I didn’t learn until late in my Christian life that the bible wasn’t originally written in English. What is even more sad is that my mother found out at the same time I did. I had come to the conclusion that the problem had to be in the interpretation and or translation of the bible.

I focused my research on the handful of key scriptures that Christians use as proof gay people are evil. I found out that indeed there were mistranslations in the bible. I found scholars without a religious backgrounds interpreted these key scriptures completely different then scholars with religious backgrounds. So there you have a conflict that can’t be resolved. At least in the eyes of Christians. To me it was complete proof that homosexuals were not evil or sinful. Who would be better at translating then unbiased non religious scholars? The Christian scholars were obviously biased by their upbringing to believe that homosexuals were evil and sinful. So I floated this around the evangelical community and of course no one was buying it. No amount of evidence was going to change any minds at all.

Since the mistranslating thing didn’t work I went after the interpretation part. I though I would have the best luck with the Sodom and Gomorra story because I had learned a lot about that story during my mistranslation research. I found out that Sodom and Gomorra were not the names of cities but rather Hebrew words that mean a burnt pile of ruin. I also realized that the bible says there were boys and widows involved in the story and homosexuals don’t produce boys and widows. There were a number of other things but it really didn’t matter at all because the idea that the two towns were destroyed because everyone was homosexual was too engrained in the religion to have any chance of changing any minds.

The whole time I was doing this research I am finding a lot of other information about Christianity that was never taught in Sunday school. Things that are blasphemous just to consider. I am still under the brainwashing power of the religion so I haven’t put it all together yet but I am becoming more and more comfortable with reading things that are totally contrary to my religious upbringing. I am doing a lot of comparative religion reading and come to realize that Judaism, Islam and Christianity are more closely related then I was taught. Then I meet a witch.

I was in Las Vegas for New Year’s Eve with my husband of that time and we meet up with his friend from school. She is a fiery black woman that hates white people. She looks me up and down with all kind of attitude and says I’m a witch deal with that. Being a southern evangelical Christian it scared the holy shit out of me. I was sure that I was in the presence of Satan and that my eternal soul was in jeopardy. After a few days of getting to know each other she realized I wasn’t a typical racist southern cracker and I realized she wasn’t the devil.

When I got back home I started researching paganism and Wicca. I found out that it was a legitimate religion that had nothing to do with devil worship or Satan. I also found out that much of Christianity is plagiarized right from paganism. This is where I find the one thing that for me rocked the very foundation of Christianity. The virgin birth story in the bible was taken right out of paganism. The concept of the white blond haired Mary and Jesus come from paganism. Then I realize that virgin birth stories are common everyday stories and every bodies got one. Hundred of virgins giving birth to 100’s of sons of God. Now if they were all written after the virgin birth story in the bible you could say that Jesus was the first and only virgin birth son of God but the reality is that it was actually one of the last. So 100’s if not 1,000’s of virgin birth stories are written BEFORE the virgin birth story of Jesus. Things are now beginning to smell a little fishy.

So now my mind is open enough that I can see the whole Adam and Eve thing is bullshit and evolution is real. Noah’s arch, get real. Revelations, in the bible by accident. I read the secrete gospels of Mark. I find out that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute and may have been the wife of Jesus. The Holy Grail may actually be the child of Jesus. I read a story about Jesus having a homosexual relationship with a Roman soldier. I find out that men have manipulated the religion and shaped the religion to fit their needs. I am now almost completely over Christianity.

What sealed the deal for me was the long well documented history of Christian atrocities. I was lead to believe that Christians have always been persecuted. The truth is that Christians are the persecutors. Except for a brief time during the beginnings of the religion Christians have been persecuting the non believers every since. There is overwhelming evidence to show that Christianity is the most destructive force every created by man. So at this point I am now a total non Christian.

I am angry and bitter. I feel betrayed and lied too. I feel like I wasted a huge part of my life. This is where I really ramp up my gay activism. I am hard core, in your face, totally militant toward the Christians who are the barrier to gay equality. I am aggressively confronting southern preachers head on. I get a lot of publicity. I make the national scene. I’m doing radio and TV. I’m talking to reporters for all the major newspapers. I become well known in the south for being anti-Christian and I am confronted with a huge backlash from the gay Christians. Gay Christians are coming out of the woodwork to oppose everything I do. They are showing up at fundraisers and raise hell. They are supporting the very preachers I am railing against. Worst of all they are supporting Bush. I become disillusioned and retire from the whole gay activist scene.

I now devote much of my free time working to free gay Christians from the slavery and bondage of the Christian religion. As long as the majority of gay people are Christian there is no hope at all for equality because Christianity is the sole barrier to equality.

I am now completely convinced that there is no hope for America. We are doomed for total destruction. Society will completely degrade because Christians allow fascist and corporatists to stay in power and wage perpetual war until there is nothing left.

The Log Cabin chapters in the south are full of white supremacist evangelical Christians that oppose all the same things the wing nuts do. They use the same character assassination techniques to quash personal freedom. They hate public expression that might be labeled “flamboyant”. They hate gay “camp”. They hate drag queens. They hate gay people that “flame”. They hate all gay people that are NOT white evangelical Christians.

When I worked on a campaign to discredit the self proclaimed reverend Grant Storms I was literally physically assaulted, verbally assaulted and in general harassed for months by gay Christians and gay Christian groups that supported the so called Reverend Grant Storms. This is a man that during the Homo Fascist Convention advocated killing gay people.

When I worked on the very first Gay Day in Rhea County Tennessee I was constantly battling gay Christians that would come to fund raisers and disrupt them because I was labeled as a “Christian basher”. Christianity over trumps everything even when it is not in their best interest.

Christianity is the enemy of freedom. We have to get over our aversion to confronting the evil nature of the Christian religion. Christians are dangerous to a freedom loving society. The proof of this is in the fact that George W. Bush got more gay votes then any other president in American history. Unfortunately most gay people in America are Christian and Christians will support things that go against their best interest if it has enough Jesus behind it. The Jesus factor doesn’t even have to be proven. All the Christians need is a hand full of so called religious leaders to tell them what to think and do and they will blindly follow in lockstep. John Kerry goes to church every Sunday; Bush never goes to church, a few Christian leaders tell the Christian sheepeople Bush has more Jesus and that’s all it took.

Christianity is our obstacle to freedom and until we have the guts to wage a war against Christianity we will never achieve equality and will in fact most likely become criminals when homosexuality is criminalized once again. All of this in the name of a mythical character written about in a book of fairy tales.