I could not help but wonder, despite what one thin...

2007-09-07T16:21:00.000-07:00

I could not help but wonder, despite what one thinks about this letter, was it correct to publish it on a blog or a list serve? I am assuming the writer actually mailed the letters and did not post them publicly. If she did not, what gives anyone a right to publish it?

A homophobe living in Oak Park is in for a tough t...

2007-09-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

A homophobe living in Oak Park is in for a tough time of it.

I remember growing up in Oak Park in the 60s when everyone started moving out because they (African Americans) were coming (the MLK riots were only a few blocks east of Oak Park) and everyone's house value was going to tank.

They never came and instead the Gays did and everyone's house value skyrocketed.

There's a GLBT political machine in Oak Park for sure, with a lot more G's than LBTs as shot callers.

It's a better Oak Park for it but there are a few things that really grate... for example,

1) Oak Park created a registry in the 90s for couples to sign and proclaim their partnership. If one of the partners worked for the Village, it would entitle the other to health insurance.

It was largely symbolic but the one employee who tried to declare her adult-disabled-child as a partner was refused permission to sign the registry.

There were limits to Marriage Equality, and there were no GLBT's writing letters for her defense, instead it was mumbo-jumbo about waiting for the Clinton Health Plan. (And how will/should Iowa manage the same scenario?)

2) Gay Political activists in Illinois were awfully silent about the extremism of Gov Blagojvich's Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad on the Gov's Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes. (For that matter so was CMD I bet!)

So it's ok for Muhammad's spiritual mentor to talk about washing the streets of Jerusalem in blood because Israel allowed a Gay Pride parade without any criticism from Illinois's Hate Crimes commission because all the key players are Democrats and allies of Blagojvich.

It's hard to take criticism from activists who give passes like that.

3) I did a stint on the board of Unity Temple in the 80s. Oak Park's Council of Churches excluded our minister because we weren't a Christian Church.

Yet I had Gay friends in the conservative churches who would have nothing to do with the three UU Churches in or near Oak Park then...because we weren't Christians.

This was when HIV was decimating the community and the times felt very different then.

Conservative Churches offered a spiritual comfort in a high litergical style far too many Gays did not find with us at a time when they faced an existential threat.

Still though, it grated they would come to us to bless their Unions yet return to their Luthern or Episcoplian Church.

This article pains me deeply.It is obvious that sh...

2007-09-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

This article pains me deeply.

It is obvious that she has been very hurt by her ordeals. Not only to have survived rape, but to be faced with cancer afterwards. I definitely feel her pain.

What also saddens me, is she has incorporated several wrong facts and misinformation and has directed her anger at entirely the wrong target.

This proves to me all the more why we need to advocate for comprehensive sexuality education as well as encourage open and trusting dialog between members of the straight community and the glbtq communities.

I appreciated Keith's response and I hope efforts for mutual healing can come.

Comments on UUA Politics: Gay Marriage Encourages Meth Fired Orgies! Part 1

I could not help but wonder, despite what one thin...

A homophobe living in Oak Park is in for a tough t...

This article pains me deeply.It is obvious that sh...