Overcoming prejudice.

OVERCOMING THE PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION that exists against gay people is a key element of the struggle for equality, and one Conscience supports unwaveringly. It is a sad fact that some religious individuals and groups are at the forefront of campaigns to deny equal rights to gay couples and individuals. In an effort to shed some light on how the religious community is seeking to counteract this prejudice, we asked several leading religious and gay activists to contribute short essays on strategies they have used to advocate for gay rights.

Standing up to the "White Right"

By Mandy Carter

THE NATIONAL BLACK justice coalition (NBJC) be came interested in marriage equality because organizations like the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family and the Promise Keepers--white groups with very few black folks as members--are actively courting and encouraging black churches and black spokesmen to come out with very anti-gay, homophobic comments, trying to make it sound as if the black church agrees with the radical white right.

While we have been dealing with the issue of gayness in the black church and in the black community for many, many years, the new wrinkle is that the predominantly white right is willing to spend a lot of money to get across the assumption that when one black preacher speaks, he speaks for all black preachers. This is just not the case.

I have been monitoring this infiltration of black churches since 1993, when I saw up close and personal how it works. A group called the American Family Association introduced an anti-gay initiative in Cincinnati, Ohio. After the success of anti-gay ballot initiatives in Oregon and Colorado, the white right tried to co-opt some black preachers to be the "face and voice" of the anti-gay position. They spent $500,000 on the campaign, money that came from Colorado for Family Values. They co-opted people like Rev. K.Z. Smith, a Cincinnati black minister, who successfully spread the message that the black struggle for equality was not at all similar to the gay struggle. Unfortunately, we lost the battle in 1993. Last year, we overturned that bad decision.

In the interim, we have found a lot of black allies, gay and non-gay, who support gay rights--because, as you know, black gays and lesbians have always been here. One of the lessons we learned is that we have got to reach out to black ministers and into the black civil rights movement to ask people to be public and vocal in their support of our cause. The people who support us include Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), Coretta Scott King, Whoopi Goldberg, Jocelyn Elders, Michael Eric Dyson and many others. Rev. Al Sharpton has called on us to be more honest and more bold about confronting homophobia in the black church and in the black community. Engaging the civil rights leadership and our own black church leadership in saying that we can no longer be silent, we can no longer just sit it out and we want to be fully engaged is a real step in the right direction.

We help circulate a video called "All God's Children" which addresses the question of whether we can be black and gay and stay in our black churches. We obviously don't want to leave the black churches; it's such a fundamental part of who we are as a community. The video is shown to every student at Howard Divinity School, a predominantly black school in Washington, DC. NBJC wants to reach where other black preachers come from and make sure that we get it to those schools also.

The other tool that we have involves the legacy of Bayard Rustin, who was a black, gay pacifist who helped introduce the concepts of Gandhi and non-violence to Martin Luther King, Jr. When you hear someone black say, "Don't you dare compare the civil rights movement to those gay people," it's ironic because it was Bayard Rustin, himself black and gay, who was pivotal in formulating the policies of the civil rights movement. We hope to take a film called "Brother Outsider: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin" on the road soon.

"All God's Children," a video by Sylvia Rhue and Dee Mosbacher on the topic of homosexuality and the black church, was made by Woman Vision Productions, San Francisco, Calif. Order from the Transit Media Library [phone].

MANDY CARTER is an out black lesbian and a founding board member of the National Black Justice Coalition (www.nbjcoalition.org). She lives in Durham, NC.

"Remember oh Most Gracious Virgin Mary ..."

By Kaiyti Duffy

SO BEGINS THE "MEMORARE," A PRAYER to Mary, our mother. It is a forgotten prayer, not learned in catechism classes anymore, but taught to me by my Irish mother, on our knees, before going to bed. I remember confiding to her that some girls at school had been picking on me and she told me to pray to the Virgin, to pray the "Memorare." I prayed steadfastly, diligently, with the piousness of a child who has never questioned her faith.

I've never lost the urge to pray and the "Memorare" has always been a favorite of mine. When I'm scared, when I feel lonely, depressed or even bored, the words subconsciously form in my mind, like the beads of the rosary, strung together like pearls of promise. They can leave my mouth reluctantly or reverently, out of obligation or oath. Mostly they come to me in hours of need and through them I cry out: "My God, my God, do not let me walk alone."

To me, being gay has often meant walking alone. Like many of us, I realized my minority status in isolation, under a shroud of intense shame and guilt. I had been raised in a closeknit Irish Catholic family and had come to know my God through the eyes of my parents and their church. We went to mass every week, confession once a month. The church provided a home for all ceremony--a place to bury our dead, baptize our babies, marry our spouses; a place to reflect, to repent, to reveal oneself in our most private moments. For me, the church had been the bone structure of my life, but in coming out, that felt lost to me.

And, in truth, I felt lost to me. Unlike the politics of an election or the shared struggle of a movement, reconciling myself to being a gay person and a person of faith was isolating. There were no marches or slogans, there was no beat of a drum to carry me through. There was only a heaviness in my chest, an ache in my bones so deep it reached my soul. I could not find the strength to defend my right to exist, to ponder my innate goodness or debate the state of my soul. There was no way to construct an argument within the paradigm of equality and justice. My intellect gave way to a broken heart.

Lacking my own words, I could only call upon those that had been taught to me as a child. In the "Memorare," we're promised that no one seeking Mary's help will be left unaided. She will intercede. If we fly unto her, she will protect us. Such an image; these adult children in flight, through wind and sky, through the denial of communion and the denouncing of souls, seeking her out, the Virgin of Virgins. Begging her, "Let them see my worth; let them honor my heart."

In the end, I know that is what I must continue to do. I must seek out God's grace in the arms of those I love, in the men, the women, the undecided and the in-between, fulfilling the sacraments that resound within me. I must come out to my parents, siblings and friends. And, in the quiet of my heart, I must continue to pray, for strength, for acceptance by those I love and who love me, and for my church so that one day She may honor me and welcome me as a child of our Lord, created in Her image and likeness. "Mother of the Word Incarnate, in your mercy, hear and answer me."

KAIYTI DUFFY is a 26-year-old reproductive health activist. Though continuously struggling with Catholic doctrine, she is deeply committed to the church's eventual reform. Kaiyti lives with her spouse, Jessica, in Brooklyn, New York.

Seeking the Promised Land

By Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum

AT A TIME WHEN FAITH and religion are used to create fear and division rather than compassion and unity, it is crucial that we increase dialogues across faith traditions and stand together as proof that traditional religions are a home for liberal hope and progressive values.

Our first challenge is to reclaim the definition of morality and to remember how efforts at denying human rights take place. We see a clear example of the latter in the Book of Exodus. When a new king arose in Egypt, the Israelites were not immediately enslaved. At first, only words were spoken against them; they were described as potential dangers to Egyptian society. It's very hard in a single edict to turn neighbor against neighbor. But, step by immoral step, language and laws are changed. And, by that slow process, people start considering neighbors alien--and aliens become a people easy to denigrate and oppress.

Today we see the same process. Same-sex marriage is cited as a danger to American society. "Gay marriage" has polarized--and often paralyzed--our houses of worship. Whether or not gay and lesbian citizens should have the same civil rights as their heterosexual counterparts is openly debated. Think about that. The issue of whether or not some citizens should have access to the same civil rights as other is not only debated, but is framed as an issue of "moral values."

Well, it is an issue of moral values. But not in the way that is usually described.

The issue is not whether or not gay and lesbian people are moral people. The issue is whether or not it is moral to encourage hatred and oppression. The issue is not whether or not we individually agree with some specific behavioral prescriptives set forth in Leviticus or by the Christian apostle, Paul. The issue is whether or not we collectively agree that it is moral to deny human rights to any of God's children or to deny equal civil rights to any American citizens.

It is only through our willingness to claim our spirituality without apology and in the public eye that we will successfully change the hearts and minds that matter. As a leader of the nation's largest LGBT synagogue, my challenge is inspiring my congregation to model these ideals and strategies.

We live in a society that does not legally recognize same-sex marriages, yet our members are standing under the chuppah. In a society that considers homosexuality a threat to family values, our members are raising children. In a religious climate that debates and often opposes the ordination of openly gay clergy, our members are becoming rabbis. In the face of the Religious Right's vigorous efforts to co-opt and dictate the terms of religious discourse in America, our communities are living proof that the spiritual resources of traditional religions are not the exclusive preserve of one segment of society, or one political perspective.

This is not an easy time. The biblical narrative is clear that while we might presently be in the wilderness of the desert--we must believe in the possibilities of a Promised Land. We have inherited a tradition that commands us to hope and to speak out. By claiming our moral authority, we will survive the desert and make it to the Promised Land.

RABBI SHARON KLEINBAUM is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York city, the nation's largest lesbian and gay synagogue.

Approach Our Bishops as Shepherds, Not Enemies

By Joe Murray 

OUR STRATEGY AS A GLBT CATHOLIC organization is to continually push the envelope of dialogue. We think that GLBT Catholics need to be at the Catholic table and take part in conversations where decisions are being made about our spiritual and social lives. Our bishops serve a very important function in our church. Most, in fact, are very pastoral men. Our focus is on them and not the few that do not fit that mold. We do believe in the magisterium--the teaching office of the church. It is our opinion that we must stop blaming religion and learn to use it to help secure our rights.

The topic of the roundtable is very timely for the members of the Rainbow Sash Movement. On November 14, 2005, we entered the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Washington to attend the bishops' plenary liturgy. During that liturgy we wore Rainbow Sashes. Each of the bishops was notified in writing who we are and why we had come. When we presented ourselves for communion as visible GLBT Catholics, as in years past, we were denied communion. We see this as a public symbolic dialogue about inclusion.

The Rainbow Sash Movement is committed to the principles set forth by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin which are embodied in his Common Ground Project. We believe that dialogue is a tool that can bring light to the darkness of homophobia within the body of the church and its structures. We understand the various opinions around this issue and respect the right of people to differ with us. It is also our belief that all our actions in dialogue and education must be grounded in charity. GLBT Catholics are just one voice of Christ in our community of faith, and we must begin to listen respectfully to the other voices of Christ in the church.

Tolerance of diversity and rigid morality are locked in a race at the moment in the church, and, so far, rigid morality seems to be a lap or two ahead. This is why it is important to be a visible presence within the church, to continue dialogue and education. Many bishops do not know what homosexuality is. For instance, when I met with Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, he really believed that gay equates to hedonism and that gay men are sexual addicts. It was after that meeting that the cardinal refused members of Rainbow Sash Movement the Eucharist in his cathedral. On the other hand, Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles welcomes all people to his cathedral, and that includes members of the Rainbow Sash Movement wearing Rainbow Sashes. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington agreed to meet with me after six months of written communication, but he backed out once it became public. We will continue to approach our bishops as shepherds, not as enemies.

The current attack on gay priests and seminarians is an opportunity for us to talk about facts and not theology. This whole issue has been raised by the hierarchy within the context of the sex abuse scandal. To equate homosexuality with pedophilia does not reflect the scientific facts. Historically, there is nothing in the church's teaching that can be said to support or sanction, even implicitly, the Vatican's victimization of gay priests and seminarians. Homophobia should have no place in Roman Catholic thinking.

The Catholic GLBT leadership will require tactical skill so that it is in touch with and reflects the rich diversity of the GLBT Catholic community in America. With a leadership that is parish based and in touch with the broader Catholic community, I believe that GLBT Catholics will eventually be welcomed into the church openly and honestly. However, I understand that may not happen in my lifetime but I know it will come to pass. For this we will all pray.

JOE MURRAY is the US convener of the Rainbow Sash Movement, an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender Catholics, with their families and friends, who are publicly calling the Catholic church to conversion of heart around issues of human sexuality.

"We Cannot Live Without Our Lives"

By M. Carmen Lane

IN LIGHT OF THE CURRENT INQUISITION by the Roman Catholic church regarding the presence of homosexuals in US seminaries, it seems that once again we must question the impact of Ratzinger cum Benedict. Richard McBrien, speaking at this year's Call to Action conference, suggested that there is an important distinction to make between the conservative voice of the former cardinal and the voice of the man "called" by God to be our pope. As we begin to respond to the publication of the "Instruction" from the Congregation for Catholic Education, I am reminded that every piece of us is an essential part of the body of Christ; that is, the Vatican's struggle with understanding the complexities of human sexuality is my struggle. My Protestant colleague Bill Wylie-Kellerman reminded me of the work of the late Episcopal lay theologian William Stringfellow. His remarks regarding the Episcopal church's resistance to the presence of gay male clergy during the 1979 National Convention of Integrity at St. Thomas Church seems to resurface as a call to all of us concerned about justice for LGBT Christians--lay and clergy. Stringfellow noted:</p>

<pre> The purpose ... of such stereotyping and slander is evident: it is a way of covering up the sustained hypocrisy and pastoral

default which has so far, for so long, characterized the situation of homosexual clergy, especially in their relations with ecclesiastical authority. </pre> <p>However, it is not the scapegoating by the hierarchy that I am concerned with but the internalized homophobia and shame of the gay male clergy that I wish to speak to. It seems that the culture of the closet perpetuated by Roman Catholic priests has opened a portal that allows the cycle of heterosexist doctrine and hatred of lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender Catholics to thrive. The issue of homosexuality has come out of the pews and come knocking like Augustine on the closet door of the gay male priesthood to put "liberal" priests back in their place; to reunite gay masculinity with its ex-lover--the marginalized woman--and to blame gay priests for the sexual abuse scandal.

What is the impact on our church when silence has become more important than the Word? This ethic of silence is directly connected to every movement for reform within our church--the treatment of LGBT Catholics, the ordination of women, the married priesthood, the movement for sexual and reproductive freedom. This ethic of shame is destroying our church. Every seminarian who chooses to hide one piece of his self in order to be ordained is committing an act of spiritual genocide on the Roman Catholic church. In order for me, a black Catholic lesbian, to survive in my church, those with power and authority must stand with me. In order to create strategies for change within our church--the gay male priesthood must speak.

I recently read an article where several gay male priests were interviewed anonymously. One of the priests expressed feeling as if he was being asked "to sit on the back of the bus." The late Rosa Parks was trained as an activist at the Highlander School, an active member of the NAACP who discerned and answered her call to participate in an act of nonviolent social action, one that activated a movement that impacted the lives of her entire community. It is an act of conversion to resist empire building and work for emancipatory justice. Roman Catholic priests have a long history of standing for justice--your time has come again. Our Christ is calling.

M. CARMEN LANE is a black Catholic lesbian feminist activist who works in many movements including Word and World: A People's Schools and the movement for women's ordination. The title of this piece is a quote from Audre Lorde.

Changing the Landscape: Advocating LGBTIQ Rights Within the Islamic Framework

By Shanon Shah bin Mohd. Sidik

FOR BELIEVING MUSLIMS, THE QUR'AN is the supreme source that defines faith and inspires the practices that govern daily existence. It is seen as the literal and infallible word of Allah and is created and co-eternal with Allah.

The upshot of this is that when believing Muslims are told that homosexuality is condemned and forbidden by the Qur'an, it virtually creates a mental dead-end for further discussion about sexual diversity. In addition, such divinely-sanctioned homophobia in Islam seems to be buffered by the Hadith, which is the expansive corpus of recorded sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. These records are riddled with homophobic references. All this is now used by the global Islamist status quo to indoctrinate lay Muslims that sexual diversity is a product of the "infidel" West and has no place in Islam. However, some contemporary Islamic scholars and activists are now testing a few key strategies to challenge this belief.

The first strategy challenges the assumption that sexual diversity is necessarily a Western and anti-religious construct. Scholars such as Kecia Ali, Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle and their contemporaries around the world are looking within the corpus of traditional and classical works by Islamic thinkers, jurists and scholars to locate an acknowledgement of sexual diversity within the Islamic tradition. In the process, they are uncovering contextual clues for the emergence of homophobia in contemporary hegemonic interpretations of Islam. This allows the rest of us to question and challenge the homophobic convictions attributed to, for example, the Prophet Muhammad himself.

The second strategy is closely related to the first and involves a re-reading of the Qur'an itself to uncover more inclusive interpretations regarding the issue of sexual diversity. For example, Scott Siraj Al-Haqq Kugle has de-linked the story of Lut (the biblical Lot) in the Qur'an from the assumption of consensual same-sex desires and practices and linked it instead to the issue of sexual violence. Furthermore, he has suggested that the verses in the Qur'an which promote diversity could also be interpreted as being inclusive of sexual diversity. Along with several other efforts by progressive Muslims to locate universal human rights principles within the Qur'an, these readings employ interpretive and exegetical tools that were developed by Islamic scholars and thinkers from the classical era of Islam.

These strategies have a tremendous impact on lay Muslims. Firstly, they allow sympathetic Muslims to cast doubt on hegemonic interpretations of Islam that are hostile to human rights in general and LGBTIQS (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersexed and queer) in particular. Secondly, once these alternative interpretations are inserted into the larger landscape of Islamic thought, the Islamist status quo has no choice but to respond to them. At this point in time, even hostile engagement holds productive possibilities since at the very minimum it brings visibility to the issue of sexual diversity from within the Islamic framework. And for better or worse, this visibility can actually be leveraged by ideologically diverse defenders of sexual rights in the post-September 11 global spotlight on Muslim societies.

To advance the cause of accepting and celebrating diversity, we at Sisters in Islam firmly believe in productive engagement amongst ideologically diverse advocates of human rights, gender justice and sexual diversity. Interfaith discussions on the faith-based advocacy of sexual diversity must be expanded and strengthened. Similarly, there has to be mutual engagement between pro-faith LGBTIQ advocates and secular LGBTIQ advocates. For example, activists in Turkey are beginning to include LGBTIQ issues in discussions on reproductive health and rights while also engaging with the theological parameters of Muslim contexts. Productive spaces such as these have not yet been explored to yield the full potential of human rights advocacy, and it is the fulfillment of this potential that we await in excitement and hope.

SHANON SHAH is a program officer and associate member of Sisters in Islam--a Muslim women's organization committed to promoting the human rights of women within the framework of Islam.

Go Within and Come Out

By Christian de la Huerta

IN AMERICA TODAY, JUST about every religion or denomination is facing inner conflict or the possibility of schism over the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusion. The Vatican's new document on homosexuality in the priesthood brings this issue to a new level within the Catholic church, launching what strikes me as a new and improved, subtle and sophisticated version of the Inquisition. This time it is not Jews, Muslims or women who are being blamed. Instead, gays are being scapegoated for the church's problem with pederasty and its refusal to take responsibility for its actions.

Yes, blame it on the gays! It beats having to take responsibility for long-'time policies of transferring child-molesting priests to other parishes. Or worse, being forced to examine the effectiveness of antiquated and misguided sexual dogmas or the practice of institutionalized misogyny. We know from physics that energy cannot be destroyed: suppressed sexual energy is going to surface elsewhere, and probably not in the healthiest of expressions.

Of course, what is ironic about this situation is the number of homosexuals within the priesthood--anywhere from ten to sixty percent, according to different estimates. What might happen if one Sunday all gay priests, deacons, music and choir directors, Sunday school teachers--and their straight allies--stayed at home?

Lending further irony to this situation is the fact that before patriarchal times, people who we today call LGBT or queer were honored for the roles of spiritual service, leadership and community enrichment which we served. We were the mediators, healers, teachers, shamans, priests, keepers and creators of beauty. Indeed, according to the Dagara people in Africa, our world is in the shape it is because these "gatekeepers" have been "fired from their jobs," or forced to fulfill them from a place of hiding, fear and oppression. The Vatican's new document simply takes this effort to a new level of active persecution in our world today.

So what can be done by progressive and justice-loving people of faith to support LGBT people, and to create greater acceptance both within the church and in society at large?

First, go within. Be willing to question your beliefs, knowing that what is in the mind of God will be there on the other side of the questioning process. Ask yourself, "What would Jesus do in the case of LGBT inclusion?" If we could synthesize Jesus' entire message into one word, what would it be? I think we all know the answer: Love.

Second, come out, either as an LGBT person or as a straight ally. Coming out is a profound act of love. It probably won't be easy, but change rarely happens easily. Change often requires courage, a word originating from the French "cour," meaning "heart," i.e. love.

Third, demonstrate your love relentlessly by supporting LGBT events and causes. Attend Pride parades. Join PFLAG (Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays). Write letters to your bishop and your elected representatives. Support organizations fighting for LGBT equality within religion, like Dignity, Soulforce and the National Religious Leadership Roundtable for LGBT Concerns. Educate yourself and help get the progressive vote out when anti-gay initiatives surface in your community. Support marriage equality.

As a former Catholic, I have great respect for those who struggle to bring about change from within the church. Today you are striving to reclaim Christianity from the fear-based fundamentalism that has stolen its soul. And that is a profound act of courage--an act of love.

CHRISTIAN DE LA HUERTA is author of Coming out Spiritually (Tatcher, 1999), founder of QSpirit (www.qspirit.org) and a member of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable for LGBT Concerns.

Called to Serve

By Debbie Weill

DIGNITYUSA WORKS FOR respect and justice for all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons in the Catholic church and the world through education, advocacy and support. Taking on the church on issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression has always been challenging. With Pope Benedict, we do not expect this to change.

We are, nonetheless, encouraged by what we see at the parish level and by statements made by (too few) Catholic bishops, including the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop William S. Skylstad. However, only a couple of church leaders will even dialogue with us, not even many of those who have spoken favorably about gays and lesbians, and we, like many other progressive groups, have been refused the right to use church properties since the mid-1980s.

In this hostile climate, it is important that we all continue to fight for respect and justice by focusing on the hierarchy's ignorance regarding human sexuality, for scapegoating gay priests for the church's sex abuse scandal and consequently failing to accept responsibility for the scandal.

The Vatican has its own unique terminology when it discusses human sexuality, which it rarely defines and also rarely supports with credible research. It issues statements claiming that gay men and lesbian women are "intrinsically disordered" or, most recently, that gay men "find themselves in situations that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women." They also conclude that, because 81 percent of the victims of the sex abuse scandal are male, that gay priests are therefore the cause of the scandal and gay men should not be (in most cases) to admitted seminaries.

We work to inform and educate the public and the hierarchy on several key understandings of human sexuality that clearly undermine the Vatican's positions. Human sexuality experts point out that there is no link between molestation and sexual orientation. They further note that child molesters have a vague and undefined sexual orientation, that, in fact, they are fixated on children and not on their gender. Those who abuse teens also have no clear sexual orientation. Therefore, the Vatican's statements linking gay priests to child abuse have no documented scientific basis. Gay priests are not the cause of the sex abuse crisis and for the hierarchy to repeatedly make this baseless claim is harmful to many in the church, not just gay priests.

The continuing inability of seminary preparation to help our future priests and bishops integrate an understanding of their own sexuality into a mature emotional and spiritual life is another example of the hierarchy's adolescent understanding of sexuality. Catholic seminaries should be looking at the sexual maturity of the seminarian, not his sexual orientation.

In the Vatican's attempt to blame gays for the sex abuse crisis, many of the major causes of the crisis have gone unaddressed. Numerous church leaders moved priests with a known history of molestation from parish to parish with no warning whatsoever to parishioners. Most of these leaders: bishops, archbishops and cardinals, remain in office today and have not yet been held accountable. Two of them have been promoted to Rome. Where is the concern from the Vatican and the US bishops about this? This is not the church the Son of God created. Where is God's love in the actions of the hierarchy?

In the face of the latest move against gay seminarians by the Vatican, we remain hopeful that many Catholic seminaries will continue to admit and provide a welcoming environment to gay candidates for the priesthood. Many American bishops recognize the outstanding contributions faithful gay priests and bishops have made and continue to make in service to the church. We encourage gay men who have been called by God to courageously respond to their calling and apply for seminary admission. It would be another step backward for our church if the Vatican's antiquated views and fear of human sexuality kept well qualified and sexually mature gay men from serving the church as God has called them to serve.

DEBBIE WEILL is the executive director of Dignity USA, www.dignityusa.org.