Gay Rights

During the 2008 election year, one of the biggest political fights in the California state ballot was on Proposition 8, a proposition against gay marriage. Sadly, the proposition passed. One of the keys to the passage of Proposition 8 was the efforts of the Mormon church, the Evangelical church, and the Catholic church to lobby its members to vote for the measure.

Ever since Ted Kennedy died a few months ago, I've been reading magazine articles and books on his life and accomplishments. I've always admired Kennedy's leadership in progressive causes, but I have to admit that I didn't realize how much he had accomplished until I read some of the bills that he had passed.

As supporters of gays rights become more galvanized by the passage of Proposition 8, I thought it would be good to list several gays rights organizations that people may think of joining. Since conservative Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons were especially prominent in supporting Proposition 8, I tried to find organizations that would help out Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons who were either gay, lesbian or supported gay rights and perhaps help them speak out. If you know of an organization that I did not list, please feel free to post the name and website of the organization. It would be especially appreciated to know of any Mormon groups that would cater to Mormons who are gay, lesbian or are gay rights supporters.

GLAAD is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair and accurate representation of gays and lesbians in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and bad stereotypes. In their webpage is a great link to LGBT organizations that could be found in your local area.

Hi, I'm a part of the group Reaching out to the Religious Community on Prop 8 on Facebook. I believe that we need to take to the offensive and engage the communities of faith in civil dialogue. This could be done in workshops and forums where people get to speak on both sides. It would not be a debate, because that might be polarizing, but I think the issue we should focus on is freedom. We have to focus on the freedoms that we as Americans enjoy but also counter the misinformation campaign that wants to suggest that we want to strip places of faith of the right to choose what to believe. The ads suggesting that preachers would be sued for their preaching were very effective in that they created an atmosphere of fear which drove people who might be reasonable when it comes to gay rights into a sense of feeling that they had to defend their places of worship.

The passage of Proposition 8 and the subsequent frustration felt by the LGBT community has elevated tensions to an all time high for supporters of gay rights. Gays view Barack Obama's decision to invite Reverend Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration as a slap in the face at its worst and poor political reasoning at its best. It has certainly created more than a ripple here at Crossleft.

Apparently, Warren and Obama both oppose gay marriage while supporting civil unions for same sex couples as the best vehicle for delivering and safeguarding legal rights related to citizen equality. Right or wrong, this position seems to reflect the majority opinion in America today.

I’m against Proposition 8. I support the recent protests against the constitutional ban on gay marriage. I’m not, however, a supporter of the tactic of some gay rights supporters of attacking Mormon, Catholic, and Evangelical churches. In the long run, I think it is a tactic that’ll backfire and cause more harm than good for their cause. A small group of Mormons, Catholics and Evangelicals support gay rights and gay marriages and they need all the support they can get to raise their voices within their churches and counter the church hierarchy and the more conservative parishioners who champion Proposition 8.

Andrew Callahan is a Mormon who is risking excommunication from his church for speaking out against Proposition 8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzXsl7rPV0c) and (http://signingforsomething.org/blog/?page_id=770). His blog states that he is a high priest in good standing and he wrote:

"I want you to know, that regardless of any action the church takes or doesn’t take. I will NOT cease my actions to stop them from supporting Proposition 8, and I will work as hard as I can to defeat Prop 8 and all similar measures. Bigotry in any form is wrong, and disguising it as “love” as the church leadership is now doing is especially distasteful."

Koinonia Congregational Church is excited to announce Harry Knox, the Director, Human Rights Campaign's Religion and Faith Program as honored guest of Koinonia Congregational Church in Second Life to speak on the topic of LGBT inclusion in the full life of the church.

This will be held online - in Second Life at beginning at 4PM SLT (7PM EST) with a reception and extending into the evening with a discussion of the 8 points of Progressive Christianity.

If you are already a resident of Second Life you can attend this event using this link http://slurl.com/secondlife/Xenia/157/108/37 You may also follow that link to sign up for a free account.

You may also listen to the event live using audio software such as iTunes or Winamp by accessing the stream at http://koinonia.secondstreaming.com:9056/

---About Harry Knox---
Harry Knox joined the staff of the Human Rights Campaign in July 2005. Under his leadership the HRC Religion and Faith Program has seen the creation of a national speakers' bureau that reaches more than 10 million Americans monthly and a weekly preaching resource that provides scriptural commentary to ministers and lay people interested in an ecumenical gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender perspective on the Bible.

---About the Human Rights Campaign---

I post these from time to time to let folks know this newsletter is available as a resource from the Human Rights Campaign.

Second Life to be Venue for Real Lesbian Wedding United Church of Christ Pastor From Massachusetts to Preside

Koinonia Congregational Church in Second Life is happy to announce the wedding ceremony of Sophianne Rhode and her partner, Vidalia Shepherd.
Sophianne Rhode is the avatar representation of Kimberly Knight and Vidalia Shepherd is the avatar of LeAnne Browning. The ceremony will be held January 19th, 2007 at 4pm Second Life Time (7 pm Eastern) in the sanctuary.
Pandion Halasy will be the officiant at the ceremony. Pandion is the avatar of Rev. Ian Lynch of Brimfield First Congregational Church (UCC) in Brimfield, Massachusetts and has been an active member of Koinonia
Congregational in Second Life for many months. Kimberly and LeAnne and
their two daughters live in Atlanta, Georgia. Adelph Gustafson and Tecak Oyen will be the best men at the ceremony and Skilly Infinity and Sequioa Pinion will be the best women. Adelph Gustafson is the avatar of John Peterson, third year M.Div student at Candler School of Theology at Emory University and Skilly Infinity is the Second Life avatar name of Kathy Makus, a United Methodist pastor.

Koinonia Congregational Church is an online ministry that is open to all persons regardless of how one identifies oneself in society or internally and likewise regardless of how one represents oneself in Second Life.