Reasonably Logical

Dear Friends:

As the movement to protect New York City’s LGBTQI homeless youth continues to gain momentum, there are three more ways you can help protect the futures of thousands of LGBTQI homeless youth:

- Sign the international petition to Save New York City LGBTQI Youth Shelters! The petition has gained support from allies from 26 countries and 27 states who have called on DYCD to reverse its inhumane decision to cut funding for LGBTQI youth shelters. Invite friends, family, and co-workers to sign with you in order to tell legislators that LGBTQI youth are worth our best efforts, both locally and globally.

-Join our Facebook Cause Page. Creating and sustaining community is central to sending the unified message that the futures of homeless LGBTQI youth matter. By joining the Cause, we can tell friends and policymakers that an attack on LGBTQI youth is a threat to us all.

-Make a donation to help sustain youth services at Sylvia’s Place. Amid funding deliberations, we continue to serve over 60 youth a day, 365 days a year. Help us ensure that our youth are receiving the medical care, food, shelter and assistance that they need to help move them towards self-sufficiency, and away from jail or worse. Despite the threats from DYCD, we will continue to remain a haven and a source of stability for the youth we serve.

As always, your support is integral to ensuring that New York City does not cut costs at the expense of vulnerable youth. Please take a moment to tell legislators across the City and around the world that homeless LGBTQI youth deserve our best efforts.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Pat Bumgardner, Senior Pastor
MCCNY

William Moran-Berberena, Executive Director
MCCNY Charities

Lucky Michaels, Director
MCCNY Homeless Youth Services

Frances Wood, Administrator
MCCNY Charities

Join Our Mailing List

Today, Love Makes a Family - the organization that has been instrumental in obtaining same-sex marriage in Connecticut - announced that it would be closing its doors. Their letter to members stated that the organization will be closing its doors on December 31, 2009.

Having accomplished our core mission, Love Makes a Family has begun preparations to cease operations on December 31, 2009, allowing our staff, board and community of supporters to focus their energies on the myriad of community issues still facing our state and country.

We are absolutely confident that marriage equality is here to stay in Connecticut. We would never close our doors if we felt otherwise.

I have to say that I will be sorry to see the organization close. I had hoped that they would transition into a broader LGBT family organization and work on behalf of LGBT families in our state. I do however respect their reasons for discontinuing the organization. Anne, Matt, Ganon and everyone else, thank you for your years of effort. Your efforts have been much appreciated. I look forward to working with you all in future endeavors.

Homeless Youth
Rally at City Hall to Tell NYC that Homeless Youth Matter!

City Hall Park
Tuesday, March 31st
3:45 PM - 5:30 PM

We’ll meet at the north side of City Hall Park at 3:45 PM.
Make noise!
Bring signs!
Tell the City that the futures of homeless youth matter!

FIND OUT MORE

Visit our Facebook Event Page

Last week, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development slashed funding for homeless youth shelters, in a wave of funding cuts that promise to cripple youth shelters across the city in the coming year.

Thousands of youth will be forced to return to living on the street if we don’t ACT NOW.

Join us in the fight to save the futures of the city’s homeless youth!

Thank you for your support as we fight for the future and dignity of this community.

The following is an action alert that I received from Sylvia’s Place homeless shelter at which I volunteer. Essentially, they just lost *ALL* of their operating funding for next year. So did most of the other LGBT specific programs in NYC. Please take a moment, read the below, and call one of the city council members mentioned at the bottom.

URGENT:
LGBTQ Youth Shelters Face Threat of Closure Following DYCD Funding Refusal

The New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) has slashed funding for LGBTQ runaway and homeless youth programs, in a wave of funding cuts that promise to cripple LGBTQ homeless youth services across the city in the coming year. By refusing funding requests for LGBTQ youth programs at MCCNY Homeless Youth Services: Sylvia’s Place, Bronx Community Pride and cutting funds by 2/3 for Green Chimneys’ LGBTQ program, DYCD has jeopardized the futures of thousands of homeless LGBTQ youth who will be forced to live on the streets for months while waiting for beds at mainstream shelters, where they face harassment and violence due to their sexual orientation. DYCD has further threatened the wellbeing of LGBTQ clients who depend upon LGBTQ homeless youth organizations for food, clothing, medical care and case management services.

There are currently only 75 beds citywide for LGBTQ homeless youth, though over 35% of the city’s homeless youth identify as LGBTQ. The Metropolitan Community Church of New York operates Sylvia’s Place, which houses 26 LGBTQ youth beds and serves over 1000 youth every year. The city’s unwillingness to acknowledge the critical work of Sylvia’s Place and other LGBTQ -specific youth shelters will lead to a collapse in the shelter system citywide, making it impossible for homeless youth of all orientations to secure the housing and services they need.

If DYCD gets away with this, then the 75 beds that New York City currently has for LGBTQ youth could be cut to less than 49 BEDS for LGBTQ youth in a city where, according to a New York City Council-funded survey, over1000 LGBTQ youth are homeless every night.

Tell DYCD and your legislators that the futures of homeless LGBTQ youth matter!

MCCNY Homeless Youth Services, Green Chimneys, Bronx Community Pride and many more depended on these funds and will be losing ground if DYCD does not consider their proposals now!

Please direct your comments to:

Council Member Lewis A. Fidler
718-241-9330
LFidler@council.nyc.gov

Council Member Alan J. Gerson
212-788-7722

Council Member Gale Brewer
212-873-0282*

Updates:
* The correct person to speak with is Shula Warren. Her direct phone is 212-788-6975. Her email is shula(dot)warren(at)council (dot) nyc (dot) gov.

Despite the title, the LA Times article below is well worth a read. It touches upon one of the issues that has arisen after the Prop 8 loss in California*: the silencing of the opposition. Personally, I feel that Prop 8 was an immense miscarriage of justice. However, it is very important to remember that there are a number of people out there - some in surprising spots - who whole heartedly disagree with me. That is their legal right. It is entirely inappropriate to go after anyone who may have supported Prop 8 on a personal level. No one’s job should be at risk for their politics. Discrimination based on support for Prop 8 is still discrimination. If nothing else folks, think about how you would feel if the shoe were on the other foot! (ENDA anyone?)

* In case you haven’t heard, the CA Supreme Court has taken up a case considering the constitutionality of Prop 8. I’d say there’s a close to even chance it gets struck down. Let us hope not.

Liberal Hollywood ponders next step in fight for same-sex marriage
After the passage of Proposition 8, some are calling for boycotts and firings. Others worry about free speech rights being trampled.
By Rachel Abramowitz and Tina Daunt, Los Angeles Times
November 23, 2008

In case you didn’t recognize the quote from the title of this post, it’s a famous one in support of free speech by Voltaire (probably).

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you just a got an event invitation for a series of rallies that occurring all over the nation tomorrow. I usually don’t spam everyone I know with political events since I hate it when people do so to me. This time though, I’m making an exception.

Enough is enough folks! Proposition 8 was a f*cking slap in the face. Its time we, queer folks and straight allies alike, stood up and said something about it. Please take some time tomorrow and join a local protest in your town. Don’t just stand by and let this go unopposed.

To find out about a rally in your town, see http://jointheimpact.com/. Or if you’re as much of a Facebook junkie as I am, check out http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33598248873#/event.php?eid=45356108205. There are events in literally every state in the nation. You won’t have to go far to find one.

Everyone, I have a birthday coming up at the end of November and I’d like to ask a favor of you. If you were otherwise considering giving me a gift, please don’t. Instead, I ask you to do two things: 1) Vote against Proposition 8 if you’re a California resident, and 2) make a donation to the No on 8 Campaign whether you are a Californian or not. The upcoming vote is likely to be a very close one and your support is much more valuable to me than any physical gift could be.

Here’s a few (of the many) reasons you should oppose Proposition 8:
- You believe in separation of church and state. Proposition 8 is a direct effort to introduce religious morality into the state constitution. Even if you don’t personally support gay marriage, the thought of having one particular religion’s idea of morality inscribed in the state constitution should scare you.
- You don’t believe a minority should be at the whim of the majority. Proposition 8 takes rights away from a minority group. If it passes, the majority of the population will be voting to directly strip rights from a minority. Given that everyone is a minority in some way (race, sex, age, occupation, etc..), do you really want to be setting that precedent?
- You believe in equal rights under the law for all. However you look at it, the CA Supreme Court has very clearly stated that denying gay people the right to marry is discrimination. Proposition 8 wouldn’t change that fact; it would simply inscribe discrimination into the state constitution.
- Finally, and most importantly, because I’m asking you to. This is an issue that is important to me personally, and I am asking for your support.

For the record, the above is not a generic form letter or anything like that. I wrote it (from scratch) because this is a cause I personally believe strongly in. I would greatly appreciate your support in opposing Proposition 8.

Yours,
Philip

I am sending an email with the text above to many of my friends and family in California and around the country. This is a cause I believe in, and I’m asking my friends and family to stand with me.

If you’re reading this, I encourage you to do the same. From what I’ve heard, this is going to come down to a very close vote. Every single person you talk to, and every single dollar you raise will make a potentially critical difference.

Update (11-20-08; Yes, after we lost.): Pam’s House Blend has a really good argument about why everyone - gay or not - should be downright scared by the Prop 8 decision. Go read it! But first, I’ll leave you with a poem to think on.
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”

I learned today that the Prairie Flame has stopped publication for good. The Flame was a newspaper for the GLBT community in downstate Illinois that ran for more than 12 years. Beyond news coverage, the Flame also included a insert that listed area resources and organizations. (I still have several copies scattered around.) This listing provided the majority of the resources that are now tracked by the Champaign County LGBTQA Resource Guide website I still maintain.

While it might not have been the best of papers - honestly I usually got my news elsewhere - it was a good central source for things happening in the GLBT community in downstate. The Flame was somewhat of an area institution; one that I at least will miss.

Putting out the flame
After 11 years of publishing a newspaper for the gay community, Buff Carmichael calls it quits
SEPTEMBER 11, 2008
BY DUSTY RHODES, Illinois Times

Since the invasion of Iraq six years ago, the treatment of Iraqi gays has steadily diminished. Under Hussein, gay men were largely ignored. While they didn’t have many rights, they also weren’t hunted down and killed as is happening today. With the religious extremism that has been brought forth by the civil war in Iraq, Iraqi gay men are being hunted by all sides. Now that the actual fighting has died down, more and more Iraqi gay men are facing violence, rape, and death.

Disturbingly, this trend is getting very little attention internationally. Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen three articles - two of them within the last month - on gays in Iraq. (See links below) There has been no action taken by international forces, and the United States barely seems to have noticed. Our government and troops do nothing, and our gay political groups are so caught up in domestic concerns that they haven’t even raised the issue.

Thankfully, there is some evidence that this might be changing somewhat. There is a group in London (Iraqi LGBT) - primarily of Iraqi ex-pats - which is organizing an underground railroad to get some Iraqi gay men out of the country. The issue is finally getting mainstream press coverage with both a CNN and Newsweek article in the last month.

Despite this, there is still a lot more than needs to be done. I strongly suggest you read the articles linked below and think about the issue. Talk about it with your friends. Better yet, talk about it with your congresspeople. And possibly most importantly, if you’re involved with a gay political group (HRC, NGLTF, NCLR, Lambda Legal, GLAAD, etc..) bring it up with them. We have no excuse as a country, as the LGBT community, or as individuals to this issue any longer.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Do Kill
Nobody wants to talk about gays in Iraq, much less who is killing them.
By Lennox Samuels
Newsweek Web Exclusive

Gays in Iraq terrorized by threats, rape, murder
By Frederik Pleitgen, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Wayne Drash
CNN

Iraq struggles to stop persecution of gays
Monday, April 16, 2007
Deb Price, Detroit News
(This article has apparently been taken down. The link is dead and I can’t find reference to the article on their site.)

Thought I’d go ahead and share this article from UIUC’s ACES News. According to a study done by an assistant professor there - Ramona Faith Oswald - legal recognition of same sex relationships is most often sought by parents and people of religious faith. While not exactly a surprise, it sure contradicts the messaging of the religious right.

In the interest of full disclosure, Oswald is an acquaintance of mine whom I’ve worked with on various community initiatives including the Champaign County LGBTQA Resource Guide website which I still maintain.

Belief in God, Parenthood Prompt Gay Partners to Make Commitment
Published: Jul. 30, 2008
Source: Ramona Faith Oswald, (217) 333-2547, roswald@uiuc.edu

URBANA - Which gay and lesbian couples are more likely to legalize their relationship and hold a commitment ceremony? Those with children and strong religious beliefs, says a new University of Illinois study.

“Opponents of relationship recognition for same-sex couples often say that we have to protect children, or that same-sex relationships are against God. But this study suggests that lesbians and gay men who seek relationship recognition may be acting to protect their children and enact their own religious beliefs,” said Ramona Faith Oswald, a U of I associate professor of family studies.

…