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_____________ ________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ,__ tohninry ?1 m m
nTïïiTTTOnS inewsoriefs
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diversity. Thé process culminated in an all-
membership vote agreeing to become a Wel
coming Congregation.
The fellowship, which offers commitment
ceremonies and weddings, is located at 4505 E.
18th St. in Vancouver, Wash. Sunday services
are held at 9:30 and 11:15 a.m.
Continued from P age 9
“Our new legation is a much healthier envi
ronment for our staff, and sharing a building
with our allies has so many benefits,” said Roey
Thorpe, BRO executive director. “Not only will
we be more efficient, hut we’ll be able to maxi
mize our effectiveness and impact. It doesn’t get
much better than that!”
For more information call 360-695-1891.
For more information call BRO at 5 03-222-6Í5J
or Oregon N A RA L at 5 0 3 -2 2 3 4 5 1 0 .
MCC P ortland
B ombs A way !
etropolitan Community Church of Port
land welcomed the Rev. Glenna Shep
herd as its new senior pastor Feb. 17. She will
deliver her first official sermon 9 and 11 a.m.
Feb. 23 at 2400 N.E. Broadway.
Shepherd and her partner, Kermie, hail from
the Tampa-St. Petersburg area in Horida. The
M C C Portland board of directors asked her to
come to Oregon last month for a full week of
candidacy activities.
After meeting with church members and
friends, she delivered a sermon Jan. 5, then was
elected with a 93 percent affirmative vote. Once
settled, she will meet with a full range of local
religious and community leaders.
M C C Portland is a Christian congregation
with a strong outreach to the gay, lesbian, bi,
trans and allied community in the metropolitan
area. It is part of the Universal Fellowship of
Metropolitan Community Churches, which has
more than 300 congregations around the world
seeking to affirm the lives of these people in
their individual journeys of Christian faith. J H
N ew P astor
M
C
onservative gay writer Andrew Sullivan
tore apart the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force— including last November’s Port
land-based Creating Change conference— in
the Feb. 18 issue of The Advocate.
The scathing column focused on the non
profit organization’s Dec. 26 announcement that
it had joined “Keep America Safe: Win Without
War.” The broad coalition of major progressive
civil rights, business, religious and environmen
tal leaders includes the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, National
Organization for Women and Sierra Club.
“Regardless of what you think about the com
ing war, why on earth should a gay group take
this issue on?” Sullivan wrote. NGLTF “is not
essentially a gay rights organization. It’s a far-left
organization with an emphasis on gay rights. Its
main goal is building a ‘movement’ dedicated to
the overhaul of American society on anti
capitalist, anti-male and anti-white grounds.”
Sullivan went on to cite Creating Change’s
2002 theme, “Building an Anti-Racist Movement.”
Some sessions during the gathering— “Immigration
Issues Within People of Color Communities,”
“Fund-raising Issues for People of Color in the
LGBT Movement” and “People of Color Institute
Re-group”— were for ethnic minorities only.
“In an extra gesture that would have ipade
Trent Lott feel right at home, the conference
was in part racially segregated, with whites being
barred from certain sessions because of the color
of their skin,” Sullivan wrote. “I guess we should
he grateful they didn’t institute separate drink
ing fountains.”
Sullivan accused NGLTF of alienating large
segments of the community it serves, thus
undermining the focus of the cause in the broad
er world. He encouraged gay men and lesbians
to recognize the “radical irrelevance” of queer
organizations run by “extreme leftists.”
Executive director Lorri L. Jean defended
NGLTF in a Feh. 11 media release. “Sullivan’s
inaccurate, misplaced and conservative har
rumphing to the contrary,” she said, “NGLTF
has an unprecedented and indisputable record of
E lects
Lisa Bradshaw (left) and Els Debbaut explain immigration rights to a passerby Feb. 14
accomplishment on behalf of G LBT freedom,
justice and equality.”
The next Creating Change conference will be
held from Nov. 5 to 9 at the Radisson Deauville
Resort in Miami Beach, Ha. Organizers are con
sidering focusing on racism again this year.
W orkshop A ddresses
C onsensus B uilding
T
he Oregon Peace Institute will discuss
"Building Community Through Consen
sus” from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 27 in Room 202
at First United Methodist Church, 1838 S.W.
Jefferson St. The suggested donation is $10.
Consensus building, as a method of group
decision making, calls for the equal participation
of all group members, patience, active axipera-
tion, thoughtful speaking and listening, creativi
ty and, oftentimes, hard work. This workshop
will discuss some of the common problems that
arise in group decision making and discuss effec
tive solutions to handle these problems.
To register call 503-222-3105 or e-mail
jodie@orpeace.org.
Com piled by JlM R adosta
V ancouver C ongregation
W elcomes G ays , L esbians
ichael Servetus Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship has completed a two-year
process leading to recognition as a W elcom
ing Congregation, which means it is inclusive
and expressive of the concerns o f gay, lesbian,
hi and trans people at every level of congre
gational life.
To qualify for the status, fellowship members
participated in numerous workshops aimed at
broadening understanding, programming and
M
H appy V alentine ’ s D ay
ortland members of the Lesbian and Gay
Immigration Rights Task Force discussed
discriminatory U.S. immigration laws with con
cerned citizens Feb. 14 outside the Immigration
and Naturalization Building.
P
Just Out Arts and Culture Editor Lisa Brad
shaw, dressed as a giant heart, engaged passersby
with candy and candor alongside her partner,
Els Debbaut, who donned a Statue of Liberty
costume. Debbaut, who is from Belgium, is
directly affected by the government’s unequal
treatment of queer couples.
The Valentine’s Day Action was held in
conjunction with the réintroduction of the Per
manent Partners Immigration A ct, which
would help countless numbers of binational gay
and lesbian partnerships remain together. The
most prominent feature of the legislation would
allow U.S. citizens who are in a permanent
partnership to sponsor their partners for immi
gration purposes, just as any legal spouse would.
Because there is no legally recognized marriage
between same-sex couples under the immigra
tion law, many binational permanent partner
ships are tom apart when one partner moves to
the United States.
Glenna Shepherd
ignity in Oregon!
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