jun>20. 2003»
and
elementary
schools. A school
counselor
could
force
someone
toward heterosexual
actions, as defined
by the larger society,
or a heterosexual
normativity. 1 think
that is what often
happens, and that’s
just bad therapy. Let
the high schooler,
the
teen or the adult
In his new book, Love
be who God created
Welcomes All keynote
them
to be and to
speaker Brett Webb-
provide
an atm os
Mitchell contends that
the church in its entirety phere in which they
are now free to
embcxlies education
explore that in a
loving, caring, compassionate environment.
T K : One of the Love Won Out presenters,
Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, recently released a book
titled A Parent’s Quide to Preventing Homo
sexuality. In it, he suggests that homosexuality
is a gender identity disorder caused by envi
ronments or events that lead a child to reject a
stereotypical male or female role. He says this
can arise out of even a lack of hand-eye coor
dination in sports.
MH: Its not like going out and throwing a
ftx>thall is going to make you straight. But what
he’s saying is that the reality of our stx:iety tixlay is
if you’re an unaxtrdinated child, you’re going to
be ridiculed and you’re probably not going to fit
into the sports world, which society has set up to
be masculine. I think our society needs to look at
what is truly masculine and what is truly feminine.
knowledge and respond or vote accordingly.
H IP
Queer-affirming Zion United Church of Christ
local grassroots response called Love Welcomes
BWM: The problematic word there is “truly,”
and again it’s a boxing in of Gtxl and of God’s cre
ated order. We write histories of how or what it
means to be a man or male or masculine, or what
it means to be a woman or female or feminist or
womanist and how all of these change and are
changing and therefore are so malleable. There are
all different kinds of ways of being a man. There
are all different kinds of ways of being a woman.
T K : What do you hope Love Welcomes All
can accomplish?
BW M : To be a voice and be a visible witness
to G od’s inclusive, all-embracing, unfathom
able, unconditional love. And in so doing repre
sent the many that are still in hiding out of fear,
out of the knowledge of hatred, out of the sense
of destruction, harassment and discrimination.
We can name— that’s one of the most powerful
gestures that we can perform. Name the hurt
and also name the hope.
When it comes to diversity of the church, we
live our lives by what Christ held up as the two
greatest commandments: Love the Lord, your God,
and love your neighbor as yourself. The folks with
Love Welcomes All are truly about the Gospel and
inclusiveness and diversity. That’s a
radically hopeful message and a radi
cal hospitality in a world in which
such hopefulness is a rare commodi
ty and is rarely found. jH
The free, queer-affirming L ove
WELCOMES A ll conference will he
held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 21
in Gresham will be the site of the
at Zion United Church of Christ,
All
2025 N .E . 23rd Ave. in Gresham.
For details call 503-813-2049 or
visit www.lovewelcomesall.org.
T K : How has Love Won Out
The ana-gay L o v e WON OUT
affected public policy?
Brett Webb-Mitchell
conference will be held from 8 a.m. to
MH: We’ve given people the
ability to go in and combat gay agendas in 5 p.m. June 21 at New Hope Community Church,
schcxils. People have gone into schcxil districts
11731 S.E. Stevens Road in Clackamas. For details
call 800-232-6459 or visit www.lovewonout.com.
and, through the information that they’ve gained
at the conference, been able to fight stuff that
Features Editor TIMOTHY KRAUSE can be reached
they thought was inappropriate in their school.
at tim@justout.com.
People can go forward from a base of accurate
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Now is the time to express your views!
|jx>k for the survey in this issue of Just Out,
till it out and mail it in. Or till it out online at:
WWW.
outwithit2003 .com
A
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