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ship, which honors the early Portland PFLAG
activist and mother of the late Lady Elaine Pea
cock and Misty Waters. Board members of Port
land PFLAG and the scholarships will he donat
ing extra items to help make the weekend event
a huge success for all the charities.
For more information call 503-286-1752.
P ortland S tudent
R eceives S cholarship
ortlander Matthew Vail is among the 25
students who were announced July 13 as
2004 Point Scholars.
The Point Foundation
awards the multiyear schol
arships each year to support
academic achievement in
higher education among
disenfranchised queer youth
who have been marginal
ized, abandoned or rejected
by their families because of
Matthew Vail
their sexual orientation or
gender identity and unable to find support and
community. The students must demonstrate
leadership, scholastic achievement and a pas
sion for social change.
The average scholarship is $14,000. More
than $500,000 will he awarded this year.
Vail was horn and raised in Portland with his
identical twin, who is heterosexual. While his
brother’s girlfriend attends family events, he says
he is not allowed to have even a gay friend come
over to the house.
“List year, my brother invited his girlfriend
to spend Christmas Eve with my family,” Vail
said. “Everyone was curious about the girl who
had made my brother so happy. I was also in
love, but great care was taken to never mention
his name.”
Despite a less-than-desirable family situa
tion, Vail is a high achiever academically, earn
ing a membership in the National Honor Soci
ety and graduating from high schixil with per
fect grades after spending three years on the
honor roll. He is also the co-founder and presi
dent of his schixil’s Gay Straight Alliance. He is
attending Sarah Lawrence College to work in
public education and stKial services.
Tlie foundation selects a range of students who
are racially, ethnically, geographically and acade
mically diverse. They are matched with mentors
from the professional world who serve as positive
role rmxJels and provide personal support, en
suring that scholars build a foundation of leader
ship skills they can use throughout their lives.
“ Because of homophobia and transphobia in
their hometowns, and often within their own
families, Point Scholars lack access to tradition
al sources of college funding. The Point Foun
dation acts as a lifeline for outstanding LG BT
students and is the only organization that covers
the cost of tuition, txxiks, supplies, room and
hoard, transportation and living expenses in a
substantial manner,” executive director Vance
Lancaster said.
Q ueer A dventists
M eet in O regon
S
eventh-day Adventist Kinship Internation
al, a support organization for queer members
of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will hold
its 25th annual conference from Aug. 15 to 22
at the Menucha Retreat and Conference Center
in Corbett, 20 miles outside Portland. It is the
fifth time the event has been held at this venue.
“While planning where to celebrate our 25th
gathering, we soon decided to return to Ore
gon,” said kinship president Bob Bouchard of
New York City. “Oregon has been one of our
favorite locations, and we are excited to return
to celebrate this anniversary."
The conference, which the kinship tradi
tionally calls “kampmeeting,” is mcxJeled after
weeklong, regional retreats the church has held
for its members since the mid-1800s. For many
years the gatherings were held in rural areas
under large tents with church members camping
outdoors; the event soon became known as
“campmeeting.”
Kinship members have gathered annually
since 1980 throughout the United States, Cana
da and Europe. In addition to Christian faith
and spirituality, guest speakers discuss health,
well-being, civil rights and other topics. Music
also plays an important role throughout the
week, especially during the closing events.
Among this year’s speakers, Ron Oden will
speak Aug. 20 about his journey as a black gay
man with Adventist roots. Oden, who in 2003
was elected mayor of Palm Springs, Calif., is a
graduate of Oakwocxl College, an Adventist lib
eral arts school in Huntsville, Ala., where he
studied to he a minister. He also holds master’s
degrees in theology and ethics studies with post
graduate courses in marriage, family and child
counseling.
Kinship members attend the conference for
various reasons, including spiritual rejuvena
tion, support in coming out to their families and
comradeship with others who share a similar
experience of growing up in the church and
then realizing they are gay.
“ Kinship provides a safe and supportive space
for our members who need us for various rea
sons,” Bouchard said. “We have members who
are very interested in creat
ing change within our
church and others who feel
t(x> hurt by their church’s
rejection to remain very
connected. When we all get
together, though, it’s very
clear we’re a supportive fam
ily that share cultural and
spiritual ties to Adventism.” Ron Oden
The church, like other conservative Christ
ian denominations, believes homosexuality is
immoral. This creates a conflict for kinship
members, who often feel hurt and betrayed by
their church’s rejection yet value Adventist
beliefs and their history with the church.
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he July 28 cover story in Willamette Week
spotlighted Portland Fellowship, an “ex-
gay" ministry that attempts to “cure” 50 queers
annually through its two-year "reparative” ther
apy program.
The article focused on ministry assistant
Drew Berryessa, a 27-year-old who believes a
weak father figure kept him from learning to
play sports and relate with other boys. “Instead,
he bonded with girls and gossiped with them
about TV shows and school,” the report said.
Berryessa married a woman six months ago.
Fellowship executive director Jason Thompson
refused to detail the ministry’s success rates,
claiming that’s not the point.
“Portland Fellowship exists to draw people
into a closer relationship with God,” he said. “A
byproduct is that you regain the heterosexual
orientation." j n
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