4 Just OUt'tune 17.2005
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ARTiUL TURÎ1ITUR4
Nothing to be proud off
E ditor :
t’s that time of the year again—that Sunday
afternoon when many churches and people of
faith come together and march in Gay Pride.
In rhe past, I welcomed this show of inclu
sive attitudes as a positive Christian witness.
This year, I’m not sure. In fact, I am struggling
with a big ethical dilemma: Should I continue
participating this year or instead he protesting?
Is there really anything still to he proud of? Is
it still countercultural and prophetic for us to
march in the “Pride”? A true sign of maturity is
in humility before God and compassion for all
the fellow human beings, not in a self-congratu
latory display of “pride” and selling our struggle
for justice and freedom off to the corporate
interests so they can co-opt the “Gay Pride” as a
marketing gimmick.
While our attentions were captured by the
gay marriage licenses and the Measure 36, they
also helped re-elect George W. Bush and gave
more congressional seats to the far-right politi
cians who are no friends of human rights or civil
liberties. Yet, we have been happily oblivious to
those life-or-death, freedom-or-prison issues like
hunger, poverty, immigrants’ rights, unemploy
ment and even genocide and torture. Even as
our planet disintegrates into an orgy of greed,
violence, raw power games and deaths, no voic
es were raised from the rainbow pulpits against
any of this.
While the same-sex marriage adv<x:ates por
trayed a sanitized picture of gay marriage, they
also buried the authentic queemess into invisi
bility. No one saw any picture of polyamorous
households or genderqueer couples.
Our attitudes toward the disadvantaged and
disenfranchised have been usually tokenizing,
hostile or even pretending nothing below us
exists. For a number of times I have personally
witnessed “progressive” gay Christians mistreat
ing and acting contemptuously toward a few
homeless people who stopped by at their church
seeking help; shouldn’t we, instead of inviting
them to the worship service, actively integrate
them into the life and leadership of the church?
So much for being “inclusive”!
I believe the time has come for the queer
Christians to stand up and grow up. It’s a sign of
spiritual maturity to be able to see what others
feel and how others may be adversely or posi
tively affected by our own actions.
What about the ex-spouses we left in the
name of “finding freedom”? What about all the
children who miss one of their parents as we
happily “came out” as if our own desires are
more important than the well-being of those
who depend on us and are too young to care for
themselves? What about addressing the grief all
our parents must go through ?
The time is ripe for reconciliation with those
whom we hurt or wronged as a result of “comine
To the
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out.” Unless we can do that, there really isn’t
anything to be proud of. And unless we can
grow up and see other people’s pains and oppres
sions and be able to stand with them in faith and
solidarity, we have nothing to be proud of.
T he R ev . S r . S arah -A ndre a M orrigan
St. Brigid Celtic Anabaptist Community of
Portland
Courage under ffire
To the E ditor :
hank you for your courage and willingness
to open yourself to the inevitable knee-jerk
criticism for your balanced report on Love
Makes a Family [“Is Love Makes a Family Still
Effective?” May 6]. As a parent, a former Love
Makes a Family participant and a former hoard
member, I applaud your decision for an open dis
cussion on an organization that serves such a
vital role in our community.
To all of the readers who responded to
protest, I challenge you to step forward with
more than a small monetary donation to Love
Makes a Family or acerbic comment to the edi
tors of Just Out. Volunteer your time and energy
as board members to allow the executive and
staff leadership of Love Makes a Family to sepa
rate itself from the board of directors. A non
profit with key staff members (for example, the
executive director and her spouse) serving on
th ' board of directors is a recipe for disaster, par
ticularly the types of problems reported with
Love Makes a Family. Love Makes a Family
needs an effective and independent board, and
the willingness to accept change and new lead
ership within the organization.
With all of the discord during the past few
months as gay, lesbian, transgender, queer and
bisexual parents have faced an assault on their
families because of the passage of Measure 36,
who speaks for the children affected by this deci
sion? With all of the funds allocated and all of
the efforts of the families and volunteers with
Love Makes a Family, 1 ask where are the
resources for children in Portland, in Washing
ton County and in Vancouver, Wash., to deal
with this issue? If the leaders of Love Makes a
Family are dedicating themselves to a quixotic
and fratricidal assault on other leaders within
the community, who is providing support to
families?
,
Thank you again for having the courage to
make the difficult decision to “air some dirty
laundry” in public. Without the open discussion
and changes needed, hundreds of families in the
greater Portland area will continue to struggle
without the support that could and should be
offered by an effective family-centered organiza
tion like Love Makes a Family.
B ecca R edard
Washington County
■ * < <nt mi timu
Jean O'Leary, 1948-2005
esbian activist, former nun and Democratic
Party leader Jean O’Leary died June 4 at the
San Clemente, Calif., home of Lisa Phelps, her
partner of 12 years, and surrounded by her fam
ily and close friends. O’Leary^ who had been
battling lung cancer for two years, was 57.
O’Leary was an adv<x:ate for the rights of
gays and lesbians, women and people with
HIV/AIDS as well as a prominent Democratic
Party activist. Over the course of a 35-year
career, she ran several national gay rights
groups, co-founded pioneering organizations,
including Lesbian Feminist Liberation and
L
Don Valerio, MD
Board Certified Internal Medicine
Fanno Creek Clinic
2400 SW Vermont Portland (503) 452-
National Coming Out Day, and worked to elect
Democratic candidates.
Bom March 4, 1948, in Kingston, N.Y., Jean
Marie O’Leary grew up mostly in Ohio. She
used the occasion of her high school graduation
speech in 1966 to announce her entry into the
Sisters of the Holy Humility convent. In a 1984
anthology, Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence,
O’Leary said she joined the convent because
“there was no anti-war movement, no women’s
movement, no gay movement in Ohio in 1966”
and because she “wanted to do something spe
cial, to have an impact on the world.”