Second Stone #19 - Nov/Dec 1991

Second Stone #19 - Nov/Dec 1991

19

1991

Nov/Dec 1991

AMERICA'S GAY & LESBIAN CHRISTIAN NEWSJOURNAL $2.25
All he ever wanted to be was
an Assembly of God pastor
Strange Angel
too much for
Bible College
I
BY JI M BAILEY
Ben Davis was born to devout
Assemblies of God parents
in Farmers Branch, Texas,
in 1948. In his newly
release d book Strange Angel , the
Dallas '-bas ed first-time author
gives a hilarious and tou c hing
ac cou nt of growing up in the
old -fashioned "clothes.-Iine r e ligion"
that perva ded north Texas in
the l 9 5Os. Dav is could read a nd
recite Scripture at age five, and
developed a goal of becoming a
min is ter in the Assembly of God.
But, as a 21-year old Bible College
student , he bega n to recog nize and
'ESSAY:
··Yes Adam . ,.
and Steve
acc ept himself as a gay man . When
hi s congregation lea rned that he
was gay, they turned their backs on
him , forcing him to live in th e
secular world he had learn ed from
the pulpit ~o mistrust. Davis said
that what hurt the most was that not
a single person stood by him in
those da ys, not even the P\?Ople who
were the most pre cious to him .
Davis said that the experience of
be ing a despised o utc ast in the
church th at he was once such a part
of has lef t him scarred, bitter, and
SEE COVER STORY, Page 8
· :' · IN-BETWEEN
S'~y Johnny Townsend
._:[12J·· ~- ~-~·-·· · THE · · ·, 12 .. Reflections on
. , CHRISTMAS
· · the season
By Michael Hur/owe
f i 6. ] ~:£~~\ay Michael Blankenship
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..........F... rotmhEe ditoTr •· ................ .
Unbiblicatl,h eys aid
By Jim Bailey
Or course I never expected
everyone to like Second Srone ..
From the beginning, l've clearly
pointed out on the masthead who
might enjoy the paper the most.
l've had some very pleasant surprises.
Gays and Lesbians who
don't 'necessarily identify as
Christians write and sav thev like
the focus on human rights iss~es in
the news synopsis. Others say they
_Hke the articles that have appeared
supporting committed, monogamous
relationships. They don't see too
much of that elsewhere, they .say.
Second Stone also has a large
readership among another group
that's not included on the masthead.
Our straight readers are
parents, family members, church
pastors, .and others who are keen!)'
interested in equality for Gays and
Lesbians in church and society.
But, as I said, not everyone l.ikes
Second Srolje. Gays and Lesbians
who are anti-religion because thev
have been so hurt by the church
write and say they can't understand
why ·,ve want to be a part of
something that doesn't want us.
And, of course, there .'s the group
who hates Second Stone the most -
anti-gay main stream Christians.
Over .the years they've developed a
concept of- Gays and Lesbians as
prqmiscuous pen·erts who hang
around the park or public restrooms.
They've had this notion
reinforced by the Sheldon's, the
Wildmon's, the Robertson's and .the
Falwell's who occupy the pulpits
every Sunday morning. Can you
imagine what a threat it is to their
idea of what a gay or lesbian person
is· when they see a copy of Second
Stone? First, they always sit down
and write a letter. (See facing
page.) . I have enough letters .on file
to make an entire Bible out of
Romans, Leviticus and Corinthians
alone.
But I was surprised - and deeply
disappoi nted - when I learned last
summer of a few other people who
said they would never subscribe to
the paper. ·second Swne was just
too unbib/ical they said. I had
heard that previously from so many
anti-gay Christians that it almost
slipped by me, But this time itwas
coming from gay and lesbian
Christians. 1 think every page I
have ever published flashed before
my eyes for a moment before I said,
"Too ... whatr
Unbiblical, they said, because we
have include .ct news from the
Unitarians, Reformed Judaism,
Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses ...
and so on. (Almost even ,
denomination but their own, '1
think.) It was amazing to me then,
and amazes me still, that a church
pastor or gay or lesbian Christian
woufd invalidate Second Stone in
such a manner because of a news
report on a Welcoming Congregations
Program or the ordination of
gay rabbis. I appreciate the strides
that . these people are making in
their denomination to change
attitudes in the pews and the
pulpits . We will not exclude and
shut out people who are different
from us. Don't we all know how that
feels by now? It was a profound
disappointment to me, not to hear
the criticism of Second Srone, but to
know that there are gay and lesbian
Christians who don't realize how
important it is that we all work
together for freed_om and equality
in our churches and society, The
writer of the-letter on the next' page
does not scare me as much as these
folks do. -·
This issue marks the beginning of
the fourth year for Second Stone. It
·is also the largest page count ever.
Rev. Donald Wildmon now claims to
have over a million readers of his
anti-gay American family Associa-
• tion Joumal. Second Srone does not
have a million readers yet, but
with your continued (and appreciated)
support, maybe one day we
will.
I vdsh yo_u and your loved ones a
peaceful and joyful holiday season .
Enjoy this issue and we'll see you
again in the new year!
[27 Second Stone• November/December 1991
Contents
From The Editor
These gay and lesbian Christians scare me
Your Turn
Letters from our· readers
Comment
Don't preach sexuality from the pulpit
Guest opinion by Robert C. Brock
New Lines
Cover Story
The Gospel. according to Benny Joe
Author Ben Davis interviewed by Jim Bailey
Essay
Adam and Steve
by Johnny Townsend
Threads
by Eric Bellman
The in-between Christmas
by Michael Hurlowe
Gay and lesbian
people need Jesus, too!
By Rev. Bruce Roller
Book Reviews
Cirde of Hope reviewed by Sean L. Avery
Growing Up Gay in the South
reviewed by Michael Blankenship
In God's Image reviewed by William L. Day
Just Out
New books, music, and other neat stuff
Noteworthy
· News about people, ·churches and groups
Calendar
Other Places
Gay vacation spots. Dreaming about summer helps.
Resource Guide
Connectedness
T YourTurn T ...................................
No love letters this time
Not another
letter quoting
Romans!
~Dallas, Texas
Dea r Second Stone,
Please do not send another issu e
of your newspaper. I d o not agr ee
with the purpose of yo ur newspap er
which is to justif y th e sin or
homose;rnal behavior in the eyes of
God and man. As Christians, we are
saved hy the blood of Jesus Christ. ·
But God commands us ·a_ll to n ee
from sin and not he deceived by our
lusts and desires. In the first
c hapter of Romans, when men
turned against God and refused to
obey. Him, "God gave them over to
degrading passions; for th e ir
women exchanged the natural function
for that which is unnatural,
and in the sa me way also the men
abandoned the natural function of
the woman and burned in their
desire toward one another, men
ISSN No. 1047·3971
SECO:\'D STO;\'E Newspaper is
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Bailey Communications: P. 0. Rox
834 0, New Orleans. LA 70182.
Copyright 199 I by .Second Stone. a
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. EDITORIAL. send lcu ers. calendar
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. Second Stone. P. 0. Aox 8340. New
Orleans , LA 701.82. M,muscripls lo
be returned should be accompanied hy
a·stampcd, self ~ddrcsscd cnvc],lpc.
SECO:\'IJ ST01"E, :irl ecumenical
Christian ncws p:ipcr commiucd lo
infor ming the gay and k:shian community.
l'UIJLISHER/EDITOR: Jim Railey
CONTRll3lffORS FOR THIS ISSUE:
Cy nthia Marquard
Danni Munson
Rohcrt C. Brock
S"'-'n L Avery
Johnny Town send
Rev . Amee Roller
Eric Bellman
Michael Hurlowc
William L. Day
Michael IJlanken s hip
with men committing indecent acts
and rece iving in their own person s
the d Lie penalty of their error."
(Romans 1:26-27) It is clear that
homos ex ual behavior in a sin in the
eyes of God. God lov es each of His
children, but hat es homose xua l
behavior. and commands us to flee
from it in order to glorify Him.
God asks each of us to confess our
sins. "If we confess ou r sins, He is
faithful and right eous forgives us
our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we
have not sinned, .we make Him a
liar, and ·l·lis word in not in us ." (I
John 1:9-10) As a Chr istian newspaper,
y ou should promote obedience
of the Word of God, not
disobedien ce.
Sincerely ,
I/. "fhomas
How did they
get on the
mailing list
. ' ? anyway.
~Fort Worth, Texas
Dear Second Stone,
Would you please remove our name
from your mailing list?
Thank you,
Nonh Richland Hills
Baptist . Church
~Bonham, Texas
Dear Second Stone,
Please DO NOT include us on your
mailitig list.
Thank you,
First Christian. Churc!J
Write to Second Stone . · All letters
must be original and signed by the
writer. Clea.rly indicate if your
name is to be withheld. We resen ,e
the right co edit. Box 8340, New
Orleans, LA 70182. .
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Second Stone• November/Decem~r 1991 [3J
T Comment ........................................................................
Don't preach sexuality from the pulpit
Attending the First Church of
Blonde.Haired, Blue Eyed, Left Handed ...
By Robert C. Brock
Guest Opinion
Dunng the mornm~ sen-ice at .
the Word Church I am attending,
the pastor spoke to the men (aft er
dismissing all th.e women) .about
attending an upcoming ·men's con'.
Ference. As the : pasto_r: spo!;~; 1
-noticed several men · ther~ _that : I
feel confident were gay,-or at least
closet cases. Some are probably
married, some not. SOme may . be
living a double life, still not abl e to
accept themselves as a whol e person.
Still others are · probably
attempting to deny that part of
their life, living single celibate
lives; unwilling to devote to a man
and unable to devote to a woman.
It was at this moment that I
remeinbered a statement that the
pastor reportedly made one Sunday
before I started attending there: "If
you are a homosexual, you will not
be comfortable in this church."
Why not, I wondered. What makes
me different from the man on the
next row that he would be
comfortable and I would not? Why
would the pastor go to the trouble
· to single out someone and say that
they would not be comfortable in
this particular house of worship?
As a single gay man, 1 can go to
church with my straigh t friends
and blend right in. But what if my
lover and 1 were to go togeth er?
When two people are in love, they
don't have to touch or even be close
for you to see that they are together
and bonded. Even if we felt
comfortable, how would the rest of
the congregation feel?
With that thought -in mind, I
begin to see more and more why
many gay people prefer "gay"
churches. But is that right? Do we
concentrate so much on creating an
atmosphere where we feel comfortable
that we tum the tables and
say, "If you are a heterosexual, you
will not be comfortable in this
church?" Perhaps we dori't say
these exact words, but do our
actions demonstrate that? What
about our ermons? How many
ti"mes in a service do we say the
words "gay" or "lesbian?" Better
yet, why?
Paul's .writings. teach us that the
Gospel of Jesus is for the Jew and
.the Gentile, -the slave and the free.
ls.n't that e.nough? Must we add
sexualit y to it? How about hair
color, eye color or left or right
It was at this
moment that I
remembered · a
statement that
the pastor
reportedly made
one Sunday
before I started
attending there:
"If you are a
homosexual, you
will not feel
comfortable in
this church."
handed? Yeah, that's it : The First
Church of Blonde Haired, Blue
Eyed, Left Handed, Homosexuals
who believe that God loves everyone,
even if they aren't like us!
Okay, it sounds absurd when you
put it into words like that. But
haven't our actions pretty much
s·tated that in the churches that
minister primarily to Gays if you
are not gay you may not be
welcome?
Recently , a friend of mine had an
experience in one such church. For
years, Rickey (not his real name)
has struggled with_..God's ability to
~I Second Stone• November/December 1991
love him and his own ability to be a
Christian and be gay. As a result,
he goes through stages of "being"
gay and "being" straight and has,
on occasion, praised God for his
"deliverance" from th e gay lifestyle
.
After his most recent
"deliverance," Rickey returned to
the gay church he had attended to
tell them of his recover y and
encourage _them to seek God for
their deliverance so that they could
be .as free as he was. /\n argument
followed and Rickey was escorted
out of th e church. A month later,
Rickey attempted to attend the
church once again. He was greeted
with some reservation following his
last appearance. Rickey apologized
for his previous outbursts and
asked for permission to join the
midweek choir practice.
But Rickey was not allowed the
opportunity to stay. lie was
approached by the pastor's spouse
who told him in no unce~tain terms
he was not welcome and to "get the
hell out" of the church, adding,
" lles ides. you're straight."
By co nstantly prea ching gay from
our pulpits , we alienate the
heterosexual and further confuse
those who are still dealing with
accepting thems .elves and finding
their place in God's kingdom. /\s a
result, the straight community
suffers the discrimination we Gays
complain about from main line
churches and the confused people
struggling with their sexuality are
forced out of the church and into
the streets, parks, bars and back
alleys to explore their sexuality
and seek counsel from persons
bitter from their own experiences
with religion.
Surely, there is a balance. Can we
not preach Jesus Christ crucified,
risen, reigning in power and coming
again without constantly addressing
sexuality? Car_l't we teach our
single men and women that God has
a plan for them that includes
accountability for what they do
with their lives and their bodies
whether they are gay or straight?
Can't this lesson be taught without
qualifying sexual orientation? Are
we as proud of our salvation as we
are our sexuality? We want
everyone to know we are gay and
accept us for it but how often do we ·
tell someone ·we are a Christian?
If we want our ministries to be
effective to all people we must first
preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Everything else, including sexuality,
must take a back seat. Only
then can we provide an atmosphere
where all people can worship
together, both the Gays and the
heterosexual. Only then can we be
creating an attitude of worship that
will allow that one who is struggling
a place to commune with God
and he led by the lloly Spirit into
an acceptance of his or herself. By
doing so, not only will we be
fulfilling our desire to minister to
He was
approached by
the pastor's
.... spouse who told
him in no
uncertain terms
he was not
welcome and to
"get the hell out"
of the church,
adding, "Besides,
you're straight."
Gays· but we will also be fulfilling
the call to minister to a'fl people.
Then, when people look at us they
won't see "Gay Church" or even gay
Christians. They will see God's
children reaching God's children.
They will look at us and see Christ;
and isn't that the meaning of the
word Christian?
News Lines .............................
Amnesty
International will
aid gay prisoners
Amnesty International has voted to
extend aid to include gay prisoners
. "The decision is a major
development and . victory in the
more than 12-year battle to change
the global human rights group's
polic y toward Gays and Lesbians ,"
said th e Gay and L~sbian Task
Force to Change Amnesty International.
The re solution adopted said that ·
people imprisoned solely for their
homosexuality, including for
"homosexual acts in private between
consenting adults," could
receive the group's "prisoner or
conscience" designation.
Newspaper attacks
funding of gay/
lesbian center
NEW YORK - In a front page attack
on Gov. Mario Cuomo, '/he New York
Guardian, a conservative newspaper,
singled out the Gay and
Lesbian Community Center's statefund
ed youth program as an inappropriate
use of state funds . The
article described the Center's
Youth Enrichment Services (Y.E.S.)
as a program in which "13 -year"old
children were introduced to older
gay activists and mentored by
transvestites."
The article cited in partic:ular
two Y:E.S. eve nts: "Intergenerational
Play Day," at which members
of SAGE, Center Kids, Parents and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and
Y.E.S. shared growing - up and
coming out stor ies; and a brunch
attended by various heroes of the
lesbian and gay community, including
playwright Harvey Fierstein.
The conservative Washington
Tim es pi cked up the article. The
newspaper ran an oped commemary
by Reed Irvine, chairman of
Accuracy in Media, a media watchdog
that champions "traditional
family values" and frequently leads
the charge against" gay-affirmative
programming and outreach. A week
later, the n ewspaper re ported that
the U.S. Department of Education is
investigating complaints about
misused federal funds for drugfree
schools "to promote the homosexual
lifes ty le among teenagers."
Y.E.S.'s fundin g source, the New
York State Task Force on Integrated
Projects, affirmed its support for
the Center program.
- Center Voice
DC judge approves
joint adoptions
. WASHINGTON, DC - Judge Geoffre y
Alprin, head of the Washington ,
D.C., Superior Court's Family Division,
ruled that two Lesbians could
adopt each other's children. The
two women, who have been partners
for eight years, are the first gay
couple in the country to arrange
such an adoption. Alprin's decision
ruled that the joint adoptions
"would serve th ·e best interests of
each child ."
- The Washingwn Blade
Some PBS stations
air controversial
"Stop the Church"
NEW YORK-A documentary chronicling
the 1989 disruption of Mass
at St. Patrick's Cathedral by AIDS
activists that was dropped from
national distribution by the Public
Broadcasting Service was recently
aired on WNET-'IV Channel 13.
The documentary, Stop th e
Chur ch, was originally sc hedul ed to
be part of P.O.V., a series of indepe
ndentl y made do cumen taries , but
PBS dropped it from the series last
month, ca lling it "inappropriate for
distribution because of its pervasive
tone of ridicule" of the
Roman Catholic Church and
Cardinal john O'Connor.
· Public television stations in
Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles ,
and North Carolina have also shown
the film. ·
In Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger
Mahony, the city's Catholic archbishop,
denounced the documentary
in full-page newspaper advertisements
and in a news conference.
-Associated Press
Controversial priest
leaves Episcopal
church
NEWARK, NJ - The Rev. Robert
Williams, whose 1989 ordination in
the Episcopal Church as an openly
gay, non- ce libate priest caused a
sti r in the media, has renounc ed
his association wit h the Church,
citi ng the stress of operating
within it.
In a one-sentence letter received
by Newark Bishop John S. Spong,
Williams said that "he formally
renounced the doctrine, discipline
and worship oL the Episcopal
Chur ch."
Sh ort ly afte r his ordination in
December, 1989", Sp-ong asked
Williams to resign from the clergy
after Williams told a group meeting
that he felt monogam y was as
unnatural as celibacy .
In November 1990, Williams was
diagnosed with AIDS and turned to
holistic medicine and faith healing
to battle the disease.
-Equal Time
Gays okay for
security clearances,
says Prime Minister
LONDON - Prime Minister John
Major has announced that Gays ca n
now receive security clearances. ·
"In light of changing social attitudes
towards homosexualit y in
this country and abroad, and the
correspondingly greater willing-
. ness on the part of homosexuals to
be open about their sexuality , their
. ............. .
lif estyle and their relationships,
the government has reviewed this
policy and concluded that in the
future there should . be no posts
involving -access to highly classi(
ied information for which homosexuality
represents an automatic
bar to security clearance, except in
the special case of the Armed
Services where homosexual acts
remain offenses under the Service
Disciplinary Acts," Major told the
House of Commons.
-Outlines
Atlanta City
Council denounces
Cracker Barrel
discrimination
On August 19th, the Atlanta City
Council approved a resolution
de noun c ing anti-lesbian / gay employment
by the Cracker Barrel Old
Cou ntry Store restaurant chain.
Cra cke r Barrel• has several outlets
in the Atlanta area. The company
is based in Lebanon, Tennessee:
dignitv,usa
an or9anization for 9ay and ks6ian CatfwGcs,
tluirfamilies and friuufs.
J L- Dignity /USA.has ministered to gay and lesbian Catholics,
liii their families and friends for over 20 years. -- We have over 4,000 members ., r in 80 chapters across the country.
If you'd like lo support 011r ministry, please join Digni(y_/USA today by completing the form
below and e11closing_your $49.00 chec~ payable to Dignity, Inc. to:
Dignity/USA, 1500 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Suite 11,
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_,
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Second Stone• ~ovember/December 199 I j-·r
• ·News Lines ..................
Call for split in the
Church of England
The British press was all abuzz this
fall be caus e of a sermon in ear ly
September by a leading conservative
clergyman in the Church of
Engl a nd . calling for a formal
division of the Anglican Church
into co nservati ve an d lib eral uni ts
bec au se of conflicts over same-sex
marriages, the ord ination of women
and n on- sexist liturgies .
The Rev. George Austin , the
Archdeacon of York and a prolninen't
leader within the Anglican
Chur c h's traditional, conservative
wing, sermonized at York Cathedral,
the seat of Archbishop John
Habgood.
"A powerful but influenti a l
minorit y is in the pro cess of
hijacking the doctrine, _ ethi ca l
teaching and worship of the
chur ch," Austin fiercely told the
congregation.
Arc hbishop Habgood accused
Austin of a " disingenuou s appeal
offering not a new com promis e
betwe en the church's opposing faction
s but an alternative lea der ship
."
-The Alternati,·e
AP A will fight
Pentagon policy
SAN FRANCISCO - The American
Psyc hological Association has
declared it will help lead the way
toward getting th e Pentagon to
accept openl y gay people into the
milit ary.
The Pentagon's p o li cy of
excluding G.iys is "based exc lusively
on prejudic e and not on
fact ," said Stephen Morin, a memb er
of the ass ocia tion 's board of dir ector
s.
The association plans to assemble
a coa lition of prof ess io nal, scientifi
c and high er education organizations
to "get a coordinated front
to attack this policy," Morin S,\id,
T he .APA has a lso banned
milit a ry advertising in association
publi cations after 1992 unless the
Pe ntagon po licy is abolished.
-Equal Tim e
BORN AGAIN. • .GAY
(and he thought he was ~he only one!)
On the verge of becoming a Pentecosta l ·preacher ,
Davis dis covere d that he was gay. He lost his
c hurch , but not his faith - or his sens e of humor.
ISBN 0-931722-89-6 $ I 5.95 (cloth)
~ CORONA PUBLISHING CO.
1037 S. Alamo, San Antonio, Texas 78210
or call Toll-Free 1-800-275-8188 (24 hours)
READ STRAf/OtAIYOt:L .. . if you die laughing, you'll go straighto heaven!
,;:;-
! 6 · SecondStone• November/December 1991
House and Senate
slip in censorship
battle
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Activists and
arts advocates at the National Gay
a nd Lesbian Task Force and elsew
here are pointin g to rece nt votes
a nd leg islative flip-flopping in the
House a nd Se_nate as examples of
how the fight against ce nsors hip in
the U.S. Congress is barely holding
gro und.
On Octo ber 16, the House of
Representatives reversed itse lf and
vote d with William Dann emeye r
(R-CA) to su pport h ostile languag e
offe red in the Senate by Jess e
Hel ms (R-NC). Fiv e days earlier,
Helms was successfu l in reigniting
con tro versy around th e Natio naf
Endowm ent for the Arts (NEA)
when the Senate reversed itself and
passe d lielms' lan guag e bannin g
funding of "sexual " and other an.
"Helms [and Dannem eye r] used
homoph obia to censor what America
ca n sec and what the NEA ca n
fund ," said Peri Jude Radecic,
NGLTF l egislativ e director. "The
la n guage was passed on the hack of
Lesbians and gay me n."
Governor submits
to right wing,
activists say
Denying that h e cav ed in to
pressure from t he extr eme right wing
of the Republican party,
including William Dannem eyer and
eva ngelist Lou Sheldon, California
gove rnor Pete Wilson surprised the
state 's lesb ian / gay co mmunit y by
ve toing a gay/ les bian right s bill he
h ad vowed to support. Angr y
act iv ist s prot es t ed in California
a nd in Washington, D.C., where
Wilson has an office.
Enforce sodomy
law, says
Police · Chief
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Poli ce Chi ef
John La ux says h is remarks in a
Christian newspaper th a t t he sta te
sodo my law ought to be enforced
don't conflict with his support for
hiring gay a nd lesb ian officers.
"I'd b e extre m ely disappointed if
it were n·ot enforced," sa id th e
police c hie f in a rece nt ed ition of
Twin Cities Christi an . "Sodomy is a
serious law v iolation, and I'd want
rr.y officers to take the appropriate
e nfor cement actio n."
Gay activist Ken Darling said,
"The co mments , even if the y are
nothin g but pandering to a
Christian audience, lead me to
think that l.aux' s misgiv ings ab out
gay cops and other pro-g ay action
by the cops has less to do with
pragm a tism and more to do with his
own exc essi ve morali- s,in a nd
bigotTy."
Boy Scouts rule
Gays separate
but equal
The Boy Scouts of Am e rica has
attempted to sett le a dispute wit h
the United Way and gay activists by
instituting a n ew pro gra m called
"-Learning for Life" to gro up all gay
men, at heists and. girls se parat ely
from the rest of the scouts.
The United Way of San Francisco
rec e ntly withh el d a $9000 gr a nt
from th e Mt. Diablo Council of th e
Boy Scouts after gay activists
complained th a t th e Boy Scouts
discriminate .
"We recognize that we need to
rea ch a diff erent population with
different requiremen 'ts, " Scouts
spokesperson Blake Lewis said. "In
no way does the establishment of
thi s program sen d the message th·at
we are altering our traditional
values in scouting ."
-Seattle Gay News
Bookstore target of
anti-gay bombings
LANCASTER, PA - Anti-gay thugs
twice bomb ed a gay and lesbian
bookstore here in the past - two
month s, and the own e r fear s the
wor st is ye t to com e.
In the most recent incident of
hara ss ment, th e propri et or of The
Clos e t , Nancy Helm of La ncaste r,
was standing near the entrance
when a car pulled up with four
yo uth s who sh outed "all fags must
di e. Next tim e we will throw t he
bomb ourselves,"
After th e second bombin g, the
perp etr ators ·went two doors down
and spray pa inted "fa eg s" on a
door .
The two exp losion s happen ed not
long befor e a Ku Klux Klan rally in
Lancaste r re su lt ed in seven arrests,
including one Klan lead er for
refusing to be searched for weapons,
Helm said.
-Th e A lternativ e
News Lines T ............... . ..................................................... .
Texas lawmakers
pass hate crimes
legislation
As a direct result of lobbying,
letter writing and phone efforts by
the gay and lesbian community in
response to the brutal gay bashing
death of Paul Broussard, the Texas
legislature passed a law requiring
the state to comply with the provisions
of the Federal Hate Crimes
Art. Under the new law local police
departments must keep records of
hate related crimes and report
these records to the Department of
Public Safety. _
Lesbian is a bad
word at Hallmark
Hallmark card shops have started
offering a make-it-yourself personalized
greeting card service for
those who want to write their own
verses and have them printed on a
card. The computer that sets the
type for the verse refuses to accept
messages that include the word
"lesbian." Hallmark says that the
computer program has an internal
list of words . that it will not print .
"Gay" can bf ,,used because it also
means "joyful."
Competition for
new plays
Celebration Theatre, Los Angeles'
only gay and lesbian theatre, is
sponsoring it first annual New Play
Competition in 1992. The plays
must portray the gay .and / or lesbian
experience in a positive light.
Winners can receive up to $200.
For guidelines send a stamped ,
self-addressed envelope to Celebration
Theatre, New Play Competition,
4470-107 Sunset Blvd., Ste. 353,
Los Ange les, CA 90027.
Anthology seeks
work by young
writers
/\ new anthology of creative writing
by young Gays, Lesbians and
bisexuals is seeking submissions.
From Now On will include fiction,
poetry, and short dramatic writing
by writers · born 1966 and later.
Original and previously published
work will be considered. Submissions
may be sent, along with a
stamped , self-addressed envelope
and short bio by January 31 , 1992
to Michael Lowentha .l, P.O. Box
A-164 , Hanover, NH 03755.
Lesbian and gay
military veterans
celebrate
A celebration honoring Lesbians
and Gays in the military was
scheduled to be held November 9 at
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
Britain's largest membership-based gay
and lesbian group celebates 15th year
This year was the 15th ann iversary
of Britain's largest membershipbased
lesbian and gay organization.
Since its founding in 1976 the
Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
has taken the leading role in
campaigning for a change · of attitude
and teaching within the
churches toward romplete acceptance
of same-sex relationships.
l.GCM believes that discrimination
on the grounds of sex .ual
orientation is unacceptable , and
that fundamental human rights and
justice demand equal treatment in
all spheres of life, including religious
life and practice.
Commenting on . the abundant
evidence within th·e media and
within the churches that the issue
of homo.sexuality is clearly at the
top of the agenda LGCM's General
Secretary, Rev. Richard K,irkcr said
"Almost everywhere we look now
the church is showing signs of
realising it can ·no longer avoid a
full-scale, open debate about the
issues we, as lesbian and gay
Christians, have made into a matter
of crucial importance. Christianity
is already being judged by whether
it can handle our demands with
honesty and realism. Current
divisions of opinioo about the ordi nation
of women to the priesthood
are set to be overtaken by our
s~r~ggle to gain co~plete; uncond1t10nal
acceptance .
In conjunction with its 15th
anniversary , l.Gctvl launched a fund
raising appeal to help provide for
future campaigns and activities.
Donations may be made to: l.GCM,
Oxford House , De rbyshire St.,
London, England E2 611G.
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on
the grounds of the California State
Capitol. River City Metropolitan
Community Church and The Latest
Issue newspaper co-sponsored the
event. Army Captain Dusty Pruitt ,
whose discharge for homosexuality
caused the Federal Appeals Court
· to call into question the Army's
blanket rejection of Gays, was
scheduled to appear at the
celebration . It is estimated that
over 50,000 Lesbians and Gays
served in the Persian Gulf war .
Quotable:
"This is our Selma. This
is our Birmingham.
This is our social
revolution."
-Urvashi Vaid, Direcror of the
National Gay & Lesbian Task Force,
speaking of protests following
California Governor Pete Wilson's
veto of the statewide gay rights
bil/ .
UNITED METHODISTS:
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(415)221c1612
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Christian Witness to the Need
for Gay/Lesbian Equality
in the Eyes of the Church
by Robert Warren Cromey
Rector , Trinity Episcopal Church
San Francisco
"A slirring manifesto and sincere
guide to clearer understanding . This
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to action. Read it!"
-Malcolm Boyd. Author of Are You
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ALAMO SQUARE PRESS
P.O. Box 14543, Dept. S, San Francisco, CA 94114
Second Stone• November/December 1991. l77
T Cover Story . . .. . . . . . . . . . .............
The Gospel according to Benny Joe
FROM PAGE 1
full of questions. "l know what it
is like for myself and almost thirty
million other gay- Americans, who
go through life,· daily, having to
wipe the spit of the church from
our faces," he writes · in his book.
But coming out was something Davis
had to do. He could not accept the
idea of being a closeted gay minister.
"To hide and to cover up would
mean that l am ashamed of who I
am," said Davis. "The Bible speaks
out against such hypocrisy."
Although coming out was essential
for him, Davis believes that ga>'
and lesbian seminarians and Bible
College students must decide in
their own minds what they have the
strengh to do - or not do. He
expressed his opposition to outing ,
although he all but outs a ministry
in his book. "If someone's in the
closet, leave him there if he's not
doing any damage," said Davis, "but
if he's stirring up hate, he should
be outed."
· About six years after Davis IeJt
the church, his mother phoned him
and asked him if he was gay. At
one point, his mother had been a
telephone counselor for the CBN
"700 Club." He acknowedged that he
was indeed gay and his mother
began to cry: His father had been
listening on the other extension
and told his son that it was "the
lowest blow" he could have ever
cteait them and that we was not
welcome back into the home of- his
parents until he was married to a
woman. Davis said he began to cry
because he had never wanted to
hurt his parents for such a reason.
Later, his mother confessed to him
that she was perplexed about the
whole issue of homosexuality,
knowing that the horrible things
the preachers said about Gays was
not true of her son. She did not
know what to believe. Davis shared
a striking speculation with his
mother. He believes that there are
large numbers of Gays in the ministry,
even the Assembly of God, and
that some pastors deliberately misinform
in order to keep suspicion
away from themselves . Davis told
his mother, "The preacher who
constant!)' harps against adulter y
will be the first one to run off with
the ·church secretar y, and the
preacher ,..,ho incessantly exhorts
his congregation not to rob God will
be the one with the Swiss bank
account."
Davis' parents had to find a new
church after their former congregation
discovered Davis was gay.
The church had· · taken away his
mother's Sunday School class
because she was the "mother of a
queer." But his parents are now
very supportive of him and he secs
them frequently. They have
adopted a belief that God made
their son gay so he could tell the
church what it is like. "But they
still believe I'm going to hell," said
Davis.
· Of all of the misinterpretations
the church makes concerning
homosexuality, the one that Davis
Fax your ad.
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-8~ Second Stone• November/December 1991
considers the "dumbest lie" is that
sexual orientation is chosen. He
said that translates: "Coine join a
lifestyle that will make you hated
by ·the majority of people, that will
break your parents' hearts · and
ensure a lifetime of discrimination
and · abuse." Davis asked, "!low
could anyone turn down such an
offer?"
The church likes to paint Gays as
unhappy misfits, according to
Davis, but the fact is that the
"average homosexual who attends
his family reunion will b.e driving
the nicest car, wearing the finest
clothes, and have the best job. His
brothers , sisters and cousins will
be on their third marriage , with
kids from each and the poor
gran 'dparents will be stuck with
raising all of them."
Davis believes that "once · a
homosexual, always a homosexual."
"This view, held by all reputable
medical experts, presents the Born
Again Church with a real dilemma,"
he said. "According to the Word of
God, if something is sin, there
always will be a way of escape, so
when the Church realized this, it
began a frantic search for alleged
'cures/ and every single testimony
I've heard so far should be
published by the 'Joke of the Month
Club."'
Davis also attacks preachers who
claim that AIDS is a punishment
from God. Such -preachers are left
to explain why Lesbians have been
virtually untouched, physically, by
AIDS._ "The Bible makes it abundantlv
clear bad things happen to
good -people, and to suggest otherwise
is skating on thin ice."
He do-es not go to church these
days. Although some denominations
are making well publicized
efforts to grapple with the issue of.
homosexuality, his beloved Assembly
of God is not. "It is just as
Strange Angel
Strange Angel describes the political
back-biting and hypocrisy
tha ·t Ben Davis feels threaten to tear
apart the church he loves. And it
tells how the author would pastor to
a congregation of the gay and the
straight, the healthy and the sick ,
the believers and the doubters, and
the sinners and the holy, if only
allowed to do so.
Told with candor and wit, Strange
Angel is the story of Ben Davis'
rejecting now as then," lie said. He
would have remained a member of
the embattled Assembly of God had
it not been for the gay issue. Davis
is theologically conservative and
laments the tarnished image of his
church. He feels that the former
Assembly of God television ministry
of Jim and Tammy Bakker was
totally unscriptural and, although
he once had · a great respect for
Jimmy Swaggart, he now believes
that Swaggart can never be restored
to credibility in ministry as a
result of his latest scandal involving
a California prostitute.
Al though Swaggart and the Bakkers
are no longer affiliated with the
Assembly .of God, some believe that
the church has been irreparably
damaged·by the falle"n ministTies.
Davis has hope that the church
will one day come around to
understanding and accepting Gays
and Lesbians. He said they must
get t>eyond the philosophy of
"loving the sinner but hating the
sin." "Anybody who says that it
lying," Davis said. He recalls how
many churches used the Bible to
keep blacks out and 'predicts that
over ·the next 10 years the church
will begin to accept Gays and
Lesbians.
Davis feels the .church would do
better to say nothing at all about
homosexuality as opposed to
spreading "absurd tales," which
only cause people who know
different to grow more skeptical of
the message of the church.
Ben Davis began thinking ab.out
the possibility of writing a book
about his experience about four
years ago. Response to Srrangc
Angel has been very favorable and
the book is especially appreciated
by those who have been brutalized
by the church.
Davis is 43 years old and lives in
Dallas with his lover.
extraordinary childhood ir, the
Assembly of God, his coming of age
and coming out as a gay man - and
his discovery that he was not alone
in his journey. He has managed to
reconcile his sexuality with his
unshakeable Christian faith, even if
his church has not.
Strange Angel is published by
·corona Publishing Company of San
Antonio, Texas.
Openly gay, non-celibate Episcopal priest ordained
TENAFLY, N.J.- The Rev. Barry
Stopfel, an openly gay mari living in
a committed relationship and an
Episcopal deacon foi:_ one year, was
ordained to the priesthood in
September by The Rt. Rev. John S.
Spong, Bishop of Newark. The
ordination took place at the Church
of the Atonement, where Stopfel
served as Assistant since 1988.
Stopfel is the fourth openly gay
or lesbian person to be ordained to
the Episcopal priesthood in the full .
glare of the media. In 1977, The
Rev. Ellen Barrett was ordained
priest by the Bishop of New York,
The Rt. Rev . .Paul Moo.re, Jr. In
And the road was long
1989, Bishop Spong ordained The
Rev. Robert Williams and in June of
this year, the Bishop of Washington
(D.C.), The Rt. Rev. Ronald Haines,
ordained The Rev. Elizabeth Carl.
Stopfel was quoted in the
Baltimore Alternative as saying
that his agenda has not been a
political one. "My agenda has been
about . being a competent and
faithful priest, l,lut more than that,
to enable the ministries of gay and
lesbian people to be realized in the
church and for gay and lesbian
people's voices to be heard within
the church," Stopfel said.
Stopfel's·ordinatio_n was unique
TENAFLY, N.J. - The ordination of
Rev. Barry Stopfel as a priest in the
Episcopal Church was unique in
several respects. It was the first
such ordination .to be announced in
advance at the denomination's
House o( Bishops. During the
extended debate on the ordination
of Lesbians and Gays at the General
Convention in Phoenix in July,
Bishop John Spong several times
announced ltis intention to ordain
Stopfel in September. Although ·the
Bishops approved a compromise on
the ordination issue, they decisively
defeated attempts to amend
the compromise resolution to
provide · a moratorium on lesbian/
gay ordinations until further study
is comp leted.
The ~econd unique aspect of the
ordination is that Stopfel's previous
ordination, to the Diaconate
in September, 1990, was the subject
of controversy and media converage.
Barret, Williams and Carl had all
been ordained deacons without
press attention. The earlier Stopfel
ordination became an issue at
Genera l Convention when an effort
was made to censure both The Rt.
Rev. Walter Righter, then Assistant
Bishop of Newark, who officiated at
the Stopfel ordination, and Bishop
Haines for the Car l ordination . The
censure reso lution, introduced by
The Rt. Rev. Gerald McAllister,
retired Bishop of Oklahoma, was
soundly defeated.
The third unique aspect of the
Stopfel ordination is that his life
partner is also an ordained
clergyperson . . The Rev. Will Leckie
is a minister in the United Church
of Christ.
"Our relationship has helped us
both grow spiritually," said
Stopfel. "When the challenges to my
ordination mounted, both our relationship
and our mutual commitment
to ministry were a vital
source of strength. While the
church often sees the sexual loving
of gay and lesbian persons as sin,
our experience as a ·couple is that
in such loving we often experience
God's grace and sustaining power."
The road to ordination has not
been an e<JSY one for Stopfel, who is
43. After a career in business, he
graduated from Union Theo logical
Seminary in New York City in 1988
and has been actively pursuing his
call to the priesthood ever since.
His ordination to the diaconate,
originally scheduled for June 2,
1990, was postponed only days
before by Bishop Spong who was
· responding to a request by the
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal
Church to allow the church to
debate the issues without further
incident.
Stopfel said of his ordination, "To
me the important thing about
openly gay and lesbian people
being ordained is that now we can
speak with our own voices. The
Holy Spirit speaks through people
representing all facets of God's
creation. Finally affirming gay
men and Lesbians and being given
official voice by the church.
African Americans, Native
Americans and women were all
denied the right to speak for
themselves by the church, and as
their voices were freed, their
messages have deeply changed the
church for the better. I pray that
the voices of Lesbians and gay men
will also call the church to greater
faithfulness to the Gospel."
The ordination was protested in
the church by Austin Menzies, who
called Stopfel a "sexual pervert."
As Menzies read a prepared
statement condemning the ordina-
Publicity served group ·well
tion of homosexuals, his words were
drowned out by celebrants who sang
a hymn that reached a loud
crescendo. Menzies stomped out of
the church.
Seventh-day Adventist Church loses
lawsuit against gay/lesbian group
A lawsuit against the gay and
lesbian support group Seventh-day
Adventist Kinship International,
Inc. by the Seventh -day Adventist
Church resulted in a victory for gay
rights .
The General Conference Corp. of
Seventh-day Adventists, with a
membership of 6.7 million, filed
the suit December 7, 1987 in U.S.
District Court seeking to bar the
Kinship organization from using
the name "Seventh -day Adventist"
or its acronym "SDA'' in their
corporate name and advertising.
The church, who holds trademarks
for the name, sought to. disassociate
its elf from the Kinship organization,
claiming that the organization
was committing trademark
infringement, unfa ir competition,
and false advertising since they
were not officially' affiliated with .
the , Seventh -day Adventist Churc h .
Kinship's argument that their
membership is made up of gay and
lesbian members of the SDA Church
and that the name "Seventh-day
Adventist" is a generic term
describing its members was upheld
by the court in a decision handed
down October 7. U.S. District Judge
Mariana R. Pfaelzer said, "There is
no term that adequately describes
an adherent to the religion of
Seventh-day Adventism other than
'Seventh-day Adventist."' The term
is, therefore, generic because it
refers to a re l igion and is not
entitled to trademark protection,
said Pfaelzer.
Michael McLaughlin, president of
SDA Kinship, said "This decision is
important in that it says the church
can't take away the name which
signifies our belief system."
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Second Stone• November/December 1991 [(7
T
Adam and Steve
Essay T
By Johnny Townsend
Contributing Writer
People no longer ran legally
oppress women or blacks,
but the natural tendenL.·y to
want to feel superior has
led groups to oppress the one group
it is still legally acceptable to
oppress - Gays and Lesbians , When ·
anyone tries to suggest legal rights
for Gays, the cry is .often heard,
"But they destroy the moral fiber of
our country!" Naturally, no citizen
who wants to be respected can do
anything against the moral fiber of
the nation. No one wants to seem or
be un-American. So they give in to
this moral blackmail without really
analyzing what this cry is actually
saying.
What is moral fiber? And just
how are Gays destroying it?
Because they are offensive by their
very existence? EYen the Ku Klux
Klan and the neo-Nazi party have
legal rights. Can Gays possibly be
more offensive than groups which
have killed millions of people in
Europe (including many Americans)
or terrorized many American
communities by lynching, castrating,
and shooting innocent
Americans and burning their ;10111es
and churches? ls what Gays stand
for really more offensive than what
these groups stand for? Is it possible
to be more offensive or hurtful
than these groups? If it can be
"An1erican 11 to let these Yery unAmerican
groups have rights , how
is it hurting AnJerica any more to
let a group that attacks no one ha,·e
rights?
What about religious groups? The
law justly gives religions the right
to have a wide variety of beliefs,
but many of these religions in turn
unfairly use their religion to infiuence
political decisions which
affect others not of their religion.
"God didn't create Adam and Steve,"
they say smugly when addressing
city councils or other political
leaders, as if that statement could
REcot~i"~2\\JW~~o~b~J ~~lch~TIONs
(Ministry of R~conci/iation MCC)
P. 0. Box 1~59
Grand Rapids, Ml. 4950 I
:10! S eoondStone•November /December 1991
,___,
....... ......... ..... ... ... .....
possibly mean anything. Let us set
aside for argument's sake the
possihility that . the Creation story
is a m}·th or allegory. If God
created just two human beings,
/\dam and b·e, ,md everyone from
that time on must be con1pletely
like them, then for one thing , we'd
all have to be farmers and hunters,
as the Bible clearly states how this
couple made their living. So right
off, we know we don't have to be
completely like these two people.
/\!so, were Adam and I've
Caucasian? Were . they Jewish?
Were they Oriental? Were they
Negro? Were they /\rabic? These
are all very distinctive groups of
people. Did Adam have one Oriental
eye and one Caucasian one? Did
he have blond hair while Eve had
black, kinky hair? If /\dam and Eve
had every possible gene variation
in them to account for all the vast
differences on the Earth today (we
·haven't mentioned Native Americans,
·Polynesians, Australian
aborigencs, or pygmies yet), then
they were still quite different from
each of us today, because we don't
each carry genes _ for all of these
groups. So not only do we not have
to have the same jobs as Adam and
Eve, we also clearly can not all look
just like them or carry the same
genetic material as they did.
Physically, we are different from
them.
What else is different today
between us and them? Do we each
have to have as many children as
they did in order to be considered .
good? Are sterile people automatically
sinful or criminal? How
about a married couple who chooses ·
not to have children? Do our
children have to marry each other
as Adam and Eve's did? Do we all
have to belong to the same religion
as they did? And which was that?
(Members of every religious group,
please raise your hand.) Spiritually,
we may have to belong to
their religion, or the des cendant of
that religion, but do we legally have
to helong to it? And if we don't,
then do followers of any religion
have a legal right to make others
conform to the ten _ets of their
religion?
So we are not phy sically like
Adam and Eve. We do not have to
have the same jobs they had. We do
not have to have the same number of
children: We do not legally have to
have the same religion they had.
And we don't have to live in the
same place they lived. So just how
much like Adam and l:vc do we have
to be? Only in the one aspect of
heterosexuality? · Nothing else in
the world matters in our comparison
to them except sexual
orien _tation? I guess many people
like to insist on that comparison
because it is the only way these
people themselves are at all like
Adam and Eve.
But what of the sexuality of Adam
and Eve? We've already mentioned
the number of children they had.
Did they use hirth control? It's
unlikely there were condoms or
pills, so do we outlaw birth control?
Various religions have the
right to tell their followers not to
use hirth control, hut do the
members of these religions have the
legal right to enforce their belief
on others? So why do they have the
legal right to force everyone to
conform to their religious belief
that homosexuality is wrong?
What of sex itscll7 I don't
suppose we can know just what
Adam and Eve did together sexually.
But just because some people
have been told by their church
leaders that there _is only one form
of acceptable sex, does this make it
true? There ar e other religions,
including several Christian religions,
which accept . any loving
sexual expression within the
bounds of marriage. But even -_fi a
church believes other forms of
sexual expression between a
married couple to be moral sins,
does that group have a right to make
these criminal offenses for others?
What about celihacy? Were Adam
and Eve celibate? Then what do we
say to the hundreds of thousands of
priests, monks, and nuns in the
world? Do people run up and shout
into Mother Teresa's face , "God
created Adam and Eve, not just
Eve!" Some Christian religions
believe that never marrying is
wrong, while others think it is a
.lofty goal. But neither side can
claim that celibate people ate
following the example of Adam and
Eve. Perhaps a church has a right
to make guidelines on these
matters, but do followers of these
religions have a legal right to
enforce their religious, sexual
views on everyone else in the
country?
But condemning Gays isn't seen as
forcing religious beliefs on the
SEE ESSAY, Page 23
The snarled thread' o'f "l ess-than" is
woven tight into the pattern of my life.
''
Threads
BY ERIC BELLMAN
Late in the afternoon,
lazy in the warm sun, I sic
with a friend on the dock
of a cottage on Cayuga
· Lake. Mindlessly we
splash water against a
spider web. Tom's been
Does the spider sense peril, or is
our antic all part of a day's work?
The web is remarkable; densely
structured in the close interlacing
of tne dock's metal understructure,
but also incorporating long sinuous
·fil\lments that sway in the breeze
like an aerialist's rope . ·
On the drive back to Rochester I
think about Tom and his lover, Ron.
'i'hey're new friends. Will this relationship
be a short fiber or a long
. thread; one that will jnt~rweave
back and forth ove.r time, gaining
tensile strength from weathering
good as well as bad times? One
faces each beginning with hope
born from need _and apprehension
rooted in sad experience. Time
alone ·will tell. ·
· /1.s I grow to know Tom, I marvel
at one shared confidence. Ile is the
father of three and came out as an
adult. /1. high school wrestler, he
has a fine body. In his experience
of being newly out, he frequently
was teased about his macho charat- ·
teristics and felt "less-than," not
enough like, his gay peers. I gape
hearing this. I felt "less-than" for
opposite reasons: too gay, not butch
enough. Our histories reveal minimal
similarities, yet here we sit
calling each other "girlfriend," as
our toes splash the water. The
here ·a week and has
periodically checke.d on
the spider's industry as
the web has expanded.
The sun glints off the
droplets of water.
snarled thread of "less-than" is
woven tight into the pattern of my
life.
/1.fter a stretch of indolence due
to summer's heat and altered pat-
. terns of living (I must use the pool
club membership), I find myself
cleaning my house for the first time
in weeks, and I'm happy. It's a near
meditative activity, a chance .to gather
strands of thought that too easily
come unraveled irl the cascade
of nice days, outdoor living. I'm
appalled by the filmy cobweos
under dressers (who would notice?)
and over doorways, here, clearly
evidence that I've lost control and
will shortly require supeivised
living. I bat the webs away with a
rag as I dust and later vacuum the
same areas just to make sure. Early
in the spring I relish evidence of
life indoors: hardy flies or a ladybug.
Even spiders. After months of
listening to the furnace thermostat
click I'm grateful for the tiny div-·
ersions. Now, edgy from too much
heat and sun, I've lost tolerance and
crave crisp, polished order. Adios,
Mr. Spider! So much for your tenacity
. The hours of erecting your
safety net (or trap) whisked away
in a snap. That's living on life's
terms.
I'm reading Pauf Monette's novel
Halfway Home, after finishing
Afterlife two weeks ago. In May I
read his AIDS memoir, Borrowed
' Time. I'm trncing his chain of
words. I think he is the most
e-xhilarating gay author currently
producing, and I 1.rnderstand his
labor is informed by the urgency of
his own illness. I've never been to
California, but after these books · I
feel connected to Los Angeles (and
to Monette).
When I think of LA. I don't
imagine Grauman's Chinese Theatre
or guided tours of Hollywood Star
homes. Instead I sense the energy a
ravaged man expends climbing
steep steps to a ranch house in a
cul-de-sac canyon bordered with
parched chapparel; I empathize
with the feeling of being trnpped in
maddeningly snarled traffic during
a hectic rush to the hospital emergency
room.
I imagine also hard young bodies
marked by tiny purple lesions .
Paul and his lo\'er nicknamed
Roger's first one, on .his ankle,
"Spot," and jokingly asked, eariy on
before life bec,ime a nightmare,
"How's Spot doin' today?" I appreciate
his desire, when faced with ·
another devastation, to remain
silent, to not have thoughts, for
there to not be a need to feel.
Tucked in Monette's writing is a
recurring thread, 'a question: "Did
anyone ever know me?" ~ly understanding
of L.A. is ,·isceral, sensory,
and it comes from Monette's
astonishing torrent spun out of a
ripening talent (and that use of
talent means a great deal to me) and
pain. Some hours I feel more
connected to his world than to my
own.
Each month I read Andrew
Holleran's column in Christopher
Street. Holleran is my kind of
writer. He spends most of his time
in a small north Florida town and
so, now, I can visualize the palmetto
grass along the highway lie drives ·
to the gym in Gainesville, and I
know about the c'onvenience stores
l nurse w-isps of romance. The
writers I read connect in my mind
like a transcontinental conference
call. I love this life of the mind.
A straight man, a former model,
with whom I have nothing in common,
phones me once a month from
. work on a WATS line. He tells me
about his job and rock climbing and
how he hates California and that his
other gay friend in New York City
died suddenly from cancer (nor
AIDS, a_Ithough he was HIV
positive). Michael calls me for his
own reasons; he's lonely but doesn't
know it yet,. can't say it. He is an
odd thread, incongruous, but one
that adds texture.
Sometimes when I speak on the
phone with my mother, 86 and frail,
it is my need for reconciliation that
motivates me, and often it isn't successful.
She used to se\,' on Sunday
afternoons listening to the Metropolitan
Opera on the radio, altering
dresses for neighbors or making
her own clothes. Those are my good
_memories and I need to gather them.·
Most of the threads between us ha,·e
been snipped. She only wants to
talk about her childhood or the
early years of her marriage brfore
her husband left and her life
unraveled. Only a few strands still
connect us. She doesn't know any-
One faces each
beginning with
hope born from
need and apprehension
rooted in
sad experience.
and the boys who bag groceries and -thing about me, never asks quesabout
the woman .across the s.treet tions; I think of Paul Monette's
who's hooked on the Home Shopping question.
Channel and about the incredibly In each of the past two decades of
beautiful man who works at the my life there was a man who matblueberry
farm who , Holleran tered. With each I sat for hours
thinks, should be in Hollywood or over coffee and talked about poli-
New York where beauty is under• tics, art, our ·lives. l've cut all ties
stood. Isn't that what beauty does, ·with .them. No magic re-weaving
migrate? He should see my mec~ ·possible. Those threads are gone
hanic, Vince. At least I think · forever. I consider what remains
that's his name. I read the tag on and think about what I'm making of
his work shirt. my life now and I wonder if the
Between the lines I read of thi:e.ads and strands, the net , I spin,
Holleran's loneliness which differs will be-strong enough .to hold me.
from mine (same fiber, different Reprinted with pennission from
color); he is tougher, more resolved. The Empty Closet.
SecondStone • November/I)eq,mber 1991 lliJ
he angels did sing the
first Noel, and there was
much good cheer in the
household of heaven. A
little loneliness too, I think . For
this was the first difficult year
(and not the last) that the whole
family would not he together for
Christmas.
Now the angels I am thinking of
do not cry easily, and they did not
cry then, unless of course, it was
very much in private. No doubt
their angel hearts felt the pain that
a heart feels when it misses
someone immensely loved. But at
the same time they knew the kind of
happiness good creatures experience
when they make a gift of their
very best. .It was a season for
mixed feelings - comparatively new
feelings for these angels.
Of course I know little enough
about men and women, and next to
nothing about angels. So I cannot
tell you exactly how it happened
that on this first Christmas night
some of the most stirring music
ever premiered on earth was
composed in heaven. Nor can I tell
you how it came about that this
magnificent chorale was performed
for a few tattered people by angels
who at that moment felt just a little
lonely. I cannot tell you how; I can
only say that this is approximately
what happened on that first of many
Christmases.
Tonight, far away from that
original night, I sit safely on the
other side of Bethlehem and its
well-ended story . My hearth is
warm and the Scotch Pine fragrant.
When I look aroung the living room
it is at times possible to notice the
dancing ·homefire mirrored in the
eyes of the people I love. A plushly
robed cardboard angel crowns our
tree, observing with its unalterably
pleasant face the full-bodied joy of
our celebration . Sometimes I
wonder if the angel feels lonely. It
is, after all, the only angel of its
kind on the tree.
Then I smile and think how silly I
am to worry at all about cardboard
angel feelings. Yet it seems nearly
as strange to remember that the
original Christmas was borne not
out of affectionate communions and
festive abundance such as ours
tonight , hut through the wanderings
The ,
In-Between
Christmas
Maybe cardboard angels do get lonely.
BY MICHAEL HURLOWE
of men and the aloneness of God.
Back then , the happy ending had
not yet been written. And the plot
already hinted of a time when little
Lord Jesus would wake to know that
in all the world, he was the only
one of his kind . And that this
uniqueness would lift him to the
top of a tree.
From my vantage point beneath
the Scotch Pine and cardboard
angel, I can see clearly what good
resulted from his pain, but it was
not so apparent to him in those
early days when Christmas was just
getting started. Maybe if he had
known, it would have been easier
for him in his ·unique aloneness , to
hurt . But probably •the most
difficult and necessary part of his
pain was to not know - to consider
that after all we spent and suffered,
the struggle might hear no fruit and
have no meaning.
To not know. This is not his pain
alone, hut mine . Because if I knew
that the final draft would he
magnificent, I could suffer almost
pleasantly through the pain of
writing. If I knew I would find a
job, six months of searching would
not seem so eternal. If I knew you
would love me anyway, the fear of
self-disclosure would disappear.
And if I knew you would applaud, I
could easily speak the truth. But I
do not know, and for the time being,
cannot know. This is his pain, and
it is mine.
And so I am brought eye to eye
with a paradox that exists in the
world of which I am writing. That
is: good does not always come from
suffering; and nothing truly great,
creative, or redemptive is brought
into the world apart from some kind
of suffering. I have not lived
forever, but I am almost positive
that these things are true .
Nevertheless, at the first Noel the
angels did sing, in spite of the fact
that they didn't know for sure
about the happy ending. And out of
hope and loneliness they fashioned
music so compelling that it became
a part of the story.
Tonight I sit between an ancient
stable and a New Jerusalem, looking
up into the faces of a cardboard
ange l and a flesh-and-blood God.
One happy ending has been written,
and I wait in hope for the sequel.
For even now, in the world I am
thinking of, our salvations come
only through sacrifices. Mortals
and angels feel this truth, but God
knows it best.
So until the story is finished , we
must celebrate Christmas as the
angels did c sometimes in happiness
(as I do now) and other times
with loneliness, and perhaps even
tears. Because until the loose ends
of all our stories are drawn
together into one magnificent and
ultimate finale , the mixed feelings
so characteristic of the time in
which we live must duel in the
heart of every human creature. But
knowing already of one triumphant
conclusion, we may anticipate
another, even though we cannot
know for sure how it will read .
And for the in-between, we can.sing
with hope , and make music so
compelling that it too will become a
part of the story.
Used with permission from
The Kinship Connection
Says his "heart breaks. for these people ... "
Jerry Falwell seeks funds for
new anti-gay campaign
By The Baltimore Alternative
WASHINGTON - The Rev. Jerry
Falwell, the conservative Virginia
televangelist who founded the Moral
Majority in the 1970s, announced a
national battle plan" in a letter to
his followers to defeat what he
cailed the "radical homosexual
movement."
Under the letterhead of the
Liberty Foundation , a sister organization
of the Moral Majority,
Falwell outlined several recent
victories by gay and lesbian rights
advocates and predicted that if they
are not stopped, "America is on the
road to becoming. .. THE NEXT
SODOM AND GOMORRAH!"
Under the caption of "what the
Homosexuals are doing nationwide,"
Falwell listed specific gairis made
by gay activists in the Episcopal
Church, state legislatures, school
districts and courts · cases across
America. He further d e nounces
attempts by gay activists to
legalize gay marriage and adoption,
repeal the four-year-old ban on.
immigration , by HIV-infected foreign
e rs and begin their own gay and
lesbian wire service arid ca ble tele-.
vision networl<..
"My heart breaks for the se
people," Falwell wrote, "they are so
consumed with their deviant sexuality.
"We certainly want to win them ·to
Christ. We surely love their souls.
And we must reach out to them with
the Gospel.
"But we must awaken to . their
wicked agenda for America!" he
added, circling th e words "wicked
agenda." The letter proclaimed,
"WE CANNOT ALLOW THE
HOMOSEXUALS TO RULE AMERICA!"
To prevent that, Falweli
announced that he has a "national
battle plan to defeat the radical
homosexual movement," although he
does not outline it beyond
requesting $35 . from letter
recipients.
"We simply cannot allow the
homosexuals to continue to destroy
American morality - and force an
acceptance of their lifestyle in our
schools, our churches and all areas
of public life!" he concluded.
The gay activist who became aware
of the direct mail letter through
UI'Specified sources reacted to the
appeal with uncharacteristic outrage.
"Initially, 1 think that at last
Jerry Falwell has got it right: that
Lesbians and Gays are a powerful
political force," said Gregory King,
communications director · of the
Human Rights Campaign Fund. "I
think all the examples he used were
terrific. But I think that when he
suggested that Lesbians and gay
people somehow are going to rule
America and that we have a vicious
anti-family, anti-American agenda,
he has crossed the line.
"This is an absolute outrage," he
added. "Where the hell does he get
off challenging the patriotism of
any American? What gives Jerry
Falwell the right to suggest that he
has an answer for America and that
lesbian and gay Americans are
somehow anti-American?
"He is a liar and a thief and I
hope he sues me," he said.
-Cliff O'Neil
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Second-Stone• November/December 1991 1131 , __ J.
Gay and lesbian
people need
Jesus, too!
BY REV; B RU C E ROLLER
Homosexuality is not sin! In no
way does _the Bible condemn all gay
and lesbian · sexual expression.
There, I've said it! I have been
writing on this subject in one way
or another since 1974, publishing
my first work on the subject, The
f/omosexually Oriented Christian; ·
in 1976. My continuing study,
prayer and experience in living as
• a born-again, Spirit-filled Chris - .
tian gay person have only served to
confirm that first . tentative gaypositive
understanding of the word.
of God.
Having said that, there are some
other things that I need to say just
as clearly. Though homosexuality
is not sin, gay and lesbian people,
just like heterosexual people, can
choose to use their sexuality in
ways that are holy or in ways. that
are sinful. In my next several
articles for this publication I will
write about a Biblical sexual ethic
for gay and lesbian people. This
will not be the first time I have ·
attempted to write or teach on
sexual ethics; that first occurred in
1~75. It will, however, be the first
time I have explored this topic from
a thoroughly Biblical perspective -
a closer look at the Bible.
There is another word that .I have
on the subject of sin that will be
the focus of this present article .
We hear little· about sin 1n the
religious gay and lesbian circles in
which I travel. The Hymnal Project
· from Mee · San Francisco reflected
-___Jf!J.._ Pontius' Puddle
the reluctance of many gay and
lesbian Christians to think about
sin, when it changed the words of
the old hymn from "I was sinking
. . " to "l was sinking deep m sm ...
deep in doubt.". . .
. Sin and salvation through faith_ m
the atoning death and resurrect1on
of Jesus Christ are doctrines that
have fallen into disrepute among
many gay and lesbian people. Cont]
those who have a heart to
sequen Y . r
believe the evangelical message o
the . gospel •find themselves_ son:i~~
times groping for fellowship w1
like-minded believers.
. There are a number of reasons for
us not to like to talk about sm. Let
b •efly state a few of these. 1.) me n . ,, h
The spirit of this age is W atever
you believe is suffic;ient. It does
__ -· ~~«Pr what vou b!;!lieve, only
that you believe." With this spirit
permeating our religious experience,
there is no reason to believe
that we are sinners in need of a
Savior. 2.) Lesbian and gay people
have _ been made to feel so guilty
about . the "sin" . of homosexuality
that many of us have no more
tolerance for being told there is
any kind of sin in us. Yet, if the
Bible is true, "All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God,
(Romans 3:23)." 3.) Some have
erroneously taught that the result
of recognizing ourselves as sinners
in need of a Savior is that we suffer
unhealthy feelings of guilt . A part
of the Good News of Jesus Christ,
however, is that we have no need to
[t{] Second Stone• November/December 1991
suffer those guilt feelings any mor e
once we have · turned to Jesus for
forgiveness of sins. "It was God in
Christ reconciling the world to
himself, not holding people's sins
against them, but forgiving them, (2
Corinthians 5:19)." John 3:17-18
adds, "For God sent not the Son into
the world to condemn the .World, but
that the world through him might ·
. be .saved. Whoever believes in the
Son is not condemned, but whoever
does not believe ·stands condemned
already because that one has not
believed in the name of God's one
and only Son." When we believe in
our hearts that we are forgiven for
all our sins through Jesus Christ,
the guilt is gone .
I was elated that the UFMCC
Eider's Task Force on Evangelism
produced a phamplet for distribution
among gay and lesbian
people called "The Bible is Your
Friend: a guide for gay and lesbian
people . ." In it the message of
salvation was clearly outlined, was
·explicitly stated as being for gay
and lesbian people as well . as all
others, and included a prayer
people could use in giving their
hearts to Jesus: "Dear God, I admit
that I need your love and
forgiveness. I am willing to turn to
you now. I confess Jesus as the
r.uler of my life, and I accept Jesus
as my Savior. Guide me and help me
to become what you want me to be .
In Jesus' name, Amen ." Now that is
an evangelistic tool for gay and
lesbian people!
The title of this article "Gay and
Lesbian People Need Jesus Too!" is
two fold in its application. On the
one hand it seeks to address thos e
who in their misunderstanding of
the word of God seek to keep gay
·. and lesbian people from a personal
experience of salvation and wholeness
in Jesus Christ by saying you ..
cannot be gay and be a Christian,
fiving a pure life and obeying the
commands of God .. To those people I
would repeat the words of John the
Revelator who by the Holy Spirit
said, The Spirit and the Bride say ,
"Come!" and let the one who hears
say. "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let
them come; and whoever wishes, let
them take the free gift of the water
-of life, (Revelation 22:17) . Just get
out of the way, and let them come to
Jesus - whoever will! On the other
hand · it speaks to gay and lesbian
people ourselves that there is no
special dispensation for us. We are
not good enough for God's realm
outside of the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ. We who have been
oppressed .also must come to God
Though homosex- ·
uality is not sin,
gay and lesbian
people, just like
heterosexual
people, can
choose · to use
their sexuality in
ways that are
holy or in ways
that are sinful.
t)lrough Jesus Christ. "Neither is
there salvation in any other, for
there is no other name under
heaven given to people by which we
must be saved (Acts 4:12)."
How can gay and lesbian people
come to receive Jesus as Savior and
Lord of our lives? In the same way
everyone else does, by repenting -
turning to God, asking forgiveness
for our sins - and making Jesus
Lord of our lives.
I have recently produced a
· pamphlet for those who arc turning
to Jesus. Please write the chllrch
and ask for a free copy of ·,,l've
-Received Jesus as My Savior ... What
- Do!DoNow?" .
Now this is eternal life, that they
. . may know you , the only true God, Li~. . ·; and Jesus Christ, whom you have
- ...-.,: ~ sent, (John 17:3)."
Rev. Bruce Roller js a well known
author and pastor. Readers may !' write to him in care of Second
.:.;:;:..._...,_...i_..1il Srone.
T In Print T ....................... .........•......................... . . . . . . . . . . . .
Preaching the epidemic good news
By Sean L. Avery
Contributing Writer
I:d. NoLC: We dedicate 1liis r eview
w 1hc healing, prophelic minis1ry
of Pen}' 7Hleras, who .passed away
in Ocwhcr. ·
Circle of Hope: Our Stories of
AI°DS, Addiction & Recovery,
Perry Till eras, Harper & Row,
San Fran- ciso, 1990, $10.95.
In "/he Color of Ugh 1, Perry
Tilleras combined clements from a
variety of spiritual disciplines,
including Judaism, Christianity,
Eastern Philosophies and New _Age
to create a powerfully healing tool
which has become a classic daily
soun ;e through which God'.s hope,
strength and unconditional love
speaks to all of us living with All)S.
Tilleras' follow-up, Circle of
/lope, an inspirational and provocative
book, dares to speak a disturbing
truth to the lesbian and gay
community - ·namely that we arc in
total denial to the ran that alcohol
and drug addiction is the real
epidemic killing _ us, one which has
merely been H ac drhatcd in the
past decade by immune system
destroying infectious agents.
Circle of /lope is divided into two
parts. The first consists of
Til _leras' personal rcl"lections on
AIDS, an enlightening examination
which many will find terribly
disturbin~. In several short, sweet,
and to the point chapters, Tilleras
repeatedly smashes the pathological
denial that characterizes the
epidemic.
Till eras, an "AIDS Dissident,"
docs not believe that IIIV, the
alleged "deadly All)S virus," is the
cause of the disease . Indeed, both
of the scientists credited with discovering
HIV have retreated from
the 1984 hypothesis, whi"ch has
since become gospel truth · of the
government and the _scientific and
medical establishments, that HIV is
the cause of AIDS. Dr. Luke
Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute
in France, for example, now says
that HIV is a "harmless" virus that
requires a ·bacterial infection
called Mycoplasma lncognitus to
cause disease. Furthermore, Dr.
Robert Gallo of the National Cancer
Institute in Washington, D.C., who
once dismissed co-factors by
·saying HIV "kills like a truck," has
since suggested that a casually
transmitted herpes virus called
HHV-6 may be necessary to cause
disease.
Although the jury is still very
much out on which infectious agent
or agents contribute to the deterioration
of the immune system,
such a debate is largely irrelevant
to Tilleras, who identifies in Circle
of Hope a co-factor which he
believes is essential for full-blown
AIDS to occur, a co-factor which
will _ never be found under a
scientist's microsco ·pe · - addiction.
"For some reason," he writes, " a
huge percentage of PWAs (people
with AIDS) are chemically dependent."
In support of his ·hypothesis,
Tilleras interviewed those
on the front lines of the epidemic.
Nada Cox, a Clinical Supervisor at
Our House, a Los Angeles residential
treatment facility for PWAs,
was typical of the responses. "It's
got to be a least 98 percent of PWAs
.who have a history of substance
abuse," she says. "I think it's ·
time," Tillcras insists, "that, on a ·
national public health level, we
reopen the possibility of co-factors,
or contributing ca·uscs , to
AIDS. One of tf1c most obvious
choices for a co-ractor is the use
and abuse of chemicals."
Tilleras goes on to describe how
the "germ theory;" a basic tenet of
Western medicine, enables people
to stay in denial. "As long as AIDS
is just .about a germ," he writ es,
"then the only thing to concern
yol!rsclf with is whether or not you
come in contact with the germ. The
result? Nobody needs to look at
himself or herself." Indeed, it is a
great tragedy that AIDS, a disease
of the immune system, has become
"HIV disease" in just a few short
years, conveniently enabling the
lesbian and gay community to
continue denying that a self-destructive
lifestyle of alcohol, drug
and sex addiction is a, if not the,
major cause of immune dysfunction,
as Louise Hay suggests in You Can
Heal Your Life. Tilleras concludes,
"As individuals and as a community,
we must step out of the sea
of denial that surrounds AIDS. We
must start talking about alcoholism,
other drug addiction, sexual
compulsion, and untreated childhood
abuse."
However, denial when it comes to
addiction , is only one of the reasons,
Tii"leras ·argues, that the
lesbian and gay community has
embraced the paradigm that HIV=
AIDS=DEATH, which he refers to as
a "death message." Til!eras rea lizes
that such a paradigm appeals
to those who view themselves as
victims, particularly gay men who
were ,emotionally, physically or
sexually abused as children, and
later turned to alcohol, drug ·s and
sex to deal with their underlying
trauma. Tilleras writes, "The message
a . little child gets, whether i:t•s
incest or other sexual abuse,
physical abuse or neglect, is that
he or she is bad and not worth very
much. The message we carry
around in our heads is that the
world would be better off if we were
dead."
Tilleras asserts that all Lesbians
and gay men, however, not just
those who were abused as children,
are conditioned by our homophobic
society to· view themselves as victims.
"What were the messages
internalized by a nation-of gay men
and Lesbians," he .passionately
asks, "when Dan White, the murderer
of Harvey Milk , was
acquitted? What•is the message you
internalized as a kid when you
know you are different, that you are
a homo, a faggot, a sissy, and the
worst thing any kid can be called is
homo, faggot, sissy? I think that
the effects of growing up gay in this
anti-sexual, anti-homosexual society
arc s.imilar to the effects of
growing up battered, abused or
neglected. The message we take .
with us into adolescence and
adulthood is the same: we don't
deserve to live."
Indeed, the unquestioned
acceptance of HIV as the "deadly
SEE TILLERAS, Page 20
,
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' Second Stone• November/December 1991 [l~
\
In Print .. .. . .. . ... ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gay and lesbian kids in Dixie
Growing Up Gay in the South
By Michael Blankenship
Contributing Writer
Author James T. Sears has
written an· interesting,
highly readable .book
called Growing Up Gay in
the South. For his research Sears
interviewed three dozen young men
and women. Sears himself is not a
Southerner. Although I do not
think someone from the South could
h;ve done a better investigation, I
would have enjoyed some personal
insights and generational comparisons
about growing up in the
South .. But I do think Southerners
who grew up i~ the era before
Stonewall will enjoy drawing their
own comarisons.
I was very impressed that most of
the young people interviewed had
discussed their sexuality with an
adult. The subject of homosexuality
is no longer the unmentionable
taboo it once was, not th.at
the advice and direction of parents,
teachers and preachers has changed
much over the years. Whether or
not we like to admit it, television
has had a sophisticating effect on
our young people, and even some of
the tradition-bound adults are
changing their attitudes. These
young Gays may still feel like
outcasts in their individual environments,
but at least now they can
put a name to their orientation and
Author James T. Sears
• know they're not alone.
Sears has segmented his research
into five "vantage points," which
include community and family
relations, and studies about adolescent
sexuality and gender identity.
The vantage point of most
interest to Second Stone readers
would be "Homosexuality and the
Religious South." To demonstrate
the pe~asive influence of the
church, a great many of the minibiographies
contain examples of the
role that religion has played in the
development of these young people ,
but two chapters are exclus ively
· devoted to the stories of young Gays
and how religion has affected their
lives .
that by blanketing themselves in
religious attitudes, constantly
speaking out on the dangers of sin,
and presenting themselves as a
"pure" individual to their peers
and elders they were a bit more
acceptable in school, church and
home.
Vince was baptised at the age of
six. He was a bright student who
had good relations with his classmates
and teachers, taking an active
part on the football and softball
teams. His parents were very active
in the Southern Baptist Church . It
wasn't until the sixth grade that he
learned what a homosexual was, but
he had long before began sexually
experimenting with his male
cousins during weekly Sunday
Vince was a straight-appearing gatherings at bis grandparents
popular student, who turned to a home.
fundamentalist religion as a way of At one point Vince developed a
alleviating the pain of his parent's crush on his Sunday School teacher
divorce. Macolm was consumed and after much hesitation finally
with his church and the legitimacy confessed that he "thought" he was
that being religious could bring to a homosexual. The teacher offered
his being "different." Both found support but after a short while
lJ6[ S econdS tone• November/Decembe1r 991
became withdrawn each time Vince
would call. Vince left the Baptist
church after his mother had an
affair with the church's softball
coach and his parents divorced.
The end of an 18-year marriage was
devastating to his mother , and also
to Vince. He had to deal with a
suicidal parent in addition to the
many other issues he was facing as
a teenager. To escape · the dismal
conditions of his home, he lost
himself in music.
Vince had long been interested in
music and frequently played the
drums during church functions . He
joined an evangelical gospel group
and started touring all over the
Southeast in a cus_tomized bus. ln
addition to escaping from the
depression at home he felt that he
could "straighten his act" by being
with the group. · For a year he
became very religious and at times
felt that God was speaking directly
to him. At one church meeting in
North Carolina he was sure that God
had told him to give up rock and
roll music and the next week, in
front of the group, he burned $800
worth of albums. But within two
weeks he was missing his records
and became very depressed at
having become the victim of this
situation induced by religious
fervor.
When he was a junior in high
school his mother found a scrap of
paper in his pants pocket that
listed the· names of male classmates
he found attractive. But he did not
take advantage of this opportunity
to tell his mother who he really was
and instead chose to lie and tell her
that he was not gay. She wanted to
believe him and she did.
The minister told
Vince, "I have to
take a different
stand when I am
in the pu lpit but
in here I'm not
like that . Get
close to the Lord,
find you a good·
lover, and be
happy."
Vince continued drumming for
the gospel group. One night after
watching a particularly emotional
episode of MASH ·on ·rv he confessed
to the lead singer that he
was gay. Apparently he was
stret{:hed to his emotional limit and
the sad ·rv show made him snap , A
short time later a conference. was
held with other members of the
group and Vince was sent for
counseling with the pastor of one of
the largest fundamentalist congregations
in the area.
.The mini ster told Vince, "I have to
take a different stand when l am in
the pulpit but in here I'm not like
SEE GROWING UP GAY, Page 17
In Print ..................... ........................ ............................
In Episcopal priest's new book:
May need to withhold money to get church's attention
By William L. Day
Contributing Writer Robert Warren Cromey has
been rector of Trinity
Episcopal Church in San
· Francisco since 1981, a
parish with a large proportion of
gay and lesbian members. But the
author of In God's Image/ Christian
Witness to the Need for Gay/Lesbian
Equality in rhe Eyes of the
Church, from Alamo Press, is
himself heterosexual, married and
the father of three daughters. He is
a strong · advocate of gay/lesbian
rights and believes that when the
time is appropriate, Lesbians .and
Gays should "withhold money from
th e hierarchy of the churches in
order to press for justice for
homosexuals ... " (p.117). "As the
salaries and the budgets of the
bishops become pinched, they will
discover ways to reconcile their
beliefs with the wills of those that
demand their respect."
His own parish, he says
contributes $32,000 a year to the
Episcopal . Dioqese · p f California,
three-fourths of which is from
homosexuals. "Yet the bishop does
GROWING UP GAY,
from Page 16
that. Get close to the Lord, find yo·u
a good ldver, and be happy." This
is the most honest and compassionate
response of any minister
presented in the book. Six weeks
later be bowed out of the group.
By the age of 2 2 Vince had
disclosed his sexua l orientation to
his parents. His mother responded
with, "I love you and there's
nothing you can do that can make
me not love you . But' I'm still
praying that God will get a hold of
you and · that He. will convert you to
the straight and narrow path."
His father however was convinced
that a demon of homosexuality had
entered Vince's soul while listening
to an Elvis Presley record,
Jailhouse Rock. Perhaps Presley's
references to men dancing together ,
and the portion of the song where
one prisoner calls another "the
cutest little jailbird I ever did
see," had stuck .in the father's mind
as popular (though veiled)
homosexual referen ces from Vince's
childhood, but this isn't mentioned
in the book.
not push for full rights for gay and
lesbian _people in the church." One
of those rights is the · church
blessing of the re lationship of
same-gender couples. "We bless
fox hunts, fishing fleets, taxicabs,
debutante balls, pets, missiles, and
new car washes, " he says. "Yet we
must not bless people of the same
gender who wish to sanctify · their
relationships ... "
Father Cromey's conversion as a
gay activist followed by a ·year hi.s
arrest in a civil rights demonstration.
As a result, he says • "I
was forced back to my own values ...
I lost the life of a social -climbing
cleric. I found my life as an
activist rabble-rouser, lone eagle,
. writer, teacher, preacher, therapist
and a priest. I don't have to go to
boring cocktail parties, banquets,
to give pious invocations, act the
part of pseudo - socialite or fawn
over the rich, hoping they ' ll donate
money, and pretend to like it all. If
I have l.ost the opportunity of my
position as bishop, :I have found my
position as server of Christ, an
activist for social change."
Today Vince is enamoured with
Eastern religions, and feels only
pity for the prejudiced attitudes of
fundamentalists he encounters. He
knows they are "only mimicking
what they've been taught as die
·Gospel Truth."
The only similarity between the
stories of Vince and Malcolm is that
both sets of parents were very
religious. Malcolm's father was a
member of the little knowri House
of Prayer denomination, and his
mother was a Jehovah's Witness. He
characterized both denominations
as cults, each thinking that their
church was the only way to reach
God. The religious .competition in
the home was tremendous.
Malcolm ·was carried along with
his mother into the Jehovah's Witnesses,
and by the age of four was
doing door-to-door proselytizing
with his mothers and sisters. At
the same age, Malcolm asserts that
he realized he was going to be
homosexual, because of his adverse
feelings about the heterosexual
relationships he saw around him.
He was also having his first sexual
experiences with neighborhood
children and his older brother.
" f f
l
Robert Warren Cromey
The author believes at least a lay people to come out. A final
third of Episcopal clergy are gay, chapter in his book describes what
and 95 percent are closeted ·. His this involves and the benefits he
recipe for acceptance of Gays in the anticipates will follow.
church .is for both gay clergy and
Malcolm had extremely feminine
characteristics _even at an early age.
It seemed to be something he came
by quite naturally but the reactions
of those around him created an
intense amount of guilt, low self
esteem, and self hatred. His
classmates called him "fag" and
"sissy." His parents were embarassed
by him and at church he was
told that he was "a disgrace,"
"degrading God's name" by · the way
he wa lked and talked. Others
compared him to his brothers, who
al!' played football, and the message
that he was shameful because he
was so feminine was a constant
pressure from all sources.
As the years passed he dove
deeper into his church activities,
where he was taught that "homosexuality
was considered the most
awful sin that anyone could commit
aside from outright worship of
Satan." He still had his homosexual
feelings and in an effort to appease
God we was continually in prayer
and busy in the church.
Throughout his teenage years he
continued to suffer from an · abusive
father, the raging conflicts between
his fanatical parents, and the
repression of his homosexuality
and femininity. His grades were
poor because, as he puts it, he was
"spaced out" on his religion. He
couldn't keep his mind on the Bible
and think about math and 'history
as well! Many times he felt as if he
couldn't take it any longer and
· seriously considered suicide.
He was constantly afraid of
"fallin·g from grace" and this led to
a distructive relationship with a
tall, muscular woman seven years
his senior. She was anxious to get a
husband by any means, and he was
hoping to change to avoid being
disgraced before "the congregation,"
so after his graduation they
married. He was 18 and horrified
at what life had to offer.
The marriage was short lived, of
course. One day while his wife was
-in the l)eauty parlor he was picked
up in a shopping mall restroom and
within two weeks he had totall)'
entered into a gay lifestyle . He was ""-- ·
excommunicated from the church
and rejected by his family . For a
time he still had periods when he
would attempt to reconcile with the
SEE GROWING UP GAY, Page 24
. Second Stone• November/December 1991 [i7]
. Just Out ....................
Cody Angel
On her own twQ feet
Cody Angel, a new book by San
Francisco Bay Area author Joanne
Whitfield, is the story of lesbian
Dana Wilkins of Cody, Wyoming and
Rosylyn _ Horstman, an older Nashville
woman separated from her
husband, and how they wind up
living together in a San Francisco
penthouse with "each other for a
consolation prize." The book reads
like a cross between P.S. Your Cat is
Dead and Rubyfruit Jungle .
Whitfield said that creating the
story of young Dana, who learns to
escape from a dependent relationship
during the course of the novel,
helped her to "work out my mother
stuff." She admits that the book is
semi-autobiographical in nature.
A graduate of San Francisco State
University's School of Creative
Writing, Whitfield spent six years
writing Cody Angel. She presently
divides her time between working
as a magazine editor, commuting
.between her Russian River cabin
and Bay Area job, and writing two
new books.
Joanne Whitfield
Holiday songs from
Windy City Chorus
The award-winning Windy City Gay
Chorus has released its first professionally
produced CD and
cassette, Don We Now ... Holiday
· Favorites, featuring the 70-voice
SPECIAL
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really work! Now you can run a 20 word ad for just
$3 .50! 30 words just $7.00! Please see the order form
on the classified page OR ...
FAX your ad to (504)891-7555
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billing address) and FAX it to us. It's never been
easier to place a classified ad!
20 word minimum. Each additional word, 35¢.
Second Sfune
l1s·1 Second Stone. November/December 1991
chorus performing holiday favorites.
The recording is available at
local music stores and at lesbian
and gay ·bookstores around the
country.
Renowned for its uncompromising
muscial standards, the chorus has
received critical acclaim and aud ience
plaudits for over 12 years .
The recording may be ordered
direct from the Chorus, 3023 N.
Clark, #329, Chicago, IL 60657 ,
(312)404 -9242 .
New UFMCC brochure:
The Bible
as Your Friend
"Holl).osexuality/The Bible as Your
Friend: A Guide for Lesbians and
Gays" has been published in
brochure form by the Universal
Fellowship of Metropo litan Community
Churches . The second in a
· series on Christianity and Jesbian /
gay issues, it was written by Rev.
Dr. _Buddy Truluck, pastor of
Golden Gate MCC in San Francisco,
California. The brochure examines
the Bible and homosexuality from a
more evangelical perspective, with
an affirming message for Lesbians
and Gays. For information write to
UFMCC Church Services, 5300 Santa
Monica Blvd. , Suite 304, Los
Angeles, CA 90029.
Romanovsky & Phillips
Be Political,
Not Polite
Be Political, Not Polite is the title
of an exciting and provocative new
album on Fresh Fruit Records by
Romanovsky & Phillips. Produced
by Los Angeles musician/arranger
For your convenience
you may now FAX:
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(504)891-7555
Romanovsky & Phillips
John Bucchino and Romanovsky &
Phillips, Be Political, Not Polite
contains - fifteen songs of love,
politics, anger and hope.
Their first album in over three .
years, Be Political, Not Polite is a
tour-de-force tpat -showcases R&P's.
best material to date, maintaining a
perfect balance of wit, sensitivity,
political passion and controlled
rage.
The recording is available on
compact disc and cassette at most
record and book stores. It can also
be ordered directly from Fresh
Fruit Records, 369 Montezuma,
#209, Santa Fe, NM 87501,
1-800-473 - 7848.
Popular essay
collection
available by mail
The best seller from the Presbyterians
for Lesbian and Gay Concerns
booth at the 203rd General
Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church is available by mail. Ugh!
Breaks Forlh: Heading the Bible
through Lesbian and Gay Eyes, a
collection of essays by lesbian and
gay members of the Presbyterian
Church (USA). Each writer has
picked a passage of scripture , and
from their own experience and
perspective, written about the
power and life that that passage
holds for them, especially as
Lesbians and gay men. To order a
copy send $2.00 to Bet Hannon,
PLGC/East Iowa, P.O. Box 32 02 ,
Iowa City, IA 52244.
T Noteworthy T .................................... ....... '• ................... . • ........ .
CLOUT member
noted in
Baptist press
Lea Brown, a Southern Baptist who
works with Ministry of Light, a gay
and lesbian outreach ministry in
San Anselmo, California, and one of
the founding members of CLOUT,
received mention in a recent issue
of Baptist Peacemaker. CLOUT
(Christian Lesbians Out Together)
is an inter-cultural, ' multi-racial,
solidarity movement.
Brown said, "I'm not going to live
in fear and dishonesty anymore. I
was tired of living my life in fear of
what others thought of me or what I
had to lose. I believe in being out
of the closet and calling the church
to repentance ... I couldn't love
others until I loved myself..."
Brown is a graduate of Oklahoma
Baptist University and a former
student at Golden Gate (Southern)
Baptist Theological Seminary in
Mill Valley, Calif . She was denied
ordination by . a Southern Baptist
church when he·r sexual orientation
became known and was forced to
finish her Master of Divinity
studies at Pacific iScho'ol of Religion
in Berkeley. Brown continues to
seek ordination in a Southern
Baptist chu .rch.
Surprising coalition
raises money for
AIDS. agencies
Lutherans, conservative and liberal,
gay and straight, black, white
and Asian, all joined together
recently at Grace Lutheran Church
in Richmond, California for a
fundraising banquet called "Grace
& Comfort." Proceeds totaling over
$4000 were divided between local
AIDS service organizat ion s and ten
percent went to benefit the
Township AIDS Project in Soweto,
Africa.
Rev. Simon Farisani, Dean of the
Duvhala-Lebowa District of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in
Southern Africa, described how the
legacy of apartheid is compounding
the effects of the AIDS epidemic in
South Africa. "Thank you for
remembering South _ Africa!" he
proclaimed several times.
Other participants . in the event
included Missouri Synod District
President Walter Tietjen; ELCA
Bishop Lyle Miller, Lutherans
Concerned San Francisco Chapter
President Bob Nelson, Lutherans
AIDS Network Director Michal
Pozar, Northeast Bay District Dean
Donna Duensing, Richmond City
Councilwoman Rosemary Corbin,
and Fellowship of Confessional
Lutherans Vice President Michael
Murphey.
The event was sponsored by
Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco
and the Sierra Pacific Synod AIDS
Task Force . Entertainment was
provided by Vuk.ani Mawethu
("People Arise"), the group that
sang for Nelson Mandela when he
visited the Bay Area last year.
Susan Antikainen
dies ·
Susan Antikainen, 49, a doctoral
student at Luther-Northwestern
Theological Seminary died on July
10. She had received her Master of
pivinity from Luther-Northwestern
in 1989 but, because she was open
about her sexual orientation , never
received a call and was never
ordained. She had struggled for
many years with mental illness
stemming from severe childhood
abuse and spoke and advocated on
behalf of abuse victims. In recent
years she had created a number of
scu lptures and paintings reflecting
her experience. She and her
partner, Linda Nolte, had recently
started a small doll making
business.
Memorials can be made to the
Library Fund at St. Paul - Reformation
Lutheran Church, 100 N.
Oxford , St. Paul, MN 55104.
Presbyterian Church
Foundation accepts
endowment for gay/
lesbian group
An anonymous fund for Presbyterians
for Lesbian _and Gay Concerns
has been established with the
Presbyterian Church (USA) Foundation
by Andy and Jinny Carhartt
of Boulder, Colorado , supporters of
PLGC. It is believed to be the first
endowment fund for an independent
special organization in the
denominational foundation's
portfolio. The Foundation "covenants
and agrees permanently to
invest said gift in a fund that
places emphasis on reasonable
long-term growth of capital and
income ... " and PLGC "shall use the
said income from the fund hereby
established as its governing body
shall determine .
Contributions to the Anonymou~
Fund for PLGC (No.90-623) may be
made through the Presbyterian
Church Found'ation, 200 East 12th
St., Jeffersonville, IN 4 7130.
Spirit of the- Lakes
begins capital
campaign
Spirit of the Lakes, a United Church
of Christ congregation in Minneapolis
with a specific outreach to the
gay and lesbian community, hopes
to raise $300,000 over the next
three years to Teduce and
restructure the church's debt.
Speaking of the financing of the
church's recent purchase of a
building, Toni Pomerene, capital
campaign co-administrator said,
"This building should support our
ministry and our community, not
the other way ·around. Our capital
campaign will help make that so."
More than 300 people worship
every Sunday at Spirit of the Lakes.
-Equal Time
New Evangelical
church for Dallas
A new independent, Evangelical
Christian Church has been
established in Dallas, Texas. The
White Rock Community Church is
under the leadership of an elected
board of deacons and Pastor Jerry
Cook. Cook has pastored congregations
throughout the southwest for
the past 22 years. The church
meets each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. at
the Hiltop Inn in Dallas. For
information contact the church at
(214)327-9157, P.O. Box 180063 ,
Dallas , TX 75218.
Integrity /Detroit
sponsors 7th annual
People Who Care
celebration
cross-section of religious leaders,
health care organizations and
gay/lesbian community groups.
Dignity /Integrity
Rochester celebrates
anniversary
The combined chapter of Dignity
and Integrity of Rochester, New
York, recently celebrated 16 years
of ministry. For information on the
group call its hotline, (716)
328-9758.
E-mail directory
for gay/lesbian
Christians
Louie Crew, founder of Integrity ,
and professor at Rutgers University,
is collecting e~mail addresses
of gay and lesbian Christians.
Those who wish to be included
should write to Box 30, Newark, NJ
07101, for a request form, or FAX
to (201)648-5700, Attn: Conklin
#156.
College publicity
keeps hotline- busy
The Seventh day Adventist Kinship
International hotline received a
rash o( phone calls from Walla
Walla College students due largely
to an article published in the
student newspaper, the Collegian .
The front page article was
favorable, and it included the
toll-free number for the hotline in
the first paragraph. According to
the article, interest was started
when Kinship posters began
appearing around campus advertising
the toll-free number.
The posters had not been
approved by the school adminis tration,
and were quickly removed.
But the signs were up long enough
to pique the interest of the school
paper and several gay students who
have since joined Kinship.
The 7th annual Christmas Cele- Ch' h
bration for People Who Care About 1cago C urch
People With AIDS, sponsored by , celebrates
Integrity/Detroit, will be held on
Thursday, December 12, at 7:30 21st anniversary
p.m. at Old Christ Church in Good Shepherd Metropolitan Comdowntown
Detroit. The -AIDS munity Church of C,hicago cele-
Christmas Celebration has become brated its 21st anniversary with a
one of Michigan's most important spiritual renewal weekend in
charitable, religious Christmas September. Rev. Troy Perry,
events. It consists of a communion founder of the Universal Fellowship
and healing service, followed by a of Metropolitan Community
gala holiday party. Sponsors and Churches, was scheduled to take
participants include a broad part.
Second Stone• November/December 1991 lJJlJ
Calendar ...................................
The following announcements have
been submitted by sponsoring or
affi/iated groups.
Ghost _Ranch
Lesbian and· Gay
Retreat
NOVEMBER 7-10, "Reclaiming
Christian Spirituality will be the
theme of a retreat for Lesbians and
gay men, their families and friends
at beautiful Ghost Ranch, the
Presbyterian Church (USA) conference
center in northern New
Mexico. Chris Glaser, author of
Uncommon Calling, Come Home! and
Out to God, will be the leader.
Registration is $50.00 and room
and board is $100.00 For information
call (505)685-4333 or write
Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu; NM 87510.
_New England
Retreat
NOVEMBER 8-9, A United
Church Coalition for Lesbian/Gay
Concerns retreat to be held at the
Massachusetts Conference Center,
Framingham, Mass. For. information
contact Ann _ Day, P.O. Box
403, Holden, MA 01520.
Homophobia In
Religion & Society
NOVEMBER 12, Newman Student
Center, Superior, WI; NOVEMBER
14, First Congregational Church,
'La Crosse, WI; NOVEMBER 16, St.
Benedict Center, Middleton, WI;
NOVEMBER 18, St. Norbert
Abbey, DePere, WI; NOVEMBER
19, School Sisters of Notre Dame
Motherhouse, Milwaukee, WI - A
Catholic priest and nun bring their
7-year nationa l campaign to reduce
violence and discrimination and ·
promote understanding of gay and
. lesbian people to five Catholic
dioceses in Wisconsin. Robert
Nugent, SDS, and Jeannine Gramick ,
SSND, have been speaking and
writing on the topic of homosex-
. uality since 1971.
Seminars are designed for clergy
and laity of all denominations,
· educators, counselors, social
workers, AIDS activists and others
· in the helping professions and the
concerned general public.
For information contact the
Center for Homophobia Education ,
P.O. Box 1985, New York, NY 10159.
The Healing Touch
NOVEMBER 15- 17, "The Healing
Touch: Embodying Christianity"
will be the theme of a retreat for
Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and
friends led by Chris Glaser . Beaver
Conference Farm and Retreat
Center, Yorktown Heights, New
York, is the setting. Cost is
$145.00 including room and board .
For information contact John King,
(914)962-7159 or Beaver Farm ,
(914)962-6033.
Masculine,
Feminine, and Gay
Spirituality
JANUARY 3-5, 1992, a retreat
for gay men to explore the characteristics
of healthy masculine
and feminine spiritualities and
consider the characteristics of a
wholistic spirituality for gay
males. The process will include
presentations, dialogue, small
group work, and worship. Facilita tor
is John McNeil, Catholic priest,
psychotherapist, co- founder of
Dignity, and author of The Church
and the Homosexual and Taking a
Chance on God. Fee is $225. For
information write or call Kirkridge,
Bangor, PA 18013-9359 ,
(215)588-1793.
Sisterly
Conversations
JANUARY 10-12, 1992, current
concerns among Lesbians of faith,
led by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott,
feminist theologian and board member
of the Center for Sexuality and
Religion. Topics include how to
develop a care-based ethic to
replac e heteropatriarchy's
competition- based ethic of
conflicting rights and how to heal
ourselves and ·our relationships of
the damage done by incest, ph ysical
and psychological abuse, and the
· woman-hatred and gay-hatred of
society. Cost is $195. The setting is
Kirkridge, Bangor, PA 18013-9359.
Call (215)588-1793 for information
.
Fifth Annual
T-E-N Weekend
FEBRUARY 21-23, 1992,
"Spirit Filled Living" is the theme
of this gathering of The E:,,angelical
Network. The event features panel
discussions, networking support
[2Ql. Second Stone• November/December 1991
. ................................. .
groups, mass choir led by David ·
Young of Dallas, outstanding
speakers, Bible praise and worship.
The Institute of the Son will be held
the week of February 24-28 in
conjunction with the T-E-N
weekend. Casa de Cristo Church,
Phoenix, Arizona, is the setting.
For information write to Box 32441,
Phoenix, AZ 85064.
13th Annual Gay
& Lesbian Parents
Conference
JULY 2-5, the Gay and Lesbian
Parents Conference meets in
Indianapolis for Celebration '92 at
the downtown Hyatt Regency .
"Come Home to Indy" is the theme .
· For information write to GLPCI
TILLERAS, from Page 15
AIDS virus" has become the perfect
vehicle through which the internalized
victim-based "death message"
of many, gay men in. particular,
have come true. Tilleras
writes, "Everyone who does come in
contact with the germ is encouraged
to stay a victim," calling HIV a
"voodoo hex." i-lc elaborates, "In
1984 , we were told that HIV was the
cause of AIDS. Within three years,
public health officials and the
media have turned a positive HIV
antibody test result into a death
se ntence . Not able to explain why
some people who are exposed to HIV
d eve lop AIDS and some don't (only
30 percent have thus far), they
simply say everyone will - sooner
or later. That's a projection, a hex.
And it works. Healthy people who
test positive for HIV are committing
suicide, planning their funerals ,
LAWSUIT, from Page 9
McLaughlin said that -good has come
from the lawsuit since many of the
church's members are now aware of
Kinship and its ministry because of
the publicity and tremendous
expenditure of church funds that
has accompanied the suit. "If the
church would assume the responsibility
of educating its members
and ministering to the needs of
Gays and Lesbians," said
McLaughlin, "Kinship would not be
needed."
The church had until November 6
to appeal the .decision. Church
officials refused to comment, but
according to Jayson B. Lumish, a
partner with Fulbright & Jaworski,
Celebration '92, Box 831,
Indianapolis, IN 46206.
Lutherans
Concerned
Assembly '92
JULY 9-12, Lutherans Concerned/
North America meets at the
Philadelphia College of Textiles
and Science for Assembly '92.
"Free to Celebrate: We are the
church" is the theme. For information
.write to LC/NA, !lox 10461,
Fort Dearborn Station, Chicago, IL
60610-0461.
SEND !.:"'VENT NOTICES TO:
CALENDAR, SECOND ~TONI:,
P.O. BOX 8340,
NEW ORI.EANS, lA 70182
and lining up for the very toxic
chemotherapy, AZT."
Tilleras concludes, "Feeling
hopeless negatively affects your
body. Your attitudes affect your
immune system. Hexes work.
Luckily, a positive attitude a lso
works. That's what this book is
about: changing our attitudes,
breaking the hex, exchanging a
skull and crossbones hex for a
circle of hope!"
The second part of Circle of /lope
is a collection of beautifully moving
stories written by peo ple who
are living with /\IDS and also
recovering from their addictions.
In the final analysis, Circle of
· Hope is just that for all of us as we
struggle to live with and understand
the epidemic. Tilleras, for
whom AIDS meanC "Always In
Divine Safety," was truly a modern day
preacher of the epidemic good
news!
the law firm that defended Kinship,
Kinship WOJ.!ld have an excellent
chance of winning any such appeal.
Lumish tailed the court's decision
one more example of a situation in
which the country's legal practitioners
are not · going to sit back
and allow the gay community to be
pushed around.
SDA Kinship is an organization
for gay and lesbian members,
former members, and friends of the
Seventh -day Adventist Church. The
organization has 500 active
members and a mailing list of 2,000
people in 17 countries. Kinship
maintains area group meetings and
a toll-free support hotline ,
1-800-4 -GAY-SDA.
............ r.. ......... Other Places T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . •· ................ .
Gay vacation spots
No longer the last resort
By Cynthia Marquard
and Danni Munson
Contributing Writers
Gay resorts have come of age, and
offer a wide and wonderful range of
vacation opportunities for gay men
and Lesbians alike. For years, a
few knowledgeable gay hotel· and
resort operators here and there
presented acceptable, sometimes
luxurious, accommodations for gay
and lesbian cliente le. But suddenly,
entire areas are filled with
first-class resorts for the wellheeled
gay or lesbian traveler.
Not so very long ago, the -mention
of the term "gay resort" conjured
up images of a tacky, seedy male
motel somewhere on -the fringes of a
gay ghetto. No more!
The gay resort movement began
i_n Provincetown, Mass., and in Key
West, Fla ., during the 1970s.
Today, these are still the premier
gay vacation sp,ots .. But joining
them are Palm Springs, Calif., with
half a dozen new resorts this year,
Ca li fornia ' s Russian River in the
heart of the wine country; and a
host of smaller resort a re as
stretching across the United States.
Provincetown
lf you like sand dunes and salt-sea
air, you'll find it at the very tip of
Cap Cod, Massachusetts . With fishing
boats anchored in its harbor
and 200-year old houses gracing its
streets, Provincetown is a little
village with a winter population of
about 2,000. But during the summer,
visitors swell the population
of P-town to between 40,000 and
50 ,000--and m any of these visitors
are gay men and Lesbians. What
accounts for this oceanside resort's
enormous popularity? The many
aspects of Prov_incetown.
Provincetown is a fishing village
with a seafaring tradition dating
back to the late 1600s. It is a
thriving artist's colony that for
decades has provided a creative
environment for painters and
writers. It is one of the major
centers for U.S. whale research.
Provincetown is surrounded by
. miles of National Seashore containing
a unique and beautiful sand
dunes ecosystem and is a major
historic site--the first stop in the
New World made by the pilgrims
aboard the Mayflower in 1620. It
has a long tradition of tolerance for
a wide variety of lifestyles, a
characteristic that makes it so
popular with Gays and Lesbians
today.
In this relatively small village
with only two main streets-Commerical
and Bradford--there
are more than 75 gay/lesbianowned
and gay-friendly guesthouses.
A number of them cater
exclusively to men or to. women.
For examp le, · there are no less than
14 guesthouses represented by the
Women Innkeepers of Provincetown.
There is also a tremendous range of
accommodations, from modest single
rooms with .,.shared bath to
luxurious condominium apartments
with hot tub and swimming pool.
So rent a bike, charter a boat ,
have a ball--but by all mean make
reservations first. A visit to
Provincetown requires much
advance planning.
California's
Russian River
Where can you stay in an
exquisite small hotel, camp in a
.tent, hike in the woods, canoe on a
river, ride a horse, swim in the
ocean, soar in a balloon, soak in a
hot tub, dine elegantly , and
experience wine-tasting pleasures
at some of the finest vineyards in
the world? In California's Russian
River resort area.
Located on ly 65 miles north of
San Francisco, the Russian River
area is another world of dense ferns
and tall Redwoods. It is also one of
the finest gay / lesbian resort areas
in America. There are about a
dozen resorts that are eithe·r
exclusively gay or warmly welcome
gay/lesbian guests. All the
resorts are newly renovated
because devastating floods in the
spring of 1986 . caused extensive
damage to all of them. All of them
are set in a secluded woodsy
aonosphere.
Then too, the Russian River gay/
lesbian resorts are smack-dab in
the heart of California's wine
country. The famous Korbel winery
is just outside Guerneville. Get a
"Wine Road" map at one of the local
stores and drive to any of 43
vineyards in the area. ·
Russian River is a great sidetrip
to accompany a visit to San Francisco-
or a destination in itself.
Florida Resorts
Say Orlando, and Disney World's
Magic Kingdom immediately comes
to mind. Orlando also claims to be
the home of the largest gay/lesbian .
recreation complex, Parliament
House. This magic area northwest
of the downtown area contains 120
guest rooms, a restaurant, piano
bar, theater; disco and shops. There
are also many condos in the area
that would be suitable for upscale
. gay or . lesbian couples. And there
are about a half dozen other gay or
lesbian bars in -the Orlando area.
To find out what's going on in
Orlando and all over Florida, pick
up a copy of The Weekly News, the
statewide gay paper.
For those who don't mind a city
that's a bit rundown at the heels,
Miami offers a _ very reasonable
alternative to high-priced tropical
getaways. There is a huge hotelbeach
club-bar-disco complex in
· Miami Beach called the Sea Gull.
Rates are for the truly budgetminded
. · Off-season rates for
doubles begin at around $40 . .
Another large gay/lesbian resort
is just up the coast in Ft.
Lauderdale--the Marlin Beach
Hotel. It has 105 rooms, restaurant,
bar, disco, shops, and fresh-water
swimming poor. This, too, is a great
spot for younger , budget-minded
vacationers. Ft. Lauderdale has 19
other smaller esta blishments that
· .either cate r to gays or welcome a
mixed gay / straight clientele.
Visitors · can find out what's
currently happening by picking up
a copy of ·David Magazine,
published in Ft. Lauderdale.
Palm _Springs,
California
Palm Springs has long been a
haven for the rich and famous, who
luxuriate at · its first-class hotels
and golf-tennis resorts. An·d now
this same first-class ambiance has
become available to gay/lesbian
vacatio;iers. The Palm Springs area
is a scrupulously clean and quiet
spot on the desert floor, surrounded
by mountains and, of
course, thousands of beautifully
maintained palm trees. The area
consists of several small towns
strung out along Highway 111-Palm
Springs, Cathedral Cit y,
Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, and s9
on for more than 30 miles .
In Palm Springs, there are 18
brand new gay and lesbian hotels
that rival in luxury and service
some of the best small hotels in the
world. Two restaurants cater
exclusively to gay/ lesbian clientele,
The Carriage Trade i n
Cathedral City, which has a warm
elegant decor, and the more downto-
earth Gloria's in Palm Springs,
which serves up sandwiches a nd
plate dinners.
Up-to-date listings of shows and
other spec ial events for Gays and
Lesbians, are published in The
Bottom Line, the Palms Springs
area's gay/lesbian news and
entertainment magazine.
There is a great variety of things
SEE RESORTS, Page 24
1.J'- ~ ,;;;,- , ,~;r~ ~ .. ,, - . V , "
~
, . ~{~~!~':!. ..
On 100 beautiful acres with
lX)OI, hot tub, slciing :and more
Innkeepers Judith Hall and
Grace Newman invite you to
write oc call for a brnchurc .
P. 0. Box 118 SL
Bethlehem, NH 03S74
(603) 869-3978
the "other" place
undtr tltt sun ...
=~~ =-~~~ fln~k
•Pool a n,11 Jac•ul
•frte COIIIMlfflal IIM'HU'ut
·rC';-,
"-'~
Write or call for brochure.
120 E . Atol St., P. 0. Box 2326
South Padre Island, Texas 78597
(512)761-L YLE
Air connections yia
.American Continental Southwest
Second Stone• November/December 1991 [2}1
Resource Guide ..................................... ... . • ................................ .
Listings in the Resource Guide are free to
churches, organizations, publication s and
community services. Send infonnation to
Second Stone, Box 8340, New Orleans,
LA 70182 or FAX to (504)891-7555.
National
RELIGION WATCH, P.O. Box 652,
North Bellmore, NY I 1710. A newsletter
monitoring trends in contemporary reli gion.
LUTHERANS CONCERNE D I NORTH
AMERICA, Boii 10461, Fort Dearborn
St ation , Chicago, IL 60610-0;461. Publication:
The Concord ·
PRESBYTERIANS FOR .LESBIAN &GAY
CONCE RNS, ]?.0. Box 38, :Ncw
Brunswick, NJ 08903 '.0038. Publication:
More light Updat~
UNIVERSAL FELLOWSHIP METROPOLIT
AN COMMUNITY CHURCHES
5300 Santa Mon ica Blvd., #304, Los
Angel es , CA 90020, (213)464 -5 100.
Publication: Keeping in Touch
BREIHREN I MENNONITE COUNCIL
FOR LESBIAN AN D GAY CONCERNS,
Box 65724, Was hington , DC
20035. Publication: Dialogue
UNITED CHURCH COALITION FOR
LESBIAN / GAY CO NCERNS, 18 N.
Co llege, Athens, OH 45701, (614)
593-7301. Publication: Waves
SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS KINSHIP
INTERNATIONAL, Box 3840, Los
Angeles, CA 90078 , (213)876-2076. Publication:
Connection
RECONCILING CONGREGATION
PROGRAM, P.O. Box 23636, Washington,
DC 20026, (202)863-1586.
Publication: Open Hands
INTEGRITY, INC., P.O. Box 1956 1,
Washington, DC 20036-0561, (718)
720-3054. Publication: The Voice of
,Integrity
ECUME NICAL CATHOLIC CHURCH,
P.O. Box 32, Villa Grande, CA
95486-0032. Holy · Spirt . Church, East
Moline, IL, (309)792:6188. St Michael's
C hur c h, Russian . River, CA, (707)
· 865-0119. Publication: The Tablet.
LIVI NG STREAMS , P.0. Box '178,
Co ncord, CA 94522-0178. Ili-11,qnthly
publication.
AIDS NATIONAL INTERFAITH ·NETWOR
K, 300 I St., NE, Ste . 400,
\Vashington, DC 20002 . (800)288-9 619,
FAX (202)546-5103. Publication : Inter:
action.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR LESBIAN
· RJGHTS - 1663 Mission St, 5th Flr., San
Francisco , C A 94I03 :.
GAY AND LESBIAN PARENT
COALITION , P.O. Box 50360, Wash ington,
DC 20091. Publication: Network .
THE . WITNESS, Published by the
E pi scopal Church Publishin g Co., 1249
Washington Blvd., Ste. 3115, Detroit, Ml
48226-1868. (313)962-2650
Car pente r Library, P.O. Box 38100,
Hollywood, CA 90038. (213)854-0271.
Publication: Bulletin.
COUPLES Newsletter, Published by
TWT Press, Inc., P.O. Box 253,
Braintree, MA 02184-0003.
WOODSWOMEN - Adventur e travel for
women, 25 W. Diamond Lake Rd.,
Minneapolis, MN 55419, (800)279-0555,
· (612)822-3809, FAX (6 12)822-3814.
DAUGHTERS OF SARAH - The
maga7jne for Chrisiian Feminis ts , 380 1
N o. Keeler, Chicago, IL 60641,
(3 I 2)736-3399.
CHI RHO PRESS - A special work of the
UFMCC Mid-Atlantic District. Publisher
of religious books and materials. P.O.
Box 7864, Gaithersburg, MD 20898,
(30 I )670- I 859.
Alabama
BIRM INGHAM - THE ALABAMA
FORUM, P.O. Box 55894, 35255-5894.
(205)328-9228.
California
SACRAMENTO - THE LATEST I SSUE,
P.O. Box 160584, 95816. (916)737-1088.
WEST HOLLYWOOD - Evange licals
Togethe r, Suite 109-Box 16, 7985 Santa
Monica Bl vd., West Holly wood, CA
90.046, (213)656-8570. Publication: ET
News
SAN FRANC ISCO - Lutherans Con cerned,
566 Vallejo St., #25, 94133-4033,
(415)956-2069. Publication: Adven t.
SAN FRANCISCO - Gay and Lesbian
Historical Society of Northern California,
P.O. Box 42126, 94142. (415)626-0980 .
Publication : Our Stories.
SAN fRANCISCO - T h e Parsonage,
555-A Castro St., 94114-0293. Publica tion:
The Parsonage News
Colorado
DENVER - Evangelicals Reconciled, P.O.
Box 200111, 80220, (303)331-283 9
Colorado Springs: (719)488-3158.
DENVER - Evangelical s Concerned /
Western Region, P .O . Box 4750, 80204.
Publication: ThECable.
District of Columbia
Integrity / Washington, Inc., P.O. Box
19561, 20036-0561. (301)953-9421. Pub-'
lication: Gayspring.
Georgia
ATLANTA - SOUTHERN VOICE, PO
Box 18215, 30316. (404)876-1819.
Hawaii
KAHULUI - BOTH SIDES NOW
1'!ewsletter, P.O. Box 5042, 96732.
Illinois
CHICAG O - OUfLI NES , Published by
Lambda Publications, 3059 N. Southpo rt,
60657. (312)871-7610. FAX (3 12)
871-7609 .
Louisiana
BATON ROUGE - Dignity , P.O. Box
Maryland
THE BALTIMORE ALTERNATIVE,
P.O. Box 2351, Baltimore, MD 21203.
(301)235 -3401. FAX (301)889-5665.
Massachusetts ·
CHERRY VALL EY - Morning Star
M CC, 231 Ma in St., 0161 I (508)
892-4320. Publication: Mornin g Star
Witness.
Michigan
DETROIT - CRUISE Magaz ine, 19136
Woodward North, 48203. (313)369- 1901.
FLINT - Redeemer MCC, 1665 N.
Chevrolet Ave., 48504 . (313)238 -6700 .
Sunday, 6:00 p.m . Publication: Sounds of
Redeemer.
ANN ARBO R - Huron Valley Community
Church meets at Glac ier Way
UMC , 1001 Green Rd., Ann Arbor,
48105 -2896. (313)741-1174 . Sunday,
2:00 p.m.
DETROIT - Integ rity, 980 Whitmore,
//205, 48203.
Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS - EQUAL TIME ; 3 10 E.
38th St., Room ..1.07, 55409. (612 )
823-3836. Published by L1Vcndar, Inc.
New Jersey
HOBOKEN - The Oasis, 707 Washington
St., PO. Box 5149, 07030. (201)
792 -0340.
New Mexico
SANTA FE - THE CATSBY CONNECTIO
N, 551 W. Cordova , Ste. D IE, 8750 1.
(505)986- 1794.
New York
NEW YORK - Lesbian and Gay Community
Services Ce~ter, Inc., 208 W._
13th St., 1001 I. (212)620- 73 IO. Publications:
Center Stage, Center Voice.
NEW YORK - Integri ty, P.O. Box 5202,
10185-0043. Publication : Outlook.
ROCHESTER - THE EMPTY CLOSET ,
179 Atlantic Ave., 1460 7• 1255. New
· York State's oldest gay 11_ewse11per.
Ohio
COLUMBUS - Metropolitan Community
_Church , 1253 North Hig h Street , 43201.
· _(614)294-3026. Sunday, 10:30 a.m.
Publication : 11,e Beacon News.
COLUMBUS - STO NEWALL UNION
REPORTS, Box 10814 , 43201-7814.
(614)299-7764.
Texas
DALLAS - White Rock Community
C hurch, P.O. Box 180063, 75218.
(214)285-2831, (214)327-9157 . Sunday.
l0 :30 a.m. Jerr y Cook, Pastor.
AUST IN - Joan Wakeford Ministries, Inc.,
940 1_-!3 Grouse Meadow Ln. 78758-6348,
(5 12)8.15-7354.
DALLAS - Si lent Harvest Min is tries,
P 0. Box 19051 I , 752 19 -05 11. (214)
520-6655.
Virginia ll'ITERNA TIQNAL GAY AND LESBIAN
ARCHIVES, The Natalie Barne y Edward 4181, 70821. (504)383-6010. ROANOKE - MCC of the Blue Ridge,
[22.} Seoond Stone• November/December 1991
P.O. Box 20495, 24018, (703)366-0839.
Publication: 11,e Blue Ridge Brumer
ROANOKE - BLUE RIDGE LAMBDA
PRESS, PO Box_ 237, 24002,
(703 )890-3184.
FALLS CHURCH - MCC of Northern
Virginia, 7245 Lee Highway, 22046.
Washington
SEATT LE GAY NEWS, 704 E Pike,
98122. (206)324-4297 FAX (206)
322-7 188.
International
LONDON - Lesbian rutcl Gay Chris tiru1
Movement, Oxford House, Derbyshire St.,
London E2 6HG, UK, 071°739-1249.
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ESSAY, from Page 10
community.- lt'_s seen as 11moral,"
not "religious." But where do we
draw the line between the two?
Especially wheil every time one
asks these people who arc morally
outraged by Gays why they feel the
way they do, and they. start off by
saying, "Well, the Bible says ... "
Certainly, we are able to gain some
moral principles from the Bible in
addition to religious principles,
but which one, moral or religious,
is this hatred of fear of Gays?
Several books ( Christianity, Social
Tolerance, and Homosexuality, by
ohn Boswell, for one) already deal
with every scriptural reference
that could possibly relate to
homosexuality, so I won't repeat
heir work here.
Let's look at some Bible
principles by themselves and determine
which are moral and which
are religious and why. A menstruating
woman must be set apart.
ls this moral or religious? Hopefully,
we'll classify it as religious
as this country does not recognize
this as ·either moral or legal, and
even religiously .it'.s outdated.
Someone who does not attend syna 0
gogue should be stoned to death.
Hmm, hard to see that as moral, but
it was . definitel :i.,. a religious
commandment. Could that one exist
today? Should it? There are plenty
more of this kind which could never
and should never) be legally
allowed in this country to be
enforced on everyone.
How about stealing? Not stealing
is a religious command, but it is
also a mora'I one. Why? Because
someone els.e suffers a real,
tangible harm if we allow stealing.
Do not murder. Do not beat someone.
The same.
Do not be gay. Well, first of all,
tha.t command is not in the .Bible.
But even if it were, under which
category would it fall? ls someone's
.being gay hurting someone?
How? ls someone losing property
they own because someone else is
gay? Is someone getting a bruise
because another person is gay?
Does the fact that someone is gay
mean they are shooting someone or
chopping someone's head off? In
what way is the gay person hurting
anyone?
Because that person feels hurt or
offended to see someone gay? Well,
don't Gays feel just as hurt or
offended by the attitude of these
others? Why isn't their negative
attitude illegal then if offending
someone's sensibilities is something
that can be a legal crime?
(And as suggested earlier, how
could we allow the KKK or
neo-Nazis to exist legally in this
country, if that were the case?)
, Are Gays hurting people by their
"bad example"? Legally, we can set
a bad example in this country by
smoking, drinking, belonging to no
religion at all, never marrying,
having eight divorces, and a whole
host of other things. Why is it
legal to stop someone from being a
bad example ,pnly in this?
Any legal hurt a gay person could
do (raping someone, molesting a
child, passing a disease, or any
other of the usual complaints made
against Gays) could equally be said
of heterosexuals. If a gay person
molests someone, he sh·ould be
legally punished. Likewise, if a
heterosexual molests someone, he
too should be legally punished (and
heterosexuals commit from 95 to 97
percent of the child molestations,
according to reports.) The issue in
all these attacks against Gays is
never the gayness but the crime.
It's just that those who cry, "They
destroy the moral fiber of our
country," cannot, or rather, will not
see this distinction.
Therefore, even if being gay was
condemned by the Bible, since
being gay or being part of a loving,
committed relationship can not
hurt other people, that would have
to be a religious law and not a
moral one. And as we have seen
earlier, it is not legal in this
country to force the religious laws
of some people, even of a majority of
people, onto others. Moral laws,
yes. Religious ones, no. As John
Donne put it:
Alas, alas, who's injured by my
love?
What merchant's ships have my
sighs drowned?
Who says my tears have overflowed
his ground? ...
Spldiers find wars, and lawyers
· find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels
· move,
Though [he] and I do love.
So, despite our own _personal
religious beliefs, or the religious
beliefs of the .people we represent,
if we are a political or religious
leader, it is our duty as American
citizens · to remember the distinction
between church and state.
But there are· already state and
federal laws against homosexuality.
Therefore, because these laws
already exist, it is immoral to be
gay. We must, after all, uphold the
laws of the land.
That's an awfully convenient view
isn't it? It keeps us from having to
actually consider whether the law
is just or unjust. It's easy for us to
allow our prejudices and religious
teaching to influence our lawmaking
because the laws on this are
already there. But laws of the land
can be immoral, can't they? Can we
forget how ministers used the Bible
to defend the legal institution of
slavery? It was also legal to restrict
a woman's career opportunities
and her right to equal pay.
It was legal to refuse equal education
to women and to blacks. It was
legal to force Native Americans off
their land. It was legal to imprison
Japanese-Americans solely because
.of their ethnic origin. It's been
legal to do many things that are
immoral. And many times, defenders
of these legal crimes used the
Bible to support their views. Just
because there is a law against Gays
does not automatically mean the law ·
is just or that the law can· never (or
should never) be changed. What
has been good about this country is
that it has eventually realized its
mistakes and corrected them.
Let's realize then that no
religious group or groups, even if
they represent a majority of the
people, have a legal right to force
their religious views on others.
Committed gay relationships may go
against religious beliefs of some
religions, but there is nothing
inherently immoral about them'.
Churches may have a religious right
to excommunicate these people, but
employers should not have a legal
right to fire them. We need to keep
this distinction in mind when
making decisions which legally
affect .millions of Gays and
Lesbians in this country. Freedom,
equal protection under the law,
right to privacy, justice, equality,
liberty - if we are true Americans
who really care about the moral
fiber of our nation, we -·will let
,these words mean something.
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Fellowship
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Hawthorne, CA 90250
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A PresbyterianP romise
"We will work to increase the acceptance and ·
participationin the churcho f all personsr egardless
of racial-ethnico rigins,s ex, class, age,
disability, marital status or sexual orientation"
-,- 195th General Assembly (1983),
Atlanta,G eorgia
If this is your promise, too,
we invite you to join
Presbyteriansf or
Lesbian/Gay Concerns
Write to Elder James D. Anderson
PLGC, P.O. Box 38, New Brunswick, NJ
08903-0038,201/846-1510
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Friends/Relationships
28, GWM, 5'8' 180 lbs, brown, green, AA
co llege grad. - Wou ld like to meet for
friendship or more in the South Jersey a rea. I
will travel to MD, DE, o r PA. 1 am mascu line,
yet very affectionate at the right times. I
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photo/le tter to Frank, P.O. Box 567.
New port, NJ 0834 5. You may also ca ll
(609)453 -8777, the n use access code
4473861. Pen pals OK if meet not possible.
B4192
GWM, 39, 6'2 ". 165 l.bs., brown hair.
mustache, hea lthy, smoke and dru g fr~e.
varied interests, respons ible, quiet, caring ,
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Resorts,
From Page 21
to do in Palm .Springs. In additi o n
to ' golf and tenn is, there is
horseback riding, and hot-air
balloon rid es. Hikers ca n enjoy the
spectacular Indian Can yons a rea,
and view the plants , wildlife, rock
formations, waterfalls, and Indi a n
artifacts for a $3.00 admis sion fee.
A Host of
Other Resort Areas
But gay r esort areas as not
limited to the deserts and coasts.
For example, the twin towns of
Sauga tuck-Dou glas on the eastern
shore of Lake Michigan offer a
pl easa nt surprise for gay / lesbian
trave ler s in the Mid west. In this
Great Lakes nautical town filled
wit h antique shops and vario us
boutiques, there is a major gay/
lesbian resort co.mplex called th ·e
Douglas Dunes, several charming
gay guesthouses in the heart of
Saugat u ck, and a gay campground
minutes away for those who like to
rough it.
Several charming gay / lesbian
resort are as ar e located on the
At lanti c Seaboard . Atlant ic City,
N.J., has s everal · guest hou ses,
restaurants , and bars. Rehoboth
Beach, Delaware , is a very popular
summer vacation spot for bot h Gays
and straights, with miles of beaches
and boardwalk amusements. In
?-ddition to several gay guesthouses
and resorts , the re are homes an d
condos for rent by the week or the
season . Of course, the most famous
\j i Second Stone• November/December 1991
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Atlantic resort area is Fire Island,
N.Y., a nat ional seash ore with lot s
of undeveloped land teemin g with
wildlife. Gay a ctivities center
around the towns of Cherry Grove
and Fire Island Pines.
Puerto Rico also has a thriv in g
gay resort area around San Juan.
There are about a dozen resorts that
eit h er cater excl usi ve ly to gay /
le ~bi an clie ntel e or a-re gay ·
frie ndl y. Ind ivi du al lit t l e gay
havens h ave also sprung up here
Growing Up
Gar in the
South,
From Page 17
church and his wife, bu t each time
he found that he could - not
d isassociate himself from his
homosexual feeiings and the effe minate
mannerism he -so naturally
displayed. He tu rn ed to drugs,
alcohol and pro miscui ty to ease th e
pain, but soo n fou nd how painful .
these could also be.
Today Malcolm says he is trying
to regain his self -r espect. He is
still a fr aid to make a complete
break with the chur ch be cause hi s
mother had told him if he does, she
won't be able to ·ta lk to him
anymore.
Sears has certai nl y done a n
excelle nt job extract ing from his
researc h the pain ful expe rienc es
that religion can brin g to young
Gays and Lesbians , part icul arly in
and th er e in the r eso rt areas of New
England , along the Gulf Coast, and
i n the Rocky Mountains. Today,
there is a gay / lesbian resort area to
flt virt ually every taste.
Cynthia A-. Marquard is th e
owner/manager of Envoy 1Travel, Inc.,
in. Chicago and v/ce-president of- the
International Gay Travel Assn.
Danni Munson is the- editor and
publisher of The Lesbian and Gay
Almanac and Events of 1991.
the South. I do wish, however, in
thi s entire section on religion he
co uld have fou nd at least one young
person who h ad been able to
successfu lly integrate their ·sexuality
with their spir itual ity. I
rea lize t hat s uch a young person
might be the excep ti on, but the
presentation of such "except ions"
might hav e allowed the reader to
draw other concl usions , ra ther ~han
religio n and h omosexuality don't
mix.
Overa ll the book is rea lly fascinating
re adi ng. You will find the
author's sociological cqmmentaries
extremely insightful. His .use of
scientific data is impr essive. I
found his information on the
genetic ·and prenatal contributing
factors of homosexuality to be
part icula rly interesting. The irtdic
victua l portraits tha t he presents in
the book ev o ke a number of
emotio !)<l.l-fespo nses, and with
won:i·s•ffe paints the pu re reality of
g.!'&win g up in deprived and
op pre ss ive conditions. ·
/