South Africa to treat all HIV-positive babies
(Pretoria, South Africa) South Africa announced ambitious new plans Tuesday for earlier and expanded treatment for HIV-positive babies and pregnant women, a change that could save hundreds of thousands of lives in the nation hardest hit by the virus that causes AIDS.
President Jacob Zuma – once ridiculed for saying a …
‘Yay gay!’: San Francisco Pride takes over city streets in its 39th year
From leather-clad to barely clad, masses numbering in the hundreds of thousands partied proud in downtown San Francisco this past weekend. June 27-28 marked the 39th anniversary of the San Francisco Pride Celebration & Parade, and judging by the morning-after media reports, the famous festival doesn’t seem to be getting dull with age.
See ‘Yay gay!’: San Francisco Pride takes over city streets in its …
Los Angeles Times
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Gay parents along with kids celebrate in annual parade
SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of thousands of people turned out for the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade, some in provocative costumes and outfits, but an increasing number of them pushing strollers. “I feel like I’ve seen twice as many children as I saw last year,” said Joseph Bowik, who is a father to two children with his husband, David Bowik. The Pride Family Garden, a small park cordoned off near City Hall to give parents a respite and an area for their children to play, saw more than 600 families last year, a record that appeared set to be broken during this year’s parade, organizer Meredith Fenton said. “Probably the biggest thing we’re hearing about this year from kids is the word ‘backlash,’”‰” said Fenton, who is the program director for Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE), which joined the park effort. “With Prop. 8 passing and the Defense of Marriage Act, there’s so much talk about gay rights, but what people keep asking is, ‘How will the kids of gay parents turn out?’ Those people are all asking about us.” San Francisco and Alameda counties are home to the second- and third-most same-sex couples who are parents in California, after Los Angeles, Fenton said. Diana Castillo, 18, moved to Oakland this summer for an internship at Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere. Raised by her birth mother and her mother’s partner, she said growing up with two moms made her grateful.
See:
- Gay parents along with kids celebrate in annual parade San Jose Mercury News – –
- Video: Gay pride on the streets
- Remembering Stonewall: 40 Years Later Gay Wired Gay Pride Parade Marks 40 Years After NYC Uprising WDIV
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Voices of Witness Africa New documentary tells stories of gay Anglicans
Voices of Witness Africa is a new 30-minute documentary intended to help Episcopalians listen to the views and experiences of Anglicans who are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) and to emphasize that homosexuality is “not just a North American or European issue,” says the Rev. Cynthia Black.
Co-produced by Black, rector of Christ the King Church in Kalamazoo/Texas Corners, Michigan, and Katie Sherrod, a writer and commentator based in Fort Worth, Texas, the documentary features GLBT Africans who talk about their lives and their relationships with God and the church.
“The voices of LGBT folks from around the world need to be heard,” says Black.
Among those interviewed for the documentary is the Rt. Rev. Christopher Senyonjo, retired bishop of the Diocese of West Buganda in the Anglican Church of Uganda, who leads a study and prayer group for gay Anglicans. “I’m sorry about what the church is saying. God loves you, God loves you,” Senyonjo says in support of GLBT Christians. While he acknowledges that speaking out has been “very risky,” Senyonjo adds, “When you know the truth, it should make you free.”
Although homosexuality is illegal in most African countries, “several people in the film cite cause for hope,” said a news release from the Chicago Consultation, a sponsoring organization of the documentary.
“Many, many years ago, when the townships were in smoke and people were dying, we never thought that we would be where we are now,” Yvonne Daki, manager of iThemba Lam Center of Inclusive and Affirming Ministries in South Africa, says in the documentary. “We will have one day a situation where gay people can speak openly about their sexuality.”
For Black, one of the surprises when working on the documentary was “how willing participants were to have their name and image used publicly, even when they knew their bishop would be receiving a copy of the film, and even when there could potentially be horrific consequences for doing so … Their courage is incredible.”
Sherrod was most impressed how the interviewees’ faith “informs their actions every minute of every day. All of them spoke of God as a intimate part of their lives, a presence who gives them hope and strength in the face of terrible oppression and active persecution, not only by the state, but in most cases by the Anglican church leaders in their country. To witness the depth of their faith was inspiring and humbling.”
“Viewers who have followed the plight of GLBT people in Africa will hear familiar and tragic stories of fear, imprisonment and abuse,” the Chicago Consultation news release said. “However, they may also be surprised by the support and hope voiced by some of the film’s subjects, including African Anglican bishops and priests.”
Black said that much inspiration can be found in the stories of hope that were heard — “hope that one day the church will have moved beyond the issues of sexuality that divide it.”
All the instruments of communion have supported a process of listening to the experiences of homosexual people throughout the Anglican Communion. At the 1998 Lambeth Conference, resolution 1.10 committed all the provinces of the Anglican Communion to a listening process. It was not until 2005 that the Listening Process was officially launched with the appointment of a facilitator who would monitor the work being done, share the results and enable further listening.
The Anglican Consultative Council, the communion’s most representative policy-making body, met in Jamaica in May 2009 and supported the renewal of the Listening Process, which has received a 2.5-year grant from the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia to run five “pilot conversations” around the communion.
The “Voices of Witness Africa” documentary is being released just before the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, which will be held July 8-17 in Anaheim, California. “At the meeting, deputies and bishops will discuss both the church’s mission in the developing world and the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people,” the Chicago Consultation news release said. “The film is being mailed in advance to all deputies and bishops. It is also being mailed to all bishops of the Anglican Communion, including those who lead churches that are hostile to GLBT Christians.”
“With General Convention approaching, some people focus on what effect its actions might have on the part of the Anglican Communion that is more conservative than the Episcopal Church,” said Black. “I think the film helps us to remember that there are hundreds of thousands of LGBT folks in the communion who are watching what the Episcopal Church does.”
Further information on the film, including a study guide for use in Episcopal parishes, is available here.
Future public screenings of Voices of Witness Africa will be held on:
June 5: All Saints Church, Pasadena, California
June 6: Christ Episcopal Church, Dearborn
June 7: Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge
June 8: All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Chicago
June 10: Church of the Ascension, Silver Spring, Maryland
June 12: Christ Church Cathedral, St. Louis, Missouri
June 14: St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Houston, Texas
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Day of Silence observed
(Washington) Hundreds of thousands of students at thousands of schools nationwide are taking part in the National Day of Silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment.
Students from more than 8,000 middle schools, high schools and colleges registered as participants in last year’s Day of Silence. This year …
