Blogs
Greater NW Pride: Lifetime and Hallmark Channel Holiday Films and the Normalization of the LGBTQI+ Movement
9/16/2020
Lifetime and Hallmark Channels, Holiday Films, and the Normalization of the LGBTQI+ Movement I’m going to take a break from the documentary filmmaker David France mini-marathon, begun with a review of the 2020 HBO film, Welcome to Chechnya last week, and go to some unexpected news. Lifetime films is making one of their classic Christmas movies with a gay couple-falling-in-love film! While I am not necessarily drawn into holiday, Christmas films on Hallmark or Lifetime channels because of...
Greater NW Pride: Welcome to Chechnya: A Film Review
9/9/2020
“Welcome to Chechnya”: A Film Review Like many who read this blog, I’ve become quite the film and tv critic during the COVID 19 pandemic, especially of LGBTQI+ films, series, tv shows. I’ve watched the last episodes of the re-boot of Will and Grace on Hulu/NBC; I watched episodes of Euphoria on HBO and was stunned by the power of this series, featuring the new young transgender actor Hunter McShafer. I got caught up on Schitt’s Creek on Netflix, and laughed and cried at the wedding ...
Greater NW Pride: There's a Difference
9/4/2020
There’s a Difference When I was a music therapist, one of the songs I sang, in a circle, with a mixture of students who were living with a disability and those who were not disabled was “Alike and Different.” The ditty went like this, with clapping hands of course, and was a chant: “Alike and different, alike and different, we are alike and different!” At the end of the chant we would turn to the person on our right and say how we were alike, and on our left, how we were different. And then ...
Greater NW Pride: God’s Abundant Love for LGBTQI2S+ People
8/24/2020
God’s Abundant Love for LGBTQI2S+ People I was delighted to read of the actions of a Carmelite nun, Sr. Monica Astorga, in Argentina who did the Godly thing of opening up a housing complex specifically for transgender women. I wasn’t the only one who was delighted of this news. Last week, Pope Francis responded to an email from Sr. Monica, informing him of her latest project—the establishment of this housing for transgender women in Argentina, and the Pope, in a handwritten message, told ...
Greater NW Pride: Cancel Culture, Transgender Lives, and the Church
8/20/2020
Cancel Culture, Transgender Lives, and the Church One of the popular phrases today in modern culture is “cancel culture.” What is cancel culture? It refers to, “the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming” (dictionary.com). In the current politics of this land, there...
Greater NW Pride: Performative Allyship and LGBTQI+ People in the Church
8/10/2020
Performative Allyship and LGBTQI+ People in the Church This is kind of one of the “terms” or “new words” for 2020: performative allyship. Definition and description of performative allyship: First, allies are helpful. An ally is someone from a non-marginalized group who uses one’s privilege to advocate for a marginalized group. Being an ally is a good thing. In the LGBTQ+ community we welcome and appreciate our non-LGBTQ+ allies. Second, performative allyship is problematic. It is ...
Inspiring Generosity
8/5/2020
Even During a Pandemic: Financial Generosity and Volunteering are Intertwined
Greater NW Pride: Being a Person of Faith, Queer, and Civic Minded
8/4/2020
Being a Person of Faith, Queer, and Civic Minded I am part of the Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance (PICR) group. There are around 100 + of us. Feel free to join us. The group started to come together in Portland during the Black Lives Matter protests that started soon after the death of George Floyd in May 25, 2020. There are several friends in the movement who are clergy and queer who were noticing how some in the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) were especially brutal to people ...
Greater NW Pride: They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love
7/30/2020
They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love One of my favorite storytellers is the Seattle-based sex-columnist Dan Savage, with his Savage Lovecolumn that appears in various free weekly publications, like the Portland Mercury. In an interview on the website salon.com, Amanda Marcotte talked with Dan Savage about the power of stories in an article, "Dan Savage Knows a Great Sex Story When He Hears It." Savage told her that “people like to hear other people’s stories. Particularly other ...
Greater NW Pride: Happy Non-Binary Gender People Day!
7/15/2020
Happy Non-Binary Gender People Day! Actually, Non-Binary Gender People Day was yesterday, July 14, 2020, which is the day I began working on this blog posting. Like so many other birthdays and anniversaries in life, I am belated in this celebration. Nevertheless: Happy Non-Binary Gender People Day! In a world of binary (false) choices—male and female, Republicans and Democrats, pink or blue, us and them—breaking through the façade that there are only two choices, there are those who are ...
Greater NW Pride: Hate Crimes, LGBTQ2S+* People, and the Church
7/7/2020
Hate Crimes, LGBTQ2S+* People, and the Church On June 29, 2020, Christian Council, an Oklahoma City realtor, was beaten up and left unconscious by two people, Amery Dickerson and Bennett Stone, who used anti-gay slurs as they hit him in the head. I have seen pictures of Christian’s beaten face on several of the LGBTQ+ sites that I go to daily, e.g., Towleroad.com, Queerty.com, and Advocate.com. Christian and a friend arrived at his home in an apartment complex. As they tried to park the...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moments: Marriage Equality Anniversary
6/28/2020
Pride Month Moments: Marriage Equality 5th Anniversary! I begin with a note of personal privilege: Christian and I are getting ready to get married in the summer of 2021. We figured out the place we plan to get married in Portland. It will be an outdoor, garden wedding, so probably July. We are praying to God that the pandemic will be over by then. The two witnesses have said yes, along with an officiant or two. A list of who we would like to invite grows daily. There’s family, and ...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moments: Black Transgender Lives Matter and Tony McDade
6/23/2020
Pride Month Moments: Black Transgender Lives Matter and Tony McDade A few weeks ago, I posted about the story of Stonewall Inn and Marsha Johnson, a transgender woman of color who is seen as one of the lead figures in the Stonewall Inn riot that began the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Actually, there were two transgender women of color: Marsha Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, who, on June 28, 1969, fought back against police harassment, sparking a week of rioting. And in the last few weeks, another...