Bobservations

This story makes me beam …

At the start of this New year, the Reverend Lawrence Richardson officially became the lead pastor at Linden Hills United Church of Christ in Minneapolis.

Nice, but he also became the first black transgender cleric in the state's history, and it was a long road for Richardson who struggled with poverty, homelessness and divorced parents battling addiction:

“In high school, I knew that I wasn't gay or straight, but I didn't have a word for it, [but] it was directly in opposition to the religious system that I inherited from my grandmother, so she was not as pleased with that identity. To be queer, to be black, to be trans, and to be homeless, there's not a lot of opportunities for people like that."

This year, after 26 years, the Reverend Eliot Howard stepped down, and after watching Richardson shine for the last five years, Howard decided Richardson was the man to lead the congregation.

You know, there are times when you feel the world is against you, that you have a hard road to walk, and then you hear these kinds of stories and, you just beam.

It does, and can, get better.

Here’s a story I heard on NPR over the weekend about Tim Gunn’s father and Vivian Vance.

The elder Gunn worked for the FBI and was, in fact, J. Edgar Hoover’s biographer with an office just down the hall. One day wee Tim Gunn and his younger sister were visiting their father, and he asked if they’d like to meet Vivian Vance, from TVs I Love Lucy. Vance was meeting with Hoover in his office so the two Gun offspring went in to meet her. They had a lovely chat and were then whisked away.

Years later, Tim Gunn, now of Project Runway, was writing a book and he included the Vance story. As the editors began fact-checking his Vivian Vance story, they found no proof that the actress had ever been to the FBI headquarters, or met Hoover. The editors contacted several writers who’d written biographies of Vance, and they also had no knowledge of Vance ever meeting Hoover.

Now, y’all know what that means …Hoover in a dress; or, as Gunn tells it:

“She was in a rather nice house dress.”

Except she was never there.

Typical government double-speak. After _____ ordered the murder of General Soleimani on Iranian sole, lapdog Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo says the murder made the US safe.

Even while they ordered Americans out of the area and sent in more troops and warships.

Doesn’t sound safe to me, it sounds, again, like this administration is out of control.

In a rare interview with CNN, The Notorious RBG, AKA Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the 86-year-old four-time cancer survivor has resumed an active role in oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

It was just a year ago that RBG was recovering from lung cancer surgery and missed several weeks at the court. She finished out the term in June. Soon after, she discovered a cancerous tumor on her pancreas, which was treated in August, and then once again resumed her active schedule. She told CNN:

“I’m cancer free. That’s good.”

Don’t t**k with RBG. She’s back.

That twice-divorced adulterer who has told thousands of lies while in office, claimed Democrat Pete Buttigieg was “trying to pretend” he’s a Christian to stir up votes. _____ made the remarks while speaking conservative evangelical “Christians” who have questioned Buttigieg’s faith because he is a married gay man.

Pete, who has zero fucks to give about the #IMPOTUS, responded:

“I’m pretty sure I’ve been a believer longer than he’s been a Republican.”

Perfect response but let’s not forget the bigger picture: _____ is running on the idea that Pete Buttigieg, because he’s gay, is “less than,” and we are not taking that shit any more.

Especially from a pussy groping, porn star fucking rapist.

_____’s bitch … I kid … one of _____’s bitches, Nikki Haley says only Democrats care that the United States murdered an Iranian general on Iranian soil.

No, Nikki, people who don’t like murderers care; people that don’t like the idea that a draft dodger is pushing us toward war care; people who are sick of sycophants and ass-kissers and lapdogs and goose-steppers letting this traitor get away with literal murder because they don’t want to get on his bad side care.

Fuck off.

I featured Luke Evans before when a tall hunk of beefy gay man walks out of the water like this, it bears repeating:

Woof.

The Reverend Gail Marriner Continues Her Fight For Marriage Equality

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Unitarian Universalist Church—which has found itself involved in both the Civil Rights movement and the feminist movement—is at the forefront in the fight for marriage equality.

And they have been since 1984.

Yeah, they were way ahead of the game. And their pro-equality stance got a boost back in 2011, when the Reverend Gail Marriner took over as head of the congregation.

“[Marriage equality] is a big issue within our church; we’re just way ahead of the curve. I've been in ministry 18 years and the full time that I’ve been in ministry, my association has been doing rites of passage for gay and lesbian peoples and transgender and bisexual folks when they have wanted to marry.”—Gail Marriner

And while she loved performing those ceremonies, calling them “wonderful and joyful,” she wasn’t keen on the idea that they were not only illegal, but they couldn’t use the word ‘marriage.’ So, Marriner decided to stop performing marriage ceremonies for anyone in her flock until she could perform them for everyone in her flock.

“The place that I get tangled, in this point in time, is that as a Unitarian Universalist minister, when I sign a marriage license for a mixed-sex couple, I give them access to 1,400 benefits under the law. I have not signed a single marriage certificate since I’ve been here, and I won’t—until I can do that for any couple in my congregation that chooses to marry.”—Gail Marriner

She, instead, refers couples who wish to marry to other local UU clergy; and for couples within her own congregation, they get an explanation from Marriner as to why she won’t validate their marriages.

“They’ve been willing to go along. It’s not that they can’t get married; it’s a statement of conscience.”—Gail Marriner

And, some day, maybe someday soon, Marriner will stop having those long sit-downs with members of her congregation, and she might also stop referring other couples to other churches for their weddings. See, last month, the New Mexico House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee approved House Joint Resolution 3, which would allow voters to weigh in on the issue of same-sex marriage on the 2014 election cycle. The proposal must first clear two other committees before it reaches the 70-member House for a vote.

Until then, Marriner remains firm in her marriage stance, saying something I’ve always said, that God is love, and adding that “the inherent worth and dignity of every person is a result of being created in God’s likeness.”

“My hope is that I will be able to act on behalf of the state of New Mexico and sign those marriage licenses for any couple in my congregation who wishes to formally proclaim that they want to be married and share their lives together.”—Gail Marriner

My hope is that more and more members of the clergy, and more and more Americans, begin to understand that it’s just love, it’s the desire to make that commitment, out loud and in public, it’s just a desire to have the world know that we matter, that we want the same things as other folks. We want our love acknowledged, celebrated and legalized like it has been for straight people for eons.

source

And Then There Were Two

Back in April, I posted about the Douglass Boulevard Christian Church, in Louisville, Kentucky, and how they were no longer sign marriage licenses for heterosexual couples when homosexuals couples are denied those same rights. See post HERE.

Well, it looks like another Louisville church is following suit.

The Reverend Dawn Cooley of First Unitarian Church in Old Louisville announced on her blog that, while she would continue to perform religious marriage ceremonies for both straight and gay couples, she would no longer perform the civil function of signing marriage licenses on behalf of the state, until same-sex marriages are legal in Kentucky.

And her congregation stood right by her side, asking her to refrain from signing marriage licenses "until such time as Kentucky ceases to discriminate against same sex couples with respect to civil marriage.”

Cooley says that heterosexual couples can choose to have their marriage license signed by a justice of the peace, or they could "choose not to have their licenses signed, and stand with gay & lesbian couples and not participate in civil marriage until it is a civil right."

You know, just when I grow tired of all those religious institutions, and I'm talking to you, Catholics, and Baptists, that would deny services to everyone rather than offer services to gay men and women, someone like the Reverend Dawn Cooley comes along and makes me see that not all religions spout their love rhetoric while practicing, tolerating, and endorsing hate.

Hats off to the Reverend Cooley, the First Unitarian Church in Old Louisville, the Douglass Boulevard Christian Church and its ministers, and the city of Louisville, for proving that god is love.

First Unitarian Church in Old Louisville Won't Sign Marriage Licenses

Standing On The Side Of Love

“Valentine’s Day is about more than romance and chocolates. It’s about the transforming power of love in our lives. And so we are re-imagining a Valentine’s Day when gay couples can be open about their romances and commitments, and even marry in Maryland.”

So says The Reverend Diane Teichert of Paint Branch Church in Adelphi, Maryland, who will announce in her sermon this Sunday, Valentine's Day, that she will stop signing Maryland marriage certificates until they’re available to same-sex couples. Her declaration is part of the interfaith Standing on the Side of Love campaign, which promotes “respect for the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”

Excellent news, Reverend Teichert. Keep preachin'.

For more information on Standing on the Side of Love, check out their website HERE