The following message was sent to Rev. Dr. Cindi Love, our executive director, after her talk with Joe Dallas at the National Religious Broadcasters’ Convention. We post it here with the author’s permission.

dear cindi

everything you said about love was just as it was written in scripture. dallas represents a group of believers who think we we still have a relationship to god through regulation as in deut 28. under the new covenant our relationship to god is directly to god, to the spirit that lives in each believer. it is his spirit in us that says not only what the law is, but also what it says. if dallas was as concerned with scripture as he said he was, he would know that according to romans, believers are led by the spirit of god. and that the law is now to make us believers “conscious” of not GODLOVING(love one another as i have loved you) as directed by the 2nd commandment (love neighbor), the love of the 2nd commandment not only being the summation of all new covenant law, but also the standard of the new covenant as well,…………….. and not the interpretation law as dallas attempts to make the case.

our lives show that our being gay not only does not come against this love, but it is thru our living gay that we live out this love, in the same way as heterosexuals believers do in their lives.

how can that which is apart from righteousness(christ’s love) determine what righteousness is. there are a million reasons for following the law and not one of them of love. that is why we receive no righteousness by following it.

dallas may say he is concerned about scripture, but his reasoning does not embrace the principles of the new covenant as expressed in scripture.

the truth is, that christendom would in any way say that being gay is a sin, shows that christendom is still struggling to fully embrace the new covenant of christ.

your brother in christ, john roberts

February 11, 2011

Pastor Lou Engle
International House of Prayer/The Call

Dear Mr. Engle,

We at Soulforce and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) are saddened and distraught at the plight of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans. The social climate in Uganda has become so toxic that LGBT people are not safe in their homes or on the street. And, we believe that the untruths and misrepresentations that you and other U.S. based Christian evangelical leaders continue to proclaim regarding the goodness and wholeness of LGBT people is at the root of this climate of fear and violence. These misrepresentations and untruths must stop now.

The safety of LGBT people, as well as their friends and their families, has been put at risk because of the proposed “anti-homosexual bill.” You have claimed to oppose this bill, but you have not taken a clear and public position in Uganda where your opposition could make a difference.  Instead, after fueling the flames of anti-LGBT sentiments in Uganda, you have stood beside the bill’s supporters and referred to their work as righteous. You cannot preach that  “homosexuals have demons” or say to LGBT people, “let the Bible kill you?” and then ignore the results of speaking such words. Words have power.  And, your words create fear and hatred toward LGBT people.  This fear and hatred puts the lives of LGBT people at risk and perpetuates a climate of terror and violence.

The purpose of this letter is to introduce ourselves and let you know that it is our intention to continue to pursue dialog with you until you stop your vitriolic rhetoric against LGBT people.  We ask you to formally renounce the “anti-homosexuality bill” in Uganda. We ask you to call on MP David Bahati, MP James Nsaba Buturo and Pastor Julius Oyet to cease and desist their persecution of LGBT people. And, we ask you to call for a fair and impartial investigation into the murder of David Kato.   Informed by the principles of nonviolence as demonstrated by Mohandas Gandhi and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we at Soulforce and HRC will not give up on our call to end this outrage.

As a beginning point in this dialog, members of a Soulforce and HRC delegation will be traveling to Kansas City on Sunday, February 20^th to meet with you and to deliver a petition signed by over 36,000 Americans who are deeply saddened by the murder of human rights defender, David Kato, and horrified by the role U.S. religious leaders have played in perpetuating a climate of misunderstanding and violence against LGBT people.  Our intent is to work with you in an honest effort to find what Gandhi called “the third way,” a way that recognizes the dangers of continuing on the current path. As people of faith, we respect your profound commitment to prayer and to making the world a better place, yet we cannot stand by while your rhetoric wreaks havoc on an entire community of people.

Member of our delegation would welcome the opportunity to worship in your congregation on Sunday and we will be in respectful vigil outside the IHOP facilities on East Red Bridge Road on Sunday morning throughout services – ready, willing, and able to join you in this dialog toward truth. Please advise us whether you will welcome us into this dialog and where and when you would like to meet on Feb. 20th. You may direct your response to Rev. Dr. Cindi Love’s email (cindi@soulforce.org) or  by phone at 972 358 5907. We look forward to our time together.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dr. Cindi Love
Soulforce, Inc.
Executive Director
Human Rights Campaign Religion Council Member

Dr. Sharon Groves
Acting  Director,
Religion and Faith Program
Human Rights Campaign

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to attend the Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s annual conference: Creating Change. This conference is a series of workshops, day long institutes, and other educational events designed to empower Queer* activists by strengthening our core values while encouraging growth, gain, and unique networking opportunities. With an expanding emphasis on intersectional justice, comprehensive education on trans identities and even sexual empowerment, Creating Change is an incredible opportunity to be an even better activist.

This was my first Creating Change, and I spent much of my time at the Soulforce table, telling people about the next Equality Ride and the other great things we do. I spoke to hundreds of people throughout the week, handed out tons of flyers and even gave out a bunch of prizes. In addition to the general festivities, there were some activities that reminded me of how important the work is that we do here at Soulforce.

During the final full day of Creating Change, another conference was going on at the convention center next door and was a youth event hosted by a very fundamentalist group of “Christians”. Some of the youth had been instructed by their leaders to proselytize to folks at Creating Change and were encouraged to pray over us, invite us to “accept Christ”, and even suggested laying their hands on us! Here, a whole convention of youth are being told that our beautiful Queer identities are not wonderful, integral parts of our spirits which should be celebrated, but instead should be prayed for.

This kind of spiritual violence is exactly what we aim to dismantle in programs like the Equality Ride and in the other denominational actions Soulforce has participated in since our inception in 1999. Unfortunately, this kind of event is all too common and although I am an advocate for free speech and freedom of religion, I don’t believe in hate speech, homophobia, queerphobia, transphobia, and blatant spiritual violence as was exemplified by this group, and many of the other conservative “Christian” groups out there. This is the same language and intent that has kept me closeted for the first 24 years of my life and, more importantly, the force that encourages Queer people to take our own lives. This is not an issue of speech for me, but instead an issue of hate. When this kind of spiritual violence is perpetuated, people are killed, communities are ripped apart, and countless others are living in silence, fear, and shame.

When we first caught wind of this conservative Christian group and their plans to proselytize, I reached out to the Equality Riders, other Soulforce participants, and others who were attending Creating Change. Luckily, these individuals have been trained in the principles of non-violent resistance and I knew we would be able to not only protect the other Creating Change attendees but hopefully have transformative experiences as well. At the request of the program staff at Creating Change, we were able to assist in escorting folks from the conference to their cars and hotels, acting as buffers between members of the Queer communities and these misguided conference goers.

It is sad that such a buffer is still so needed in 2011, but I am grateful that Soulforce is training and empowering people in the principles of non-violence and truth. Many of the volunteers who helped us at Creating Change were former Equality Riders and it was in this interaction I was able to really feel the presence of their training and dedication.

As we gear up to launch our next Equality Ride in the spring of 2012, events like this one remind me how important programs like the Equality Ride truly are.

The success of the Equality Ride depends on you! We hope that you are willing to continue your generous support of this and the other programs that Soulforce offers. Please check out www.equalityride.com to find ways to get involved, and as always, we need and appreciate your financial support. Donate today! Thank you!

To support the Equality Ride, please make a contribution to the Equality Ride Fund. You can also signup to give monthly which will help ensure we can continue to pursue justice for queer people as long as necessary.

*In the context of this article and the viewpoints of the author, the term Queer is used to describe a broad and diverse set of identities. These identities can consist of, but are not limited to: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Pansexual, Intersex, Genderqueer, Gender Non Conforming, and Allied individuals.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been researching off and on a right wing evangelical group that has very successfully kept its cover for the most part. When I first discovered them, even my friend Mel White, who is considered an expert of anti-gay groups wasn’t familiar with them. I recall sending him the information I’d uncovered and asked him if he were familiar with them and he said he wasn’t. The Group is known as “The Family.” Since then, there have been a number of articles written about them, but it always seemed to me that they were much more powerful than anyone suspected.

So when gay rights activist David Kato, was beaten to death in his own home in Uganda, it was “The Family,” that I blamed and wanted to focus my anger and outrage toward. As Soulforce staff started to research in depth, their position on the Uganda anti-gay law, it began to look like perhaps they weren’t the core people promoting this draconian law. Now here’s my “aha moment.”

I can’t begin to express my disappointment when it turned out that they had publicly opposed the law. First reaction – it’s a lie! When we dig deeper we’ll find out the truth. Several days passed, I stewed and stewed on my disappointment. I really wanted to believe they were the ones behind it. I just couldn’t quite let go of the feelings of disappointment. I needed to believe that they were the bad guys.

And then, perhaps for the first time, I comprehended how “they,” the fundies needed us to be the bad guys. Franciscan Fr. Richard Rohr for years has said that LGBTs became the focus of the fundamentalists as communism began to fall. They needed a new bad guy. But what I understood at that moment was, the role scapegoating plays for the vast majority of human beings. We need someone to blame. I suspect part of that need is that the “bad guys” can become our focus rather than working to change things. It fills a function for us.

Ultimately, as I began to process all these feelings, I realized how wise Gandhi was, when he said, “we must become the change we seek.” Because, it is only when we have such “ahah moments,” that we can feel compassion for our advesary, acknowledge them as human beings, and begin a real dialogue as opposed to a war with them.

I’ve often said that nonviolence isn’t for sissies. It’s really hard, hard work and it demands constant re-educating of ourselves, because we are daily given large doses of violence as the only workable answer. And this new “ahah moment,” is still giving me uneasiness as I process it. It’s so much easier to find a scapegoat to blame.

The following is a transcript of a speech Haven Herrin gave at the women’s pre-conference during the 25th World Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association in December 2010.

My queer community can feel a lot like a linguistic playground. All the words and turns of phrase that we use to talk about ourselves are, in some sense, illusory, but they also point to the nuances of communities built out of ever-more complex and self-determined identities. It is a beautiful freedom to witness.

Today I want to talk about how language in part creates communities with its terroir. Certain words can locate one geographically, can’t they? I also want to address the tension between infinite possibilities for words and identities and the need for unity and collective struggle.

I will keep my comments to where I come from, the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in Minnesota in the United States. My sense of queer self and the words I use to convey that queer experience are borne out of this particular place. I can’t speak with much detail or honesty to other places and how they grapple with the evolution of language and to what ends people use it.
Some days I am a fag, some days trans, every now and then a high femme, never a woman, always female-bodied, a bit butch and nearly always genderqueer. I am a changeling but it is more an internal shifting than external changes for you to see. The Twin Cities is where I first began to really grow into my queer self. Specific places, ideas, languages, and communities of people have supported me there in becoming my whole self.

Even keeping my comments to the Twin Cities, I will get dangerously close to generalizations that obscure more than they reveal. It is difficult enough to even talk about my individual experience, let alone another human’s. But I will try to travel with you from the very personal to thoughts about how we can work to create solidarity, community and mutually supported liberation.

Me. In addition to my queer identities, I am 28 years old. I am white. I am usually able-bodied. I have always had more than enough resources. My language, my passport, my education and my familiarity with Christian culture have generally met with acceptance in the mainstream culture of the United States. In short, I carry much privilege where I live.

My community has helped me see this and has also challenged me to articulate where my politics and my way of life do not fit the mainstream model. In fact, this is one of the defining characteristics of the Queer/Trans community in the Twin Cities, to think and talk about identity from many angles all at once, support self-determination and deep reflection, and examine how identities are working in concert or creating dissonance vis a vis mainstream culture.

For example, I get incredible support around my gender identity. It’s common in my community – this Queer/Trans community – to ask, “What is the gender pronoun you would like me to use for you?” There are a lot of options: he, she, ze, they, none at all and more. I use “they” and “them,” and it feels pretty amazing to have friends who will honor that, English grammar rules be damned. I use it because it reflects the multiplicity I feel in my gender expression.

My chosen community challenges and cares for me. We share a lot of dinners as we organize for social change…topics of dinner conversation almost always touch on race politics, poverty, capitalism, patriarchy, ableism and classism in some way. We call each other out when needed, and it always feels like there is space to change and grow ourselves. We see each other as people with multiple, evolving identities. We are not singly defined boy our gender or sexuality, rather we are bound by principles…and this is how I have learned what solidarity can look like.

We do not live within singular identities, and our community’s struggle is not single-issue. I am learning how to hold space in a conversation for the complex reality that white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy all have something to say about gender and sexuality – and vice versa. I am trying to juggle all of it while not privileging some forms of oppression over others.

There are many communities in the Twin Cities that contain LGBTQI-identified people of course. Not all people in the Queer/Trans community identify as queer or trans per se. Many would identify as gay, for example. I will share a story to characterize the difference between the Queer/Trans group and the other main sub-culture, the Gay and Lesbian community. The organization that hosts the Pride Festival that’s been taking place for 20 years invited people in the Twin Cities to give their feedback on the festival and its future. I decided to attend because the Pride Festival is actually not a place I enjoy. I don’t feel it reflects my priorities: it is expensive, it has a lot of vendors who seem to want the “gay dollar” more than our liberation, and it is overwhelmingly white and male.

Around the same time of this meeting, I had been doing some work with my [queer] friends to unionize a chain of sandwich shops. It would have been the first labor union in a fast food restaurant in the United States. Their demands included an end to racism, transphobia and homophobia in the workplace and better pay.

So I went to this meeting with the Pride organization, and for lunch we had the sandwiches from the same business I was helping to unionize. It was a rough meeting besides: no one asked my gender pronoun and they referred to me as “she” even after I told them I prefer “they.” That to me, right there, says that self-determination will likely not be respected in this space.

The leaders of the meeting asked us, essentially, why we think Pride tends to be very white and solidly middle class in what is a diverse city. I asked them how they determine what is and what is not a “queer issue.” Looking at my activism, you could determine that I see fighting racism and workers’ rights as queer issues. But there we were, eating the sandwiches that pay the people who perpetuate the unhealthy workplaces my [queer] friends go to 5 days a week.

I share this story as a way of describing the dividing line between the Queer/Trans community and the Gay and Lesbian community. The titles themselves are not meaningful, for surely there are people who claim varying identities within any and all kinds of communities. Like the Pride Festival, the Gay and Lesbian community in the Twin Cities trends toward being more white and more middle and upper class. The agenda is more narrowly defined to rights and protections attached specifically and only to sexual orientation gender identity and gender expression, such as marriage equality, being able to serve in the military, and hate crimes laws. These are the priorities, often to the exclusion of the difficulties LGBTQI people experience as a complex product of one’s class and race alongside sexuality and gender. Examples of these more complex LGBTQI issues may include poverty, homelessness, worker’s rights, healthcare, and job access. And the healthcare issue as seen from the context of marriage equality work is very different than the view from a place of poverty, undocumented status, trans identity, or being very young or old.

These latter issues seem to get more care and attention in the Queer/Trans community. I think it comes out of that sense of solidarity among many issues, identities, and social justice movements. All issues are queer issues, more or less, because we are just about everywhere. So when we are willing to have complex conversations about white supremacy and heterosexism and capitalism and ask people, “Hey what pronouns do you use?” we can see people as the multidimensional beings that they are. It becomes harder to fight one kind of oppression without fighting the other. If I am working for the liberation of my community, then I am working against more than just homophobia, am I not?

So if I were to generalize the differences between these two communities, I might say that the Queer/Trans community allows a lot of space for self-determination and bringing the whole self to the work. The Gay and Lesbian communities focuses less on the nuances of identity and more on the agenda that is circumscribed by sexual orientation and, to a lesser extent, gender identity and expression. To be transparent, I am sure there is an unhealthy amount of judgment from both sides about which community is more desirable.

So why do I bring this up? It is not just to point out yet another division and not just to play word games. Living in Minneapolis, I have seen the value in allowing the space for an infinite number of ways to self-identify and having an infinite number of words available to explain our lived experiences in the Queer/Trans community. This encourages identities to come first, then agendas and priorities to flow from that. In the reverse, to set the agenda and then expect identities to get in line…well, what I see is the clear delineation of the center and then the margin when our lives our organized in that way. The people at the margin continue to be the very old, the very young, the differently-abled, the people of color, the trans, the gender non-conforming, and any folks so bold as to uncategorizable.

The Gay and Lesbian community in the Twin Cities seems to put the agenda first, narrowly defined and not based in complex and diverse lived experiences. So, despite its simplification of what the movement’s agenda, I find it fracturing and divisive in the ways it excludes people who don’t fit a mainstream mold or aren’t served by a mainstream agenda. In my own queer activism, I find myself working on housing foreclosure, sandwich shop unions, bathroom and school access and anti-police brutality measures. The other option is to really see the people in our midst first, and then define our direction and agenda by what we, as a collective, care about and why.

I have framed this essay in terms of language and its power, not just in creating it but allowing room for it to evolve and to be heard, because respecting, embracing, and exploring with enthusiasm the maze of words – tomboi, bearded femme, diesel dyke, two spirit, fag, genderqueer, and on and on – seems to be way to invite in everyone to the center, supporting not chaos and fragmentation but unity and diversity.

With the sudden and unexpected death of Paul Egertson on Wednesday afternoon, January 5, 2011, Soulforce lost a powerful and prophetic ally and the LGBTQ Community lost a courageous and committed friend.

Paul was Bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) from 1995 to 2001. He was appointed a member of the Soulforce Board of Trustees in April 2004 and served on our Board for two terms from 2004 to 2010.

“We loved Bishop Paul,” says Dr. Cindi Love, the new Executive Director of Soulforce, “because unlike most church leaders, Protestant and Catholic alike, Paul was not content to talk endlessly about full inclusion for LGBTQ people. He was an activist who risked his career on our behalf.”

Paul Egertson was the first active bishop in the 5.1 million member ELCA to participate in the ordination of a non-celibate gay or lesbian pastor. Paul believed that when dialogue about an unjust law becomes simply another tactic for delaying justice, it’s time to move on to direct action against that unjust law.

In 2001, Bishop Paul led the colorful and deeply moving parade of clergy participating in the ordination of Pastor Anita C. Hill of St.Paul Reformation Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. His courageous and historical act of “ecclesial disobedience” was covered by news media around the world and moved the ELCA one more giant step towards full inclusion. It’s easy to understand why Soulforce adopted Paul as one of our own.

Rather than forcing a long, drawn out confrontation with ELCA leaders, Paul resigned as an ELCA bishop to become a full time volunteer-advocate for full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the Christian church worldwide. For these last six years on the Soulforce board, Paul has provided wisdom and nurture as Soulforce advanced and enlarged its mission to “end religion based oppression.”

“We celebrate the fact that Paul lived to see all Lesbian and Gay clergy granted the rights of ordination at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly in 2009,” says Chuck Phelan, Chairperson of the Soulforce Board of Trustees, “He spent the last nine years of his life working with Soulforce, Lutherans Concerned and other activist organizations for the full inclusion of Gay and Lesbian people who still suffer discrimination at the hands of most other Christian communities, Protestant and Catholic alike. He will be deeply and sorely missed.”

Bishop Paul ended a keynote address advocating full inclusion for LGBTQ people at an ELCA Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 17, 1999, with this prayer: “Almighty and everlasting God, create and make in the Church a new and contrite heart, that lamenting its discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members and clergy, it may receive from the God of all mercy, perfect forgiveness and peace; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The people of Soulforce extend our sincere condolences to Paul’s wife Shirley, his family and many friends, and join with countless LGBTQ people who would say, “Well done, good and faithful friend. We will miss you greatly.”

Dear beloved family,

After spending the better part of my adult life as an advocate, activist, and minister to those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS, today, World AIDS Day remains such an important part of who and what I am. I woke up with a start at 6AM this morning to realize that for the first time in more than 6 years, I am not scheduled to speak, preach, or teach today. There is some healing peace in that and also some grief. AIDS transformed me from a small town fundamentalist 13 year old boy into a prematurely developed activist, shouting down the barriers of power which keep people needlessly oppressed, isolated, and in fear that if anyone discovers their HIV+ status they would lose all.

I was so blessed to have a mother who could accept that I needed a path that was different than the one proscribed by societal norms and when I finally left home just shy of my 16th birthday, I knew that if I wanted to earn my place in this world, I would have to work very, very hard and learn to defend myself against those who told me that I was an abomination and wanted violence to take my life.

I was blessed my amazing lesbian women, who had courageously taken on the mantle of leadership while their friends and loved ones died all around. I learned to trust men slowly and was blessed to share in the death and dying journeys of my own uncle, Dr. Rob Eichberg, countless clients at the Boulder County AIDS Project and so many others.

Some might worry that such intense work for an adolescent was difficult and left a mark on an impressionable young mind. I see it slightly differently. AIDS became a refiner’s fire for me. Each day I grew stronger and more capable and so, so, so much more open-hearted to the struggles of other marginalized individuals and families.

This World AIDS Day, I won’t be speaking or traveling but rather spending it in the company of a few deeply loving and supportive friends, celebrating recovery from a myriad of life challenges, affirming the sanctity of life as we have come to understand it, and most of spreading the love we have so richly been given to others in return. These moments of growth are indispensible.

My mother wrote a piece on her blog and I am including it here, too. She is one of the most amazing human beings, I have EVER, had the pleasure to spiritually walk with.

And I would like to invite you; in whatever ways you connect to the Divine/God/your High Power to join me and millions of others around the world as we pray for compassionate caregivers, cheaper medications, and soon, oh please God, soon, soon, soon, a cure that will bring an end to AIDS.

I love you all and feel so grateful and blessed to have you all in my life.

Love,

Joshua

A participant in numerous Soulforce campaigns, and the current webmaster, Brian Gerald Murphy responds to Alan Chamber’s recent open letter.

Four years ago, health insurance changed my life forever. I was home in late November and after dinner with my parents one night, the discussion shifted to my upcoming graduation from college and my plans. A film student, I intended to pursue production jobs which means no stable health insurance. As I mulled over options with my parents we began talking about YoungLife, an evangelical Christian organization my mom worked for at the time and one with which I’d spent a great deal of time participating and volunteering.  They have excellent health insurance. They also don’t hire LGBTQ people.

The discussion took a turn for the worse and I realized that in the three years since I’d come out, I thought I was being patient, thought I was giving my family space, thought I was being respectful… I realized I was being silent. My parents had not changed because I had not asked them to change.

And then it clicked.

America would not change unless someone asked it to. The world would not change unless someone asked it to.  I could be that person.

I heard of the Equality Ride weeks prior but shrugged it off. Great idea, not my place. That night in November, I knew I needed to be on the bus. I applied, was accepted, and the rest is history. Four years later (has it really been that long?) my parents are wonderful, supportive, and better than I could have even imagined. I’m grateful that I finally asked them to change and thrilled that they did.

Alan Chambers recently made it clear that in 2011 Exodus International will be aggressively asking America for something different. Their plan is to “Simplify. Amplify. Intesify.” And they plan to put youth and students in the center of their target.

Exodus plans to reach young adults through the web, social media, YouTube, and other targeted efforts. They plan to tell them they are sinful, they plan to tell them they can change, they plan to tell them they need to change. They will tell young people that they are broken, sinful, and shameful. Thankfully, Soulforce is already there and we have a different message. We know that LGBTQ people are just as we should be! Soulforce has been making videos, connecting on Facebook, and tweeting for some time now. And we’ve taken our message to the front lines of religious-based oppression. We place value in young adults not as targets for conversion but as leaders, visionaries, and agents of change.

In the four Soulforce Equality Rides, over 100 young adults have visited 75+ anti-LGBT institutions and effected the lives of countless people. Saying that we’ve touched hundreds of thousands of lives is no exaggeration.

Now, more than ever, we need to make sure that we are able to continue cultivating young adults who will counter the lies and misinformation of Exodus International and other faith-based anti-LGBT groups. We need young adults who will resist the harmful actions of these groups and instead model bold, inclusive ways of being.

We need you to be part of this. Join our mailing list, refer a friend, make a donation, buy a book or a DVD for yourself or a friend, sign-up as a monthly donor, send a holiday card. Love wins, justice will prevail, and dedicated individuals like all of us will work together to usher in that new reality.

All for justice,
Brian Gerald Murphy

Brian Gerald Murphy is a filmmaker, media designer, and social activist. Brian participated in the 2007 Soulforce Equality Ride, went on to co-found Sanctuary Collective, and runs a media & design firm. He recently re-joined the Soulforce team as webmaster & web developer. You can connect with him on Twitter or his website.

This guest post is from Unfinished Lives which is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBT hate crime victims.

Out Impact, the Gay Online Magazine, has a feature news article on the work of the Unfinished Lives Project and its Director, Dr. Stephen V. Sprinkle, in its latest issue.  Chrishelle Griffin, a graduate of Spelman College, carried out the interview with Dr. Sprinkle for Out Impact.

In a portion of the Q & A, Griffin asked Dr. Sprinkle what he believes are the most glaring misconceptions about hate crimes against LGBTQ people. “Let me share two with you,” Sprinkle responded..  ”The first is that LGBTQ hate crimes victims were engaging in ‘risky’ behaviors that contributed to their deaths.  This is nothing but an internalized version of the old ‘gay panic defense’ that says we are somehow responsible for the victimization we suffer.  I never met a gay hate crimes survivor who had a death wish,” Sprinkle said.  ”These women and men were simply trying to live what is normal for them.  They were looking for love, seeking companionship, or whatever.  Straight people do the same sorts of things all the time.  We, however, live in a culture that makes our lives vulnerable—all of our lives, for every one of us. That is the message most of us never seem to get. As long as the majority culture permits some of us to be killed and maimed, every one of us is at risk.”

Sprinkle then shared a further misconception that he wishes would be dispelled from the American mind: “Second,” Sprinkle went on to say, “the murders of LGBTQ people are not ‘tragedies.’  There is nothing tragic about murder.  It is an outrage, a capital crime, an attack on the whole human race and the persons of the victims who are targeted, but not a ‘tragedy.’  People don’t get worked up over tragedies.  They experience a catharsis from a tragedy, and then move on.  Hate crime murder is a human horror perpetrated against some members of a group to terrorize the whole group. We must find our anger about this, so that we will act to stop these senseless hate crimes.”

In response to Out Impact’s question, “Who pushes you to be better?” Sprinkle said, “Two groups of people motivate me to be better.  The first group is made up of my students.  I teach theology at Brite Divinity School, and the wonderful interaction I have with students continually pushes me to be better.  The second group of people is made up of the family, friends, and lovers of the LGBTQ hate crimes victims I have met around the nation.  Mothers, sisters, dads, children, co-workers, neighbors, broken hearted lovers: many of them have become “accidental activists,” shoved by circumstance into the glaring light of public advocacy because of the unspeakable horror they endured when hate took away someone dear to them.  These are great Americans, and the notion of their courage keeps me going.”

For the complete interview and a series of photographs illustrating the work of the project, go to:  http://www.outimpact.com/activism/gay-rights/hate-crimes/steve-sprinkle-tackling-hate-crimes-lgbtq-community.

Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBT person to be tenured there.

John D. Powell, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist. He was a staff psychologist at the University of Illinois Counseling Center from 1984-2007. During his 23 years there, he served in several capacities in addition to providing individual and group therapy: Coordinator of Intern Training, Chair of Trauma Response Team, Adjunct Professor in Psychology, and clinical supervisor for many doctoral trainees.

The National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) recently published a letter addressing some misconceptions and misinformation regarding NARTH.  The letter is respectful in its tone and compelling in its content, as long as one holds the same views of homosexuality as NARTH.  Their view is that people who are “dissatisfied with their unwanted homosexual attractions should be given the opportunity to choose their own path and to pursue change if they so desire.”  The implication is that those who discover they are attracted to some individuals of the same sex but are uncomfortable with that attraction are probably not homosexual to begin with, and should therefore have the chance to “receive assistance in pursuing a different identity.”

While this sounds reasonable and respectful, NARTH appears to dismiss the fact that a vast majority of gay and lesbian youth and adults who have grown comfortably into their sexual identity have also experienced periods of dissatisfaction with their unwanted homosexual attractions during the coming out process.  With few exceptions, gay and lesbian college students with whom I have worked described times during which they adamantly did not want to be gay.  It is often a long and arduous emotional and interpersonal journey from initial curiosity and confusion to accepting their own identity.  That journey almost always involves going through periods of profound fear of being gay and a longing that it not be true.  These feelings are particularly intense in the early stages of coming out.  Who would want to be gay or lesbian in a family, church, school, or culture that held such behavior as unacceptable, sinful, perverted, or shameful?  With those messages in their ears, who would not have periods of “dissatisfaction with unwanted homosexual attraction?”

Most gay and lesbian adults in my clinical practice talked about their early awareness of being “different” without really knowing what that difference was.  That difference often had to do with childhood preferences for friends and activities that differed from many of their same-sex peers.  Those differences were later experienced as same-sex attractions even before there was a sexual component to the attraction.  However, most also learned at an early age, through direct and indirect messages, that such differences were unacceptable.  With the fear of being unacceptable, most children and adults are naturally going to experience dissatisfaction with unwanted attractions until they have the opportunity to more fully appreciate and embrace their sexual orientation.  To assume that such dissatisfaction is a cause to change one’s orientation is to maintain a naïve understanding of the development of sexual and gender identity in general, and to ignore the increased complexity of that development for lesbian and gay individuals in particular.

NARTH does state clearly that they do not believe homosexuality is a mental illness; “rather, homosexuality is an adaptation that is distressful for some people.”  According to “The Three Myths About Homosexuality,” another NARTH document, these adaptations appear to be to social and psychological factors such as “early family relationships, sexual seduction, and sense of inadequacy with same-sex peers, with resulting disturbance in gender identity.”  Throughout the website documents, homosexuality is associated with a variety of negative experiences, such as a poor relationship with father, difficulty individuating from mother, a sense of masculine deficit, and a persistent belief of having been different from, and misunderstood by same-sex childhood peers.  In addition, documents state that homosexual clients commonly report early sexual experience with an older, same-sex person, and that gay teens are especially vulnerable to substance abuse and early, high-risk sexual behavior.

While many of these associations may be true, it is a dangerous and potentially damaging thing to make simple associations that one can easily turn on oneself or can use against another.  To the vulnerable teen or the scared parent, it is easy to make causal relationships out of such statements, concluding that the child’s homosexuality may be the cause of, or be caused by these poor relationships.  It might also be concluded from such statements that homosexuality may be the result of confusion caused by same-sex molestation as a child.

Is it not also possible that because the child already feels different and has internalized many messages about those differences being bad or shameful, that the young boy or girl is now insecure and therefore emotionally vulnerable or excessively guarded in those important relationships?  In all likelihood the parents and friends also sense those differences and may well be confused, frightened, or even ashamed of their own feelings or of the child.  Such vulnerability also makes a child a target for the pedophiliac, who seeks out precisely those children whom he or she senses to be most emotionally vulnerable.  Much of the therapy I provided for gay and lesbian clients focused on undoing such associations that left the young adult feeling responsible for the meanness and mindlessness that had been aimed at them throughout their young lives.

NARTH attempts to frame their position for homosexuality in a discussion of what is “normal”.  In one of their documents, “normal” is defined as “that which functions according to its design.”  They give room for those who choose to be homosexual and are content with it, but they dismiss the idea that homosexuality can really be normal and healthy for an individual. If someone suffers because of their homosexuality, they are “failing to function according to design” and should therefore be given the opportunity to overcome their homosexual adaptation. There is clearly more to homosexuality than a chosen adaptation to difficult childhood experiences.  Otherwise we’d see people choosing homosexuality because they have grown tired of being in unhealthy and unsatisfying heterosexual relationships.

This adaptation argument dismisses society’s responsibility to become more informed, more appreciative, and more accepting of the many forms of sexual orientation that individuals do indeed find to be according to their design.  Lesbian and gay individuals would suffer less if they found themselves in a culture and world that accepted many designs.  If that were the case, we would likely discover that the relational difficulties, anxieties, personality disorders, developmental adjustments, and all the other aspects of growing up homosexual would likely be no different than those of heterosexuals, who are doing their own growing and adapting according to their own design.

Soulforce is preparing to challenge NARTH–National Association of Research & Therapy for Homosexuality–on it’s religious and pseudo-scientific claims about homosexuality which harm indiviauls and families and fuel misunderstanding which leads to anti-LGBT sentitment, actions, and public policy, such as California’s Proposition 8.

Help Soulforce challenge anti-gay NARTH today