Hey Everybody!

[crm3]

Hey everybody,

I'm Cait. I am a straight female with a great deal of people who are very dear to me including my best friend, father, and minister who are gay. I live in Houston as a college student from mid-August to mid-May and NJ for the rest of the year. I feel very called to spread tolerance and love within and beyond the LGBT community in hopes of enacting understanding and change. As a Mennonite, the non-violent basis of this group also appeals to me. I hope to meet a lot of new people in this group and to help bring about equality and an end to oppression and discrimination. Thanks for reading!!! I'd love to get to know you.

[u-dog]

Allies are always welcome here! Just out of curiousity. Are your best friend, your father, and your minister all the same person? or different people? I'm a gay dad and pastor and am about 2 weeks away from disclosing to my children. I would be interested in hearing what that was like from your side of the equation.

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by crm3

Hey everybody,

I'm Cait. I am a straight female with a great deal of people who are very dear to me including my best friend, father, and minister who are gay. I live in Houston as a college student from mid-August to mid-May and NJ for the rest of the year. I feel very called to spread tolerance and love within and beyond the LGBT community in hopes of enacting understanding and change. .

Howdy and welcome! I am originally from NJ. Moved to Houston for school and stayed there for 7 years (but during school I always did the commute to spend summers in NJ.) So let's do that "small world" thing and I'll ask where in New Jersey you're from (I lived in central NJ in a town outside of Princeton), and what school you're going to in TX.

Glad you're here.

[kara speltz]

Originally Posted by crm3

Hey everybody,

I'm Cait. I am a straight female with a great deal of people who are very dear to me including my best friend, father, and minister who are gay. I live in Houston as a college student from mid-August to mid-May and NJ for the rest of the year. I feel very called to spread tolerance and love within and beyond the LGBT community in hopes of enacting understanding and change. As a Mennonite, the non-violent basis of this group also appeals to me. I hope to meet a lot of new people in this group and to help bring about equality and an end to oppression and discrimination. Thanks for reading!!! I'd love to get to know you.

Hi Cait and welcome. I've only, in the last couple of years, gotten to know any Mennonites thru the work of the Christian Peace Fellowship. I traveled to Iraq with three of them and found them to be deeply committed to nonviolence. I had expected they might not be supportive of LGBTs and was really surprised when the minister told me he was going to be performing a wedding for a lesbian couple when he returned from our trip. The young Mennonite couple who traveled with us also ended up being very supportive.

It's good to have you here.

kara

[crm3]

Originally Posted by u-dog

Allies are always welcome here! Just out of curiousity. Are your best friend, your father, and your minister all the same person? or different people? I'm a gay dad and pastor and am about 2 weeks away from disclosing to my children. I would be interested in hearing what that was like from your side of the equation.

No they're all differnt people. My dad came out to my mom and the family when I was in fourth grade. It wasn't that difficult for me because I was raised in an open-minded family and I was at the age where I was still developing ym world view. my sisters were older and had a harder time but more becasue they felt he betrayed my mom than because he was gay. Overall, I just feel proud of him for finally being brave enough to be himself!!!!

[crm3]

Originally Posted by kara speltz

Hi Cait and welcome. I've only, in the last couple of years, gotten to know any Mennonites thru the work of the Christian Peace Fellowship. I traveled to Iraq with three of them and found them to be deeply committed to nonviolence. I had expected they might not be supportive of LGBTs and was really surprised when the minister told me he was going to be performing a wedding for a lesbian couple when he returned from our trip. The young Mennonite couple who traveled with us also ended up being very supportive.

It's good to have you here.

kara

Yeah, it varies a lot, and the comittemnt to non-violence is a really special cause to me. But my church is really open. We even have a gay pastor who's in the process of coming out to the congregation. So far he's gotten a lot of support.

[crm3]

Originally Posted by Zerbie

Howdy and welcome! I am originally from NJ. Moved to Houston for school and stayed there for 7 years (but during school I always did the commute to spend summers in NJ.) So let's do that "small world" thing and I'll ask where in New Jersey you're from (I lived in central NJ in a town outside of Princeton), and what school you're going to in TX.

Glad you're here.

I'm from Northwestern NJ right near PA and I go to Rice University in Houston TX. It's really wondeful and a lot more open than I would have expected.

[Zerbie]

I went to Rice. Got my master's there in '99. Really loved it there - beautiful campus! I loved hanging around the museum district, the Rice Village (what's the name of that tapas bar? I keep trying to remember.)
Best yoga studio ever is in Houston - moved over into Montrose now, used to be right on Bolsover. I still miss a lot of things about living in Houston - I don't really get along too well in the desert.

I went to Rice back when the old grad house was still standing. Actually lived in it for a while - it should have been condemned! (shudder)

So do you live on campus? What's your major?

[crm3]

The tapas place is Mi Luna and it is the best food ever!!! I live on campus in Brown College and my major is English and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. I love it. Rice is amazing!!!

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by crm3

The tapas place is Mi Luna and it is the best food ever!!! I live on campus in Brown College and my major is English and the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. I love it. Rice is amazing!!!

YES!! I've been trying to think of that name for about a month now!

Thank you. Yeah, it really is great food. I used to really like some dessert they made, a white tulip, or something.

Interesting academic focus - one I visited from time to time, but my main thing being classical music. One of my music profs there wrote a book on gender and the musical canon - I used it as a text in two different classes about 10 years apart (different schools, seems I'm always in school). Anyway, loved Rice. I went there for a masters so didn't get to know the various colleges. My ex-roommate would know them, he went to Rice for undergrad right thru his PhD. Yayyyy, Rice.

[Sherrie Z]

Hello Cait!

Welcome! How nice to hear from a supportive Mennonite! I went to Fresno Pacific ... which I'm guessing you may have heard of since it is a Mennonite school ... when I was there it was still Fresno Pacific College, and now it is Fresno Pacific University ... I wasn't raised Mennonite but I really appreciated their commitment to nonviolence and various social issues, and I did two years of VS in Chicago. These days I identify as Quaker (in my case, liberal theology, traditional format).

The Soulforce Equality Riders visited my alma mater this year ... I was so glad to hear that they would be going there ... : )

I'm also an ally and I also love classical music ... let's talk some more, OK?

Hugs & Love,

Sherrie Z

[BrentRichards]

Welcome to Soulforce ... from the heart of Mennonite country, Lancaster County, PA! Not the most progressive or affirming segment of the Mennonite world, of course, but ... we also have the "old order" folk here, which is a whole different game!

[crm3]

Originally Posted by Sherrie Z

Hello Cait!

Welcome! How nice to hear from a supportive Mennonite! I went to Fresno Pacific ... which I'm guessing you may have heard of since it is a Mennonite school ... when I was there it was still Fresno Pacific College, and now it is Fresno Pacific University ... I wasn't raised Mennonite but I really appreciated their commitment to nonviolence and various social issues, and I did two years of VS in Chicago. These days I identify as Quaker (in my case, liberal theology, traditional format).

The Soulforce Equality Riders visited my alma mater this year ... I was so glad to hear that they would be going there ... : )

I'm also an ally and I also love classical music ... let's talk some more, OK?

Hugs & Love,

Sherrie Z

I'm actually not familiar with that colleg, but it sounds like yo hadf a really good experience ther. My church is very non-traditionally Mennonite. None of the people were raised Mennonite and we're really opena and flexible. I was really interested in the Quaker faith, i heard its very inclusive of te LGBT community which is super important to me.

Nice to meet you,
Cait

[crm3]

Originally Posted by BrentRichards

Welcome to Soulforce ... from the heart of Mennonite country, Lancaster County, PA! Not the most progressive or affirming segment of the Mennonite world, of course, but ... we also have the "old order" folk here, which is a whole different game!

Hey Brent,
Yeah, I'll bet Lancaster is basically the opposite of progressive. Its amazing how varying different communties of the same religion can be. It's been nice talkin to you, hope to be doing more of that in the future .

[Dash]

Well, howdy!

Mennonite by heritage here...ninth generation, or so. Grew up outside of Meno, Oklahoma...for many years home to the "parochial" school for Mennonites in Oklahoma. Western District Conference affiliated.
Funny thing is, I don't know how many generations I'd have to look back to find family that actually lived a Mennonite creed. It was so diluted. I would say the Church I grew up in was mostly notable for the heritage part rather than the spiritual aspects. Certainly there was absolutely no focus or emphasis on nonviolence or other things that I associate with a true Mennonite faith. In fact, the pastor that had the most impact on me as I was growing up was an ex-Air Force pilot, and we had a number of Air Force people from Vance Air Force Base in our Church. It was pretty much indistinguishable from any other local community or Southern Baptist Church.

The Church is completely defunct now. I had long since stopped going, but they had a series of bad pastors...uneducated...fundamentalist...very judgemental...totally ripped it apart. The building--built in the mid-twentieth century was sold. A number of the people, including my dear parents attend a very large Baptist Church in Enid.

Anyway...I kinda feel like the nonviolence is still in my genes. When I began to study Gandhi this year, the effect was immediately vivifying. It is like finding something lost by my ancestors...something mine by right of inheritance and parentage.

So there you go. That's my long-winded hello. I'm glad to meet a Mennonite here. I'm not really one, but I'm glad you are.

[crm3]

Nice to meet you too! It's more about he community and the people than anything else in any congregation.

[Sherrie Z]

Originally Posted by crm3

I'm actually not familiar with that colleg, but it sounds like yo hadf a really good experience ther. My church is very non-traditionally Mennonite. None of the people were raised Mennonite and we're really opena and flexible. I was really interested in the Quaker faith, i heard its very inclusive of te LGBT community which is super important to me.

Nice to meet you,
Cait

Thanks Cait ... nice to meet you too ... I appreciate that you've called this meeting of the peace churches here, LOL ... : )

FPU (mentioned above) is a Mennonite Brethren school, just for the record. The school is much larger now than when I was there, with a lower percentage now of Mennonite students overall, but it is still officially a Mennonite school.

There are many kinds of Quakers, but generally speaking, most Quaker groups tend to be progressive on many social issues.

I hope to see you around on the forum ... : )

Hugs,

Sherrie Z

[BruceChris]

It seems that you are meeting a lot of us, just in your intro posting. I would never have guessed that we had so many Mennonites, or people with Mennonite connections here. In my own way, I have also been studying Women, Gender, and Sexuality for most of my life. Mostly, as a way to learn more about me, I guess.

Come check out our other forums, there's all kindsa interesting stuff going on.

Peace and Love, Bruce Chris