‘Lifesaver’ Louise farewelled

Thursday, 24 April 2008

Iain Clacher A “very strong Catholic” grandmother credited with saving the lives of “countless” gays and lesbians has been farewelled with a requiem mass in Brisbane on April 14. Janet “Louise” Moesbergen, 74, died peacefully on April 3. Best known as a volunteer coordinator at the Queensland AIDS Council (now QAHC), Louise was also a founding figure and driving force behind Building Bridges, a Catholic group which aimed to reconcile families with their adult gay children. “At the time (late 1990s) there were parish priests openly discriminating against family members as well as gay people themselves,” said Karyn Walsh, coordinator of the Micah Project, which fostered Building Bridges in the late 1990s. “There were hundreds of parents or siblings or even partners whose relationships ended because of sexuality issues, and I think a lot of people were able to come to closure when they had someone saying the church’s teachings were not necessarily the truth,” Walsh said. Moesbergen also helped gay people better understand their straight families, according to her friend and former QuAC colleague David Rowley. “Without fail she turned up to every volunteer induction at QuAC and talked on behalf of parents with gay children,” Rowley said. “I think she changed a lot of people’s attitudes, even the attitudes of LGBTs towards their parents. She gave a new perspective on what it’s like to be gay in a straight family.” Rowley told Queensland Pride that Moesbergen first volunteered at QuAC because she “suspected” a member of her family was gay and she wanted more information. “Our friendship was slow to develop but once it did, it blossomed and she became more of a mother figure to me than a work colleague. “Once she got involved in something she just went for it,” he said. Activist Shayne Wilde said Moesbergen had saved many lives through her counseling and advocacy. “She wasn’t there for accolades, she just did it,” Wilde told Queensland Pride. “She had scrupulous ethics and was very good at what she did – at both the policy level and personal level. Amongst other things, she met with government ministers, and got the Catholic Church to donate money for anti-homophobia workshops in the outback,” Wilde said. “She was so effective in doing what she did she saved countless lives, put families back together and prevented suicides. “She was unbelievably intuitive and extremely supportive. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody give more to a cause –and she and her husband were involved in several organizations and causes. “She’s left a huge imprint and legacy. We’ve got no doubt that’s she’s up there kicking butt and probably working on the popes right now. “One of the last things she said before she died was that she’d see what she can do. She’s got plans,” Wilde said. Louise Moesbergen is survived by seven children, twelve grandchildren and a very grateful gay community.

Could Guerilla Queer Church work in Australia?

Guerilla Queer Church: a response to Pope Benedict

Re: “Gay Catholics to protest pope’s visit” (news, April 11)

The nation’s straightest bars are no longer safe for beer farts, fantasy football, pleated khakis and other hallmarks of heterosexual waterholes.

The first Friday of every month, for example, Boston Guerilla Queer Bar (BGQB) organizers target an unsuspecting traditional straight bar. They notify 1,000 Facebook “friends” from all over eastern Massachusetts of the designated hetero-venue. At the appointed hour, gay and lesbian masses pack the bar rail and dance floor and transform an establishment heretofore notorious for testosterone into an instant queer club.

Although the takeover yields a space where it’s safe to exhibit a non-straight sensibility, the participants typically don’t stage protests or drape themselves in the rainbow flag. They just dance, flirt, ogle, dish, drink, laugh, tip well, and at closing head home. If they’re lucky, they have company.

Each month, BGQB targets a different straight bar. Washington, Detroit, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Seattle and other American cities have been doing this for years. “We want to fully inhabit the city we live in,” explained a San Francisco Guerilla Queer Bar organizer.

The imminent arrival of Pope Benedict XVI gives us a chance to expand the concept. Benedict, of course, is famously hostile to gays. Not only has he condemned homosexual activity and made prohibiting gay celibates from entering the seminary a priority of his papacy, but he also demands that the civil law conform to Catholic doctrine. He frequently fulminates against gay marriage, gay adoption and even laws protecting gay people from being fired because of their orientation. Before he became pope, then-Cardinal Ratzinger wrote that, “Those who would move from tolerance to the legitimization of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the approval or legalization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil” and that letting same-sex couples adopt children “would actually mean doing violence to these children.” Some observers expect him to highlight these themes during his U.S. visit.

And gays are not his only targets. Benedict heads the Church of Exclusion: the divorced and married men and women with a call to priesthood are similarly marginalized.

In light of these papal sentiments, it’s no surprise that meetings with openly gay Catholic leaders and female priests are not on the pope’s agenda. So I make this modest proposal: Let’s skip the papal Mass in Nationals Park and instead kick-start the Guerilla Queer Church. Here’s how it will work:

We’ll post a Facebook page for each American diocese. One Sunday per month, we’ll target a particular “traditional” parish in the diocese and a particular Mass. Notified by e-mail, the gay Catholics will descend en masse and take over the front pews.

We’ll sing, we’ll worship, we’ll be indistinguishable from our straight friends in the pews, except perhaps for the ferocity of our love, our same-sex kiss of peace and the fact that we would leave petitions in the collection basket in lieu of dollars to avoid contributing to a corrupt hierarchy. Members of the gay Catholic group DignityUSA will be invited. So will the Romancatholic Womenpriests, and members of the group Corpus, an organization of married priests. We’ll bring our families, however constituted, and our partners and cherished spouses.

Guerilla Queer Church won’t be an act of civil disobedience or profanation (depending on your view) similar to the protests staged by the advocacy and awareness group ACT-UP in the 1980s in which Mass was disrupted and the sacred Holy Eucharist spilled on the floor of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Rather, Guerilla Queer Church will be a celebration, an exercise in ordinary inclusive worship with all its glorious earnestness, awkwardness, false starts, distractions, simplicity, ritual, incense, adoration, amazement and radical transformation. Catholics are called to build the church. But we queer Catholics, gay and otherwise, should also feel free to take back what is ours and fully inhabit the religion we live in.

SCOTT D. POMFRET
Boston

Editors’ note: The writer is the author of the forthcoming “Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir.”

The morality of Cruising

A discussion on how much personal morality should intrude into public policy… Catholics, led by Augustine and Aquinas, have traditionally been more liberal than the Protestants, regarding public social policy. One could argue that arch-conservative Catholics want to change that today. Peregrinus re-visits some important principles considered in depth by Augustine and Aquinas as to how personal morality should impact on public social policy. It is always a vexed area of discussion as the current situation concerning a public park in Amsterdam illustrates very well. [more]

The Hate Crime You May Have Missed

February 26, 2008

Among the numerous school shootings in the past several weeks, one stands out for me: the killing of Lawrence King, 15, allegedly by Brandon McInerney, 14, in Oxnard, California. However, it got the least media coverage.The other school shootings appeared to be acts of random violence directed at strangers who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. But at Oxnard Junior High School, McInerney walked into the computer lab, went directly to King and shot him in the head before fleeing, according to reports. King died later at the hospital. The memorial service was held at Westminster Presbyterian Church which celebrated Lawrence’s short life.

Evidently, McInerney and his friends had been harassing King after King had disclosed that he was gay. Then McInerney took it one step further. King was different, as they say. He was proudly gay and wore high-heeled boots, make-up and jewelry to school. So he became the target of bullies.

The shooter will be tried as an adult charged with murder as a premeditated hate crime and if convicted, could spend up to 52 years in prison. So where did he learn this kind of hate? My best guess is home, church and peers. Anti-gay sermons, jokes, and language teach people that it is okay to hate lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered people, and the action to follow that hate is bullying and violence.

This is not an isolated violent event. In the 2005 National School Climate Survey, nearly a fifth (17.6%) of LGBT students reported being physically assaulted at school in the past school year because of their sexual orientation, and over a tenth (11.8%) because of their gender expression. Nearly two-thirds of LGBT students (64.3%) said they feel unsafe in school because of their sexual orientation, and two-fifths (40.7%) because of their gender expression.

Those of us in the faith communities should be asking ourselves these questions: what are our youth programs and ministries doing to counter the hate and homophobia that is still taught and learned in much of society today? What are we doing to support the Lawrence Kings in our youth groups? What are we doing to challenge the Brandon McInerneys? Two young lives tragically interrupted because it’s not okay to be different from the rest.

April 25 will be a national day of silence to remember Lawrence King and all who suffer from hate crimes. Consider organizing an event in your mosque, church or synagogue.
http://www.rememberinglawrence.org

Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune
Founder and Senior Analyst
FaithTrust Institute

Towards a Church Apology for gay prejudice

MONDAY 3 MARCH 2008

Towards a church apology for gay prejudice DONAL GODFREY Clergy signatories to the 100Revs Statement of Apology to the gay community took part in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras on Saturday. Many Christians long for their churches to be places of welcome for all people and commit themselves to pursuing this goal. Read more

Civil unions in the closet: Rudd bows to the religious right

Labor’s rather confusing attitude to the ACT same-sex civil unions Bill became a little clearer in an interview with federal Attorney General Robert McClelland published in The Australian on February 7. McClelland is reported to have said that the “ceremonial aspects of the ACT’s civil unions model were unacceptable”.

He went on to suggest that the Federal Government would be prepared to endorse a watered-down form of so-called “civil union” that appeared to be little more than an existing state and territory based registration scheme akin to that in Tasmania.

Such registration schemes have removed a range of forms of discrimination. However, they are used to register not just same-sex unions but also a range of other, non-sexual interdependent relationships, which is why the religious right has often found them easier to accept than full civil unions for same-sex couples. (read more)

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100 Revs Statement of Apology

From the 100revs Blogsite

As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgiveness of the GLBT community. We long that the church would be a place of welcome for all people and commit ourselves to pursuing this goal.

We ARE a group of Christian ministers who voluntarily and individually bring this apology.

We ARE NOT official representatives of our churches or denominations.

We ARE NOT making a statement on the biblical position on gay and lesbian relationships.

We ARE recognising the lack of hospitality, care and welcome that the churches have offered the gay and lesbian community.

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SX News

Ex-Gay Watch

Gene Robinson’s Lecture: Civil Discourse

Thanks to Episcopal Majority

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

The lecture is part of his book, In the Eye of the Storm, to be published in April and Episcopal Majority are taking advance orders.

Bishop Robinson will be at the MCU Conference in July, and no doubt copies of his book will be available there.

Money Available for LGBT Projects

Money is being made available to lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) projects in Queensland. The “Healthy Communities Fund” is inviting applications from groups, services, businesses and individuals for projects which help promote the health & wellbeing of LGBT Queenslanders, build & strengthen LGBT communities anywhere in Queensland or to support fundraising activities for LGBT groups. A total of up to $25,000 is available in each application round, with a maximum of $5,000 being awarded to any one application.  Closing date for the 1^st round is 31^st January 2008. Application Guidelines and the Application Form is available from www.qahc.org.au/fund or by ringing 1800 177 434.

 

The “Healthy Communities Fund” is an initiative of the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities (QAHC). “There are many LGBT groups and projects across Queensland doing great work, but with very little resources” said Paul Martin QAHC General Manager.  “As part of our community building role QAHC has established the “Healthy Communities Fund” to support LGBT groups and projects and to help bring great ideas to fruition”.

 

QAHC has used accumulated income on a rental property to kick-start the Fund, but ongoing donations and sponsorship will be needed keep it going.  If you or your business is interested in making a tax deductible donation to the “Healthy Communities Fund”, please contact Paul Martin (General Manager) or visit www.qahc.org.au/fund

Seduced by Grace: contemporary spirituality, gay experience and Christian faith

Seduced by Grace: contemporary spirituality, gay experience and Christian faith

by Michael B Kelly

With a Foreword by The Honourable Michael Kirby AC CMG

RRP $24.95

ISBN: 9780980298321

Hares and Hyenas Bookstore

63 Johnston St, Fitzroy, Vic. Australia

(between Nicholson and Brunswick streets)

the book is available from this bookstore, and also from Readings, Carlton

These are the passionate despatches of a reporter from one of the most hostile – for gay men and women – regimes on earth: the Catholic church. Michael Kelly has come out but stayed in. His indictment of the church is stark but his vision of what it might become has the power to move even hardened atheists. – David Marr

Every chapter in this book is an invitation. Its thoughts and stories carry you over and over again into a deeper place where you can reflect on your own life and, indeed, universal life. At one point, its author observes ‘…religious talk is about religious talk. Life becomes a footnote.’ Life is never a footnote for Michael Kelly. His close experience of the engaging of religion with life is both challenging and inspiring. I couldn’t put this book down, not just because it relates to my own story but because it is authentic, vulnerable, yet life-giving. It does not demand that you agree, but gently and profoundly opens up the questions within a brave and faithful journey. – Rev. Dorothy McRae-McMahon

Michael Kelly writes with great precision and poignancy of a yearning which everyone shares. A yearning for love, both physical and spiritual. A yearning for completion. In this wonderful collection of essays, Kelly seduces the reader with his insights into those fleeting moments in which we encounter the greatest mystery of all. – Dr Fiona Capp

In these collected writings – essays, articles, letters, talks – Michael Kelly invites us into an intimate exploration of the inner wisdom and radical challenge of Christianity. In reflections that take us from the fields of Nicaragua to the ‘War on Terror’, from the joy of erotic pleasure to the challenge of rebuilding the church, Kelly gives voice to a spirituality of desire, grounded in justice and love. Michael Kelly is a freelance writer, activist, counsellor and educator, known internationally for his ministry in spirituality, sexuality and human integration.

 

This new book presents Michael Kelly’s collected writings and lectures, composed over a ten year period. Exploring contemplative spirituality, erotic grace, prophetic activism, gay experience, and the soulful challenges of contemporary living, this collection is a major new contribution from the author of The Erotic Contemplative lecture series.

Publisher: Clouds of Magellan

Title distributed by Bulldog Books

Publisher: Gordon Thompson – 0423 625 760 – rediris@vicnet.net.au

Author: Michael Kelly – 0437 974 386 – mbkell@ozemail.com.au [Kelly in US till early December – make email contact directly for interviews]

 

Reviews

Deep spirituality underlies gay Catholic’s activism Terry Monagle January 31, 2008

Amanda McKenna Catholic Australia