BMC NewsNet
Vol. 7, No. 7
November 2007
Click for more information
on World AIDS Day
1) Transgender Day of Remembrance – November 20th
2) SAVE THE DATE! BMC Convention October 10-12, 2008
4) Brethren Annual Conference Booth Application
4) “The Group” Announces New Name
5) World AIDS Day – December 1st
6) Abstinence Only Programs Particularly Harmful for LGBT Youth
7) Support for Chuck Boyer
1) Transgender Day of Remembrance– November 20th
Vigils were held around the country on Tuesday, November 20th in remembrance of our Transgender sisters, brothers, and friends. The Day of Remembrance began in 1998 as a way to remember Transgender individuals who were killed in acts of hate. Advocacy groups say that deaths number in the hundreds over the past decades, although official statistics are not available as the FBI does not keep records of trans killings. In the past nine years, the Day of Remembrance has grown to encompass all kinds of hate, discrimination, and violence against Transgender individuals. It was particularly significant this year as transgender people were explicitly not included in the federal National Employment Discrimination Act that was recently passed by the US House. More information may be found online at http://www.gender.org/remember/day/. Information may be downloaded at http://www.dayofsilence.org/tdr/downloads/TDR_11-1-06.pdf. In addition, the BMC office has several resources related to transgender education that we are happy to share.
2) SAVE THE DATE! BMC Convention October 10-12, 2008
Get out your calendar and reserve October 10-12, 2008 for the biennial BMC Convention. The Potawatomi Inn, located in the beautiful Pokagon State Park in northern Indiana, will be the conference site. This event will offer an opportunity for the Mennonite and Brethren lgbta community to spend time together in a supportive, relaxed and retreat-like environment. Wilma Harder, convention coordinator, is developing a program that will focus attention upon the creative, artistic gifts of the lgbta community, as well as offer plenty of opportunities for conversation, games, good food and fun. To learn more about the convention site, go to http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/inns/potawatomi/. The BMC Convention is always a great experience – save the date!
3) Brethren Annual Conference Booth Application
For many, many years BMC’s application for a booth at the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference has been rejected on the grounds that BMC violates the 1983 Annual Conference Statement on Human Sexuality because BMC supports covenantal relationships. This year, BMC submitted an application that specified a booth that would focus solely upon hate crimes and lgbt employment and housing discrimination, all subjects clearly and specifically addressed in the 1983 paper. In response, claiming that “the exhibit hall is not the venue that can help our denomination enter into conversation about the issues of homosexuality, an issue which causes such passionate divisiveness in our denomination,” the Program and Arrangements Committee (P&AC) has effectively denied this year’s request by punting the ball to the Standing Committee. The P&AC has written a query to the Standing Committee asking for a review of the 1983 paper and a way to engage the denomination in study and dialogue to “clarify the church’s response to homosexual persons.”
Given that the 1983 paper made numerous calls for study and dialogue; that the stated purpose of the exhibit area is a “place to become informed about denominational ministries and the resources to implement them in congregational and individual discipleship;” and that the stated values that apply to the exhibit hall are said to include “open and welcoming, open and compassionate dialogue, encourage one another and build community;” this new response of the P&AC seems disingenuous at best. In particular, it is difficult to see how acts of violence and discrimination are about “the issues of homosexuality” rather than the issues of human dignity and a compassionate response to destructive violence. To see a copy of the P&AC response, contact the BMC office at bmc@bmclgbt.org. Watch future NewsNets for a more detailed response from BMC, including information regarding a BMC witness at the 2008 Annual Conference.
4) “The Group” Announces New Name
“The Group” has been the affectionate name of a group that has been meeting for over seven years in the Lebanon Valley of Pennsylvania, offering support, education and understanding for lgbt people, their families and friends. Initiated as a small group ministry by the Palmyra Church of the Brethren, the group has been ecumenical from the start, and reaches out to individuals from area Church of the Brethren as well as United Methodist, United Church of Christ, Episcopal and Mennonite congregations. In 2005 it joined the Supportive Communities Network as a publicly affirming community. After numerous considerations, the group has chosen a new name, The Wider Circle, that they feel better reflects the vision and work of the ministry. To learn more about The Wider Circle, contact June or Dick Blough at junedick@paonline.com.
5) World AIDS Day – December 1st
The theme for the 2007 and 2008 World AIDS Days is Leadership, maintaining the slogan from previous years of Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise. HIV/AIDS research advocates are promoting the efforts to spread the knowledge of HIV/AIDS related tragedies throughout the world. Today, HIV/AIDS is a world epidemic that disproportionately affects people of color, those in poverty, and developing nations. In 2007 alone, there were 2.5 million new reported cases of HIV throughout the world. This figure includes 420,000 children under the age of fifteen. 2007 has also included a staggering 2.1 million total HIV/AIDS related deaths, 330,000 of which were children under the age of fifteen.
Encourage your governmental representatives to “Keep the Promise” made in 2000 to halt and begin to reverse the spread of AIDS by 2015. To find out more about HIV/AIDS and World AIDS Day events visit www.worldaidscampaign.info or www.unaids.org.
6) Abstinence Only Programs Particularly Harmful for LGBT Youth
Abstinence only sex-education programs in schools across the country have been harshly criticized for quite some time. A new report was published which points out the particularly harmful effects of such a program for LGBT youth. Marjorie J. Hill of Gay Men’s Health Crisis was quoted saying that these programs “promote an anti-gay bias, insisting that the only proper place for sex is within the context of heterosexual marriage, and that AIDS is the inevitable result of homosexuality.” More information found online at http://365gay.com/Newscon07/11/110707abstain.htm.
7) Support for Chuck Boyer
The pastors of the La Verne Church of the Brethren, an SCN congregation, announce with sadness that Chuck Boyer, a former pastor at La Verne, has recently learned that his cancer is untreatable. Chuck served on the BMC Board, and has a special place in BMC history and hearts because he was the first, and is still the only, Church of the Brethren moderator to be publicly supportive of lgbt people while moderator. If you would like to express your appreciation for the life and witness of this amazing and gentle man of courage, conviction and faith, please email him at boyerduo@roadrunner.com or send him a note at 6954 Calmbank Ave, La Verne, California 91750. Please keep Chuck, his wife, Shirley, and all of their family and friends in your heart and prayers.
BMC NewsNet is an electronic newsletter produced by Carol Wise and Maggie Miller for the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Interests (BMC). BMC seeks to provide programming, support and advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals and their families and friends. For questions, comments or to unsubscribe from this list, contact the BMC office at PO Box 6300, Minneapolis, MN 55406-0300, USA; bmc@bmclgbt.org; or 612.343.2060.
To donate to BMC, go to our website at www.bmclgbt.org and click on Donate Now. You can also send a check to the BMC office, PO Box 6300, Minneapolis, MN 55406. Thank you for your generous support!
BMC Staff
Carol Wise – Executive Director, SCN Coordinator
Maggie Miller – Kaleidoscope Coordinator, BMC Volunteer
Randall Friesen – Outspoken Editor
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