4/1/09

North Texas Presbyterians vote to ease rules on gay clergy


Posted by Thomas Squiers on "Walking With Integrity" original source By SAM HODGES / The Dallas Morning News samhodges@dallasnews.com


"In a break from the past, North Texas clergy and lay leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have voted to ease the way for ordination of openly gay pastors, deacons and elders."


"Clergy and lay leaders of Grace Presbytery – the regional body covering 177 churches in North Texas and other parts of the state – voted Saturday to remove constitutional language requiring that ordained officers maintain “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness."


”The vote was 203-182 in favor of the change, with six abstensions, said Rob Allen, spokesman for Grace Presbytery."


"The issue has come up in previous years, and Grace Presbytery has voted in favor of maintaining the barrier to ordination of gay pastors, deacons and elders."
Full Story at Dallas Morning News

BBC Reports New Species of Mammal Found!


Source British Broad Casting System, New species of penquins identified in a 'very cold place.' According to the reporter flying penquins, a new species of mammals were discovered. The fellow in the parka said they were identified 'quite by accident' one April day.

by Kelli Busey
April 01 2009
planetransender

3/31/09

Join with Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies(DTAA) to Applaud Notre Dame's Invitation to Obama


DTAA Email campaign thanks Notre Dame for dialogue

The Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies applauds Notre Dame University for exhibiting determination of free will by initiating dialogue about stem cell research and abortion. Presently the official policy of Catholicism is not to honor or even to hold discourse with those who disagree with Church theology.


The invitation to President Obama as the commencement speaker has been confirmed by Notre Dame despite a loud choreographed disapproval. The Obama administration favors a mix of technology and faith when approaching birth control and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Entire populations in Africa are being forced to adhere to abstinence only by government and religion and are suffering on a scale previously unknown. Kelli Busey of the Dallas Advocates and Allies condemns this practice as genocide as only gay men are refused treatment or preventive education. President Obama's policy is also not acceptable by most of Notre Dame alumni yet favored by nearly all of the graduating class.


Source New York Times News Blog "When President Obama delivers the commencement address at the University of Notre Dame in May, he may face a situation that he has rarely encountered in recent months — many in the audience and outside the hall may have opposed his visit.
The university’s invitation to Mr. Obama to deliver the commencement address on May 17, and receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, has ignited a backlash, both on campus and off, among opponents of abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research; Mr. Obama recently lifted a ban on federal financing for both. And it has revived the long-simmering debate over whether a Catholic university should honor someone who does not ascribe to Catholic teachings; in 2004, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops expressly said that Catholic institutions should not honor those who act “in defiance of our fundamental moral principles.”

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Show Notre Dame that regardless of our beliefs we appreciate open dialogue by sending The Rev. John I. Jenkins, the university’s president a email.

Sample email feel free to copy and paste it on this link

Rev. John I. Jenkins, President Notre Dame University

Thank you for your resolve in extending your invitation to President Obama to be the May 17 commencement speaker. We understand that without conversation there only can be conflict and misunderstanding. You have distinguished Notre Dame as a fearless leader for Catholic progressive thinking.

Whether the President speaks directly to these controversial issues will not lessen our admiration.

We deeply appreciate your courage.

Thank you,
[Your Name]

Related articles

ABC : Notre Dame Not Budging on Obama Invite

ABC News : The President's Commencement Controversy

DTAA Email campaign thanks Notre Dame for dialogue

planetransgender : Pedophiles in Church : Catholic Abuse of Christianity

planetransgender : Americans Killing Gay people in IRAQ وقف إعدام العراقيين مثلي الجنس

Susan Stryker author of 'Screaming Queens' Interview

Transgender historian and film documentarian Susan Stryker is interviewed by our own Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies member and author] Autumn Sandeen of Pam's House Blend at the 4th Annual California Transgender Leadership Summit.

Stryker is one of the two film documentarians behind the documentary Screaming Queens. The interview in it's entirety can be found at Pams House Blend

Dallas Transgender Advocates and Allies

3/30/09

Americans Killing Gay people in IRAQ وقف إعدام العراقيين مثلي الجنس



IRAQ LGBT a U.K. based LGBT rights group operating in exile is claiming that the result of the American lead occupation is that the goverment and religious elements in IRAQ are committing genocide against LGBT people. The Vatican and many extremist religious elements in the United States and the U.K. have denounced of the recent UN declaration calling for decriminalization of homosexuality which has resulted in religious credence to genocide.

Iraq To Begin Executing Gays

"The UK-based exile group Iraq-LGBT claims that the U.S.-installed government in Iraq is about to commence executing gay people for their sexuality. More than 100 prisoners in Iraq are facing execution – and many of them are believed to have been convicted of the ‘crime’ of being gay, the UK-based Iraqi-LGBT group revealed this afternoon."

STOP EXECUTIONS OF GAY IRAQIS "Urgent action is needed to halt the execution of 128 prisoners on death row in Iraq. Many of those awaiting execution were convicted for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality, according to IRAQI-LGBT, a UK based organisation of Iraqis supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Iraq."

النظام العراقي الحاكم بدعم من قوى الاحتلال الامريكي والبريطاني هو المسؤول عن تفاقم وانتشار العنف الطائفي والمذهبي

غداة دخول قوات الاحتلال الى العراق انتشرت الفوضى والفساد وفقد اي احساس بالامن والامان لدى المواطن العراقي العادي.
ومع ظهور الاحزاب الدينية المدعومة من قبل المرجعيات, وانتشار المليشيات وفرق الموت وتورط الاحزاب في قتل المواطنين وارتكاب الفظاعات من تطهير عرقي على الهوية والخلفية المذهبية .

ولم تستثنى الاقليات الدينية والمذهبية واقليات اخرى مثل مثليي الجنس الذين تم قبولهم واثبتوا انسجامهم واندماجهم في المجتمع العراقي على مر الازمان وخصوصا في عهد النظام السابق.

اما اليوم وبعد ظهور حكومات تستقي قراراتها من مرجعيات النجف, ولعل هيمنة رجال الدين في الحياة السياسية واليومية في الشارع

والمشهد العراقي خير دليل على ما الى اليه العراق اليوم

translated....

"The Iraqi regime is backed by the forces of U.S. and British occupation is responsible for the aggravation and the spread of sectarian violence and religious After the occupation forces entered Iraq to spread chaos and corruption and the loss of any sense of security and safety to the average Iraqi citizen. With the emergence of religious parties backed by the authorities, and the proliferation of militias and death squads and the parties involved in the killing of citizens and the atrocities of ethnic cleansing on a background of sectarian identity. Did not exclude religious minorities and religious and other minorities such as homosexuals who have been accepted and proved harmony and integration of Iraqi society over time, especially in the era of the former regime. But today, after the emergence of Governments derive from its terms of reference of Najaf, and the dominance of the clergy in political and daily life in the Iraqi street scene and the best proof of it is to Iraq today."



The Episcopal Church(TEC) Walking In The Path Of Christ

I am witnessing an event that has taken me emotionally and spiritually far past my ability to comprehend or even to communicate . I am in need of your help in understanding, you the ones who live this, who's spiritual wholeness is challenged and enriched.

I'll explain so you can educate me. When our The Episcopal Church invited everyone to live Jesus's life, here on this planet in our own bodies, many, many people found the path to fearsome, the deaths to many and the reward unfathomable.

But then, some people fully embraced Jesus's way of life. Giving up comfort, forsaking wealth, enduring social alienation, and all the deaths that Jesus foretold are necessary in order to put our lives in order so we may forever worship. All of this is being lived by people right here, right now in my city.

Grand cathedrals, sheltering stone walls of praise and once home to TEC, now sing in the houses of the hearts and souls of our saints in FT. Worth's TEC. Personal belongings were gathered as they were cast out of beautiful Church's and made to travel dusty roads to humble places. Willingly forsaken are the comfort and physical grandiose of the earthly reminders of our covenant, instead faith, love and welcoming for all is the alter and a hug the nearly unbearable hugeness of Christ's love.

I do not know how to tell you about this. I do not know how to show my gradatude. I am witnessing people walk in the path of Jesus's life now, right here in Fort Worth Texas.

I need to share with you, but am so challenged. Help me to understand. Help me to fully live the death's of rebirth. Spend some time with us. Please, offer the comfort of your spirituality, because you of the RMN, who among others, are the ones who by coming before and embracing the radical inclusion of Jesus's life, are making all of his miracle of the rebirth of hope and possibility, a reality. In our lifetime. In Fort Worth Texas.