Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

The power of coalition politics vs. the "new gay movement 2.0"

JoeMyGod today reported on State Senator Diaz issuing a statement of support for Rick Warren. He then quoted one of our supposed new leaders, Jeff Campagna, of the Facebook group The Power as saying:

"As the leader of the movement to call on Diaz and his cronies to be good Democrats and to support their party's takeover of the New York State Senate, I'm disgusted to hear that Diaz is now using Rick Warren's invitation to the invocation as evidence that bigots like himself are welcome at the table."

Sorry, this is where facebook groups and silent protests fail. As a way to get out information fast, Facebook can't be beat. As a way to canvas a new generation, terrific. But who cares about Rick Warren, who actually affects no legislation in NYC. Diaz is the target, and to just ask people to write Change.gov about Warren is waste of time. There are a lot of big names attached to The Power group. I know they are doing more, and want to work smarter than this.

For example, ESPA has built a coalition with unions whose members live in the district Diaz represents -- because they understand that it's not just about us, it's about workers. So Elizabeth Benjamin at the Daily News reports that:

...some 8,000 Bronx members of 32BJ will receive direct direct mail pieces targeting two of the so-called Gang of Three - Senator-elect Pedro Espada Jr. and Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. - in an effort to crank up pressure on the dissidents to come back to the Democratic fold and back Malcolm Smith for majority leader.

The mailers, which are in both English and Spanish, are part of a wider campaign by a number of labor interests that were instrumental in helping the Senate Democrats win a majority of seats this fall for the first time since 1965 and don't want to see the fruits of their labor scuttled by three renegades.

Other union members of this pro-Democrat alliance include: Unite-HERE/ New York Hotel Trades Council, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union and the Communications Workers of America.

All will be sending mail to their respective members to "prioritize a progressive agenda which puts the agenda of working families ahead of their own," according to 32BJ spokesman Eugenio H. Villasante.

Yep, we've got unions, strong unions, working with us. Because we have joint goals and a partnership that has been nurtured over time. This is what went wrong in California -- there was no outreach to minority communities or working class people. This is activism as narcissism. If you don't find common cause with people, then they sure aren't going to be there when you need them.

I may have worked on Madison Avenue for the last 30 years, but I come from lower middle class Brooklyn. And I know the power of unions, coalition building and simple door to door, face to face organizing. You don't get that from a Facebook group. Yeah, I know, I am old school. Or just old. But the web is only one tool in the arsenal. If you forget that you actually have to reach out to real people, they won't see us or our cause as real.

Yeah, a facebook group can fill a street full of people who are angry real fast-- people who can carry placards and march. But then what do you do? To quote Joan Baez singing about Joe Hill: organize.

Some Light Reading for the Second Night of Hanukkah: Rabbi Arthur Waskow on Same-Gender Marriage, Prop 8 and the Inauguration

One of our Living International Treasures is Rabbi Arthur Waskow, a progressive who speaks out regularly and does more than speak — he takes action to repair the world. Today he posted to the Shalom Center's blog an entry on the subject of Rick Warren's invitation. As always, Rabbi Waskow spreads light where so many of us see heat:

I am deeply disappointed by the decision of President-elect Obama to have Rev. Rick Warren invoke God at the Inauguration on January 20. To give Reverend Warren this honorific, symbolic role is precisely to honor his opinions and his leadership. Mr. Obama has defended his decision by saying that he hopes for an America where it is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. A praiseworthy goal -- - but not choosing to invite someone to invoke God at the Inauguration is not being disagreeable. Civil dialogue could continue without giving Rev. Warren this honorific role, one that is bound to affect public opinion.

Someone who uses the power of the state to deprive people of their right to the religious celebration and legal protection of their loving relationship is a bully -- no matter whether he smiles and smiles, he's still a bully.

The White House, Theodore Roosevelt once said, is a "bully pulpit." Noon on Inauguration Day is that pulpit at its peak. TR did not mean the White House should become a "bully's pulpit."

Whom could Obama have invited instead?

I do think it was a good idea to reach out to evangelicals, but there was a far better possible person -- better religiously, symbolically, politically.

Reverend Richard Cizik, who for 28 years has been vice-president and chief lobbyist of the National Association of Evangelicals, recently did an act that Jews called tshuvah. Literally, that means "turning" one's self toward the God Who is always evolving. That is the most profoundly religious act a person can undertake, and it often means losing prestige and power.

Cizik has put himself on the line for years, insisting that a true evangelical Christian must take action to heal God's creation from the wounds humans are inflicting on it -- especially from the global climate disaster looming before us. It was not a popular opinion among the institutional evangelical leadership, because they saw it as distracting from the sexuality issues - abortion, same-sex rights, etc. But more and more young evangelicals agreed.

Then a few weeks ago Cizik was being interviewed by NPR's Terry Gross:

Gross: "But now as you identify more with younger voters, would you say you have changed on gay marriage?"

Cizik: "I'm shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say that I believe in civil unions. I don't officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don't think."

For this he was forced to resign.

Honoring people who despite institutional pressure move toward God's justice, God's compassion, God's shalom -- now that's an act of religious celebration. Might inviting Cizik have been seen as an act of confrontation? Yes, but not a confrontation with evangelical Christians --- since that's who Cizik is. Rather a confrontation with rigid bullies at the top of some evangelical institutions. A gift of hope and fresh air for evangelicals, young and old, who have begun to Wrestle. And a gift of fresh air to Americans at large, who might have remembered that invoking God does not mean bowing down to stodginess.

Obama has --- and rightly --- celebrated the confluence of his Inauguration with the birthday of Martin Luther King. Does he remember that before Dr. King became a saint he was a troublemaker? Rejected by many leaders of official Christianity, especially when he opposed the Vietnam War?

Obama should have asked Rev. Cizik to invoke the God we all need --- the God who Wrestles with us and asks us to Wrestle, all night and every morning, with our beliefs about the universe.

That would have put the issue where it belongs - in serious public dialogue and debate.

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Sports Are Gay

Present at the creation: head on over to the home page of one kukaipaa at youtube and you can watch the evolution of the curmudgeonly character that is realized in the odd little cartoon below: a rant about the homoeroticism in sports supposedly by an arch-conservative (except for the fact that half-way thru the character is broken to turn into a rant about the so-called religious opposition to same-sex marriage). Enjoy:

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Tom Cruise, Prop 8 and Simian Anchors

Newswitness news is a new animated news satire regular on youtube. The prop 8 stuff is about half way through, after the rather sophomoric celebrity sex humor.

Lost gay history: Harvey Milk and The Lost Tribe, Mark Shaiman and Masturbation

Two stories in the Jewish press recently captured a bit of gay history in the renewed interest in the life of Harvey Milk with the release of the eponymous film. And that is the story of "The Lost Tribe," a group of Jewish gay activists who worked to reach out to Jewish communities in California in the effort to defeat the Briggs initiative.

These activists knew the only way to win was to build bridges outside the gay community. And as Jews, they could speak in synagogues and JCCs to change minds and win support. This is the very strategy ESPA is using in NY state with Pride in the Pulpit. Clearly, recent results in California show that the so-called leaders of the lgbt community did not do this with the black community. The subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) racisim within the lgbt community probably rendered the thought of even reaching out in this way not even anywhere near consciousness.

No, we speak to ourselves. Thus Mark Shaiman's "Prop 8: The Musical" a feel good waste of money time and talent that only speaks to those who already believe and does absolutely nothing to build bridges or change minds. Or even raise money for those who do. It doesn't speak to African Americans. It doesn't speak to communities of faith. It's funny, sure. But it's really just a masturbatory waste that allows people to fantasize they are activists when they aren't.

If the gay movement does not actually start to live the meaning of the rainbow flag we so proudly claim as our own, what are we fighting for?

Sunday Morning Cartoon: Utah Chickens

Okay, but I still prefer my old copy of Les poulets n'ont pas de chaises -- Chickens don't have chairs, a great book of completely surreal French comics published by, who else, Grove Press, in 1969.

Meanwhile "buck buck b-buck, we should take our bucks elsewhere and boycott Utah and LDS owned business." There a list to a link in a post below.

The Mormons Meet the Anita Bryant Effect: Gay rage concentrated

Back in the 70s, when the post-Stonewall gay movement was young and feeling the rush of a number of successes, the air started to go out of the energy. GLF ceased to exist. GAA meeting attendance had fallen precipitously. And then the orange juice queen squeezed our newly claimed rights out of Dade County. And the movement had a public figure who energized us  and organized us.

Thank you Mormons. You've done it again.

The lgbt movement had become complacent. We are served by organizations that for the most part have a moribund leadership. So many queer folk think that because corporations are willing to advertise to us that we have our rights. Uh, no.

More important than marriage rights, we can still be fired all over the country, with no recourse, because we don’t have employment rights, housing rights or any of the anti-discrimination laws other groups are protected by. While I have fought for marriage equality here in NYC, in much of the country, marriage is not the first issue on the table. Discrimination laws. Hate crime laws. These come first. However, the Mormons have woken up the anger of the vast population of queer folk in places where relative equality has led to complacency. And this means marriage is the order of the day.

Certainly, I understand very deeply the reasons for marriage equality. The man I wanted to marry was a foreign national, and to stay in this country he had to deal with lawyers, visas, work regulations…a maze of madness that was nothing compared to post 9/11 insanity. There are many who live overseas with their partners simply because they do not enjoy the rights of any bi-national heterosexual couple. These folks are heartened by the new awakening of queer rage. And these Love Exiles are organized.

So let’s talk about queer rage and our enemies. Alison Stateman writes in Time Magazine about the dangers of being on a gay enemies list. Give me a break. Nixon had an enemies list. Me? I just want to know who considers my rights expendable, so I can be certain not to spend my money with their businesses. Yes, they have their right of free speech — which the court has decided includes monetary contributions to political campaigns. And I have my right to know who is saying what — and respond accordingly.

Which means I want to know what businesses are Mormon owned.  I don’t want to stay at a Marriot thank you very much. I also want to know how many TV and radio stations are owned directly by the LDS church. I want to know which supermarket chain is Mormon owned.

That’s my right. I’m a man who likes to do business with people I like. Which means I don’t want to shop at companies I know contributed to opposing my rights. That said, if I were an employer, I would not discriminate against a Mormon in a job interview. Hell, I once hired an evangelical Christian who took his vacation to do missionary work and who volunteered with Campus Crusade for Christ. He was a good writer, and that was all I cared about.  It’s not like I wasn’t out at the office. Everyone, everywhere I have ever worked, has known I’m gay. And the relationship with this employee was interesting to say the least — after all, I’m a member of several faith communities, and I was happy to talk to him about the Gospel of Thomas, among other things. This is where minds change and relationships evolve, one person at a time.

Which brings me to another development today: the Bangor Daily News reported “that more than 120 religious leaders from 14 different faith traditions across Maine have formed the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in Maine.”

That’s big news. And it’s news that doesn’t get out so well. Here in New York, Empire State Pride Agenda’s Pride in the Pulpit has hundreds of congregations and leaders of faith representing a whole host of denominations and faith traditions, including Methodist ministers in Syracuse, Reform rabbis in Westchester, Roman Catholics in Utica, Buddhist priests in New York City, and proud people of faith throughout New York State.” Yes, you read that right, Roman Catholics.

So I want my community to remember that people of faith are not the enemy. Organized religion isn’t even the enemy. Organized bigotry is the enemy. And bigots can use the already existing infrastructure of organized religion to pursue their agenda.

The Mormons though, are indeed a special case. This is a religion that had to have a prophetic revelation that only came under the duress of legal action, so that black people would be treated equally. It was Mormon doctrine that blacks could not be Mormon priests.

This gets into the dicey area of freedom of religion and the world of the Flying Spaghetti Monster revelations of the Book of Mormon. And it’s not like the denomination of Judaism that I am affiliated with (Conservative) doesn’t have its own issues — with women only being ordained within the last 20 years, and queer folk only being accepted in the last year. But those are fights within these religious organizations. It is when a religious organization takes those beliefs and brings them into the public political process that I take issue.

Want to start a religion where women can’t officiate? Sure, go ahead and good luck to you. Just don’t try to then pass laws that women can’t vote, hold executive jobs, or don’t have control of their own bodies. Want to invite blacks to tithe but not accept them in leadership positions? Go ahead, see where that gets you. It’s your religion and we don’t regulate it. But step into the public square with your organized bigotry and I promise I will do everything in my power to fight you.

And step into the public square and you expose yourself to public scrutiny. The LDS is crying unfair that lgbt groups are targeting their business. Boo hoo.

Writers Alison Stateman see cases like Scott Eckern, who resigned from his position as the artistic director of the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento when his contribution to Yes on 8 was revealed as evidence of a gay mafia that controls who works where. 

No Alison. We’re not in charge. We just choose who we want to do business with. And that may have consequences. Don’t like it? Well, pardon me, ENDA, the Employment Non Discrimination Act, which protects lgbt people on the job, is not law. That doesn’t look like power to me. Scott Eckern chose to resign in the face of protest. I could be fired tomorrow and have no recourse.

And so, to my brothers and sisters in this chaotic movement in response to 8, don’t forget that there are also other important battles we have to win. There are gay throwaway kids living on the streets who need our support. There is homophobia in minority communities that needs to be addressed. And coming out for a demo on a nice autumn day isn’t enough.

The Mormons may have made us angry. So did orange juice queen Anita, and that made us, uh, concentrate. Now, as we fight for marriage, we need to look at really building relationship — with others in faith communities who are our allies. 

Marriage equality, the NYC Prop 8 Demo and channeling anger

Tonight the NYC queer community expressed its anger at the passage of Prop 8 in California with an old-fashioned street demonstration outside of the LDS church on Broadway and 65th Street. It was encouraging to see thousands of us to fight for marriage equality, even though it was for another state. How many of those that were out tonight have been part of the marriage equality fight in New York state? Certainly quite a few, since I recognized quite a number from the annual lobbying day in Albany. But many are not connected to any organized efforts. And there were some who chanted slogans that were anti-church.

Now, I am not exactly pro-church. I continue to be amazed that the one thing that brought together all the feuding religions to sit down in Jerusalem was their desire to issue a statement condeming queer people. It's enough to make a queer Jewish Buddhist into a militant atheist. Except that's actualy accepting their definition of queer folk — outside the spiritual. And quite frankly, I refuse to deny my connection to the Divine.

 Ours is a community that has been spiritually wounded by the religious establishment. And often, at demonstrations like these, where the religious establishment has truly done something heinous, the pain of this wounding comes out in expressions of hatred for religion and denial of our deepest longings for experiencing the Divine. The reason I seek loving relationships with men is that is where I experience the Divine Presence. I experience divinity and mystery in all my relations (to steal a phrase from Body Electric) whether they are physical or not, with men and women. But that highest connection has been in loving relationship with another man.

This evening I heard a lot of anger. And anger is appropriate. But I don't want my queer community to throw out the baby with the bath water by jettisoning spiritual connection while fighting organized bigotry and ignorance masquerading as religion.

Over at fivethirtyeight.com, Nate Silver has been debunking the analysis that it was the black  community that was responsible for the Prop 8 loss. His analysis of the voting patterns showed that it was a demographic I fall in, that is voters over 45, that made the difference.

But the point i really want to make here is the lesson that needs to be learned from the Obama campaign. The queer community in California created advertising that talked to people who were already on their side. Or just to themselves. They did not get shoe leather on the ground organizing in communities around the state. They did not work hard to engage people in the middle who could be swayed one way or the other. Sure, the LDS poured lots of money into the state. But churches are also communities that are highly organized. Where is our community organization? Our leaders are not deep in the community — and they sure dont' do much cross community organizing.

The very fact that we are even having this issue be fought so closely is something I never expected to see in my lifetime. I expected when I came out and joined the gay movement in 1970 that I would see a world where we felt safe, and were not objects of ridicule, disrespect or violence. That how we expressed our love would not be a violation of the law. I wasn't expecting to see legal recognition on the order of marriage. In fact, in 1970 there were many in the movement who wanted nothing to do with the institution they saw as obsolete.

I deeply believe marriage is important and makes communities stronger. And so I want it for my queer community. I believe deeply in the American value of freedom of religion. That means there will be religions out there that will never recognize my relationships as either valid or expressions of Divine love through human action. That's okay with me. I don't have to join that religion. And they don't have to marry me to anyone.

The mixture of marriage rites and marriage rights are some of the confusion that makes this a problem in the pubiic arena. But we are not engaging the people of faith who would be on our side. I am thrilled that the Empire State Pride Agenda has a program called Pride in the Pulpit, which engages communities of faith and leaders of those communities so that they actually are a large part of the efforts in Albany to extend marriage rights. I would have liked to have seen those people at the demonstration tonight. I chose to wear a star of David and a kippah at the demonstration be be out as a person of faith, because I felt it was important not only to be queer identified, but identified with Divine love. Which transcends religion.

May we open up to the pain of our spiritual wounding and use it to reconnect. May we use this reconnection to reach out to those who would hear us and support us if we learned to listen to them and truly hear their concerns. And I know we will prevail in our cause, because ultimately, nothing can withstand the power of love. 

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One of the nice things about the demonstration was I got to hang out with friends. I ran into people from GLYNY Again, the alumni organization of Gay & Lesbian Youth of New York (in photo below). I ran into friends from synagogue. From the Center. From my old schools. Work. It was quite a lot of fun in that way.

And as I left I saw the line of police cars that we so often see even when there are no demonstrations. As though they were there to intimidate the population. When Ann Northrup was instructing the marshalls on how to make sure there was no violence at the march, all I could think was, there are provocateurs in this crowd. There are secret police taking photos. And the line of police cars did not make me feel safer, they reminded me that the Bush years have been a growing police state, that used the terrorist attack of 2001 as an excuse to further strip us of our freedoms. I can only pray that the new president can reverse this trend, even though so much of this erosion is local.

Jubu News

Well, other bloggers have picked on the S.J.Parker story — the story appears in a thread on Jubus in a Thai website that also notes the posting by Shravasti Dhammika that I responded to last week. The blog Going For Refuge also picks up the Parker story, and comments on it from a more personal POV. The Precious Metal blog, that covers stories of interest to Buddhists, including good coverage of Burma and Tibet, re-publishes the story whole, without comment, though its readers have a lot to say on the subject that's amusing. Tibetblogs.com picks up the Precous Metal posting whole, with the comments from the blog. Whereas over at Heck of A Guy, the focus on the Parker story shifts to Leonard Cohen, who the author is a real fan of.

In queer jubu news, a lesbian couple in Michigan was searching for a rabbi to marry them (sounds like the opening of a joke, I know). And because one of the partners came from a mixed marriage (not meaning a man and a woman but a Jew and a Gentile) the rabbi wouldn't perform the ceremony. This is actually the case at my synagogue, where there have been queer commitment ceremonies for years, but only for couples where both partners were Jewish. The reason? You are making an agreement, a covenant or b'rit, and this kind of sacred covenant requires that you be Jewish. Anything else is simply a contract. Secular.

As it turns out, they found a Jubu cantor (who is also an acupunturist) to do the ceremony. Mazel Tov! If only the Jubu cantor was a gay guy! I'd be on my way to Michigan to ask for a date.

Marry Me A Bissel

The Joy of Yiddish defines "bissel" as meaning a little. So pardon my play on the title of the Sondheim song for this post, but the subject is apt since I wanted to let y'all know that next Tuesday, October 9th, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun's Marriage Equality Hevra is sponsoring an evening of study and conversation on the topic:"What Is The Purpose of Marrage? Marriage Equality Through a Jewish Lens."

The lead speakers will be Rabbi Steve Greenberg, author of Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, as well as the director of the CLAL Diversity Project. Joining him will be Rabbi Brent Spodek, one of this year's Marshall T. Meyer Rabbinic Fellows at B'nai Jeshurun.

Admission is free, and it takes place at the synagogue at 257 West 88th Street in Manhattan from 7pm to 9pm.