Caught in Methodism’s Split Over Same-Sex Marriage -
It started out as a deeply personal act, that of a father officiating at the wedding of his son.
But it was soon condemned as a public display of ecclesiastical disobedience, because the father, the Rev. Dr. Thomas W. Ogletree, is a minister in the United Methodist Church, which does not allow its clergy to perform same-sex weddings.
Dr. Ogletree, 79, is now facing a possible canonical trial for his action, accused by several New York United Methodist ministers of violating church rules. While he would not be the first United Methodist minister to face discipline for performing a same-sex wedding, he could well be the one with the highest profile. He is a retired dean of Yale Divinity School, a veteran of the nation’s civil rights struggles and a scholar of the very type of ethical issues he is now confronting.
“Sometimes, when what is officially the law is wrong, you try to get the law changed,” Dr. Ogletree, a native of Birmingham, Ala., said in a courtly Southern drawl over a recent lunch at Yale, where he remains an emeritus professor of theological ethics. “But if you can’t, you break it.”
For Dr. Ogletree, the issues are not just academic. He has fully accepted, he said, that two of his five children are gay. His daughter married her partner in Massachusetts, in a non-Methodist ceremony. So when his son asked him last year to officiate at the wedding, he said yes.
“I was inspired,” Dr. Ogletree said. “I actually wasn’t thinking of this as an act of civil disobedience or church disobedience. I was thinking of it as a response to my son.”
(Source: yourenotaloneinthis)
gqid:
Presented at A Night of GenderQueer Readings at the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco on May 4th, 2013
There are at two ways to find out what it means to be genderqueer, whether you are genderqueer or consider yourself an interested ally. One way is to look up definitions in books or on the Internet and be inundated with interesting, but frequently contradictory information from many different viewpoints. These definitions can lend a voice to the variety of genderqueer experience that exists out there, but this is also an area where caution around inaccuracy and erasure is needed.
Here are just a few definitions of the term genderqueer:
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Skin Deep: On Set With A Trans Fashion Model -
Arisce Wanzer is a fashion model living and working in New York City
(Source: uchicagolgbtq)
Gendered Intelligence: Saturday Youth Group - 'I'm OK, you're OK' - 25th May -
When: Saturday 25th May, 1.45 - 5PM
Where: Central School of Speech and Drama, London, NW3 3HY (Map) Nearest tube: Swiss Cottage (Exit 2)
Let’s look closely at our friendships and relationships - or the ones we might want to have. How can I find the right friends and relationships…
(via genderedintelligence)
“I asked the Boy Scouts of America repeatedly for an explanation for why it would remove the ban on gay scouts but continue the ban on openly gay adults. But there isn’t one. Like “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the Boy Scouts’ policy is a compromise measure—devoid of all principle—that bows to opinion polls, fears, and the yelps of religious conservatives.” — Nathaniel Frank, “Scout’s Dishonor” (via holygoddamnshitballs)
(via projectqueer)
School sets up 'gender-neutral' dressing room - The Local -
A Stockholm high school is set to open a third changing room for transsexual pupils and those who don’t want to define themselves as being male or female, a move believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
(Source: spazure, via lgbtgivesmehope)
Gay French Mayor Sent Bullets After Interview -
Shortly after he gave an interview revealing plans to marry his partner, Thierry Speitel received bullets in the mail.
(Source: projectqueer)
Seven Goals Of Trans Activism -
(Source: projectqueer)
