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NYC: Dan Savage Keynotes “Sexual Diversity And The Catholic Church”

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Guest author Kelby Harrison explains part two of a four part event, More than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church. Dan Savage will be the keynote speaker at this event Saturday, October 1. 

 

As a response to the suffering of LGBTQ people under homophobia, Pro-Queer Life: Youth Suicide Crisis, Catholic Education, and the Souls of LGBTQ People, organized at Union theological Seminary (as part II of the More than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church conference series) will call upon the Catholic Church, as a significant provider of education and producer of culture, to seek the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. The Church should be a source of liberation and a contributor to the flourishing of LGBTQ people within and outside of Catholicism. One important way in which the Church ought to, and in some settings does, contribute positively to queer life is by actively working towards the best practices of LGBTQ student empowerment and sexual diversity inclusion in school settings. This one-day conference will focus on high school and collegiate education curricula, administrative practices, student groups, and the fostering of a pro-queer life student/educational culture.

In the United States, the Catholic Church is the number one provider of private education. The cultural and personal influence that it maintains over its students —intellectually, spiritually, and morally  — is profound. The recent wave of teenage and young adult suicides by those who are, or who are perceived to be, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer is only new in its large-scale media coverage. The bullying and mistreatment of students based on perceived sexual orientation or gender expression, and the negative messaging all students receive about sexual diversity have been too long with us. All young people deserve empowering educations to know their full value as human beings.

Educational institutions must take responsibility for protecting against the culture and attitudes that contribute to LGBTQ suicide. The “Pro-Queer Life” conference will focus attention on where Catholic educational institutions are getting it right, where they need to be better, and where their complicity in the wounding of young LGBTQ persons is unacceptable.

 

More Than A Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church is a four part series of conferences produced by Fordham University, Union Theological Seminary, Yale University and Fairfield University

 

WHERE:  Day Program at Union Theological Seminary 3041 Broadway, New York, NY

Keynote Address by Dan Savage:

The Riverside Church, South Hall, 490 Riverside Drive at 120th Street

WHEN:   Saturday, October 1:

Day Program:  10:00 am to 8:00 pm**

Lunch Keynote by Robert Goss: 12:45 pm

Resistance is not Futile:  Queer Ruption of Catholic Theology 

Keynote Address by Dan Savage, It Gets Better Campaign : 6:00 to 8:00 pm

WHO:  Speakers at event will include:

Dan Savage, sex advice columnist and founder of the “It Gets Better” Campaign

Robert Goss, theologian and author of Jesus ACTED UP: A Gay and Lesbian Manifesto

Patrick Cheng, Assistant Professor, Historic and Systematic Theology, Episcopal Divinity School

Fred Roden, Associate Professor of English, University of Connecticut

Winnie Varghese, Episcopal priest and former Chaplain, Columbia University

WHY: “At Union Theological Seminary, theologian James Cone counsels seminarians to believe that theology can be both life-giving and death-dealing. The messages that our churches send to youth are of vital importance. The theme of the “Pro-Queer Life” conference is to discuss how the theological messaging of the Catholic Church, as it is communicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and  ‘Queer’ youth receive the theological messages that come from the Catholic hierarchy, the parish level, and the older Catholics in their lives – parents, role-models, and teachers, to ask what we can do to make sure the messaging they receive is life-giving not death-dealing.”

Kelby Harrison is a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Social Ethics, (Sexual and LGBTQ Ethics) at the Union Theological Seminary.
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Pete Buttigieg Nails Trump for His Ugly Comments About Wounded Vets

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During his Sunday morning appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called out Donald Trump over reports he told military leaders he didn’t want wounded vets to be seen by the public while he was president.

In a recent Atlantic profile of General Mark Milley, the retiring military office recounted the former president telling him “no one wants to see” wounded soldiers, with Milley adding he found Trump’s attitude to those serving their country “superficial, callous, and, at the deepest human level, repugnant.”

Buttigieg, who served in Afghanistan during his 8 years while in the Naval Reserve, was asked by CNN host Dana Bash about the former president’s apparent distaste for service members.

“I want to ask you about a new Atlantic profile that says that then President Trump complained to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley after an Army veteran who lost a leg in combat sang at an event at the Pentagon,” Bash prompted her guest. “Trump reportedly told Milley, ‘Why do you bring people like that here, no one wants to see that, the wounded.'”

“After that article came out, Trump attacked Milley on social media, kind of a rambling post, but suggested that milley deserved the death penalty. You’re a veteran– what’s your response?” she asked.

“It’s just the latest in a pattern of outrageous attacks on the people who keep the country safe,” the Biden administration official replied.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

After pointing to fellow vets who suffered horrific injuries, he added, “These are the kind of people that deserve respect and a hell of a lot more than that from every American, and definitely from every American president.”

“And the idea that an American president, the person to whom service members look at as a commander in chief, and the person who sets the tone for this entire country could think that way or act that way or talk that way about anyone in uniform, and certainly about those who put their bodies on the line and sacrificed in ways that most Americans will never understand, and I guess wounded veterans make president Trump feel uncomfortable.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

 

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‘Scared to Death’: Trump’s Prison Panic Admission Means He Knows He’s Doomed Says Legal Expert

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Reacting to a report that Donald Trump has been quizzing his attorneys about what type of prison he likely will be sent to, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner stated that is not only an indication that he knows he’s going to be convicted but also an admission of guilt.

Speaking with MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart, the attorney was asked about a recent Rolling Stone report about Trump’s prison panic.

As Rolling Stone reported, Trump asked if he’s “be sent to a ‘club fed’ style prison — a place that’s relatively comfortable, as far these things go — or a ‘bad’ prison? Would he serve out a sentence in a plush home confinement? Would government officials try to strip him of his lifetime Secret Service protections? What would they make him wear, if his enemies actually did ever get him in a cell — an unprecedented set of consequences for a former leader of the free world.”

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

According to the attorney, Trump is revealing himself by asking for so many details.

“What does this tell you about Trump’s mindset?” host Capehart asked.

“It tells me he is scared to death” Kirschner quickly answered. “It tells me he has overwhelming consciousness of guilt because he knows what he did wrong and he knows he is about to be held accountable for his crimes. So it is not surprising that he is obsessing.”

“If he was confident that he would be completely exonerated, would he have to obsess about what his future time in prison might look like?” he suggested. “I think the last refuge for Donald Trump can be seen in a recent post where he urged the Republicans to defund essentially the prosecutions against him. which, to this prosecutor, Jonathan, smells a lot like an attempt to obstruct justice.”

Watch below or at the link.

 

Image via Shutterstock

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‘Vulgar and Lewd’: Trump Judge Cites Extremist Group to Allow Drag Show Ban

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A federal judge in Texas known for a ruling that attempted to ban a widely-used abortion drug is citing an extremist anti-LGBTQ group in his ruling allowing a ban on drag shows to stay in place.

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former attorney for an anti-LGBTQ conservative Christian legal organization, and a member of the Federalist Society, in his 26-page ruling dated Thursday cited the “About” page of Gays Against Groomers to claim, “it’s unclear how drag shows unmistakably communicate advocacy for LGBT rights.”

Judge Kacsmaryk, appointed by Donald Trump twice before finally assuming office in 2019, suggests the First Amendment does not provide for freedom of expression for drag shows, calls drag “sexualized conduct,” and says it is “more regulable” because “children are in the audience.”

READ MORE: ‘The Public Deserves to Know’: Abortion Pill Banning Judge Redacted Details About Millions of Dollars in His Stock Portfolio

Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern adds, “Kacsmaryk’s conclusion that drag is probably NOT protected by the First Amendment conflicts with decisions from Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Montana which held that drag is constitutionally protected expression. It also bristles with undisguised hostility toward LGBTQ people.”

Calling the judge “a proud Christian nationalist who flatly refuses to apply binding Supreme Court precedent when it conflicts with his extremist far-right beliefs,” Stern at Slate writes that Kacsmaryk ruled drag “may be outlawed to protect ‘the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.’ In short, he concluded that drag fails to convey a message, while explaining all the reasons why he’s offended by the message it conveys.”

Stern does not let Kacsmaryk off the hook there.

“From almost any other judge, the ruling in Spectrum WT v. Wendler would be a shocking rejection of basic free speech principles; from Kacsmaryk, it’s par for the course. This is, after all, the judge who sought to ban medication abortion nationwide, restricted minors’ access to birth control, seize control over border policy to exclude asylum-seekers, and flouted recent precedent protecting LGBTQ+ equality,” Stern says.

READ MORE: Far-Right Judge Under Fire for Failing to Disclose Interviews on Civil Rights – but LGBTQ Community Had Warned Senators

“He is also poised to bankrupt Planned Parenthood by compelling them to pay a $1.8 billion penalty on truly ludicrous grounds. And he is not the only Trump-appointed judge substituting his reactionary beliefs for legal analysis. We have reached a point where these lawless decisions are not only predictable but inevitable, and they show no sign of stopping: Their authors are still just settling into a decadeslong service in the federal judiciary.”

West Texas A&M University President Walter V. Wendler penned the letter that sparked the lawsuit.

Titled, “A Harmless Drag Show? No Such Thing,” Wendler wrote: “I believe every human being is created in the image of God and, therefore, a person of dignity. Being created in God’s image is the basis of Natural Law. James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, prisoners of the culture of their time as are we, declared the Creator’s origin as the foundational fiber in the fabric of our nation as they breathed life into it. Does a drag show preserve a single thread of human dignity? I think not.”

Journalist Chris Geidner concludes, “It’s an extremely biased ruling by a judge who has established that he does not care about being overturned — even by the most conservative appeals court in the nation.”

READ MORE: ‘Corruption of the Highest Order’: Experts ‘Sickened’ at ‘Definitely Bought’ Clarence Thomas and His ‘Pay to Play’ Lifestyle

 

 

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