Category: Gay Pride

This little light of mine…

On By PaxIn Blame Sannion, Community Building, everyday, Gay Pride, remembering, Samhain, Unitarian Universalism, witchery3 Comments

Dear Friends,

So in the last couple of weeks I had seen multiple announcements for the LGBT Youth Candlelight Vigils here in Orlando on the 20th and 21st… for LGBT Teen Suicide Awareness Day on the 20th.   I committed to going to the Lake Eola vigil.  There was also one the next night at UCF…

As a part of these vigils, and apparently as a general part of the LGBT Youth Suicide Awareness day on the 20th folks were encouraged to wear Purple.  Now a lot of times when something like this happens you hear all sorts of encouragement to wear a color and show your support… and folks will change the color of their blog or post a new profile pic… but you don’t hear as much about getting off your butt and marching or sending in your money… and as an aging queer and Witch… well, I can get a bit ornry…

No, I am not going to wear purple, nor am I going to put purple on my facebook profile, what I am doing is going to a candle-lit vigil for glbt youth suicide awareness and I am going to re-commit to voting against homophobia…

~ Pax’s rather ornry Facebook profile from a few days ago…

I was there as a Gay man who had been bullied in High School over his orientation, or rather perceived orientation since I was only partially out to even myself at that point.  I was also there as a Witch, who has finally set aside some of his why-not-to-do-stuff for his why-the-hell-not, and is working on his will and Will.  I was also there to support my friends from the 1st Unitarian Church Orlando, including my friend Sister Ambrosia Discordia of the Orlando Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (Ambrosia happens to be a member of the 1st U, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have no formal relationship with the U.U.A) and our new settled Minister Reverend Kathy Schmitz.

There was a long time where people were simply mingling and talking.   Reverend Kathy spent some time networking with some of the other religious leaders in attendance.  I was kind of odd man out for a while, although my bright pink “Tough Guys Wear Pink” T-shirt did bring some nice compliments!

What!?  I had to wear something.  If for no other reason, because most folks would NOT appreciate me in my altogether/ Bear-on-the-half-shell glory.  Besides you don’t have to wave a rainbow flag to, well, wave the rainbow flag!

As darkness fell and the crowd began to grow as people found parking near Lake Eola Park, or got to the park from wherever they had found parking, some folks began lighting candles they had brought with them and some of the Come Out Orlando vollunteer’s (the group that had put the event together) distributed their candles for the vigil.  It was at this point that it was a pleasant surprise to see members of the Downtown Orlando Circle of the Sublime Elm, and the Orlando G.L.B.T. Pagan’s and Witcbes Meet-up groups in attendance.  I said hello and introduced them to some of the folks from 1st U and to the Sister’s.

Then there was an all too quiet speech, must look for an microphone/bull-horn for the kids at Come Out Orlando… then a lovely and very interfaith prayer from a young lady wearing a clerical color against a lovely lavender shirt.  Then we marched…

Oddly enough, it was the first time I marched in something other than a Pride parade.  Gay Pride, we Pagans don’t have our own parades yet… at least not public ones that I am aware of.  ANYHOW, I had been in protests before but I don’t think I have ever marched before… and since this was a candle-lit vigil it had more of a spiritual/processional feel to it.

It was quite lovely, and a good renewal of my inner activist and my will and possibly my Will.

Peace,

Pax / Geoffrey

We Have Dreams Too…

On By PaxIn Gay Pride, Highest Ideals, Pagan Pride, Religio-AmericanaLeave a comment

So I was mucking around on Facebook and was turned onto this by Willow Witte from Join The Impact.  It’s a portion of a speech given by President Barack Obama at the NAACP’s Centenial Convention…

Some folks commented on the Facebook some things along the lines of “Why not now?”

I responded with…

“Presidential, or High Court, rulings are meaningless until we can get a clear majority of support across the Nation. Not that it wouldn’t be NICE mind you…. but still…. head to head, heart to hear, one on one until Freedom truly rings for us as well.”

I truly believe that.  The struggle for Civil Rights, whether for GLBT rights, or for Freedom of Religion, is not one that will be won solely through the declarations or rulings of law; Civil Rights and Equality will come about when our neighbors and friends and co-workers have an understanding of who and what we really are.

Whether the “we” is Queer or Pagan Truth is our sword and our shield in this struggle.

In looking through the net about Obama’s Speech I have also just found out about the National Equality March

Our One Single Demand:

Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states. We will accept no less and will work until it is achieved. Equality Across America exists to support grassroots organizing in all 435 Congressional Districts to achieve full equality.

Equal Protection encompasses many issues, including:

  • Repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) so that every marriage in every state has the same federal rights.
  • Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell so that LGBT persons may serve in the military openly and with the same rights as their straight counterparts.
  • An end to workplace discrimination for everyone with an Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that protects everyone.
  • The right to adopt children and raise families like any other parents.
  • Hate Crimes legislation that includes LGBT people and protects us like any other targeted group.
  • Immigration reform that recognizes same-sex couples and ends the needless separation of families.

Our philosophy:

As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.

~From the Equality Across America website

Veritas, Justitia, Libertas,

I Invoke You,

Uncle Sam and Columbia,

I Summon, Stir, and Call Ye Forth,

Let Freedom Ring with the words

“Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”

So Mote It Be!

Solstice Musings June 21&22 2009

On By PaxIn everyday, Gay Pride, Solstice, The Gifts of Giving1 Comment

Dear Pagans,

So on the day of the Solstice itself the Big Guy had roped me into helping our friends Jolly and Canita (Note: Names changed to protect me from Canita!) move into their new house.

In some ways it was not at all unusual to be working hard in record setting heat, sweating underneath the Solstice Sun. There was then a bit of an impromptu Pool Party at their new house to thank all of us for the moving help.

Monday I was able to take a bottle of wine into the back yard and stand beneath the Summer Sun… breathing in the warm and heavy air I focused my mind and spirit on the Seasons of Solstice and Gay Pride, and upon the Spirits of Summer and Life, and of the ‘ancestral’ Spirits of my Queer Predecessors, and Dionysus and Antinous. I took a few moments to breath into my connections to these many Spirits of the Season; then I poured my libation of wine unto Them and poured myself a glass to also toast Them and I was able to light a single stick of incense before my lighter ran out of fuel…

Then, later that night, it was off to dinner with the same group of friends who had helped to move J & C…

Not a bad way to spend the Sabbat!

Peace and a Happy Solstice to you all!
Pax

Why aren’t more Pagans speaking out for GLBT rights?

On By PaxIn everyday, Gay Pride, Highest Ideals4 Comments

Now I realize that I can hardly have viewed the entirety of the Pagan blogosphere or news stories related to Paganism… yet it seems to me that except for a few blog posts there hasn’t been a lot of discussion in the Pagan world of GLBT rights and the whole Gay Marriage issue.

There have been a few personal posts, excellent ones, but where are the statements from some of our national organizations and Churches and Groves and Hearths and Friths?  As far as I can tell CoG is one of the only National Pagan organizations to speak out in favor of Gay Marriage.

Hrafnkell at A Heathen’s Day blog recently posted an excellent and detailed refutation of an anti-GLBT rights article.  It is one of the few detailed examples I have seen from Pagan Bloggers writing to refute the absurdist arguments put forth by the Fundamentalist Right.

Is it fear of speaking up or we’ll be next?  Cause we are already next on the hit-list of the Fundamentalist Right, have no doubts about that!

Perhaps we of the Pagan community are working in other ways, as members of other communities and through political rather than religious community.  I’d like to believe that…

Peace,

Pax

!UPDATE!

~12/15/2008~

In the spirit of synchronicity, I post this post and then Jason over at The Wild Hunt, posts an excellent article on how the current debate on GLBT Rights and Gay Marriage completely ignores points of view outside of the Christian so-called mainstream.

I was also rather neglectful in not mentioning Tracie the Red’s own recent blog posting of video of the John Stewart/Mike Huckabee discussion about Gay Marriage.

Sorry about that Tracie!

Peace and more later kids!

Pax

Reacting (more constructively) to the Election and Anti-GLBT votes…

On By PaxIn An Important Message..., Community Building, Cross-roads, Day One, everyday, Gay Pride, magick, Pax's Beliefs, Religio-AmericanaLeave a comment

I am a Patriot, an Idealist, and a Witch.  I find myself overflowing with hope in the promise of America.  Optimism that through the efforts of committed hardworking people the world can be changed.   Barrack Obama’s election proves that.  There were volunteers in all 50 states canvassing and calling and working day in and day out to reach out to their fellow Americans in support of their cause.  It worked.  Yes, as a matter of fact, they could!

Even as I experience the wrestling match of emotions between elation at the results of the election, and grievous disappointment at the results of the anti-GLBT ballot innitiatives, I know that I can either sit sullenly and complain or I can do something about it.

As a Witch my Goddess has been giving me my marching orders for years now…

“Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it;
let nothing stop you or turn you aside.”
~From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente

I just didn’t have the compass until now.  While I am not a rich man, I am , on occassion, an eloquent and sometimes even persuasive one.  I am impelled to use my words and my Will in the cause of justice and equality.

I have seen how the grass roots efforts of the Democratic Party and Obama’s vollunteers has changed the world; we in the GLBT community can do nothing less.  I should do nothing less.

To that end I have started a new blog…

Gay Marriage (or something like it)

I am still working out some of my thoughts and feelings… and trying to figure out where to start my research… I think I shall have to track down the writings of Dr. King.  I also need to reach out to like minded souls.

Thus I have created a companion Yahoogroup to go along with the blog.  Here is the group description…

This group is founded upon the belief that Marriage, and all other GLBT Rights are Civil Rights issues.

This is a place for discussion, planning, sharing, and mobilization. Let us form a grass roots movement towards the end that we will see Gay Marriage (or something like it) in all 50 States in our lifetimes.

While national organizations like the HRC and GLAAD have helped GLBT people make great strides over the last 30 years or so, the elections of 2008 have shown us that we need to do more. The victory of President Elect Obama is instructive. He took his message to every corner of our great Nation and mobilized thousands of people in support of his cause. We the GLBT people can do now less in our efforts to reach out to our fellow Americans, calmly quietly and consistently speaking our truth so that, in the end, it is We The People who stand up for GLBT Civil Rights!

If this sounds like something you’d like to be involved in bookmark the other blog and join the Yahoogroup.

Peace, and Equality,

Pax

As Goddess is my Witness…

On By PaxIn everyday, Gay Pride2 Comments

Hello folks,

The Big Guy and I are in our 30’s and given the current lifespan we have 30 to 50 years left together. I would like to spend at least some small portion of that time married (or something close) to the man I love. The thing is that Prop 8 passed in California, and Amendment 2 passed in Florida. Marriage as One Man – One Woman is becoming the law of the land in many states. Two of my dearest and oldest friends are no longer legally wed, though they have been together for well over a decade.

I could say a lot right now, about how hurt I feel, or how disheartening this is. I could reference the discussion my Partner and I have had about moving to Canada; comparing and contrasting the thriving economy and the legality of Gay marriage and the affordability of health care Up North with the much more dismal situation here in the States. (and before someone starts I would HAPPILY pay higher taxes to ensure health care for myself ~ as it is I have spent most of my adult life with no insurance or health care at or below the poverty line, I AM the working poor that the candidates like to talk so much about, so don’t start with me!)

I could question why so many denominations of Christianity and Judaism, among other Religions, that have no problem whatsoever with Gay marriage are NOT filing suit against such laws as violations of their Constitutional Freedom of Religion?!?

I could discuss at length the irony present (and my personal outrage) in the fact that some of the same people who helped organize these laws against gay marriage were, until yesterday, supporting an Adulterer and Oath breaker as their Presidential Candidate. Oh, all-right, actually here I will indulge a little…

If John McCain chose, freely and of his own will to break his marriage oath to his first wife and to his God, why in heavens name should I trust him with the Presidential Oath of Office?

(and, again, before anyone starts with me, I wondered the same blessed thing about President Clinton during that whole semen-stained Lewinsky debacle only I wasn’t blogging at the time, just mouthing off)

I could spend a lot more time on any of those topics, and have briefly but therapeutically vented on one of them, but no more. I would only get needlessly upset and distracted from my cause.

That cause is Civil Unions, or Domestic Partnerships, or what-ever-you-wish-to-call-them-but-I-want-them-A.S.A.P! I want to see some legal rights and protections for Gay and Lesbian couples and I will cheerfully move heaven and earth and to see it happen in my, and The Big Guy’s, lifetime!

Peace, Love, and Damn the Man!!

Pax

Gay Days and other things…

On By PaxIn Dionysus, everyday, Gay PrideLeave a comment

So, Gay Days at the Magic Kingdom was Saturday. This combined with the fact that Late June is the first of Florida’s Wine Grape Harvests means its a good time to Honor and remember Dionysus, Lord of Revelry and Responsibility. June also marks Gay Pride, so I am choosing to Honor both Dionysus, and my Queer heritage and Honored Predecessors (my own idea for honoring Queer ‘ancestors’) in late June.

We set out at about 8 or 8:30 and our first stop was to Burger King for Breakfast, a
Disney outing tradition my Partner, our roomate, and I have.
Then to the Magic Kingdom. We took it easy this year, it was extra
hot, and also we’ve done a lot of the rides. We did Thunder Mountain
Railroad, and Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribean was down for
repairs (sigh) we did our usual Carousel of Progres visit, and for
the first time went to the Hall of Presidents.

Later in the day we connected up with some friends of ours and we
changed plans midstream, going out to dinner and then meeting our
friends back at our house for cocktails and an impromptu pool party.
A couple of gay couples and some drinking a laughter… a good way to
celebrate the new holiday! (new for me anyhow)

Later on, after everyone had gone or gone to bed, I poured a
libation. Lacking wine, I used the strongly mixed Malibu and Diet
Cokes that most of us had ended the day with.

There will probably be a few more somethings for Dionysus and the Honored Predecessors this month…
not sure what yet….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have been slacking a little in my writing and reading, but after this evening I have a couple of days off and I will be renewing my momentum then. I really have gone into what I used to think of as my Mid-Winter hibernation/introspection/quiet-time mode this Summer. As I have mentioned before the rythms of MidSummer down here in Florida is rather reminiscent of Midwinter in Alaska… you hunker down in your house, spend as little time as you have to outside (with a few exceptions) and you look forward to better weather ahead.

I am still sorting out some of my feelings about the virtue of Beauty, and my own looks. I am thinking about the next essay Strength, and my relationship with that particular Virtue.

In other news, I have recently started trying to add the Iron Pentacle exercise as outlined in Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorn Coyle. It is exhilarating and a little unnerving to be doing something new with my energetic work, the Iron Pentacle is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I find myself wondering if this is a Solitary thing, or a your-mileage-may-vary, or a little bit of both?!

Also, I have been playing around with the theme for this blog, the pic in the banner is actually from Alaska of a river valley outside of Anchorage that I’ve been camping in.

Peace,

Pax

~~~~~~~~ Links of Interest~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lakeridge Winery ~ Vineyard and Winery outside of Orlando, FL.; it was somewhere on their site that I first found information about Florida’s grape harvests…