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Out of Two Closets: Gay and Wiccan

In our first podcast, Life on Q interviews Christopher Penczak, a gay man, a witch, a teacher and the author of 12 books on Wicca. Christopher discusses what it’s like to come out of two closets–as a gay man and as a witch. He talks about how homosexuality is viewed by the Wiccan community, and what queers and witches have in common.
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For more information on Christopher’s book, Gay Witchcraft: Empowering the Tribe, see a description and reviews here.   Or click here to buy Gay Witchcraft from Outwrite Bookstore.

Visit Christopher’s Website

Visit Christopher’s MySpace page

Learn more about pagan religions at The Witch’s Voice, a site recommended by Christopher.

‘Faith In America’ Calls for Repeal of DADT

Faith in America, Inc., an advocacy organization fighting to end “bigotry disguised as religious truth” toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered persons, is calling for an immediate repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and the passage of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act (HR1246)through Congress.

The press release, issued on October 23rd by the organizations executive director Jimmy Creech went on to say, “General Peter Pace recently declared homosexuality to be “immoral,” based on his religious upbringing. Such misguided denunciations in the name of God are not new. In the past, slavery and racial segregation were said to be “ordained by God” and women were denied equality with men because “God made them to be man’s helpmate, not man’s equal.” The Bible, it was claimed, said so.”

“[This]is a powerful statement just released by “Faith in America” and Jimmy Creech regarding the repeal of DA/DT,” said retired Army Colonel Paul Dodd, a member of SLDN’s Military Advisory Council. “I am extremely grateful to Jimmy and his wonderful organization for issuing this statement, and for their bold and courageous initiatives on behalf of the entire lgbt community.”

You can read more about Faith In America and their efforts on their website here.

-Jason Knight

Posts from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network are published via RSS from SLDN’s From the Frontlines. Support SLDN here.

On Being Queer and Iranian: A Real and Dangerous Existence

Arsham Parsi is proof positive that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not only wrong, but knows he is wrong. There are homosexuals in Iran, of course. And gay Iranians suffer from much more than a public denial of their existence. Beatings and executions are legal remedies for even the mildest display of homosexual behavior. Arsham knows the dangers of being Iranian and gay firsthand. Arsham fled his country and is now exiled in Canada, where he is Executive Director of the Toronto-based IRanian Queer Organization – IRQO (formerly called the Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization – PGLO).

With his permission, Life on Q is sharing Arsham Parsi’s story of his own exile and the torture of his friends and fellow Iranian queers. You can learn more about his and other LGBT Iranian experiences of persecution on the IRQO Website, including many disturbing photos and accounts of torture and execution. You may also support IRQO’s efforts to raise awareness, promote community and provide assistance to queer Iranian refugees and immigrants with a donation.

I Was Forced to Flee Iran

By Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, IRQO

I was born in September 1980, in Iran. As a teenager growing up in Shiraz, I was lonely and filled with self-loathing. I had never met another queer, and I thought I was a freak. I prayed to become a good person, a normal person. Other people fasted for one month, but I fasted for three. Then I found the Internet. And I discovered that I was not alone.

After that, I started to understand who I am and come to terms with my sexual identity. I began to do advocacy work for the queer community in Iran, but my work earned me the attention of the Iranian authorities. I was forced to flee Iran on March 4, 2005. It was 12:45 pm. I have never forgotten that time. I had to leave all my own things in my motherland and go into exile. It was intolerable.

My train took me to Turkey, where I was able to register as a refugee at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ankara. I had stopped praying by then. When I fled to Turkey, I promised my God that I would continue my support for Iranian queers and that would be my form of worship. Three months after arriving in Turkey, my case was accepted, and two months later I was invited to the Canadian Embassy in Ankara. Eight months later, here I am in Canada.

Homophobia runs deep into Iranian society. It reflects a patriarchal social system in which sexuality is controlled and feared, except when at the service of reproduction. Of course, it also reflects the influence of the conservative Islamic legal and religious standards promoted by the government. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini notoriously called for homosexuals to be extirpated as “parasites and corruptors of the nation” who “spread the stain of wickedness.”

Before I fled to Turkey, three of my closest friends committed suicide because of their sexual orientation. More recently, Iranian police arrested two gay men in their 20s for hosting a small house party. The men received 80 lashes each; I doubt that I would be able to endure one. I admire their courage. After getting his punishment, one of the men asked the person who executed this inhuman sentence whether he felt closer to God by this savagery. Their lives, like many if not all the other LGBT persons in Iran, is miserable.
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Washington Post: Maintaining Ban is Shortsighted & Unjust

This morning’s Washington Post includes an editorial from the paper calling for repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The Post still holds the record for the most pro-repeal editorials; the paper’s editorial board has demanded an end to the law more than a dozen times. (Just a few of the other Post editorials can be found here, here, here and here.)

Responding to the recent story about the military posting recruitment ads on an LGBT website, The Post writes that, “Since 1993, more than 11,000 people have been discharged from the services because of their homosexuality. Of those, 800 were in positions deemed ‘mission-critical’ by the Pentagon. Those would be combat engineers, medical professionals and linguists (58 of whom spoke Arabic) — the very people the Army, Navy and Air Force were looking for when their job postings showed up on GLEE.com, which stands for Gay, Lesbian & Everyone Else.”

“The whole sorry episode,” the paper concludes, “highlights the absurdity of the ban on openly gay people in the military. Israel, Australia, Britain and 21 other countries have no problem with gays and lesbians serving openly in their armed forces. With its military stretched to the breaking point, the United States should follow their wise lead. That it doesn’t is as shortsighted as it is unjust.”

We couldn’t agree more.

You can send a letter to the editor applauding this morning’s editorial by emailing letters@washpost.com.

- Steve Ralls

Posts from the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network are published via RSS from SLDN’s From the Frontlines.

Support SLDN here.

Jim Neal Out for NC Senate Seat

North Carolina businessman Jim Neal is taking on Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole for U.S. Senate, and as of this weekend, he’s taking on homophobia as well. In an online discussion Saturday on BlueNC.com, Neal responded to a comment that he is rumored to be gay by saying, “I am indeed. No secret and no big deal to me– I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think otherwise.”

The story was picked up by DailyKos on Sunday, and was the subject of an AP story published on the Winston-Salem Journal’s website yesterday.  Even USA Today posted the story on its breaking news blog.

According to the Winston-Salem Journal article, Neal is the only Democrat who has so far entered the race for Dole’s seat, even though Democrats feel the Senator is vulnerable because of her support for the war in Iraq and because she was running the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the party’s general beating in the 2006 mid-term elections. The Congressional Quarterly listed her seat as one of the five most vulnerable in the country, yet Democrats are reportedly wary of signing up for what promises to be a very expensive campaign. Already declining to run are Attorney General Roy Cooper, Gov. Mike Easley, U.S. Rep. Brad Miller and two state legislators.

Enter Jim Neal, a Democratic fundraiser and founder of The Agema Group, a Chapel Hill-based corporate financial advisory firm. A North Carolina native, Neal returned to his home state last year. With many of the higher profile contenders opting out, it will be interesting to see if the national and state Democratic parties will help fuel Neal’s run. Even though he announced he filed his papers for candidacy on October 4, as of this writing, Jim Neal is nowhere to be found on the North Carolina Democratic Party’s list of 2008 candidates. On the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s Website, a news search turned up no results for Jim Neal. Ditto on the DSCC’s blog.

Does Democratic establishment’s silence on Neal’s candidacy reveal an admission that they do not believe Dole is defeatable? Is it a defiant shunning of a candidate new to the political scene who is apparently not a “chosen one?” Or worse still, does Democratic denial of Neal’s candidacy show their true colors when it comes to the politics of homosexuality? Perhaps the Dems want our votes, our contributions and our service, but they do not want queer participation in politics.

Coming Out is a Personal Decision with Public Consequences

It’s National Coming Out Day—a time when closet doors swing open to shed light on the obstacles and opportunities that come with being honest with yourself, your friends and family about who you are. Coming out can be dangerous. Empowering. Life-changing. Relationship-altering. And incredibly freeing. Sometimes, it’s a political statement. Often, it simply results from fatigue. The energy it takes to censor your pronouns and obscure the details of your social life is exhausting. Occasionally it’s accidental. An e-mail is read, or a phone call is overheard. Usually, coming out is not a single event. There’s no press conference, no formal statement. It’s a process that may start with a mother, and then repeat with a co-worker, or a childhood friend. At least that’s what it was for me.

A gay man once shared with me a great analogy for the coming out process. At first, the closet door cracks open. In the light that streams in, you start to look at the queer world, and think about what it might be like, or how you feel. Soon, you open the door to the closet and enter the bedroom. It’s your first homosexual experience. It might be with a friend for whom your feelings became overwhelming. Or it might be a trip to a gay bar or festival, where you actively seek an outlet for the desires that are becoming more powerful, and less and less deniable. Soon, you realize that there are many others like you, and you seek out support and friendship with people who will not judge you. Moving out of the bedroom into the living room, you begin to build a social circle full of those who share your secret.

Some people choose to stay inside. They’re out of the closet, out of the bedroom, but not comfortable going outside. Others feel so locked in by the secret that eventually, they come out into the world. For some, it destroys family relationships or threatens a career. For others, it brings a sense of freedom that is hard to describe. Taking off that heavy, oppressive cloak of denial, fear and lies is exhilarating. The load is lighter. Self-respect and confidence grows. When you are true to yourself, even in the face of fear and prejudice, you are truly free. This must be what if feels like to be heterosexual. There’s nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. At least, that’s what my personal coming out experience was like.  Would you like to hear it?  Read on.

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The Danger in Senator Craig’s Own Private Idaho

Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), who pled guilty to disorderly conduct after being arrested during a sex sting at a Minneapolis-St. Paul airport men’s room, had his request to rescind his plea denied by a Minnesota judge today. Shortly after, Craig issued a statement indicating that he has no intention to resign. This after his widely covered resignation effective September 30, delivered on live TV over the Labor Day weekend.

The issue of his resignation, desired by many in his own party, is not the most important aspect of the Senator’s story. More important is the reaction to the misdemeanor revelation from his Republican colleagues. It is more likely that Republican opposition to Craig’s continued tenure is rooted in homophobia, not concern about a misdemeanor arrest and guilty plea.

More interesting still is his inability stick by his publicly stated decision(s). According to CNN, Craig said he would resign from the Senate if he could not get the guilty plea withdrawn by the end of September, then later said he would not make a decision until after the court’s decision on reversing his guilty plea. No matter their personal positions on homosexuality, are the people of Idaho not concerned that they are represented by a man who has not followed through on his decision, nor remained consistent in his public comments about what he has decided?

Sen. Craig is certainly living in his own private Idaho. A place where married men with suppressed homosexual desires can justify voting against the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act. A place where a man who pleads guilty to cheating on his wife with stranger in a men’s bathroom can self-righteously vilify the sexual behavior of others, as he did during President Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky scandal. A place where you can promise whatever you want, then do the opposite. The senator should resign–not because he pled guilty to soliciting gay sex, but because he has publicly demonstrated a lack of honesty and commitment when it comes to what he says he has done and will do. Sen. Craig, isn’t it time you got out of that state you’re in?

Gay History Month is Officially Underway

Gay History Month is officially underway, and leading publishers serving the queer community announced their second annual Gay History Project, a series of feature articles that will run in more than LGBT-oriented newspapers, according to the trade magazine Editor & Publisher. The project’s founder and coordinator, Philadelphia Gay News Publisher Mark Segal, told Editor & Publisher that the combined circulation of the papers set to print the articles is more than 700,000, making it the largest queer media promotion in the history of the gay press.

Participating publications include the Philadelphia Gay News; Dallas Voice; Windy City Times, Chicago; Between The Lines, Detroit; Bay Windows, Boston; Frontiers, Los Angeles; Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco; Seattle Gay News; Metro Weekly, Washington, D.C.; Out Front Colorado; insideOut of Nashville; The Gay People’s Chronicle, Cleveland; QsaltLake; Vital Voice of St Louis; the Gazette, Tampa; and Out and About of Tennessee.