1) The Setonian; SHU Sued
2) The Anchor; RIC Goes Gay
3) Inside Higher Ed; Athletes for gay Rights
4) The Post; OU alumnus shares story in It Gets Better book
5) ABC News; Morom ‘gay cure; study used electric shocks against homosexual feelings
6) The Inquirer; Gay priest now teaching at Penn
7) The State News; Queer and Career conference slated to be held Saturday
8) The Advocate; Miami RedHawks Promote Gay Acceptance
1) SHU SUED
Gay student claims bias discrimination in housing
By Caitlin Carroll March 23, 2011
A Seton Hall student is suing the University because he claims they removed him from his dorm room because he is gay.
Junior Jesse Cruz, who is studying public relations at Seton Hall, filed a complaint against the University on March 14 in the U.S District Court of New Jersey in Newark.
Cruz said he decided to sue the University to defend his rights as well as others'.
"I knew I had to stand up for the LGBT community and LGBT youth," Cruz said.
Cruz said in an interview that he moved into his assigned dorm room in Xavier Hall at the start of the school year with one roommate. According to the complaint filed with the court, the roommate complained to members of the Seton Hall administration that he did not want to live with Cruz because Cruz is gay.
According to the complaint, Cruz was told he had to leave his residence by Sept. 15, 2010, despite Cruz saying he was happy with his room.
According to an email sent to Cruz from Yosayra Eusebio, the residence hall director of Xavier Hall at the time of the incident, Cruz had two options: a triple room in one of the complex dormitories or the double in Xaiver.
The email said the room in Xavier would be "with a Chinese roommate."
Cruz said he refused to choose a room and was, instead, assigned one and told he had to vacate his room. However, Cruz chose to live on the floor of his friend's room for two weeks until his attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, sent a letter to Seton Hall.
Cruz said after the University received the letter, they moved him back into his original room and moved his roommate out.
"The University abides by all state and federal laws related to its students and treats all members of its student body with respect and dignity. In this matter, the University acted in accordance with its policies and procedures and those laws," University spokesman Greg Tobin said.
According to the complaint, Seton Hall's roommate policy allows students who are unhappy with their room assignments or roommate(s) to leave their original room and choose another room, as long as that room had an open spot.
On the Seton Hall Housing and Residence Life calendar, this is referred to as "Room-Change Day," which took place on Sept. 15, 2010.
However, according to the Housing Terms and Conditions of License agreement, "The University…reserves the right to move a resident from one room to another when the University determines, in its sole and absolute discretion, that the move is in the resident's best interest or those of his/her fellow students and/or the University's."
Additionally, the agreement states the University has the right to reassign residents during the semester in order to consolidate vacant spaces and to increase room occupancy.
"Seton Hall University provides a rich and diversified educational experience for its students, both in and out of the classroom," Tobin added. Eusebio, who has since left the University, and Tara Hart, the director of Housing and Residence Life, both declined to comment and referred any questions to Tobin.
Cruz said he decided to move forward with the lawsuit even after getting his old room back because he "didn't want this to happen to anyone else, ever."
"There's not a day in my life I don't think about it," Cruz said, adding, "I walked around feeling worthless."
Cruz added he had never had a problem with discrimination from the Seton Hall community before and had never had any problems with previous roommates.
Cruz is suing for violation of the New Jersey law against discrimination, discrimination due to sexual orientation, violation of the New Jersey Fair Housing Act, breach of housing contract, negligent hiring, training, supervision and retention of employees and negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Cruz is asking for compensatory damages and punitive damages as well as attorney fees and the cost of the suit.
"This is not a lawsuit for two weeks worth of lost rent, this is a suit for the discrimination against a person based on a sexual orientation," Arnold said. "It's a violation of his rights as a human being."
"We as parents send our children to college and usually that's the first time they're out on their own," Arnold added. "They shouldn't have to cope with despicable acts of irresponsibility thrust upon them by the…college nor should they have to waste money to hire a lawyer to protect them from irresponsible members of staff."
Cruz is asking for a trial by jury, according to the court document.
Caitlin Carroll can be reached at caitlin.carroll@student.
2) RIC Goes Gay
BSWO Rallies for Marriage Equality
By Jackie Morgan; March 29, 2011
On Wednesday, March 23 during free period on the quad, students from the Rhode Island College school of social work partnered with representatives from Marriage Equality Rhode Island to host a rally supporting marriage equality in the state.
RIC's school of social work has been involved with MERI for a little over two years. The rally was a result of a macro project that many social work students were working on. The project dealt with civil rights being denied to people who are attracted to the same gender.
The rally was hosted by both representatives from MERI and RIC's school of social work students. The rally was advertised through Facebook, flyers, student activities briefs and word of mouth. Despite the cold weather that day, the rally received a good turnout of both students and faculty, from both RIC and the public. About 100 people attended. The rally provided lunch for participants. The representatives from MERI also brought shirts, buttons and bumper stickers with them which they handed out to attendees. Rhode Island College's interactive circus group, EPIC, performed and provided entertainment for the event.
Students and faculty were asked to support the passing of the H5012 bill which supports civil marriages for same-sex couples. The bill was introduced by Reps. Handy, Fox, Ajello, Ferri and Ruggiero in January. MERI is hoping to have the bill passed by June.
Participants at the rally were asked to call representatives and ask for support of the bill and also to pledge to support the representative for supporting the bill. The representatives from MERI brought pre-paid cell phones for participants to use. At one point there were ten people in line waiting to use a phone.
One speaker at the rally, Sen. Donna Nestlebush, is a lesbian who has been fighting for the H5102 bill since January. Following Nestlebush's speech, Rep. Frank Ferry informed the crowd that he and his partner have been in a civil union for 30 years.
Ferry also pointed out that Rep. Gordon Fox is gay, as well. He said that it is hard to combat a public that is against homosexuality but even harder to combat co-workers and friends who support you as a person, but vote against you in the senate.
Following Ferry's speech Jenny Norris, a RIC senior in the school of social work, who has worked alongside MERI, testified as to why she chooses to support the passing of the H5102 bill.
Many attendees felt very strongly about the issues addressed at the rally. Keyshla Melendez, a sophomore and biology and economics major, said she attended the rally "because I am gay and support gay marriage."
This was the case for many of the people in attendance.
3) Athletes for Gay Rights
— David Moltz; March 30, 2011
Hudson Taylor, who graduated last year from the University of Maryland at College Park, was adominant force in college wrestling. He is a three-time All-American, tied for fifth in career pins in the all-time National Collegiate Athletic Association record books, and holds the school record for career wins at Maryland. Now assistant wrestling coach at Columbia University, Taylor said that he hopes to become best known not for his wins on the mat, but for taking a stand against homophobia and transphobia in sports.
Taylor, who is straight, founded Athlete Ally a few months ago as “a resource to encourage athletes, coaches, parents, fans and other members of the sports community to respect all individuals in sports, regardless of perceived or actual sexual-orientation or gender identity or expression.” As of Monday, more than 2,000 individuals have signed Hudson’s Athlete Ally pledge, “to lead my athletic community to respecting and welcoming all persons.”
Hudson’s nonprofit organization is one of the few of its type supporting the acceptance of gay and lesbian athletes, particularly those playing at the intercollegiate level. There are few openly gay and lesbian athletes in the NCAA’s high-profile Division I. Last year, however, Kye Allums became the first openly transgender Division I basketball player when he came out as a member of the women’s team at George Washington University.
And though Allums’s coming out was accepted by the George Washington community and created little stir after basketball season began, LGBT athletes and coaches still face significant difficulties. Take the case of Lisa Howe, a women’s soccer coach at Belmont University, who was reportedly pushed out last year after revealing that she is a lesbian and her partner is having a baby. While there are out lesbians in college sports, there are very few out gay men, particularly in Division I teams and others that attract the most attention.
Hudson said he hopes his organization and the pledge can help change attitudes about gays and lesbians in sports — a community he admits has not always been accepting of those who are different — one individual at a time.
“The athletic community is a diverse one and there are many different layers to it,” Hudson said. “This pledge is aimed at anyone that’s involved in sports in any way. Sports have the potential to reach people at an early age about what is and what is not acceptable. For instance, today’s coaches were yesterday’s athletes. Athletics is not one-dimensional. As someone in the wrestling community, I’m just trying to reach as many people as I can and get people to join the discussion on this issue.”
Hudson became a straight advocate for the LGBT community while at Maryland, where he majored in interactive performance arts. He said witnessing many of his classmates in the theater department come out changed him. Getting to know members of the gay and lesbian community personally did not gel with the kind of homophobic language and rhetoric being used by his wrestling teammates in the locker room across campus.
“I felt like I had the ability to do something about it,” said Hudson of the language he heard. “That’s when I started trying to talk to my teammates about their word consciousness and how they speak to each other and other people. That kind of homophobic language has become so normalized for athletes of my generation that most times those slurs are not meant specifically as words of hate. Like saying, ‘That’s so gay’ or something. That’s a huge problem that needs to be overcome. My teammates and friends just weren’t conscious of the effect their language could have on others.”
Hudson became noted for his activism while wrestling at Maryland. He wore a Human Rights Campaign sticker with its trademark equal sign on his headgear during matches to promote the cause of LBGT acceptance in athletics.
Now that Hudson’s career as a college athlete is over, he said he hopes he can make a difference by turning Athlete Ally into a growing resource for gays and lesbians in search of accepting teams and institutions. For example, if athletics administrators or coaches at an institution sign the pledge, Hudson plans to list it in a searchable database on the website.
“Some LGBT athletes are scared to participate in sports because they don’t know if they’re going to have a friend in this fight,” Hudson said. “I think a database like this can help reach out to more athletes and get more people [whether straight or gay] to sign on as Ally Ambassadors.”
There is still plenty of difficulty in coming out for today's college athletes. A gay sophomore on the men’s gymnastics team at a Big Ten Conference institution who spoke on condition of anonymity — because he has yet to come out to his teammates — said he hopes that by signing the pledge he can help create a community in which gay athletes feel comfortable coming out. He explained that, at his institution, many athletes in sports like gymnastics feel the pressure to express straight qualities to avoid being stereotyped as gay.
“It’s a very simple thing,” the gymnast said. “The idea is that when people stop using homophobic terms and language that it’ll create a movement of acceptance on campus. This is an issue I’m passionate about, so I’m glad to help, especially since most people don’t know where to look for resources.”
Julie Beer, women’s lacrosse coach at Centre College, in Kentucky, is one of the many athletics administrators to have signed the Athlete Ally pledge. Beer is a lesbian who said she felt comfortable coming out when she was an athlete at Clark University, in Massachusetts. Still, she said she felt compelled to sign the pledge to help other athletes who may have more difficulty.
“I know that if I had to go through it again and my team had turned on me, that coming out would have been much worse for me than it was,” Beer said. “But, even now, behind closed doors, I know that college athletics still needs to improve. People need to feel more open than they do now. Athletics is all about respect.”
Beer said she has spoken with two female athletes at Centre who are closeted and afraid to come out.
“I know one student-athlete whose friend came out and then that girl’s friends just cut her off,” Beer said. “The student-athlete has the same fears everyone goes through. ‘What if they do that to me as well?’ Also, I know another student-athlete who is afraid to come out because she wants to pursue a path in coaching and is worried it might hold her back.”
Beer said that the situation at Belmont worried her and other coaching colleagues, including one who she said “was pushed further back in the closet” by the incident. Still, she said she hopes her participation in Athlete Ally will help encourage more acceptance of LGBT individuals in college sport.
“It’s just about having the confidence to do it,” Beer said of coming out. “That’s what this is all about, giving more people that confidence.”
4) OU alumnus shares story in It Gets Better Project book
Jessie Cadle
Raised in conservative Delaware, Ohio, by a Pentecostal minister father, Dwayne Steward learned that being gay is an abomination.
When Steward heard of the It Gets Better Project, he posted a video to YouTube to add his perspective. He will now be the sole Ohio representative in the project’s new book, released last Tuesday.
“I was thinking of what I would say to my 15-year-old self … that little gay black kid,” said Steward, a 2007 Ohio University alumnus and formerPost employee.
“Just letting him know it’s going to get better. You’re not the only one.”
“Just letting him know it’s going to get better. You’re not the only one.”
After a series of suicides among gay teenagers in the past year as a result of bullying, syndicated columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller created the It Gets Better Project. The project aims to show lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teenagers the vast potential their lives have after their teen years through YouTube videos posted by anyone who wanted to share their story.
The project gained clout as President Barack Obama, TV host Ellen DeGeneres, British Prime Minister David Cameron and other users posted more than 10,000 video messages with more than 35 million international views. Steward posted his video, and it ended up on the homepage of the project with more than 4,800 hits.
“I was really inspired by the videos,” said Steward, a writer and gay rights activist in his hometown. “I wasn’t really seeing any African-Americans being represented or anybody in small towns, so I just wanted … to put that voice out there.”
To continue the message, the project published the book It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living on March 22, which features expanded essays from select contributors, including Steward.
“I’ve been getting responses from all over the world congratulating me and thanking me for my actions,” Steward said. “It’s unexpected … it’s just validating.”
Steward’s video focuses on his struggles as a black teenager who was mocked for acting feminine as he grew up. He gave a shout out to his time spent at OU, where he came out and became involved in the LGBT Center.
“Ohio University is a really open community, and the LGBT Center was just an amazing resource for me,” he said.
Steward helped start the student organization SHADES for multicultural and multiethnic LGBT students. He has since started Queer Corner, a website that discusses LGBT news and culture.
“I’m very excited for Dwayne,” said Mickey Hart, director of the LGBT Center. “LGBT students do great things beyond when they’re here … that’s why we love to have alumni visit campus.”
Steward credits SHADES for providing a support group for him and helping him discover his own personal identity.
“Being gay is just like having a different hair color, it’s just another facet of that person,” he said. “It’s not what defines them … it’s just another part of who they are.”
5) Morom Gay Cure study used electric shocks against homosexual feelings
John Cameron
John Cameron said he was a naive and devout Mormon who felt "out of sync" with the world, when he volunteered to be part of a study of "electric aversion therapy" in 1976 at Utah'sBrigham Young University.
Twice a week for six months, he jolted himself with painful shocks to the penis to rid himself of his attraction to men.
"I kept trying to fight it, praying and fasting and abstaining and being the best person I could," said Cameron, now a 59-year-old playwright and head of the acting program at the University of Iowa.
"I was never actively gay, never had any encounters with men -- never had moments when I failed and actually had sex with other men," he said.
But his undercurrent of feelings put him in direct conflict with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS) and its principles.
"As teens we were taught that homosexuality was second only to murder in the eyes of God," he said.
"I was very, very religious and the Mormon church was the center of my life," said Cameron, who had done missionary work in Guatemala and El Salvador.
The 1976 study at Brigham Young, "Effect of Visual Stimuli in Electric Aversion Therapy," was written by Max Ford McBride, then a graduate student in the psychology department.
"I thought he was my savior," said Cameron, who enrolled with 13 other willing subjects, all Mormons who thought they might be gay, for a three- to six-month course of therapy.
A mercury-filled tube was placed around the base of the penis and the students were shown alternating slides of men and women in various stages of undress.
When participants responded to images of men with an erection, the closed electric circuit was broken and they received three-second electrical shocks at 10-second intervals. Each session lasted an hour. Participants set their own pain levels.
Cameron said his shame was so deep that he selected the highest level.
"Max didn't do it, we did it," he said. "I was always turning it up to get the most pain because I was desperate."
Homosexuals were seen as a "prurient, expendable population," according to Cameron. "To admit homosexuality in 1976 was the kiss of death. You could be targeted, lose your job, lose your income, lose everything."
And those weren't the only attempted cures that were used in that era. Others allege they were given chemical compounds, which were administered through an IV and caused subjects to vomit when they were stimulated.
Psychologists confirm those harsh experiments were used in a variety of medical settings by scientists of all faiths.
Church officials say they no longer support aversion therapy, but a generation who grew up in the 1970s say they have been scarred for life because of well-intentioned attempts to change their sexual orientation.
Today, the church still steadfastly opposes homosexuality, as witnessed by the millions of dollars in support it gave to pass California's Proposition 8, which would amend the state's constitution to outlaw gay marriage.
Carri P. Jenkins, assistant to the president of BYU, confirmed that McBride did study the effects of aversion therapy in the 1970s. She said the experiment was an "outgrowth of the behaviorist movement, which believed that any behavior could be modified.
"Our understanding is that most behaviorists no longer believe this is an appropriate treatment for those who are seeking change," she said.
Jenkins said other universities at the time used similar techniques, and none of this type has taken place at BYU since then.
"The BYU Counseling Center never practiced therapy that would involve chemical or induced vomiting," she said.
Today, therapies are all "mainline therapeutic approaches," according to Jenkins, and all faculty are expected to be licensed and programs accredited.
The university, which is owned by the Mormon Church, said its policy on homosexuality is in line with Mormon doctrine -- today's students are not disciplined unless they engage in sexual activity, and that includes heterosexual sex before marriage.
"BYU will respond to homosexual behavior rather than to feelings or attraction, and welcomes as full members of the university community all whose behavior meets university standards," said Jenkins. "Members of the university community can remain in good standing if they conduct their lives in a manner consistent with Gospel principles."
Cameron, who is now openly gay, wrote a play about his shock therapy experience, "14," which includes much of McBride's controversial dissertation. "I think we need to know the story, to learn from it."
The show, which explores his struggle with coming out, opened at University of Iowa in 2007, Kent State University in 2009 and is being performed at the University of Colorado in Boulder in October.
"They thought they were doing something to help me," he said of the experiment. "I can't fault them for that. But now that they are educated, now we know homosexuality is not a choice, people are born this way. The church doesn't still have to be threatened by homosexuality."
ABCNews.com left two telephone messages for McBride, who is now a psychologist in Provo, Utah, but there was no reply.
Cameron had dated girls at BYU and even been engaged a couple of times, but said he always knew those relationships were doomed to failure.
But when he met McBride -- "a nice man, who didn't really know how to deal" with his student's same-sex feelings -- Cameron confessed his struggle and asked for help.
McBride's alleged response ended up in Cameron's play: "No one is a homosexual. Homosexuality doesn't exist. It's just a symptom of a deeper problem you are not willing to deal with."
Cameron said he was deemed a success and was "desperate" enough to believe the therapy worked. But he said it pushed him "deeper and deeper into [my] own closet."
After the study, Cameron said McBride suggested he wear a rubber band on his wrist and snap it if he had inappropriate thoughts. "I got the thick ones so they would hurt more," he said. "Some days I would come home and have bloody wrists."
Connell O'Donovan, who now works at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told ABCNews.com he was sent to BYU in 1976 for vomit therapy, but couldn't go through with it.
BYU said its counseling services never conducted such treatment, but O'Donovan counters that he was evaluated by Joseph Smith Family Living Center, another service on campus.
In 1986, he said he volunteered for "extremely debilitating hypnotherapy" through another Utah counseling center, He said a Mormon intern hypnotized him, splitting him into "Gay Connell" and "Straight Connell."
"He then had me visualize Jesus coming down through the ceiling and utterly destroying Gay Connell to dust and then 'a mighty wind' blowing all the dust away," said O'Donovan. "This is the single most emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually crippling experience of my entire life."
"Some 18 years later I am still healing from that traumatic "therapeutic" experience," he writes in a 2004 essay on his journey.
ABCNews.com asked officials at LDS offices in Salt Lake City to comment on O'Donovan's allegations.
"This is a sensitive topic for all parties involved," said Jessica Moody, an LDS public affairs associate
She referred to official statements on homosexuality on their web site.
It states: "The Lord's law of moral conduct is abstinence outside of lawful marriage and fidelity within marriage. Sexual relations are proper only between husband and wife, appropriately expressed within the bonds of marriage. Any other sexual conduct, including fornication, adultery, and homosexual and lesbian behavior is sinful. Those who persist in such practices or influence others to do so are subject to Church discipline."
Charles Silverstein, a clinical psychologist with New York City's Institute for Human Identity, said every psychiatric and mental health organization opposes aversion therapy.
Silverstein was recently given the American Psychological Association Lifetime-
"There is no treatment for homosexuality today in the professional community," said Silverstein. "All of them are on the record as saying that homosexuality is within the normal range of human behavior."
Of his clinical patients over the years, he said those who were Mormon "suffered the most."
"It's really a very tight community," he said. "The advantage of a tight community is that it offers a lot of support when needed. This disadvantage is control and they exert a lot of control. They do a number on people."
David Melson, president of the advocacy group Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons, said anecdotal information suggests suicide rates among gay Mormons may be higher than in the general population.
Affirmation collects data from multiple sources, including The Trevor Project, the American Psychological Association and ER physicians
"It is very hard to track this sort of thing because family members, the church and well-intentioned hospital staffs will often tend to not report a death as a suicide," Melson said.
LGBT youth in general are at greater risk for suicide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"It's not just child suicides, but adults in a culture that's built so much around family and marriage and eternal families," said Melson.
"The Mormon doctrine is built around a plan of salvation -- that the earth life is only a small part of your life," Melson said. "You live before and continue to live on through eternities and continue to grow and progress as mortals. Progression depends on family relationships and procreation and gay people can interrupt that pattern of procreation."
Jason Conner, 26, said he struggled with gay feelings while serving in a leadership role on his Mormon mission in Florida in 2006.
"I was suicidal," he said. "I couldn't live with the pressure. I was feeling so unholy." He said he was sent to "conversion therapy" in Orlando where for a year he was told if he practiced his faith and prayed, feelings of same-sex attraction would go away.
"I had a rubber band that I would flick every time I thought about it," he said. "Whenever I would see a man, I would have to picture myself in a bathtub full of worms."
Though therapy lifted his depression, he said he was set on a disastrous path: He was to move to Utah, within six months find a girl and then six months later, be engaged. Conner enrolled at BYU and made it to the engagement, but then broke it off.
ABCNews.com called LDS Services for comment on Conner's allegations, but no one returned the phone call.
When Conner finally left the church, he said he was alienated from friends and family.
"I had devoted so much time to this culture," he said. "I didn't know any non-Mormon people. To lose so much was pretty rough."
Since then, he has come out and works for Soul Force, an LGBT group that fights religious and political homophobia.
"I feel lucky my experience wasn't so severe," he said of the therapy. "They still do a lot of in-your-face exorcisms and hold people down and spit on them. They teach you how to be a man and hold you down and pass the demons out of you."
David Pruden, who is president of Evergreen International, which provides referral services for Mormons struggling with same-sex attraction, said that he had heard about severe techniques used by fringe groups.
"Every once in awhile we hear about them," he said, "But we don't refer to anybody like that. ... Things like that scare me and it's about people who don't have much training doing amateur stuff.
"All those things are based in self-loathing and self-punishing and are counterproductive," Pruden said. "Our main goal help person come to sense of peace."
Church doctrine is "rigid" and "clear," he said, but extends "love" and support to those who need help. Evergreen recommends counseling services that use a variety of talk therapies.
"People who are motivated and have faith seem to deal with [same-sex feelings] in varying degrees of success," Pruden said. "The bottom line is, if you are at peace with yourself and God, that will help you to get where you want to go."
Pruden, who is a Mormon bishop in his ward, said ex-communication is a last resort after probation and several other steps of reintegration into the church have failed. It is equally applied to sins of heterosexuality as homosexuality, and it is the behavior that is judged, not the thoughts, he said.
"The problem comes at the point when your life becomes so incongruent with the obvious values of the church and it becomes difficult for the church," he said.
"It's a very painful process of losing your membership," Pruden said. "There is a heritage of love attachment that happens to Latter-Day Saints. ... There is a lot of hurt and I feel for those people."
As for Cameron and others who survived the therapies of the 1970s, depression and guilt followed.
Cameron said he bought razor blades and contemplated suicide, but never had the courage to kill himself. He eventually left the church.
"It was a Catch-22," said Cameron. "If you prayed hard enough and wanted it hard enough, God would answer your prayers. But when nothing happened, it was our fault. We didn't want it bad enough or didn't pray enough. You didn't win."
But he doesn't blame the church, one that he says is "quintessentially American."
"The Mormon Church gave me a great deal," he said. "They gave me the high standards that I still live by. They gave me an attitude that I can accomplish anything within my ability if I work at it."
After coming out in graduate school and later embarking on play writing, Cameron said he still missed the sense of community and rituals.
"Even after leaving the church, most ex-Mormons will tell you, you carry this life-long connection to it -- every time you hear the hymns."
But today, just as his protagonist in "14," Cameron said his demons have finally been purged.
"The hymns stopped playing in my head," he said. "I finally let go of it all."
6) Gay Priest now teaching at Penn
RONNIE POLANECZKY, March 31, 2011
Father Jim St. George, the Chestnut Hill College adjunct professor who was fired in February for being gay, has moved to the Ivy League.
St. George is co-teaching a course on religion, social justice and urban development at the University of Pennsylvania with Penn urban-studies professor Andrew Lamas, who offered the position to St. George after hearing of his travails.
"It feels good to be teaching again," said St. George, pastor of St. Miriam Old Catholic Church in Blue Bell. "The students are great, and I am thrilled at the chance to delve into subjects I care deeply about. I'm grateful."
In the aftermath of the firing, St. George, 45, became a local cause célèbre for gay rights and was also outed as a former felon convicted of fraud two decades ago. St. George said his conviction was no secret and that he often used it as an example in classes about the power of redemption.
St. George, who was elevated to the position of monsignor Sunday, also has been invited by Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill to lead a discussion there called "Human Dignity, Human Sexuality and the People of God: A Conversation."
The event is scheduled for May 10.
- Ronnie Polaneczky
7) Queer and Career conference slated to be held Saturday
Asley Brown; March 31, 2011
Helping LBGT students transition from college to corporate America, the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, orLBGT, Resource Center and the Career Services Network will host the first Queer and Career Conference on Saturday.
The conference is a way for students to gain information firsthand from professionals in their respective fields, said Sarah Glassman, conference co-coordinator.
“LBGT students face a different treatment in the workplace,” she said. “There is a lot of consideration that goes into decisions around careers for LBGT students, and I think one of our main goals is to kind of help students realize that.”
The conference will be held in Snyder and Phillips halls from 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with an address from Riley Folds, the founder and director of OUT for Work. The event also will offer a variety of workshops to cover topics including queer people of color, LBGT mental health and gender expression in the workplace.
In addition, legal and employment issues pertaining to the LBGT community will be discussed, said Deanna Hurlbert, the assistant director and LBGT Resource Center liaison in an email.
Although federal laws constantly are changing, few people are aware of the fact sexual orientation and gender identity are not included in federal employment nondiscrimination laws, she said.
“For lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender and queer persons, there are questions of physical and emotional safety,” she said. “Questions during the job search process of whether or not civil rights afforded by different states and municipalities (and) if same-sex partners can access benefits through employers … (are important to ask).”
Acting as an ally to the conference, the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations supports the practice of good workplace atmospheres, said John P. Beck, an associate professor and director of the Labor Education Program.
“Life is better, perhaps, than it was … 20 years ago on this kind of issue, but it still can be a very, very chilly climate in certain kinds of workplaces,” he said.
Although the conference officials plan to help LBGT students transition, it also will offer an opportunity to start a dialog and get questions answered, Hurlbert said.
“(This conference will offer) tons of opportunities to just talk about concerns and ask questions (that) will help students prepare for and manage their anxieties,” she said. “This event creates networking opportunities that are critical for everyone looking to establish or advance their career.”
8) Miami RedHawks Promote Gay Acceptance
Winston Gieseke, April 2, 2011
NCAA scoring champ Andy Miele says the tragic death of Brendan Burke has enlightened his hockey team’s awareness of gay issues.
While homophobic slurs are kicked around as freely as a football on many sports teams across the country, Miele says there’s no place for such hatred on Miami University's RedHawks, according to an article onOutSports.com. Having cherished and then lost their openly gay student manager, Brendan Burke, a year ago in a car accident, members of the Miami (Ohio) hockey program say they’re not afraid to hit the showers with a gay teammate or speak out against homophobia.
“One stereotype that people have about gay people is that they’re predators and they’re going to come on to straight guys,” said defenseman Chris Wideman. “But the one thing I learned from Brendan is that’s not how it is. The idea that a gay guy is going to force himself on you in a shower is totally unrealistic.”
Miele, who was named the 2011 Player of the Year for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, was close friend of Burke’s and remembers nights out dancing with his gay friend at a local bar. An outspoken supporter of gay acceptance both on and off the field, Miele isn’t concerned about negative reactions from other athletes or fans.
“If someone wants to look down upon me because of my feelings on this issue, that’s their loss,” he said. “You play hockey because of the way you play it, not because of your outlook on certain issues.”
Read the full article here.
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