PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE – June 18

communitygroups

Speakers, advocacy now part of P-FLAG chapter's work

by Steve Schildcrout

Youngstown-Ten years ago, when the Youngstown health department's riskreduction (AIDS) coordinator was trying to organize a gay men's support group under a "respectable" name, he affiliated his group with the national P-FLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) organization.

Since then the group has broadened its membership to actually include parents, families, and friends, as well as lesbians and

others committed to furthering P-FLAG's threefold mission of support, education, and advocacy.

family relationships, or whatever people want to talk about. In trying to educate ourselves, we have guest speakers at Our support function is the main activity chapter meetings and an extensive library at chapter meetings from 3 to 5 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month at the annex of Christ

for our members. To educate our community, we Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays maintain a speakers' bureau that has provided our speakers to church groups, social clubs, and classes at area high schools and Youngstown State University.

CRELAS

Church Presbyterian on Hopkins Rd., at Canfield Rd. on Youngstown's south side. In a supportive and confidential environment, we discuss aspects of coming out,

AIDS Taskforce staffers receive excellence award

Cleveland-The AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland's Services Department announced June 8 that two of its staff have received the "Social Work Excellence Award," granted by the Ohio Department of Health.

Dana Burke, LSW, and Katherine O'Brien, LSW, were honored for their case work with management

people with HIV and AIDS at the Taskforce. In addition, O'Brien received the "Professional Services Award" for all of Northeast Ohio.

"The case managers at the Taskforce have some of the highest caseloads in the state,"

professionals such as Katherine and Dana with us, as well as the other case manage-

AID S

ment and service staff in the department. It's an honor that many social workers in the HIV/AIDS field deserve."

The AIDS Taskforce serves 718 people in its case management program, and the entire consortium for the region serves just over 1,000 people living with HIV or AIDS. Caseloads approach almost 200 people for full-time social workers at the AIDS Task-

TASKFORCE force, though most social work

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said Taskforce director of client services Ed Gemerchak, “so maintaining good client services under such pressure is no easy task. We are fortunate to have dedicated

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With help from Judy Maruszan and the Cleveland-area Safe Schools Are For Everyone, we and the university's LGBT student group recently organized a program that drew 125 people, including school personnel, to YSU to hear Heather Sawyer, a lawyer from Lambda Legal Defense, and other speakers address the

Falwell

Continued from page 8

transgendered Christians you reject.

For ten years we've been collecting samples of your dangerous and misleading rhetoric against homosexuals. We have file drawers filled with your antigay massmailings to raise funds and mobilize volunteers. We have audio and video collections of your antigay sermons and your antigay radio and television broadcasts.

Coupled with your regular appearances on Nightline, Geraldo, and Larry King Live, and your ability to attract media attention (as you did with Tinky Winky) you have become one of the nation's primary sources of misinformation about homosexuality and homosexuals. You are saying things about us that are not true-terrible things with tragic consequences in our lives and in the lives of those we love.

Please, Jerry, hear your own words about segregation and apply them to gays and lesbians. You once told me, "In Bible college, the Scriptures had been perfectly clear about the equality of all men and women, about loving all people equally, about fighting injustice, and about obeying God and standing against the immoral and dehumanizing traditions of man."

The Scriptures are still clear about the equality of all men and women. The Scriptures are still clear about loving all people equally. The Scriptures are still clear about fighting injustice and standing against the immoral and dehumanizing traditions of man. Why can't you apply those Scriptures to us instead of the six verses you misuse over and over again to clobber and condemn GLBT people?

For years you supported the "immoral and dehumanizing traditions" used to persecute people of color. Then, finally, the Spirit of Truth set you free. Now, you are a supporter of "immoral and dehumanizing traditions" used to persecute homosexuals. Please, Jerry, let the Spirit of Truth set you free again.

Thank you for meeting with me last year to hear the evidence that we are God's children, too, but it was obvious during our meeting (and in your avalanche of antigay rhetoric that followed) that you were not taking that evidence seriously.

problems of anti-gay harassment in the schools and the laws that deal with it.

Our efforts in advocacy include communication with our representatives in Columbus and Washington, letters and interviews for local newspapers, and participation in statewide events such as the Equality Begins at Home lobby day in March.

We are trying to help build a more active and supportive network in Youngstown of GLBT people and the family members and friends who care about them. If we can't solve problems, at least we want to make them easier to face.

For contact information, see our listing under "Community Groups” in the Resource Directory in the back of this paper.

Steve Schildcrout is the co-president of Youngstown P-FLAG.

Today, I begin a series of open letters to you reviewing the evidence one more time. Where I am wrong, correct me and I will confess my error. I hope you will do the same. Let this be a genuine public dialogue. I'm hoping that together we can negotiate an end to your tragic misinformation campaign against us.

If you refuse to hear the evidence, or if you insist on continuing your false and inflammatory rhetoric, then we will have no other option but to mobilize people of faith across this nation to conduct a serious nonviolent direct action against your untruths in the spirit of Gandhi and King.

In this series of open letters, I'm going to do my best to summarize the psychological, psychiatric, scientific, medical, historical, personal and biblical evidence that demonstrates clearly that homosexuality is neither a sickness nor a sin. I'm putting all this material together one more time in the hopes that God will change your mind and heart about us. In the meantime, you learned that it wasn't data that changed your mind about segregation. It was knowing its victims and sharing their suffering.

How many lesbian or gay people do you know, Jerry? Have you invited closeted gay or lesbian members of your staff and congregation to tell you what it feels like to be ridiculed and condemned endlessly by their pastor? Have you invited closeted gay or lesbian students at Liberty University or Liberty graduates to share the pain your endless attacks have caused them?

We know at least one gay student who killed himself after being expelled from your university because of his sexual orientation. Your eyes filled with tears when you thought of a black man lying unattended in a Lynchburg hospital. How will you feel when you finally realize that you have been the source of even worse suffering in the lives of those you love and serve?

Please, Jerry, read Chapter 11 of your autobiography once again. After years of blindly and enthusiastically supporting segregation, you heard God's voice, admitted your error, and changed your ways. Now, after years of blindly and enthusiastically supporting anti-homosexual ignorance and bigotry, will you stop long enough to hear God's voice again? ♡

For more information: www.soulforce.org www.melwhite.org or RevMel@aol.com.

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