Attention GLBT: Be Charitable–and Be Vigilant

Although the concept of micro-lending is not new, there are several organizations that have made it their sole mission to lend small amounts of money to people all over the world who are trying to improve their lives. One such organization is Kiva.  I belong to Kiva, and within that umbrella banner, one can join a host of communities whose members have something in common beside a desire to help others with their lives. The two groups I belong to are the  GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) Kivans & Friends and Maria Shriver’s Womens Conference Lending Team, and it was a Maria Shriver Tweet that led me to Kiva. Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. It’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

But over the past couple days, it has come to the attention of the GLBT group that someone has taken the rainbow diversity flag we use for the GLBT team and drawn a big, black line through it.

The Jesus Is King team Avatar on Kiva

The screenshot:  

Several member of the GLBT team on Kiva have sent letters to Kiva, a non-profit 501(3) organization. Evidently, Kiva will be having its attorneys take a look at the avatar.

The Daily Horse investigative reporting team has actually found the Jesus Is King Team Leader, and, apparently, only member, of the Jesus Is King team.

Walter Gatlin, Sr.

His name is Walter Gatlin, Sr., of Grinnell, Iowa. Gatlin is or was a Finance Manager at an auto dealer. He has posted his pro-Bush sentiments on numerous message boards, and he has evidently made a couple Kiva loans. The thing is, Walter is apparently going through some difficult times, judging by his Facebook page. The picture shown here of Walter has been cropped to remove his minor daughter. His Kiva page is here.

Several people on the GLBT team at Kiva have suggested that perhaps we should write to Walter. Maybe he was just having a bad day when he put that avatar up. Maybe he doesn’t realize that his kind of symbolism breeds hatred, violence and death to members of the GLBT nation. So, in the spirit of giving someone the benefit of the doubt, and with the hope that we will extend kindness and understanding to Walter, and make ourselves real to him, The Daily Horse will lead the way with an open letter to Walter. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll voluntarily take that avatar down and put up one that is inclusive of all mankind.

Dear Walter,

Without wanting to presume too much, it looks like you are a bit down in the dumps. Your entries on Facebook are a bit alarming, and you seem, as you put it, earlier today, “bummed.” We understand. It looks like you do a lot of things right. You are a proud parent, and a proud son. You go to church and you give to charity. You’ve joined Kiva to participate in loaning money to people around the world who are trying to better their lives.

Not everything in life works out the way we hope, but as long as we have some hope, and as long as we know somebody out there cares about us, things will get better. We’re thinking that when you put up that Diversity Flag avatar with a big line through it on Kiva, you wanted to be noticed. You wanted someone to know that some kinds of diversity you’re just not for, no way. We pretty much get, since your Kiva money goes to members of all races and creeds and nationalities, that it’s the GLBT community that you wish to exclude from your endorsement of Diversity. Or maybe you really are against Diversity, but we don’t think so. We think it’s us you don’t like. It’s not fair, but you are welcome to your opinions.

We’re asking you to take down that anti-gay avatar because it’s the kind of thing that incites hatred and violence that can lead to hard feelings, injuries of the spirit, body and soul, and, of course, death. You don’t really want us dead, do you Walter? We don’t think you do.

We’re not going away, Walter. We have a right to exist, just like you do. And we have the right to object to words, symbols, actions and laws that deny us equal protection (as anyone else) under the law of this great country. We have the right to ask that you not slander us, whether you meant to or not. We wouldn’t do that to you. And it looks like you’re changing the name of your team to God’s Truth A to Z. Of course you know there’s a “Q” in that alphabet, and a GLBT. So, it’s a fine name. But remember, it’s the avatar we don’t appreciate, not the name of your team.

C’mon Walter, be a good guy today. Doing the right thing might improve everything. Thanks.

TTThomas/The Daily Horse

reBlog from lezgetreal.com: When Gay People Get Married, An Interview With Author M. V. Lee Badgett

I’m reBlogging this: Interesting observations from someone who has researched the subject.

What some people have said is that this book is intended to be a rational approach to thinking about marriage. The problem is that the issue is not rational here because it’s all about religion, it’s all about morality. But, I think we’re entering into a new phase of the debate where people do want to know a little more about what it really looks like instead of the wild predictions or fears. Even though there’s not a majority of US people being surveyed who support the concept of gay marriage, if you add together those who support civil unions and gay marriage, that number is over 50%, so there is a growing recognition that same-sex couples need some kinds of protection.lezgetreal.com, When Gay People Get Married, An Interview With Author M. V. Lee Badgett, Sep 2009

You should read the whole article.

Author Review: Kelland by Paul G. Bens, Jr.

WARNING: This Review Contains Major Spoilers

There are several places, including the author’s own web site, where one can read the basic storyline of Kelland, Paul Bens’ new novel from Casparian Press, but I would like to talk about the novel’s theme, the nearly dream-like quality of some of the main characters, and the author’s inordinately amazing capacity and skill in awakening the dream.

There is a passage in Leviticus that serves as a references to a title I used for a Mystery I’m still writing, and the phrase is “Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering…” The title of my unfinished book (I have a couple!) is The Blood of the Sin, but after reading Kelland, by Paul Bens, I realize that our mutual Catholic upbringings have so completely informed what we write and our view of the world, and the sheath of silent shames have so quietly and invisibly covered our souls, hidden from the outside, visible at all moments to our own insides, that I felt as though I had just read a book written by my brother.  Except I don’t have a brother.  Or do I?

Kelland is a powerful, complicated story of a half dozen people whose lives are inextricably entwined with each other because of their individual and familial connections to a Roman Catholic priest pedophile. The adult’s actions, with their callous combination of sweet and salacious, forever impacts several characters’ youth, innocence and joy, and sets off a series of realities within each of the main characters that renders them either incapable or unwilling (or both) to differentiate between what is real and unreal. The characters are both the recipients and the purveyors of a fantasy generated within hearts and minds too wounded to be able to deal with the travesties committed against them (and by extension, their friends and their families) by the priest.

In a virtuoso writing performance, Bens manages to inject this story with as much hope as despair, as much innocence as guilt and as much forgiveness as accusation; that Bens is able to offer this parity, given the subject matter, is the true mark of a professional author. His characters are alive, even when they are dead, their spirits brought to life again by the people who loved them.

There is no self-pity in any of the character’s realities because, despite the terrors of their childhoods, Kelland, the multifaceted, mystical and mysterious character who visits them or members of their family, becomes the spiritual thread of near madness, salvation and vindication by which they each reach a powerful moment of clarity, confession, cleansing and catharsis. Kelland, the character in Bens’ book, is each victim’s personal manifestation of his or her very personal route to salvation.

Kelland, the concept, in Bens’ book, is the “blood of the sin offering” wherein all biblical references to blood serving as the symbol of forgiveness for sins committed converge. In the Leviticus verse, it is the “priest” who has sinned and must make a blood offering; but the brilliance of Bens’ novel is that the author knows that sins, like forgiveness, have no intrinsic parity: Each character, including the representatives of the Church, must make, or be forced to make, such an offering, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally, with neither perpetrators nor victims spared the spillage of lifeblood. The suspenseful progression of how and where their lives converge into one crystal clear vision of recognition, as they recall, remember or reenact the shameful events foisted upon them by both loved ones and a stranger, events with meaning and consequences they in turn have leveraged as weaponry against themselves or others, is a masterful manifestation of writing at its most memorable.

I cannot overstate my amazement at how Bens shows, as only one who knows could show, the unbroken chain of relatedness that impacts and affects everyone who has ever known anyone who was scarred and damaged by the complete collapse of compassion and courage that has come to be manifested in a Catholic Church guilty of such betrayals as ought never to be visited upon its young acolytes. Intended as the guiding lights and beacons of hope to millions of Catholic children, male and female, some would say the Catholic Church actually has no suitable blood sin offering that they can make to receive forgiveness.

In Kelland, the members of the Church have the unenviable ability to deny culpability in the form sacred, ritualistic gestures geared to reflect a purity of intention and effect that simply does not exist. In Kelland, there is one scene of a large gathering to celebrate the priesthood anniversary of one of their own. The cruel penance for some of the guests is that they are invited to attend the celebration of a trust irrevocably broken. The anniversary celebration unexpectedly becomes a blood offering that perhaps only a parent could exact. How fitting, and not at all without irony, that the Catholic Church should use religious ritual, prayer and the appearance of sanctity to celebrate the virtual beheading it has levied upon its victims. Bens’ tight, taut and precise writing makes this a party no one should miss.

When I first finished reading Kelland, I was overwhelmed with vague feelings of discomfort at the aura of mystical uncertainty that permeated the book. And then I realized that Bens had accomplished exactly the nearly universal feelings of children attending Mass and Catholic school—the certainty that a child has that he will never be good enough, pure enough or saintly enough to be a good Catholic or a good person in a world populated with shadowy figures of absolute and rigid authority, hiding a punishingly distorted goodness turned to evilness by Papal fiat under veils and robes, while singing and speaking a foreign language. The Dominus vobiscum (the Lord be with you) and the et cum spirito tuo (and with your spirit), as well as the Kýrie, eléison; Christé, eléison; Kýrie, eléison refrain (“Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy,”) of the Latin Mass, Catholic ceremonies, feasts and songs did not give way to clarity, confidence and comfort when the Mass began to be said in English with guitars, tambourines and drums. Because Kelland remained. And Kelland remains.  And there really is no blood of the sin offering that seems equal and substantial enough to allow forgiveness…unless, that is, one begins with oneself.

Bens and I are separated in age by at least two decades, and we quite clearly attended different eras of the Catholic Church; so his is an especially remarkable talent that he has so perfectly captured the message, the impact and the methods of a powerful force (the Catholic Church) and its chosen disciples (the priests, the nuns, other Church officials and, indeed, the congregations), that I knew, and that decades later, he, too, knew. One might be tempted to say, “Some things never change,” but that would be inaccurate. With Kelland, Bens has single-handedly put in motion a change that speaks directly to the perpetrators, the enablers and the victims in a simple, eloquent, touchingly tender way that the Catholic Church, so full of its patriarchal psychoses and its gilt-edged swords of absolute power and imparted guilt, never credibly could—or more precisely, never credibly would. Although Kelland, the character, is different things to the different people in the book, he is, above all, the sum of all the parts of each of us. The black and blue cover art for the book, by Van L Ta, conjures up the perfect shadowy realities found within Bens’ story. The book will be released 1 September 2009.

I knew Paul Bens was a very good writer a few months ago, when I read and reviewed one of his short stories here. After reading Kelland, it would not now be an exaggeration to say, without reservation, that Paul Bens is a beautiful writer. I recommend Kelland to anyone who ever had a childhood. Beautiful work…brother.

Weddings and Celebrations August 2009: Jones, Barrick

When Spencer Jones and Tyler Barrick, who married in San Francisco in June 2008, went to publish an announcement for their formal wedding reception in their hometown newspaper The Spectrum in St. George, Utah, the publisher declined to accept their paid announcement. Well, first he accepted the announcement but stipulated no photo; when Spencer and Tyler and their families balked at such a condition, the publisher decided against running the announcement at all! He called it “a business decision.”

The reception, scheduled to be held on August 22, 2009, will go on as planned. In an effort to spread the word to all Spencer and Tyler’s friends, and to mark their celebration with a formal newspaper filing, The Daily Horse has decided to run a Weddings and Celebrations Announcements Page for any member of the GLBT nation who wishes to publicize such events. We’re calling it a business decision. We will begin by reprinting what The Spectrum refused. (With major thanks to GLADD for publishing this story first).

Tyler Jerome Barrick and Spencer Kent Jones will celebrate their marriage in a ceremony on September 6, 2009, at the Rio Villa Resort on the banks of the Russian River in Sonoma County, California.  An open house and reception will be held in their honor on August 22, 2009, at 7PM, at 908 Madison Heights in Washington, Utah.

Spencer is the son of Leon and Cherie Jones, currently of Stansbury Park, Utah, and formerly of St. George, Utah.  Tyler is the son of Steven and Linda Stay of Washington, Utah.

The grooms met in St. George, Utah, in 2001, while Spencer was home on winter break from Dartmouth College and Tyler was attending Dixie State College.  The couple has subsequently lived together in Washington, DC, Tokyo, Japan, and San Francisco, California.  Spencer graduated with a B.A. in government and history from Dartmouth in 2002, subsequently obtained a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School in 2007, and currently works as a litigation associate for the international law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP in San Francisco.  Tyler graduated with a B.S. in nursing from the University of San Francisco in 2007, and he currently works as a cardiac R.N. at the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco.  Tyler and Spencer were among the first dozen same-sex couples to legally obtain their marriage license in San Francisco last year, on June 17, 2008.  The couple has made their home in San Francisco, where they reside with their dog Cooper.

Gay Tel Aviv: Faces of Love, Victims of Hatred: Rest in Peace

The two victims of the attack on a GLBT youth Center in Tel Aviv. Top, Nir Katz, a counsellor at the center, and Liz Trubeshi, not yet 17.

(Photos: Nir Katz from APF & Liz Trubechi, Tomeriko)

Nir Katz, who was murdered Saturday in the shooting attack on the gay youth center in Tel Aviv, was laid to rest in the Modiin cemetery Sunday evening.

His sister Chen lamented, “We should waive the gay flag and realize where empty hate can lead. The family fully supports the gay community – this struggle starts here.”  According to the family, Nir had been a counsellor at the center for over three years. He lived with his partner of four years.

The family members of Liz Trubeshi, almost 17, remained closed off in their home in Holon. “We are hurting and are having a hard time. It’s hard to talk about it,” said Liz’s aunt Cindy.

Liz’ classmate in the Kiryat Sharett campus in Holon said of her, “She was very quiet in class. A closed-off and introverted person. I don’t know what to say, she didn’t even turn 17. She didn’t talk about her sexual orientation but was very open on the gay-lesbian issue.”  (Yaheli Moran Zelikovich and Yael Levy contributed to this report)

Israeli Activists Speak Out

Adir Steiner, one of the central pillars in the gay community in Israel and coordinator of Tel Aviv pride events, got word of the shooting while in Copenhagen as a representative of the city of Tel Aviv to the gay Olympics. “Over the past week we have painted Israel on every possible podium as a wonderful place for homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders. This idyllic state which we wanted so badly to believe in exploded in our faces,” he said.

Steiner further stated, “At this moment I think the main thing that should be voiced is that no murderer will get us back in the closet. We shall proudly keep fighting for our right to live our lives without fear, even if today the road before us seems longer than ever.”

‘Tel Aviv bubble burst’

Steiner also added that whoever shot at youths in the center meant to burst the “idyllic bubble” that is Tel Aviv. “These shots were directed at all of us. The message is clear: Someone, somewhere is lurking, waiting for all of us with a loaded gun, wishing us dead. This is very serious and is not just a problem of the community but of Israeli society at large.”

World Press Covers Killings

The murderous killing spree on the gay and lesbian youth center in Tel Aviv received wide coverage in foreign media around the world. The Los Angels Times, which reported the incident on its website’s homepage wrote, “The crime shook the freewheeling coastal city, which has a reputation as a relatively tolerant place for gay people and focused criticism on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox religious community for calling homosexuality an abomination.” (See Daily Horse Commentary on Hate Speech in Israel here)

The British Broadcasting Corporation, which reported extensively on the manhunt after the shooter, also emphasized that the attack on the gay center was Israel’s worst hate crime against the community. Swedish newspaper Sydsvenska Dagbladet reported the incident as the headlining story on its website. (Nir Magal contributed to this report)

UPDATE: Gay Killings in Tel Aviv

(Image from Ynetnews)

Thousands of LGBT Israelis have held an impromptu march through the streets of Tel Aviv after a masked gun man opened fire at a center for gay teenagers, killing at least two and injuring more than a dozen, some seriously, late last night. Protesters held home made banners, rainbow flags and marched with their friends in an act of defiance against the kind of anti-Gay hate speech that many feel fueled this attack.

The shooter is still at large. He was possibly seen unsuccessfully trying to continue this bloodbath in a gay club nearby, the Evita, but he fled the scene.

Numerous Israeli Politicians and gay activists, as well as the police, have labelled this a hate crime. In light of this, The Daily Horse is reprinting its own commentary from earlier today.

Daily Horse Commentary:  Why Hate Speech Is a Life and Death Issue

Interesting that this event follows closely on the heels of virulent anti-Gay former Knesset member, Schlomo Benizri, having his punishment for certain criminal activities upped from 18 months to four years. A week ago, The Supreme Court of Israel rejected the former cabinet minister’s request to reconsider his sentence of four years in prison for accepting a bribe, fraud and breach of faith and obstruction of justice, of which he was convicted.

Earlier last year, Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said earthquake tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave “legitimacy to sodomy“.

Benizri made his comments while addressing a committee of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, about the country’s readiness for earthquakes. He called on lawmakers to stop “passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes.”

Benizri has a history of making anti-Gay comments, and he has been part of a larger group of ultra Orthodox politicians who have verbally harassed the GLBT community, especially during the Pride Parades.

Benizri’s lawyers requested further discussion of the matter, claiming that the court had set a new bar of harsh punishment for offenses related to government corruption.

The government essentially agreed that the punishment was harsh. But Justice Eliezer Rivlin rejected the claims, writing in his decision that while Benizri’s punishment was indeed made much more severe, it was clear that the court had been aware of the various considerations when making its decision. Rivlin stated that the Supreme Court was sometimes required to raise the bar on punishments for certain offenses when it became clear that the previous guidelines had not fulfilled their purpose.

Interesting timing. Just sayin’.

Gay and Dead in Tel Aviv

What the Newswire Said:

By IAN DEITCH, Associated Press Writer Ian Deitch, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 57 mins ago

JERUSALEM – Israeli police say a gunman entered a youth club for gay teens in central Tel Aviv on Saturday night and sprayed the interior with automatic rifle fire, killing three people and injuring 11.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said it was “most likely a criminal attack and not a terror attack.” Tel Aviv has been a target for Palestinian militants in the past.

He said the gunman burst into the basement of the Tel Aviv Gay and Lesbian Association and opened fire on a support group for gay teenagers.

Police are searching the area for the gunman, who fled the scene, he said. Roadblocks were set up.

Rescue services said six of the wounded were badly hurt.

“This was a hate crime, a premeditated attack,” witness Yaniv Weisman told Channel 10 TV. He said Cafe Noir, the basement club, was popular with youth. He said the injured were “very young.”

Daily Horse Commentary: Why Hate Speech Is a Life and Death Issue

Interesting that this event follows closely on the heels of virulent anti-Gay former Knesset member, Schlomo Benizri, having his punishment for certain criminal activities upped from 18 months to four years. A week ago, The Supreme Court of Israel rejected the former cabinet minister’s request to reconsider his sentence of four years in prison for accepting a bribe, fraud and breach of faith and obstruction of justice, of which he was convicted.

Earlier last year, Benizri, of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Shas Party, said earthquake tremors had been caused by lawmaking that gave “legitimacy to sodomy“.

Benizri made his comments while addressing a committee of the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, about the country’s readiness for earthquakes. He called on lawmakers to stop “passing legislation on how to encourage homosexual activity in the state of Israel, which anyway brings about earthquakes.”

Benizri has a history of making anti-Gay comments, and he has been part of a larger group of ultra Orthodox politicians who have verbally harassed the GLBT community, especially during the Pride Parades.

Benizri’s lawyers requested further discussion of the matter, claiming that the court had set a new bar of harsh punishment for offenses related to government corruption.

The government essentially agreed that the punishment was harsh. But Justice Eliezer Rivlin rejected the claims, writing in his decision that while Benizri’s punishment was indeed made much more severe, it was clear that the court had been aware of the various considerations when making its decision. Rivlin stated that the Supreme Court was sometimes required to raise the bar on punishments for certain offenses when it became clear that the previous guidelines had not fulfilled their purpose.

Interesting timing. Just sayin’.

More comments about the tragedy in Tel Aviv from our community at Joe.My.God.

UPDATE: Gay Sailor’s Killer Found Dead

Navy Petty Officer Jonathan Campos has been found dead in his cell at Camp Pendelton, San Diego, CA. Campos was under arrest for the murder of Seaman August Provost, who was Gay (see earlier post), among other charges.

The Navy had said there was no evidence of a hate crime, despite Provost’s statements to his family, before his death, that he was being harassed.

The Navy has declared the Campos death a suicide by asphyxiation.

No, really, the Navy said that.

The GLBT Bookshelf Is Now Open!

The GLBT Bookshelf is the brainchild of author Mel Keegan. In introducing the site to the Gay nation, Keegan, said:

“We’re a new Community of writers, artists, publishers, reviewers and readers … with a difference. We’re a GLBT Community, where the emphasis is on gay books. If you enjoy a great gay read, this is the place for you!

“Many other writers’ and publishers’ Communities are thriving on the web, but you could easily feel like the odd one out, among the children’s fiction, mainstream romance and self-improvement volumes. So many online writers’ communities have a specific category for Gay and Lesbian works, into which we’re firmly separated out. Historical, SF, military, crime, Western — no matter the real genre of the books, if they feature gay characters or interests — they’re gay. Not here. This is GLBT Bookshelf.

“The goal of this Community is to support our publishing industry, encourage writers, reach and intrigue readers, foster sales, build careers — not just in writing and publishing, but specifically in GLBT writing and publishing.”

Keegan has pointed out in other communications that what recently happened with Amazon, where scores of GLBT titles temporarily lost their rankings in a supposed programming snafu that just happened to eliminate mostly GLBT genre titles, was one of several motivations for starting the wiki.  The Bookshelf depends on member-and-friend donations and traffic to be viable.

The Bookshelf includes two authors reviewed earlier this year by The Daily Horse. Ann Somerville was reviewed here with a list of her books here, and a free sampler of her work here.   Another favorite author who shows up on the GLBT Bookshelf is Paul G. Bens, Jr, who has a full-length novel, Kelland, debuting on September 1, 2009, from Casperian Books. We reviewed one of Paul’s fabulous short stories here. 

The majority of books at the Bookshelf are available in ebook or print formats, and represent a great cross-section of available GLBT-oriented books. There is a large community of m/m writers, as well as GLBT authors and reviewers of all the traditonal genre of books, including Historical Romance, Mystery and Contemporary. So whether you are an aspiring author, a published author, a reader, reviewer, book cover artist, a publisher or someone who wants to help promote the GLBT Bookshelf as a complete destination point for the written and visual arts in the GLBT communities, please, pass it on!

The GLBT Bookshelf

Update on Gay Sailor’s Death

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seaman August Provost

Photo From Rod 2.0

U.S. Navy officials said they had no indication that the shooting death of a gay sailor at Camp Pendleton, Calif., was a hate crime.

Capt. Matt Brown, director of public affairs for Navy Region Southwest, said the military also couldn’t confirm that Seaman August Provost was harassed in the days before he was killed, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Thursday.

“There is no evidence or information that suggests this is a hate crime,” Brown said during a news conference.

Uh huh. Right.