A group of wingnut bigots has been picketing Lucille's, a Johnstown gay bar for the past several months. The group's leader, self-styled Anabaptist Preacher Ron McRae, has an illustrious career of hating everyone from Catholics to Mormons to everyone's favorite group, the homos. From the City Paper report, it appears McRae worships at the feet of Fred Phelps.
The pickets began the first weekend in July, and have taken place on Friday or Saturday nights. There have been at least seven so far, and McRae has attended most, along with four to 10 other protesters. McRae did not respond to a request for comment.
?Some of the women [patrons] are very upset ? [picketers] call them hogs,? Schnur says. And the preachers? group has targeted one slim male patron with, ?Hey, skinny boy, do you have AIDS?? he adds. They?ve also brandished a sign reading ?Sodomites, burn in hell.?
Christianity in action, folks - demeaning and slandering people. Good to know Jesus is in their hearts.
The bar's owner, Tom Schnur, has worked with local police and the Human Relations Commission to contain the protestors, carefully trying not to add wind to their sails. Here's hoping boring the protestors will prove fruitful.
Every single day for the past month (or more) someone has found their way to this little blog by typing the keywords Yarone + Zober + Gay into various search engines. MSN, Yahoo, Google, Ask.com, Dogpile ... you name it, they've surfed here ....
The answer is I don't know. He was recently married and is, according to MacYapper, now getting divorced and living temporarily with Jim Ferlo. Does that make him gay? Nope. Does it make him not gay? Nope. Do I think its worth contemplating? Not particularly.
But PghLesbian is now like the Magic 8 Ball on homo issues. I get all sorts of strange inquiries looking for gay data on assorted Pgh notables ... asking about assorted Steelers, state and local politicians, media mavens, and sometimes an actually openly gay person. And many, many such inquiries on Rick Santorum.
Stop trying to put all these uncomfortable heterosexual people in our closet! You spawned them, you have to learn to live with them. Don't kick them to the curb and think we'll be happy to take them in. Not every homophobe is a self-loathing closet case. Sometimes they are just jerks who should know better.
Emilia Lombardi, Pittsburgh trans-activist and good friend of the Correspondents, made history this year as one of the first trans women to openly participate in the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. As we've reported in the past, the Michigan festival has historically excluded those who are not woman born, inspiring trans women and their allies to establish Camp Trans outside the festival to promote awareness of trans inclusion issues in women only spaces.
Organizers of Camp Trans, the annual protest across the road from the festival, say that every year at least one trans woman at Camp Trans walks to the festival gate with a group of supporters, explains that she is trans, and tries to buy a ticket. In past years, the festival box office has produced a printed copy of the policy and refused.
"This time, the response was, 'cash or credit?'" said Jessica Snodgrass, a Camp Trans organizer and festival attendee who spent the week reaching out to supporters inside the fest. "They said the festival has no policy barring any woman from attending."
The woman purchased her ticket on Wednesday and joined supporters inside the festival. Another trans woman, Camp Trans organizer Emilia Lombardi, joined on Friday to facilitate a scheduled workshop discussion on the recently-retired policy.
"This kind of discussion has happened before inside the fest," said Lombardi. "But for the first time in years, trans women were part of the conversation. Over 50 women shared their thoughts about what the inclusion of trans women means for the Festival and how we can move forward."
"We didn't expect to change anyone's minds in the workshop - but in the end we didn't need to. The support we found was overwhelming."
Both trans women say they were moved by how friendly and supportive other festival attendees were.
Camp Trans will continue with the goal of continuing to promote awareness and provide supports for trans women attending the festival as well as working with camp participants to educate future attendees on transphobia.
I must say I am delighted! The Correspondents have differed over this issue with regard to attending the festival. And I think this is part of a larger shift in dynamics in the queer women's community. This past weekend, the New York Times featured an in depth look at the receptivity (or lack thereof) of the "lesbian" community to transgender women. Women have intensely personal reactions, especially to women born women transitioning to men. The complexity of gender and sexual orientation is a struggle, tapping into old insecurities about the reality of being a woman in our society.
I suspect, however, that its also a generational issue. Just as younger generations are more comfortable with the mere existance of multiple sexual orientations, I believe the younger queer generation is more comfortable with the fluidity of gender and less threatened by the paradigm shift.
But, as one Camp Trans organizer puts its, this isn't about winning a battle.
"This is not about winning," said Snodgrass. "It's about making our communities whole again. The policy divided people against each other who could be fighting on the same side. We want to be part of the healing process."
That's where the dialogue needs to go, most especially here in Pittsburgh where there is a huge generational divide in the queer women's community. As recent events in City Hall demonstrate, women cannot afford this divide. Obviously, Jim Ferlo and Bob O'Connor find much in common with a 31 year old so surely we can find ways to connect our 40 and 50 something lesbians with the 20 somethings queer women. More on this later.
Back to Emilia. She rocks and does a lot of good stuff here in Pittsburgh for the queer community as a whole. We are very lucky that the University of Pittsburgh snatched her up and brought her to us. And how very cool that she used her access to Michigan to get down to work on education and awareness.
Shakespeare's Sister has a great post up on recent violence against the LGBTQ community and the ensuing lack of coverage in the mainstream media (h/t Pam's House Blend)
It seems that the MSM is more intent on manufacturing "epidemics" that affect the average yinzer than covering actual violence being intentionally perpetuated on a specific class of persons.
How little it takes to whip up the media into an exploitative frenzy, all in the name of ?protecting? us. How little it takes to move our Congress to pay attention to an issue and pass legislation to ?protect? us. (Which is, of course, ever an excuse to limit our rights, but they nonetheless claim it?s about ?protection.?) One or two incidents, or, sometimes, just an imaginary scenario of what might happen. That?s all it takes.
But in the course of two months, there have been at least six vicious attacks on the LGBT community, and the media is silent. And Congress, well, they were pushing for an amendment to deny equal rights to same-sex couples. Their focus was ?protecting the sanctity of marriage.? They?re more concerned with protecting an institution, an abstract concept, than protecting people.
When churches throughout the South were being burned, it was national news. When a hate crime at Seattle?s Jewish Federation claimed the life of someone the other day, it was national news. And it should have been, in both cases. But an epidemic of hatred against the LGBT community in this country is not garnering the same attention?even as Congress pursues discriminatory legislation and courts are ruling against challengers to marriage inequality.
Think there?s a correlation?
The anti-gay hysteria that?s leading to an epidemic of hate crimes against the LGBT community is constantly being inflamed by the GOP?s use of gay rights as a wedge issue, their use of anti-gay rhetoric, their exploitation of anti-gay sentiment. And even with people being attacked and their homes being burned, the Dems can?t be arsed to take a bloody principled stand. And the media doesn?t care. They?ve finally got a real epidemic on their hands and it?s utter silence.
Does our local media care? The PG gives us a reasonable amount of gay positive stories on a range of social, political, religious, cultural issues etc. Talk show hosts John McIntire on KDKA and Lynn Cullen on WPTT give ample coverage to LGBTQ community issues.
But the PG rarely covers national issues or pulls these items from the AP (if they make it there). It does seem like we get caught up in the gay marriage or gay ordination issues and lose track of the very real violence we face on a day to day level. And no one locally has taken a critical look at the impact of the GOP fueled anti-gay hysteria. I wonder if the media sat down and talked with Betty Hill at Persad or Jim Fischerkeller with the GLBT phone line or the Pittsburgh Transgender Support Group or the Thomas Merton Center or GLSEN, if there is a hint of consequences from the ongoing anti-LGBTQ assault vis a vis the rethuglicans?
I just returned from a weekend in Chicago which required a long drive through Ohio and Indiana. How sad that I have to censor myself in an Ohio rest stop because the homophobia emanating from that state makes me wary of a confrontation if someone discerns that Ledcat and I are a couple. Do you know what that feels like, to have to make sure I don't accidentally say "honey" or don't touch her in a way that betrays our relationship? While I doubt we'll get jumped in the restrooms, who wants to be called a fucking dyke or worse on their vacation? It makes Pittsburgh look positively progressive in comparison (before the Irish mafia takeover).
