INTEGRITY
GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM
c Integrity 1976 ISSN: 0095-2184
Vol. 2 No. 9 August-September 1976
INTEGRITY: GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM is the official newsletter of Integrity, Inc., a nonprofit religious, charitable, educational, and literary organization of Gay Episcopalians and our friends. Integrity, Inc. maintains a national office with The Rev. Ron Wesner, President, 5014 Willows Avenue, Phila., PA 19143, tele. 215-748-2118. Membership and subscription correspondence should be sent to Forum Business Manager, Dave Williams, INTEGRITY, P.O. Box 891, Oak Park, IL 60303, tele 312-386-1470. Editorial correspondence should be sent to Louie Crew, 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030, tele. 912-825-7287.
Signed articles represent the views of the contributors. The editors reserve the right to revise all sexist language.
Copyright 1976 by Integrity, Inc. 10 issues per year. Membership subscriptions are $10; subscriptions without membership are $12. Add $3 for all subscriptions that require plain envelopes; Canadians add $2 if paying in Canadian currency. Couple rates are $13 for one newsletter.
Editor-in-Chief................................... Louie Crew
Business Editor............................... David Williams
National President....................... The Rev. Ron Wesner
National Vice President........................ John Lawrence
National Treasurer.................... The Rev. John Lenhardt
Trustees: Ernest Clay, Louie Crew, Julie Peterson,
The Rev. Richard Younge
Consultants:The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, The Rev. Robert W. Cromey, The Rev. Norman Pittenger
Member: COSMEP - Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers
COLLECT FOR INTEGRITY
Almighty God, you have promised to fill the whole world with the light of your Holy Spirit. By the power of that same Spirit, free us we pray from all false prejudice, error, and delusion; lead us to embrace and joyfully to bear witness to your truth; and grant us boldness constantly to proclaim your love for all people, with Integrity of purpose and Dignity of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. AMEN
From "A Eucharist for the Second Annual National Convention of INTEGRITY, INC."
INTEGRITY'S SECOND NATIONAL CONVENTION
By Tom Peters
San Francisco. INTEGRITY's second national convention met here at historic Trinity Church on August 6-8 to elect a new (interim) president, hear Malcolm Boyd's much-awaited keynote address, and give Barbara Gittings an award for her long service to the Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement. Other speakers included Dr. Louis Crompton of the University of Nebraska; Paul Mariah, a San Francisco poet; and the Rev. Clinton Jones, Canon of Christ Cathedral, Hartford, CT.
Ron Wesner, an openly Gay Episcopal priest who was forced to resign an Oregon post because he is Gay, was named interim president by acclamation. He is currently on the auxiliary staff of St. Mary's, Hamilton Village, in Philadelphia, site of the 1977 INTEGRITY convention.
I am a prisoner,
You are a prisoner;
Prisoner of the world inside us,
Prisoner of the world outside us.
Paul Mariah
Trying to "hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches," Canon Jones, preaching at Grace Cathedral on Saturday, with Bishop Myers present, said: "As we are a family [we should] feel at home in this cathedral." Thereby welcoming those assembled in the Diocese of California, he declared, "The truth will make you free ... although we are much oppressed." He continued: "There have been many who have been disenfranchised.... Here in San Francisco this weekend another minority meets ... concerned about its integrity.... The gay liberation movement [needs] to broaden itself ... so that we can find what human sexuality means.... We feel that we have that right.... We do not want somebody behind us holding us back, ho]ding us down.
"Dependency [only] creates anger [and] individuals are free.... Freedom ... is in the hearts and minds of the gays ... but the frustration remains.... We see how the Church has dealt with women's right.
"San Francisco, 1976: ... a call for freedom, and reinterpretation.... This is why we are in this cathedral this morning.... 'If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed.'"
FR. MALCOLM BOYD
Malcolm Boyd and I conversed and laughed together while walking down the hill to Trinity Church afterwards for his keynote address, the cable cars being out of commission. There he made public his next book, to be out next year, Am I Running With You, God? He openly wept as he recalled the unfulfilled love of a priest for a monk, reading a letter published in his Book of Days. He was strong and daring as he said:
"The Church must cease to deny love to Gay people. As the institution called to follow the way of Jesus, the Church must not bottle up and repress the love of God. It is the Church's primary function and calling to incarnate and manifest the love of God in the world and human life.
"It is a negative scandal of the Gospel that so much of the life of the Church, that claims to be the Body of Christ, denies this love by its actions.
"When some people, even invoking the name of God, set up barriers in the way of others, refusing to see them ln God's image unless they conform to their particular image of who they should be, these people deny their own humanity even as they try to strip it from others to whom they deny love.
"Much of the Establishment religion must accept itself as standing judged by this, in terms of how it has justified its treatment of Blacks, Gays and others, according to the limitations that it attempted to place on God's act of creation.
"INTEGRITY is a part of the Church. Its members are members of the Church. As I have studied various INTEGRITY chapters ln different parts of America, and come to know the people who comprise them, I have come face to face with a starkly real Christianity, sometimes almost primitive in its absence of emphasis on materialism, the very real peril in which some of its members live, and its lack of socio-cultural respectability.
"The villainy and the nonsense, the outrage and the ambiguity, of the treatment of Gay people within our society must cease -- absolutely, finally, totally, irrevocably.
"We must, if we are to be healthy, loving people, accept the sexuality of ourselves and of other people who may be different from us.
"A respectable, class-conscious Church, rich in endowments and Establishment prestige, that has not exercised a prophetic ministry, but has equated itself with the nation's wars and practiced its racism, and [has] too often forgotten how to pray except by rote, needs to examine the way of Jesus Christ that it has tragically ignored. When should the Church witness to its loyalty to the Kingdom of God? It is a theological question that the Church forgets to ask at its own peril.
"One wonders why the Church does not acknowledge with gratitude the ministry of its Gay people -- bishops, musicians, teachers, deacons, nuns, monks, lay readers, physicians, vestry members. One wonders why the Church does not willingly acknowledge with penitence, and sincere intention of reform, its anti-human and anti-Christian treatment of Gay people for centuries, and also in this very moment in time.
"A Gay Christian needs to infiltrate, and be at home in, the whole of society and the whole Church. It is an obvious and open presence in pew and polling place that will ultimately bring the gift of integrity to those structured institutions and others.
"Gay Episcopalians are offering the witness of their lives to the Church.... INTEGRITY members are Church members, who are also Gay or friends of Gays. The focus of attention is centered on the condition and treatment of Gay people within, and by, the Church. Consequently, all Gay people are affected, whether or not they are members of the Church.
"Lepers, queers, niggers, the disenfranchised, outcasts who are despised by respectable society and the Religion of Respectability stand in particular closeness to Jesus -- Lord and brother, spat upon, flogged, crucified, despised, rejected, an outcast.
Those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, following the prophets, will know a just and great reward, but not of this world.... Help us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, God."
DR. LOUIS CROMPTON
In a panel on Gay Genocide, Louis Crompton, professor at Nebraska, recounted: "The Jewish penalty for homosexuality was death by stoning.... The choice of burning at stake was, no doubt, suggested by the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. This became the standard medieval punishment.... The English buried Gays alive. [Only] a hundred years ago the English dropped the death penalty and substituted life imprisonment. (This stood as law until as recently as 1968.) Spain used castration... The Swiss cut off limb after limb during the course of several days. ... Without superstitious terror these laws would not have been put into practice."
MS. BARBARA GITTINGS
In stark contrast, Barbara Gittings, before receiving her award, told this "fairy story":
"Every Lesbian growing up finds that the signs of her sexual orientation are welcomed and encouraged by her parents and relatives. In school she gets ... peer support and plenty of opportunities to develop a homosexual social life. Her sex education courses teach her that being Gay is positive, desirable and valuable. Her Church approves of her orientation and encourages her to express it, and in her Church she feels both socially comfortable and spiritually attuned.
"In college everyone and everything is geared to reinforcing her gayness and to making her feel proud of it. She knows that she will never be called into the Dean's office for a stern lecture.... She knows that she can confidently go to the student counseling service and get constructive help for any love or sex problem she may have ... [and get] copies of all those good gay books in the main library.
"She teaches school without fear of a witch-hunt.... She chooses a career in the Civil Service or the armed services ... knowing that the vast power of the federal government supports her right to be known as Gay in just the same way that most people are ... known to be heterosexual. There is a great variety of ways for her to meet other Lesbians in happy, civilized atmospheres, and she chooses to do some of her socializing ln a Gay bar ... confident that it is not under the control of the Mafia and that there will not be a raid or a harassment I.D. check by the police or an intrusion by bigoted straights.
"Throughout her life she can draw on a rich literature about her kind of life and her kind of love.... She has her pick of her kind of love story, and when she turns on the TV the Gay people she sees in the soap operas and in the sit-coms and in the dramas make her feel good about herself.
"The Church blesses her love relationship with another woman; the world smiles and approves; and the state rewards the couple with special legal and economic benefits -- and they all live happily ever after." But, because that is not how things really are, she then listed the history of the Gay Liberation Movement and pointed out that in 1958 One, Inc., won a decision ln the U.S. Supreme Court "that guarantees forever the right of the Gay periodical to travel in the mails."
When Barbara Gittings was presented with her INTEGRITY award, she told how she long ago left the Church because it didn't seem to have much meaning. Yet, showing her pleasure upon receiving the award, she conceded: "I do now have a home in the Church, with INTEGRITY."
Well-wishers who sent letters or telegrams to the nearly 200 guests included Paul Diederich, President of DIGNITY/National, The Rev. Dr. Norman Pittenger, and The Rt. Rev. Robert Dewitt, editor of The Witness [See Bishop DeWitt's letter in part on page 5 of this issue]. After reading the letters and greetings, Louie Crew, editor of Form, said: "Once and for all at Calvary Christ has already accepted us, redeemed us, made us complete.... Ironically, our Church is often more ready to serve us with warmed over psychology or politics or sociology: we must insist lovingly on nothing short of the Church's only unique and authentic dispensation -- viz., the Gospel of the indiscriminate love of our Savior Jesus Christ."
The following proclamation arrived at the San Jose Post Office after all such letters had already been delivered to the Convention:
GREETINGS:
To the Members of the Second National INTEGRITY Convention:
On behalf of the people of the City of San Francisco, it is a privilege for me to welcome the members of the second National INTEGRITY Convention to San Francisco, as you commence meetings in our City over the next few days.
San Francisco is always pleased to host the meetings and deliberations of a variety of groups and conventions, and that's why it is an honor to welcome the INTEGRITY delegates to your meetings in historic Trinity Episcopal Church. Your nationally-based caucus for Gay persons and their friends in the Episcopal Church has promoted great spiritual understanding in religious communities throughout this country, including San Francisco, and in doing so you have contributed significantly to greater cooperation and communication among the citizens of this nation. Your efforts to make this a better world in which to live merit the thanks of countless citizens.
Again, it is a pleasure to welcome you to our City. I hope you all take the time to enjoy the sights of San Francisco, and that you return to visit us many more times in the future. It is our hope that your meetings will be productive and enlightening, and that your stay here will be a pleasant one.
George R. Moscone, Mayor of SF
SIGNED & SEALED
FR. RON WESNER NAMED NEW INTEGRITY PRESIDENT
San Francisco. The Rev. Ron Wesner was named temporary president of INTEGRITY, Inc., by the membership assembled here for the Second Annual National Convention.
Fr. Wesner is a 1960 graduate of Earlham College and holds a M.Div. from Yale Divinity School (1963). He was ordained deacon (1963) and priest (1964) by Bishop Pike in the Diocese of California. He has served as a curate at All Soul's, Berkeley; as Canon Residentiary at the American Cathedral in Paris, France; as vicar of the True Sunshine Mission in Chinatown, San Francisco, and as assistant Rector of St. Michael's and All Angels, Portland, OR. For the past year he has been co-convenor of INTEGRITY/Philadelphia, and he is chairperson of INTEGRITY's committee for General Convention.
Fr. Wesner was the unanimous choice of the members assembled at convention and the only person chosen by the nominating committee, chaired by The Rev. Grant Gallup.
Whereas INTEGRITY's constitution is under revision to reflect the growth and new directions of the organization, the Convention acted to name Fr. Wesner to the post as a temporary assignment until the new Constitution has been ratified and it invested him with the authority to appoint other temporary officers as needed.
Fr. Wesner succeeds Jim Wickliff, whose term as President expired officially on June 30th, under the old Constitution. The Convention voted unanimously to extend thanks to past president Wickliff for his important leadership in our first year.
Fr. Wesner has appointed other temporary officers as follows: vice-president, John Lawrence of Boston, an organizer of Gay nurses and in the Movement for six years; treasurer, The Rev. John Lenhardt, co-convenor of INTEGRITY/Philadelphia. Fr. Wesner has also approved Dave Williams to continue as Business Manager of Forum and Louie Crew to continue as editor.
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The national office of INTEGRITY now moves with Fr. Wesner to 5014 Willows Avenue, Phila., PA 19143, tele. 215-748-2118. Forum subscriptions also have a new address: P.0. Box 891, Oak Park, IL 60303. Only editorial correspondence should continue to go to Editor L. Crew, 701 Orange, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030.
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RESOLUTIONS SUPPORTING GAYS AT GENERAL CONVENTION
Minneapolis. The Office of General Convention, which will meet here 11-23 September, has released to all bishops and deputies the text of the report and resolutions recommended to the Convention by the Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs, chaired by The Rt. Rev. George Murray, Bishop of the Central Gulf Coast.
The Commission met with INTEGRITY leaders and other Gay Christians last January, after being assigned the task of addressing the Gay issue by the House of Bishops meeting in Portland, ME, last September. The following statement was adopted by a majority of the members of the Commission:
"1. Homosexual persons are children of God, who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church.
"2. We make grateful recognition of the substantial contributions which homosexual persons have made and are making to the life of our Church and society.
"3. The question of the causes of sexual orientation, the personal meaning of that orientation, and the ethical implications of homosexual acts are shrouded in great obscurity. This is clearly but one aspect of a confusion and tension which exists in the consciousness of the Church and many individual Christians concerning the relationship between the traditional Christian ethic and current developments and concepts of pastoral ministry, understanding of human psychosexual development, and the sexual practices of contemporary society. Our awareness and concern in these areas arise from within our own experiences as a Christian community in ministry and dialogue with one another. We are conscious of the personal suffering experienced by many homosexual persons and the various unnecessary ways in which society contributed to that suffering."
RECOMMENDATIONS
Resolution A-68
Resolved that this General Convention recommends that the dioceses and the Church in general engage in serious study and dialogue in the area of human sexuality, including homosexuality.
Resolution A-69
that it is the sense of this General Convention that homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church.
Resolution A-70
Resolved that this General Convention urges the legislatures of the several states to repeal all laws which classify as criminal conduct any form of non-commercial sexual conduct between consenting adults in private, saving only those portions which protect minors or public decorum.
Resolution A-71
Resolved that this General Convention expresses its conviction that homosexual persons are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens, and calls upon our society to see that such protection is provided in actuality.
Resolution A-72
Resolved that a Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs be appointed to report to the next General Convention, that it consist of four bishops, four presbyters, and eight lay persons, and that its major concern be the subject of Human Sexuality, and that it be empowered and adequately funded to seek the assistance of experts in this field.
Resolution A-73
Resolved that for the expenses of such Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs there be appropriated in the General Convention Budget the sum of $29,568.00.
It should be noted that the recommended new budget for the Commission is more than three times its budget of $8,279.84 spent in the last triennium.
INTEGRITY IN THE NY TIMES
NYC. In the Sunday Times for June 27, 1976, The Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Bishop of New York, said that he expects "a group of homosexually oriented people in the Episcopal Church -- a group called INTEGRITY" to be the ones to introduce the question of homosexuality at the Church's General Convention in Minneapolis.
Bishop Moore made his remarks in a follow-up article on his courageous ordination of INTEGRITY's first co-president, The Rev. Ellen Barrett, as the first openly Lesbian deacon in the Episcopal Church.
MARTIN MARTY ISSUES CHALLENGE
Chicago. Prof. Martin Marty, Professor of Church History at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, recently wrote in his newsletter Context (June 15, 1976, p. 4):
"Advocates of different understandings of homosexuality do marshall impressive scientific evidence or at least raise good questions. But they have taken very little time to help biblical conservatives struggle exegetically with the extensive and intensive sets of texts on homosexuality that are a true problem of conscience and direction for them. Rather than complain about a retreat from liberalism, these advocates might spend the next two or four years helping make their case. In the end, if they have to say that they simply cannot make it, then they are inviting the reluctant ones 'out of their church' or of their understanding of it. Not to face that question is not to make progress on this troubling front."
In granting Forum permission to cite this passage, Prof. Marty added:
"I don't know if it was gauntlet so much as counsel: I really do think you have to be mindful of the people who want to be with you but have an exegetical problem. I am no literalist, either, and am not 'stuck' there; but remember that the vast majority of American Christians, Catholic and Protestant, whatever they do, at least have to assure themselves that the moves they make are congruent with biblical paradigms and patterns. I think there are 1000 pitstops between literalism and gerrymandering one's way around the Bible, and there at least has to be serious evidence of wrestling with the text, as the women's movement rather successfully has done."
GAY HOLY MEN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Lincoln, NE. Prof. Louis Crompton here has noted that the only word in Hebrew that specifically meant a "homosexual" was Kadesh, whose literal meaning was "holy" or "sacred." Modern Jews recognize this meaning as "sacred" music.
Prof. Crompton has suggested that part of our battle is to recover the right to use words properly. At least we should say something like "they were to put the Gay holy men to death." Dr. Crompton stresses that the task is to put the holiness back in homosexuality .
HOMOPHOBIA AT AMERICAN CHURCH UNION
Oakland. The Rev. Robert S. Morse, director of the American Church Union, told the Los Angeles Times that any ordination of Gays as priests and bishops will bring the end of Christian culture.
ACU has been most vocal in opposing prayer book revision and the ordination of women. Mr. Morse sees both of these as preludes to a more serious plot, viz. the ordination of Gay people. Such ordination is "part of the hidden agenda ... to destroy the Church and the traditional mystique of the family and marriage."
Forum extended to Fr. Morse a personal invitation to cross the Bay and attend the Second National Convention so that he might hear first-hand what our agenda is, but he declined, saying that his American Church News has no budget for such reporting and uses reports from Religious News Service.
INTEGRITY CONSTITUTION BEING REVISED
San Francisco. Mr. Joe McCauley, convenor of INTEGRITY/Boston and chairperson of the INTEGRITY Constitution Revision Committee, submitted a draft of the proposed constitution to the 2nd National INTEGRITY convention here in the regular business session. After much discussion, additional persons met with the committee and prepared yet another draft. This draft is now in the hands of most interested persons there for their input before being printed in Forum for consideration and possible ratification by the membership.
Any other persons wishing to have input at this stage are urged to contact McCauley at his address on the back page of this issue.
Our main concerns are to formulate a document that reflects the kind of organization with multiple chapters that we have become. When the original Constitution was drafted we were mainly a publication.
ATTENTION ARTISTS AND DOODLERS
Fort Valley. The Editor of Forum would appreciate your sending small pen and ink or pencil line drawings on Gay and religious themes that would be suitable for fillers in the newsletter. Five contributor copies are sent to all whose contributions are chosen to appear.
"SEX, A QUIETLY TICKING BOMB"
Ambler, PA. Such is the headline in the Convention issue of The Witness. According to reporter William R. MacKaye, "The topic of sexuality, particularly homosexuality, has the emotional power to unloose the kind of process that made the 1969 special convention in South Bend one of the most dramatic and decisive conclaves of a national church body in modern times. It is often forgotten that the actions taken at South Bend were planned by no agenda and arrangements committee: the convention planners had quite another program in mind [but were] confronted rather by demands from the real world."
HOMOSEXUALITY NO BAR TO ORDINATION IN PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia. The Rt. Rev. Lyman C. Ogilby, Bishop of Pennsylvania, recently said at a meeting of the diocesan Commission on Ministry that "homosexuality is no bar to ordination."
THE EPISCOPALIAN UNDER FIRE FOR THE INTEGRITY AD
Philadelphia. Henry L. McCorkle, editor-in-chief of The Episcopalian, an official publication of PECUSA, has confirmed reports that he has been under pressure for carrying a small one-inch advertisement for Forum.
Mr. McCorkle defended the ad as "inoffensive" at his board meeting, where it was decided that they continue to permit its appearing for the time being. What is really feared is that some diocesan and parish orders might be canceled. "If we have considerable loss, we're going to have to withdraw. Now the loss is just minimal.... It would be a straight commercial decision," the editor explained.
Mr. McCorkle further elaborated: "Your way of life is not mine nor that of any of the staff of The Episcopalian.... The feelings written in [to us] on human sexuality are more deep-seated than on any other issues.... I look to doctors to make [our understanding of homosexuality] easier, but they haven't done so yet."
Forum first learned of Mr. McCorkle's difficulties in an ad in the July Witness, wherein Donald W. Belcher complained that Mr. McCorkle had censored a Church and Society ad for women's ordination in reaction to castigation already received for the INTEGRITY ad. Mr. McCorkle denied his inference in talking with Forum, stressing that the INTEGRITY ad showed that he is willing to take controversial material. He explained that his objection to the Church and Society ad was that it claimed "There are women priests in the Episcopal Church now" -- a claim that Mr. McCorkle sees as not factual.
The August issue of The Episcopalian carried Forum editor's review of Male and Female from the June-July Forum.
ATTENTION MIAMI GAY EPISCOPALIANS!
Miami. Brad Wilson of Evangelicals Concerned here has kindly suggested that he can make a large room available to anyone wishing to convene a Miami chapter of INTEGRITY. His room is located with his office on Biscayne and 54th and he can be reached Mon.-Fri., 8-4:30 at 253-5100, ext. 428, or at P.0. Box 331299, Miami 33133.
All would-be convenors should also contact first The Rev. Ron Wesner, our president at the National Office (5014 Willows Ave., Phila, PA 19143) to begin the application to become affiliated with us.
A CHICAGO STREET LITURGY
Chicago. A priest here has supplied the following account of INTEGRITY's part in the Gay Pride Parade:
"Our entry was a delightful fiasco: we had an ancient pickup truck (we had planned a giant Mercedes convertible, alas, unavailable) with a gasoline generator aboard to power a hi-fi playing recordings of Anglican Chawnt and to power the soap bubble machine we'd rented from a theatrical supply house.
"Alas, we ran out of gas for the generator in mid-parade; the thousand lollipops we had printed with our name and address soon ran out; and the only thing left working was the incense pot, carried in front of the truck by alternating Anglicans and Old Catholics. The chapter banner and the Episcopal Church flag floated gaily on the breezes, however, to the end of the route.
"Near the end of the parade a group of half a dozen transvestites and transsexuals jumped onto the rear of the truck and scandalized some of our folk by displaying their silicon tits to the vulgar gaze of the rude and scoffing multitude, many of whom took photos, which probably showed me as well as the INTEGRITY banner above and beyond the tit pics.
"The truck was so old and decrepit we had to stop now and again and fill the radiator with gallons of water stored in plastic milk jugs; the water ran out nearly as fast as we put it in.
"Afterwards we went back to my house and drank sangria."
TO THE HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES
Many INTEGRITY chapters are reporting vigorous efforts to educate the nonGays in their dioceses.
Manifest, newsletter of INTEGRITY/Los Angeles, recently noted success with writing ahead to parishes to tell the date on which they should expect a delegation of INTEGRITY persons at worship and the coffee hour, inviting them to suggest preferred alternative times for such visitations. Thereby, the priest is able to alert the congregation and to do some advance education.
INTEGRITY/Boston is sending letters to all of the parochial clergy to dispel myths about INTEGRITY and to offer them a chance to obtain speakers for parish groups.
INTEGRITY/NYC is in the happy position of having more nonmember priests anxious to meet with them and to celebrate than can be conveniently scheduled for the weekly meetings with Eucharist and program.
INTEGRITY/Fort Valley has received no replies whatsoever to appeals to the local deanery for persons willing to meet with the group.
Convenors throughout the country and other members are urged to share through Forum all suggestions about how to improve this vital ministry of education.
HELP NEEDED IN ENGLAND
London. The Rev. Malcolm Johnson of St. Botolph's, Aldgate (London, E.C. 3), is anxious to have contributions towards funding a full-time priest as counsellor of the London Gay world. He thinks that his bishop might agree if he can raise the money himself.
FOR SO PERSECUTED THEY THE PROPHETS
NEW YORK - Conservative evangelical Brad Wilson has raised a furor and risked expulsion from the relatively small Church of God by forming a new group, Evangelicals Concerned, to minister to homosexuals. Though church officials at first claimed that Wilson has been deposed from the ministry as a result, further checking revealed that no action has yet been taken, but is being planned.
SAN DIEGO - A San Diego man has sued the San Diego County Sheriff and the county jail chaplain for $20,000 on the grounds that they bar homosexuals from jail church services. The federal court suit was filed by David Ray Brown. Named as defendants were Sheriff John Duffy and chaplain Ray Yuman.
Brown charged that prisoners held in the jail's homosexual "tank" are barred from church services and road camps. He also said that prisoners who identify themselves as homosexuals are harassed and intimidated by jail officials.
A UNITARIAN PROPOSAL IN NY
Oneonta. In March the Congregational Meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Society here adopted the following resolution:
"Whereas there exists social, economic, and legal oppression of women and men because of their sexual orientation, and
"Whereas laws exist which forbid or interfere with mutually agreeable sexual relations between single persons, and
"Whereas we recognize that all people have the same civil rights, and
"Whereas second class status keeps all oppressed minorities disabled and robs everyone of their potential contributions to society,
"We therefore urge the enactment of state and federal civil rights legislation which will prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation or affectional preference."
GAYS AND THE EASTERN CHURCH
Baltimore. At a Solemn Convocation of the Communion held here over Pentecost weekend the bishops and convening priests, deacons and laymembers of the Syro-Chaldean Evangelical Catholic Communion voted unanimously to accept the Community of the Love of Christ as an Order and Province of the Communion under the oversight of its own Bishop-Abbot, the Most Rev. Mikhail F. Ikin, C.L.C. Ikin's Community describes itself as a "radical, liturgical and apostolic Christian Ecumenical Order" and notes that its acceptance is the result of years of discussion.
WHAT THEY SAY AT THE FAG RAG COLLECTIVE
And then there is religion. Frankly we can't believe it after years of persecution and destruction so many gay people are willing just to forget it all! So we must address this disgusting subject. Almost every church now has its pet gay caucus its very own gay minister. And we have several exclusively or not-so-exclusively "gay" churches. Much of their energies go into fighting old theological battles: Jews, Protestants, Catholics, fundamentalists, Unitarians continue to spar with each other ‑‑ as though their antiquated battles had anything whatever to do with us. One would think the gory business of the Reformation had been safely consigned to history yet here are gay people still slugging it out.
Religion represents everything that is evil in humans; more than an opiate it is an absolute poison. We see sexual repression as inherent in all the so-called 'major' religions and practically every popular 'minor' one we can imagine. We need not add to the centuries-long literature about the deficiencies of the church and of 'God' as well. But we should describe what religion is doing within gay circles. It gobbles up inordinate amounts of money (after the psychos, MCC must be the best-financed gay group in the US). Then it perpetuates the patriarchy with its male ministry. It encourages marriage prayer and other noxious habits so infused with straight meaning as to be incapable of liberation. Every outward symbol or form lends itself to some meaning, some consciousness, some interest. The symbols of religion long ago were bought off by power and oppression and straight male dominance.
from __WIN, Aug. 12, 1976
A LETTER FROM OUR NEW PRESIDENT
Greetings, dear sisters and brothers in Christ:
I am writing this letter from the church office of St. Michael's Parish ln Portland, OR. A year ago this month I was ln the same office, busy packing up, saying goodbye to many dear friends after an eight-year ministry in this parish and community. I had 'come out' earlier in the month, returned after a week at INTEGRITY's first convention in Chicago, and found that it was deemed necessary for me to be elsewhere than in this parish or this diocese. A year has passed, an incredible, spirit-filled, gospel-affirming, life-celebrating year. This next Sunday I shall be celebrating at the altar and preaching from the pulpit. I look forward to sharing with the good people of this parish what the Lord has been doing with me and showing me during the past year. Before there is a glut of books on the market --autobiographies of Gay priests ‑‑ maybe I should try to write an account so that you might know me a bit better. It will be mercifully brief, but I hope understandable.
I moved to Philadelphia for the sole reason that my eldest and favorite sister lived there. I was not aware that the Holy Spirit was playing her mischievous and delightful tricks on me. My good friend, John Lenhardt, had just started convening the Philadelphia chapter of INTEGRITY. The first night I attended there were four of us meeting in an upstairs room at St. Mary's Parish. From there we moved in a few weeks to the sacristy and I had visions of trading the clothes in the closet for the vestments in the sacristy. Soon that vesting room became too small and we were meeting very visibly and openly in the parish hall. After Christmas we numbered more than fifty people -- Gays, nonGays, married couples, Gay couples, single nonGays, men and women -- each coming for a different reason, each finding in the chapter a community of people willing to risk caring so that love could inform our various secret places. That chapter has continued to be a very important power and support base for the rest of the ministry that John and I have been working out.
In the Diocese of Pennsylvania during this past year we have met with clergy and parishioners of more than thirty parishes, with several deaneries, with both bishops and the bishops' staff. We have helped that diocese in establishing a "commission on human sexually" which will recommend to the diocese the nature of a ministry or ministries to homosexual persons; we have been financed by the bishop in our various travels around the East --trips to the dioceses of Central New York, Southern New Jersey, Maryland, and on into the hinterlands of the Midwest -- meetings with clergy, bishops and laity, college groups, seminary students, talking about the experience Gay people have in trying to survive in an environment which has been less than friendly and supportive. The meetings have been good. The Holy Spirit has been with us.
INTEGRITY's role at General Convention has been occupying a great deal of my time since the beginning of the year. I especially want to thank Dick York of Boston and John Lenhardt of Philadelphia for their work in this area. Dick is assuming the role of floor manager for the support of the resolutions which have come from the Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs [See pp. 1 and 6 in this issue]. John has put together the books, literature and buttons for our booth. The rest of the committee has been very faithful in meeting and reflecting and advising on necessary decisions. We shall be in Minneapolis as a witness of Gay Christians who claim our place within the Body of Christ as visible, loving Christians who are homosexual. We shall staff a booth and will be there to talk with all who come by. Our's will not be an abrasive or confrontive role, but rather a low-key educative presence, for the purpose of helping the Church to start dealing with a variety of human sexuality. We will be there not just for our own liberation, but for the liberation of all God's people -- liberation not for license, but liberation from the fear of ourselves. It should be an exciting time. If you can join us at Minneapolis, come by our booth and make yourself known to me.
As you may know, I was elected at our San Francisco Convention to be "interim president" of INTEGRITY/National [See story on page 1 of this issue]. The interim bit has to do with the need to get our constitution in order; with the good work of Joe McCauley in Boston we are well on the way to working that out. Then in due course the entire constituency will have a chance to make this recent election for a longer duration, or else to replace me with someone else. In the meantime I hope to continue working with this organization.
I would like to spend my time this year after General Convention in the areas of helping to build the chapters and in a pastoral ministry. If funds are made available I should like to visit the chapters around the country, meeting with local bishops and clergy of the parishes in the areas, explaining the ministry of INTEGRITY and the needs of Gay people and the Church for each other. I should like to spend time with Gay people who for many reasons are not yet ready for the visibility that INTEGRITY sometimes requires. And, as I have done this past year, I hope to continue the correspondence with many of the sisters and brothers who are too far away from any support group and need to do their talking at this point with the aid of the typewriter and the mails.
We need your help for all of this. First I ask for your cooperation. If there is a confusion or disagreement with what you perceive, please write and speak your mind. One of the things that I am poorest a is reading minds. Let's talk. Secondly, please know that there is a need for leadership on the national level. Most of the exciting things that are happening within INTEGRITY are happening on the local level, but we need a national office to coordinate and continue a dialogue with the national Church. Thirdly, I ask for funds. At this writing I am beginning my second year of unemployment. Monies for travel, mailing, etc., will ship. I assure you that we will be good stewards of your monies, but we do need them to carry on this important work.
Lastly, I ask for your prayers, for the local chapters, the convenors, the national officers -- John Lawrence in Boston, vice-president; John Lenhardt in Philadelphia, treasurer; and the secretary still to be chosen. Also for Louie as he continues as editor of Forum, and our grateful thanks for the past leadership of Jim Wickliff, now enjoying blissful retirement from serving as INTEGRITY's first national president.
Please write. Love, Ron [The Rev. Ron Wesner
5014 Willows Ave.
Phila, PA 19143
215-748-2118]
NURTURE THIS CHILD! --EDITORIAL
Our first Convention at the Cathedral of St. James in Chicago was our Pentecost, our baptism to new life in Christ. Our second Convention at Trinity Parish and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco marked our early childhood, in disputations with the people in the temple.
We are still very young and very vulnerable. We praise God for giving us strong leaders. Many have risked life and careers to be associated with us openly, as has Fr. Wesner in leaving his posh parish in Portland, as has Fr. Richard Younge who convened the 2nd National Convention, as has Fr. Grant Gallup, and as have many more.
Malcolm Boyd has kindly allowed me to share the fact that at our Convention he himself came out completely, acknowledging himself to be one of us, a Gay child of God. All the media were there. He knew all the risks.
Laypersons by the score from the very beginning have forfeited the comfortable quietness of the Church closet to be leaders in this effort to take the Gospel to the meek.
Watch and wait. Be ever vigilant. The Holy Spirit is working among us, and many more will be called to make known their oneness with us. The price will be high, especially for a few. Pray for courage and for ayaim.
Louie, a Georgia Quean
FORUM
One of my parishioners the week after Ellen's ordination to the diaconate came to me with a 2-column item headlined: "Episcopal Church Ordains Lesbian." He, a policeman, handed it to me with the comment, "What is the Episcopal Church coming to?" "Its senses" was my reply. I explained that he should come by to discuss it when we had more time, but he hasn't been back.
Fr. Bill
Forum continues to be excellent. The May issue was tops. Take care of yourself and provide opportunities for celebration and renewal.
Ron Mattson, Quaker
In the struggles for human rights there is an imperative for solidarity. This solidarity must never overlook the particularities of the various forms of oppression, because each has the dignity of its own sufferings. But rising up from each and every kind of human injustice is the awareness of a common rootage in the distorted policies and practices of ecclesiastical, political and economic institutions which, intended to promote order and well being in human affairs, have become allies of disorder and oppression.
The Witness applauds the work of INTEGRITY, and its sensitivity to the Gospel proclamation of the divine image in all persons; and to the Gospel imperative that all persons should therefore be treated in the light of that proclamation.
May you find, and be, allies in that effort, which is our Christian calling.
The Rt. Rev. Robert L. DeWitt
Poor Bishop Bennett Sims in Atlanta! It is you who are operating the thumbscrews. He will probably end by joining the Quakers on the grounds that episcopal authority is not worth the trouble it brings with it.
Louis Crompton
Please keep up the good work. We need a publication like this --responsible, articulate, and not in the "yellow" journalistic tradition.
I've sensed in the recent issues not only a more philosophic trend but also a wider exploration of the theological issues involved. And they are many and many-sided. (One objection would be the recent 'poetry' issue --- I've read better stuff written by a class of 6th graders!
In any event, may God bless this magazine.
Ivor
Just a quickie to thank you so very much for being thoughtful and consistent enough to send me the Forum, which is always a delight. Please keep up the good work.
Don D. Dumas, 117909-148
P.0. Box 1000
Steilacoom, WA 98388
This is to inform you that we have a 5-room place with running water in each room ... 1 bath tub, 1 shower and two flush toilets ... all separated from the others, and rooms are fan cooled. Rental $12-$15 daily, according to size. Meals are available nearby or persons can eat with us if they care about native food. This place is for those who like quiet and privacy.
C. E. Stevens
Saint Kitts
Leeward Islands
-----------
Lord Arran, veteran campaigner for the Homosexual Law Reform in Great Britain recently got his bill to protect badgers through its committee stage in the House of Lords. But his elation is tempered with sadness. As he remarked to a colleague, "There weren't so many supporting my Badgers' Bill as my Buggers' Bill!" to which the other noble lord replied, "No! but then there aren't any badgers in the House of Lords, are there?"
--From Reach Newsletter, March 1976.
People of NGTF
Betty J. Powell
HOME: Brooklyn, New York
PROFESSION: Educator
MOST RECENT ACHIEVEMENT: Black history, Lesbian feminist movement, tennis, hiking, poetry
[balance of biography illegible]
NGTF National Gay Task Force, Rm. 506, 80 Fifth Ave.
New York, N.Y. 10011, Tel.: (212) 741-1010
Yes, I would like to join NGTF. Enclosed is my contribution for:
$15 Basic Member $100 Supporting Member $25 Household Member
$25 Contributing $500 Lifetime Member (for two)
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I understand that I will receive the NGTF newsletter, IT'S TIME, with my membership.
[ ] Please keep my name and mailing confidential.
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TREASURER'S REPORT -- JAN. 1 TO JUNE 30, 76
INCOME EXPENDITURES
Contributions $ 1750.00 President's Expenses $ 515.13
In Celebrations 195.35 Advance S.F. Convent. 100.00
Repayment of 75 Forum Memberships
Pres.'s expenses 188.00 (to Ft. Valley) 30.00
Received from Forum 142.02 Travel 663.00
Forum memb. May-June 597.25 Printing 577.00
Rent (Gay Horizons) 25.00
$ 2872.62 Gen. Conv. Booth Bal. 300.00
Forum printing of 3 iss. 812.00
Editor's expenses 250.00
INTEGRITY/Chic. medals 200.00
INTEGRITY award 100.75
Misc. 39.00
Serv. charges Debit memo 11.77
$ 3623.65
Bank balance Jan. 1, 1976 $ 877.72
Receipts - 1st 6th Months 1976 2872.62
TOTAL 3750.34
Expenses Jan 1 to June 30, 1976 3623.65
Bank Balance June 30th, 1976 $ 126.69
Note: $139 due from Wickliff
$100 due from INTEGRITY/SF
Respectfully submitted,
Robert F. Diehm
Retiring Executive Secre.
FORUM'S EDITOR IS BLOCKED AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
"NOT JUST A HOMOSEXUAL, BUT AN AVOWED CONTROVERSIAL HOMOSEXUAL"
by Adam DeBaugh
WASHINGTON--The D.C. Office of Human Rights has determined that American University failed to hire the openly gay founder of Integrity "because of his sex and his sexual orientation."
Dr. Louie Crew of Fort Valley, Georgia, had applied with American University's College of Continuing Education for the position of Communications Professor and was turned down by the dean despite the fact that he was the top choice of the faculty committees.
Crew is founder of Integrity, an organization for gay Episcopalians. American University alleged that it hired a woman instead of Crew "to be in compliance with its affirmative action obligations."
Director of the D.C. Human Rights Office James W. Baldwin, in his determination after investigation of Crew's complaint, found that "in close analysis of the factual finding there is no evidence that established that the Respondent's (American University) foremost motive was to implement an affirmative action plan and that "the affirmative action plan seems to have been conveniently brought into play when the Respondent was faced with accepting or not accepting the Complaint [Crew] as the top choice of the faculty committees. The respondent was faced with having as a member of its faculty, not just a homosexual, but an avowed controversial homosexual."
The Human Rights Office found that the University not only discriminated against Crew because he is a homosexual but also because of his sex. Baldwin wrote, "based on the substantially undisputed facts and rules of law, we conclude that Respondent has violated Title 34."
The Human Rights Office has invited Dr. Crew and American University to "join with it in a collective effort toward a just resolution of this matter" since "there is probable cause to believe the Respondent had engaged in unlawful employment practices." A conciliation conference scheduled for July 28 was postponed to "sometime in August" in order to give the University time to prepare its case.
Dr. Crew told The Blade that though "I dare not hope too much until I get a little bit more assurance, the evidence on my behalf is extremely strong." He said his application had the unanimous support of the faculty search committee. When Dean Nathan Brodsky refused to hire him, the 35 members of the Rank and Tenure Committee objected, stating Crew was the most qualified candidate.
Crew reports that "I have the full support of the faculty ... I am more than wanted there." Dean Brodsky has died since refusing to hire Crew and Crew's diagnosis is that "he died of homophobia."
Crew believes "the evidence will speak out on my behalf." If the University refuses to attend the conciliation conference the case will go to the Human Rights Commission for public hearings.
Dr. Herbert Striner, Dean of the Business School, is serving as interim Dean of the College of Continuing Education and has "inherited this situation" from his predecessor. "Frankly, I don't know much about the case," Striner told The Blade. "This is the first time I was aware of this issue."
Striner says he has "concerned myself with maintaining programs" in the college. "I couldn't care less about a teacher's activities or sexual preference. I am just concerned about having first rate teachers who provide a good learning environment."
The Dean commented that this is an "issue that is of great current interest and I hope it is resolved equitably for all parties concerned."
ADDENDUM:
Since The Rev. Adam DeBaugh wrote the article [on the left] above for the August 1976 Blade, the officials at American University have decided not to agree to attend a conciliation conference. The case now goes to public hearings before the DC Human Rights Commission as soon as the docket is clear there.
Meanwhile, Dr. Crew has filed the same complaint with the Association of American University Professors, which recently adopted the policy of making same-sex discrimination grounds for censuring an academic institution. Dr. Crew remains on contract without tenure as Associate Professor of English at Fort Valley State College in Fort Valley, GA.
AS THE GAY MOVEMENT COMES OF AGE
By The Rev. Canon Walter D. Dennis
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Canon Dennis's remarks were originally given as an address to INTEGRITY/NYC on July 29, 1976, at the Church of the Ascension.
There are so many analogies of the Black experience to the Gay one that it becomes trite to mention them: the persistent self-hatred theme one sees in the interaction of both groups -- the term Blacks use to describe and denigrate each other are matched only by the terms Gays use for one another.
Despite all the similarities of the common suffering both groups bear, I think the primary difference between the Gay movement and the Black movement is that the Gay movement is just "coming of age," and the Black movement has reached its maturity. I have said all along that the 60s was the decade of the Black movement, the 70s is the decade of the women's movement, and the 80s will belongs to the Gays ‑‑ that is, it will be the period when the greatest political strides will be made on the part of and on behalf of Gays.
In order for this to take place, Gays will have to seize the initiative (as Blacks did in the 60s) in forging alliances with disparate groups with similar interest. For example, we all know that single people pay disproportionately more taxes than do other groups. Gays should join with unmarried persons, with divorced persons without children, to help effect tax reform in this area. Gays cannot do it alone -- nor can these other groups do it alone either.
It seems to me that the Gay community can tear another page from the Black community in joining with other groups with which it has a natural affinity.
For instance, people who are interested in legalizing marijuana are interested in the constitutional question of privacy, in the matter of cruel and unusual punishment, and in the equal protection of the laws. These are the same constitutional issues that are of primary interest to the Gay community. And they are the ones that will have to be raised again and again by both the Gay community and the marijuana lobby.
Recently I saw a poster which was used in California, showing a person smoking marijuana, and under it said "what you put between your lips is nobody's business but your own." You can't tell me that the marijuana lobby and Gays can't work together.
And one does not give up just because the Supreme Court does not hear a case the first time. Blacks worked from 1896 until 1954 to attain equal school facilities. A tabulation of cases from 1865 through 1934 involving the separate schools for Blacks reveals that Blacks brought suit in state courts of last resort 28 times to compel the providing of equal facilities. In the 19 cases lost, the courts held that the existence of inequality had not been properly shown. The Supreme Court in this same period refused to hear most of these cases for lack of standing and buttressed laws which enforced segregation.
However, after 1937, things changed and the Court began to go in the other direction. Finally, in 1954 "separate but equal" was overturned.
But it was because of the persistence and perseverance of Blacks in their efforts for equality that it has been opened for others. The "one man, one vote" doctrine of Baker vs. Carr (1962) owes its origins to Gomillion vs. Lightfoot, an earlier case which involved a "gerrymandering" situation that disenfranchised Black voters in Alabama.
Women's Rights and those of welfare recipients (Shapiro vs. Thompson, 1965) have been promoted by principles established by the 14th Amendment for Blacks. In 1971, for example, in Reed vs. Reed, the Supreme Court for the first time held void as a denial of equal protection a state law discriminating against women. And we know that the Radical Republicans of the Reconstruction Era never intended for the 14th Amendment to apply to women. So groups like Blacks and Gays might not only persevere but help everyone else to be free.
As an activist churchperson I am always distressed when certain members of the Gay community, in reacting to something the Roman Catholic Church does or says, calls for Churches to stay out of politics. Churches have always been in politics. They prepared the way for the Revolutionary War. They were on both sides of the slavery issue. They were intensely active with respect to policies toward the Indian. They have been on both sides of the issue of the manufacture of beverage alcohol. Churches at the turn of the century were against child labor and gambling. They supported Women's suffrage, labor union organization, civil rights laws, the protection of the poor, migrant farm workers, unmarried mothers, illegitimate children, and foundlings. So, as you can see, public agitation by Churches parallels the history of this country.
It seems to me that the Gay community should work all the harder to get as much of the religious community support for their cause, rather than reacting to one segment of that community. In thus doing, you will be fulfilling your vocation, and you will be helping the Church to fulfill its.
YOU CALL
by Barbara Ruth
You call to give me
News of the child,
The way divorced
Couples do.
Only what visitation rights
Are mine?
I have no blood claim
On this child,
No one consults me
About her custody.
You call to give me
News of the child
Who called me Mommy
When you and I
Were lovers.
I love this child still;
The vagaries
Of your capacity to
Mother her
Do not alter that.
But I am the outlaw
Ex-lover,
Not even a step-
Mother
To the child who called me Mommy
When you and I and she
Made between us
A woman's world.
We called each other amazons
But you could not
Resist her father's whim
To have "his" child with him.
After nine years
Of broken promises.
And there is not a court
In the land
That would concede any
Rights at all
To an outlaw
Ex-
Lover
Of a Lesbian mother
Of a 9-year-old
Woman-child
Who used to call me
Mommy.
Lesbian Voices
Feminist Lesbian Quarterly
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Les-Be-In-Touch
STRAIGHT PLUS GAY EQUALS
By Susan Dayhoff
This article -- part of a continuing series? -- was written at the request of the editor. The authority is a prominent nonGay Episcopalian. Perhaps others of our friends or members of our ranks who are also or have been married heterosexually will also be willing to share lucid insights into this experience. Gays and nonGays have been relating all along as members of the same families: INTEGRITY is asking us to re-evaluate and understand these relations. Thanks to Ms. Dayhoff. She has asked that this material be strictly protected by copyright, as it is. Any reproduction at all must be cleared with her through the Forum editor.
I do not take up enthusiastically your invitation for me to speak of my now-dissolved marriage. But my observations eleven years after becoming engaged to a man I knew at the time to be Gay, may be of value. So I begin. I will rely on language from Transactional Analysis from time to time. Be forewarned.
The healthy thing Dean and I shared in the 60s was a commitment to personal growth, to becoming the people God created us. To the extent that we were determined to perceive "reality" through the accidents of our individual biographies, we were probably guilty of pleasure-seeking for its own immediate comfort.
We wanted to explore our growing together. We had an easy companionship. In fantasizing a lifestyle that would not require fidelity to traditional family models, we overlooked how locked-in-unawares to family scripts we already were. We did realize early on some of our terribly pragmatic fantasies -- the "how will you respond when you see the policeman coming to the door to tell you I've been arrested?" and "what will I do when I wake up one morning and find I detest you?" mental role plays. And we did grow.
That we could not grow together isn't particularly surprising; it was painful. Only the grace of God gave us the strength to turn the accumulated growth, care, frustration and pain of nine years of marriage into a loving act of letting go. (A liturgy for which the Church supplies no form for celebration.)
Women live with the patriarchal culture's hidden, and therefore dishonest, woman-hating. We seldom contract in advance to examine the assumptions of that system. I shared bed and board with a husband who had one foot in another system. And we agreed in advance to "live with" whatever we might find that to mean. Though the woman-hating aspects of the so-called homosexual subculture are at least equal to those of the patriarchal culture, they are generally less hidden. I am certain my awakening from naivete about the exercise of power and the extension of simple justice and human right to the oppressed would have nodded back a-slumbering if I hadn't felt the toll that the discounting of women, of me, was taking. It is a toll on body and on spirit. Because I chose no healthier form for expressing my anger with mysogynism, I gained half a pound a month for nine years. I became frightened when I discovered that understanding the experience was not tantamount to reversing it.
In the 60s I did not know my participation in the Civil Rights Movement was grounded in my own experience of injustice -- as a woman. I learned that when the 60s songs became so right for women's liberation struggles in the 70s. Friends sometimes suggest that I should regret the "wasted" years of my marriage. I do not. I did a lot of growing up with Dean Dayhoff, a lot of living, loving and changing. Others suggest I reclaim my maiden name -- become Susan Nagel again. But a woman wins nothing returning to Daddy's name. Some accidents of biography should not be taken too seriously.
Now I "live with" the challenges of the freedom of living away from the day to day joys and sorrows of sharing experience/present/future with a man. Because I came to hate a specific man, Dean; I still love a specific man, Dean, more than anyone e]se. I don't believe I love him more than I can ever love someone, but it's a temporary and somehow embarrassing circumstance. In saying I hated Dean -- and in implying he hated me -- I do no state the case well. I hated the experience of dreaming dreams (the dream of bearing children, for example) that became false hopes. I hated the experience of seeing myself the bringer of pain, confusion and terror to someone I believed I cared about. I hated the experience of becoming a representative and a symbol instead of a person. I hated perpetuating unhealthy roles. I hated fighting dirty, the demise of intimacy and fairplay, and the loss of excitement for the quest of "living with" a specific man. (Dean, by the way, is a pseudonym; as is the name I choose for my by-line.)
My husband and I shared an unhealthy, "locked-away" myth when we met. The storyline went: there is a "Mr. Wonderful," sweetheart, and someday he will find you and it will all be okay. Each of us discovered the tragedy of the "Someday My Prince Will Come" or "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Golden Hair" script. Script revision, however, after years of faithful playwrighting by loving parents, is a challenging task. (Especially so now that I do it without "Mr. Wonderful Therapist!") It is a task Dean and I must explore independently.
If you are exploring a both/and lifestyle and wish to enter into dialogue with this "seasoned veteran," I would invite your comments or questions as I pursue the idea of writing further installments.
TWO SPECIAL ITEMS FOR SALE FROM INTEGRITY/SAN FRANCISCO
INTEGRITY T-SHIRTS
$5 each, incl. postage
White BVD Shirts
Piped with Red at Collar and Sleeve
INTEGRITY Cross on the Front
S, M, L, and XL
---------------
CONVENTION SERVICE BOOKLET
A Eucharist for the Second Annual
National Convention of INTEGRITY, Inc.
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, 1976
75˘, incl. postage
Both of the items above are available from:
INTEGRITY/San Francisco
P.0. Box 6444
San Jose, CA 95150
NOTICES
"Bibliography on Homosexuality and Religion," edited by Collin C. Schwoyer and sponsored by the Center for University Ministry, Indiana University, 1514 East 3rd St., Bloomington, IN 47401. The bibliography can be obtained free by sending a stamped addressed envelope. A more exhaustive version is available through the Center for $1 each.
Careers and Couples: An Academic Question, edited by Lenore Hoffman and Gloria DeSole for the MLA Commission on the Status of Women ln the Profession. NYC: The Modern Language Association, 1976. Paper. 59 pages. $3.50 from MLA, 62 Fifth Av., NYC 10011. This collection of nineteen essays and documents discusses the efforts of academic couples to resolve the conflicts between their careers and their personal lives. The one Gay essay, "Two Non-Sexist Gay Grooms Behind the Cotton Curtain," documents Forum editor Louie Crew's relationship with his spouse Ernest Clay. Editors DeSole and Hoffman say in the "Introduction": "[Crew's essay] describing a homosexual marriage in which there is no husband-wife relationship serves to put the other essays in perspective. The dominant-male-submissive-female stereotypes are absent here because neither man has been conditioned to play these roles. This relationship suggests the freedom possible in a rolefree society" (p. 2).
Gay Christian Movement pamphlets "Prayer Leaflet" and "Introducing the Gay Christian Movement" are available free (or with donation) from The Secretary, Gay Christian Movement, 15 Bermuda Road, Cambridge, ENGLAND. GCM was discussed in detail in Forum for June-July 1976; it is an ecumenical Gay Christian group in ENGLAND.
Gay Fiction Magazine, 631 Castro Street, SF, CA 94114. This new venture is calling for Gay women and men to submit quality work with a balance to be maintained between Lesbian and Gay male work in each issue. Innovative, experimental and erotic material will be considered as will foreign works in English translation, but no pornography or poetry will be published. SSAE should accompany all submissions.
"Gays Are Joint Heirs With Christ!" This tract is a reprint of Louie Crew's article in the August 1, 1976 issue of The Living Church, which appeared with an antiGay view by Nashotah Prof. The Rev. Robert Cooper. Single copies will be sent free (or for donation) in a stamped addressed envelope; bulks of 20 are available for $l each. Order from 701 Orange St., No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030.
"Homosexual Christians?" an audio cassette special Round Table Debate moderated by the NYC radio personality Barry Farber and featuring Dr. Ralph Blair of the Homosexual Community Center in NYC; Mr. Guy Charles, an antiGay author; and The Rev. Dr. B. Sam Hart, Director of the Grand Old Gospel Fellowship. $3 from HCCC Inc, 30 East 60th Street, NYC 10022. This is a most engaging hour in which four evangelicals battle out the chief fundamentalist reactions to Gay Christians. Mr. Charles has recently been featured in such Episcopal publications as The Living Church, The Christian Challenge, and The Virginia Churchman. Dr. Blair is a lone but most articulate spokesperson for Gays in this arena.
Homosexual Information Center, 6715 Hollywood Blvd., #210, LA, CA 90028 is preparing a new edition of their "Directory of Homosexual Organizations" and invites all groups and chapters of INTEGRITY to send copies of materials to be noted therein.
"Interview with Louie Crew," by The Rev. Ben Campbell, editor of The Virginia Churchman appeared ln the July issue of that publication and is available upon request from Fr. Campbell, 110 West Franklin, Richmond, VA 23200. $1
Parents of Gays (Ms. Jean Smith), P.0. Box 4479, Pensacola, FL 32507, will send free a packet of materials to anyone who sends a legal-sized addressed envelope with postage at 24˘.
Talk Among the Womenfolk by Susan Saxe. $2 from the Susan Saxe Defense Fund, Phila. Nat'l Lawyers Guild, 1427 Walnut, Phila., PA 19102. This is a vibrant and very important collection of fifteen short poems by a major figure ln the Lesbian and women's movements, with startling illustrations. Highly recommended.
L.C.
GAY PRISONER GETS RELIEF
Marion, IL. Johnny Gibbs, leader of the National Coalition of Gay Prisoners, finally won some relief from his continued harassment by federal jailers here when in late June he received judgment allowing his transfer to the U.S. Prison on McNeal Island in Sticlacoom, WA 98388.
INTEGRITY was represented at Mr. Gibbs' hearing by a retired professor who has taken on much of our prison correspondence. Both Mr. Gibbs and the professor recorded the impression that the presence of outside witnesses was a help on this occasion.
Mr. Gibbs would welcome correspondence at P.0. Box 1000 at