“Come Out, Come Out Whoever You Are” The Reverend Margaret L. Beard

October 11th is “National Coming Out Day” which is an internationally-observed civil awareness day for coming out and discussion about gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues. Find out more about the history of this day, the national and local situation and why “fullness of being” and full equality are religious issues.

Service is at 11:00am

For directions and contact information, visit uuaugusta.org.

This is a TalkBack against the Savannah River Site. Y’all won’t print it, but right as you go into Aiken barricade, there is a big sign Come Celebrate National Gay Pride Day with Us. Is the Savannah River Site taking taxpayers’ money and paying for a gay pride celebration? Gives you a serious case of road rage to go in the barricade to work and this sign glaring you in the face. I challenge you to take a picture of this and put it in the a paper and run a survey and ask the employees that have helped to build this country’s security and defense system about it being a slap in their face. Challenge you, Aiken Standard. We’ll see if you print it.

Help me answer this question…what exactly is a slap in the face? It appears to me to be an example of freedom – in speech and expression. Wasn’t our country’s defense system created to defend this very freedom? Or perhaps our defense system only exists to protect this one dear reader’s freedom of speech and everyone else should just shut up. Yep. I think that’s it.

The next meeting of the Coalition for Augusta Pride will be Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 7 PM at The Filling Station bar on Gordon Highway. There will be lots of updates at this meeting, so be sure to pass the word on to anyone who may be interested.

Photo courtesy H4NUM4N via Flickr

Coalition for Augusta Pride

Photo courtesy Philippe Leroyer via Flickr

“I think it’s disgusting some of the profane things he has said about gay people…equating homosexuality with pedophilia,” said Rev. Lowery. “I condemn that kind of demeaning of gay people. I think that all God’s children got shoes, and I think it’s beneath Brother Warren’s status as a Christian pastor to demean people with that kind of profane language.”

Very well said. I, for one, can’t wait to hear a little more from Reverend Lowery next Tuesday.

To watch the (short) interview, go to http://www.wrdw.com/politics/headlines/37739369.html

Despite asking Rick Warren to give the invocation at next Tuesday’s inauguration, Obama is making the day look a little brighter for the gay community. First, the invocation for the first inaugural event on Sunday will be given by out Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson. Obama has also named out appointee Nancy Sutley to a key environmental post and will include a lesbian couple in a pre-inaugural train trip. To top it off, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington will perform at Sunday’s event at the Lincoln Memorial.

Oh wait…there’s one more… for the first time in American history, openly gay musicians and performers, from Lesbian and Gay Band Association, will march in an inauguration parade.

Sounds like it’s shaping up to be an pretty gay week.

What other events will be happening next week for the inauguration?

Members of North Augusta’s St. John’s Episcopal Church severed ties with the national congregation Sunday, rejecting a shift toward a more progressive theology that has led to the blessing of same-sex marriages and gay leaders in the church.

While it’s not surprising to me, it’s still sad and unfortunate.

Read the full article at http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2009/01/05/met_506567.shtml

In case you have any doubts, here’s the best exposé of right wing hate speech I’ve found to date.