Articles From Our July, 2006 Newsletter

TWO GUEST SPEAKERS FOR JULY 9 MEETING

In Missouri, the rights of queer* citizens are under attack. It is legal to discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and a bill recently passed that actually takes away protection granted to queer and other minority students being bullied in their schools.

However, the beauty of our political system is its ability to be changed by the people. And that’s what we’re doing.

The strength of PROMO, Missouri’s statewide LGBT social and political action organization lies in its membership. The more people that are working together to let their voices be heard and to create change, the more effective we become.

I look forward to telling you more about PROMO, what we’ve been doing and what lies ahead, and how we can work together to change the state of Missouri.

For more information about PROMO, contact Sarah Finken at sarah@promoonline.org or at 816-931-2300.

I believe that gender and sexuality are too personal and complex to always be captured by the list of identities that generally describe our communities. While these identities are important and affirming to some, they also limit or leave out many.

*I use “queer” as a general, fluid term to encompass anyone who chooses to define part or all of their identity within it.

From Our President

Happy Summer, Everybody.

As you have read, one of the speakers this month is coming to talk about the Creating Change Conference. Each year the conference is held in a different region of the United States and attracts 2,500+ participants from within and outside of the LGBT community. The conference is well known for providing a unique environment where activists and leaders come together from diverse places and backgrounds to create a community that is both strengthening and inspiring to the participants.

One of the workshops will be called: Come Out, Come Out Wherever You Are. Ron Schlittler from the National PFLAG office will be the guest speaker for this event and has asked that I run the workshop like we do our monthly meetings. This is what I thought was particularly intriguing: He said that these PFLAG sessions are very popular as it gives the activists attending the conference a chance to talk about their own issues with coming out to family. Just as many in the LGBT community have expressed to me that they never thought about the coming out process that parents go through, I must confess that I never thought that someone on the “front lines” would still be having family issues to deal with. I guess I still have much to learn. I am proud that our local chapter has been asked to participate in such a monumental event—and that Kansas City is actively engaged in “creating change” for our loved ones.

Jamie Lee

President Bush: Why Don’t You Want My Daughter to Have the Same Rights As Your Daughters?

PFLAG Families and Friends Outraged by Attacks on Equality

Washington, D.C. --- Families and friends of lesbians and gays are outraged by President Bush’s use of his weekly radio address on Saturday and an event today to advocate for government-sponsored discrimination against their loved ones through the passage of the Federal Marriage Amendment (SJR 1).

“Why doesn’t President Bush believe that my daughter should have the same rights as his daughters?” asked Samuel Thoron, PFLAG National President. “ Simply because my daughter is a lesbian, the president sees fit to forever deny her full equality and use her - and the millions of other gays and lesbians in the U.S. - as a reason to write discrimination into the Constitution.”

PFLAG members throughout the U.S. have sent thousands of postcards, made dozens of visits, and carried out hundreds of calls to their Senators in an effort to encourage them to oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment.

“How dare the President use his position to advocate for such blatant discrimination,” Thoron concluded. “This is a nation of ‘liberty and justice for all’ and it would be refreshing to see the President and many of our legislators begin to embrace that concept and stop undermining real family values.”

NEWS FROM KANSAS CITY GAY AND LESBIAN ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT

Spike in Hate Crimes Across the U.S. in June

Unfortunately, our peer anti-violence programs have been reporting heinous anti-LGBT hate crimes in June:

The New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project has documented three hate crime attacks in seven days time. On Saturday, June 10, Kevin Aviance, a singer whose songs have topped the Billboard dance chart, was attacked by a group yelling anti-gay slurs. Also on June 10, a group of three friends are attacked by a larger group yelling anti-gay and racist epithets and wielding a baseball bat. And on June 11, a man is followed off of an "N" train by another man who harassed him with anti-gay language, pushed him down elevated platform exit stairs to the street, and kicked and punched repeatedly. Wingspan in Tucson reported that men are being picked up at a bar by one man and when they leave to get in the car there are at least three other men waiting. The men who were waiting take the victim to a local park known as a place where men go to have sex with men where they rape and rob the victim. Wingspan has had only one victim contact the AVP, but they have heard rumors of others.

And the Center on Halstead AVP in Chicago documented the beating of a 31 year old man early June 9. He was seriously injured by four or five assailants wielding baseball bats and shouting anti-gay slurs. He was hospitalized for broken ribs, head wounds that required stitches and staples and other injuries after the bashing. He is out of the hospital, but he said is still suffering from blurred vision, swollen legs and pain, and is using a walker. Robinson said the attack on him is part of a recent pattern near Club Mambo on Thursday nights. Police officers, he said, told his boyfriend that there have been five other similar bashings near the club in recent weeks.

If you are a victim of an anti-LGBT hate crime, contact KCAVP for help and support--even if you don't want to report it to the police--by calling us at 816-561-0550.

PFLAG SUPPORTS REAL FAMILY VALUES