Dear Son,

You are 25 years old today. Happy birthday.  This birthday is a special milestone in your life journey.

marking the end of one chapter and the beginning of another as you move from young adulthood into maturity.  I wanted to share with you, adult to adult, some of my thoughts on your birthday.
One of the biggest life lessons parents have to learn is a process of “letting go” of their child . As with all parents, letting go, for us, started when you were born.  There you were – 7 ½ pounds of wonderful! We counted your ten fingers and 10 toes, we marveled at your tiny nose and ears, your deep blue eyes, your head of curly dark hair.  How you howled as you drew in your first breaths of earth air!

Like all parents, we had to balance our strong desire to protect you from all hurt and all harm against our dream of seeing you make your own place in the world as a healthy, mature, independent adult. We certainly made our own share of  mistakes as parents.  At times our actions and  decisions were misguided and arose out of our own ignorance, human frailty and internalized homophobia. But our love was always there.

When you were little, we tucked you into bed at night, read you bedtime stories and sang you lullabies.  We watched you learn to sit, crawl, walk, talk, interact with other human beings and the world around you. We knew that there were life lessons all children needed to learn. We had to let you stand on your own two feet and find out what happens when you fall. We encouraged you to explore and experiment with your surroundings. We saw you learn to ride a bike and later learn to drive a car. We sent you off to preschool, kindergarten, elementary and then high school.  We were there to support and comfort you when you made and lost friends, fell in and out of love.  We celebrated your first ventures into the adult world: graduation from high school, finding your first job, moving out of your childhood home, and tackling life on your own. How quickly time passed!

Our hearts ached when yours did.  We knew that at times you experienced taunting and harassment because you were the child of gay parents  We knew that you sometimes felt really different, isolated, alone.  We intervened where we could and fought for your right to be treated equally and fairly in all settings. We focused on teaching you respect for yourself, respect for others, and respect for the world.  We worked at enhancing your sense of self as a strong, important, capable, unique human being. We explained to you that growing up with gay parents was one of your challenges, and that other children had their own struggles. They might experience poverty, abuse, neglect, homelessness, or suffer the effects of having alcoholic or drug-addicted parents.  They might have physical, emotional, or mental disabilities, they might have red hair, a big nose, or ears that stuck out. They might be overweight or tall and gangly or have freckles or come from an oppressed visible minority’ and face prejudice and discrimination of some sort or other. We emphasized our firm belief that it was love that made a family and that there were many variations on “family” all around us: Johnny lives with his mother and grandmother – they are a family:  Susan lives with her mother, a single parent – they are a family. Joey’s parents are divorced and he lives with his father and a stepmother, and visits his biological mother and her partner and his half-siblings on weekends – they are a family.  I know you gradually learned to be selective in whom you chose to tell about your family, and I remember at one point you told  me: “If people can not accept my family, I really don’t want to be friends with them.”

Over the years, we were frequently questioned about our decision to have a child at that time and in that place when we should have known what challenges he would face. Behind this judgmental question were other unspoken concerns.  Wouldn’t having gay parents impact negatively on  a child’s social,  psychological and sexual development?  Won’t the child of gay parents turn out to be gay as well? What right did we have to bring a child into the world in the first place?

We did a lot of soul searching before making our decision to have you. We were among the first couples that we knew to raise a child from birth in a family with same-sex parents.  There were few role models to guide us in our family venture. We asked ourselves many times: were we not being ignorant, naïve, idealistic, selfish, to even consider having a child? But we had grown up gay in a homophobic world.  We had struggled, found ourselves, survived, grown strong.  We knew we wanted you. We knew we would love you.  We knew we had a lot of goodness to give.  We believed strongly that it was love that made a family.  We believed we could overcome all the odds.  With fear and trepidation, but also with eagerness and excitement, we witnessed your development from a newborn infant into a mature adult, knowing the outcome was really not in our hands, that it was up to you to determine your own destiny.

Today, when I consider the young man you have become – loving, open, strong, independent – I know we were right in our decision to have you at that time and in that place.  It is impossible to count all the ways in which you have enriched our lives.  I cannot imagine my life for the past 25 years without you in it.

I wanted to end my letter to you, my son, with some words that have guided me all along on my journey of parenthood.  They have a power and poignancy all their own.  They are from the Prophet, Kahlil Gibran. He says:

Your Children are not Your Children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

Supported by the Ultra-Conservative PM Harper and his Right-Wing Theocons

Determined to outlaw homosexuality, Womens rights and any right to choose, eg;equal rights and abortion,

and to restore Canada to what they see as its divinely determined destiny to be a nation ruled by Christian laws and precepts, this group of true believers has moved the country far closer to the American mix of politics and religion than most Canadians would ever believe.

Marci McDonald, journalist and author of The Armageddon Factor:

Spoke last October 2010 at SFU Harbour Centre. This event is hosted by the BC Humanist Association (BCHA), Centre For Information (CFI) Vancouver, and SFU Skeptics.

Marci McDonald spent five years in US politics before returning to Canada, and found to her amazement that the religious right agenda was not only in the US, but in Canadian politics too.

Amazon.ca describes the book:

In her book, award-winning journalist Marci McDonald draws back the curtain on the mysterious world of the right-wing Christian nationalist movement in Canada and its many ties to the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.

To most Canadians, the politics of the United States — where fundamentalist Christians wield tremendous power and culture wars split the country — seem too foreign to ever happen here. But The Armageddon Factor shows that the Canadian Christian right — infuriated by the legalization of same-sex marriage and the increasing secularization of society — has been steadily and stealthily building organizations, alliances and contacts that have put them close to the levers of power and put the government of Canada in their debt.

McDonald’s book explores how a web of evangelical far-right Christians have built think-tanks and foundations that play a prominent role in determining policy for the Conservative government of Canada. She shows how Biblical belief has allowed Christians to put dozens of MPs in office and to build a power base across the country, across cultures and even across religions.

“What drives that growing Christian nationalist movement is its adherents’ conviction that the end times foretold in the book of Revelation are at hand,” writes McDonald. “Braced for an impending apocalypse, they feel impelled to ensure that Canada assumes a unique, scripturally ordained role in the final days before the Second Coming — and little else.”

The Armageddon Factor shows how the religious right’s influence on the Harper government has led to hugely important but little-known changes in everything from foreign policy and the makeup of the courts to funding for scientific research and social welfare programs like daycare. And the book also shows that the religious influence is here to stay, regardless of which party ends up in government.

For those who thought the religious right in Canada was confined to rural areas and the west, this book is an eye-opener, outlining to what extent the corridors of power in Ottawa are now populated by true believers. For anyone who assumed that the American religious right stopped at the border, The Armageddon Factor explains how US money and evangelists have infiltrated Canadian politics.

This book should be essential reading for Canadians of every religious belief or political stripe. Indeed, The Armageddon Factor should persuade every Canadian that, with the growth of such a movement, the future direction of the country is at stake.

.

In her book, McDonald, a well-known Canadian journalist, explores the rise of the religious right in Canada and the interconnections between various Christian organizations and the minority government of Stephen Harper.

The Centre for Inquiry, which seeks to “promote and advance reason, science, secularism and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavour,” has branches around the country. The Ottawa branch of CFI is an extension of the Humanist Association of Ottawa (HAO).

CFO, Ottawa, in conjunction with the Humanist Associations of Ottawa.

For more information, visit cfiottawa.com/speakerseries/marcimcdonald/

www.xtrawest.com

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Footnote; by Niyomi for Niye’s Eye in Politics, The pink elephant .ca online magazine.

The religious right is running for its life, defending itself by running directly into our government!  Positioning themseves in law making positions, Why ? because times are a changing and they don’t like it!! It scares and galls them, but should we be afraid too. You betcha baby..here are some reasons that make organized religions react.

There are three agendas that will rally the religious right wing Theo cons, in all societies.

No. 1, The advancement of Secular Rights. Eg.. [ Gay/Lesbian, and Women’s rights ]

No. 2, The advancement of Science ………  [ Stem cell research and evolution ]

No. 3, The encroachment of another powerful religion. [ Islam’s movement to the west ]

All three of these profiles have been happening over the last 20 years, these orthodoxies are pushing back hard right to control the populace, and this is the wakeup call needed by the secular left. We are again and again,, experiencing a Reversal of Fortune, dictated by the right wing extremists and their so called Holy-Cross-Roads Agendas.

Especially in the USA, don’t think it can happen in Canada, oh good lord literally, as our government leader the Right Honourable ? PM Steven Harper, don’t you know has God on his side, what does that mean, hang on it’s going to be a bumpy road for women especially. Yes here we go again, must stand out and up for our equal rights again.

The Christian right teaches, stand-up, stand-up for Jesus, but what is the true meaning to this rhetoric except for how to control the liberal left populace, where you get to impose your own brand of religious policies.

Note; Minister of Immigration; Jason Kenney is a known Theo con and a PM, Harper supporter. Do You think Canada’s Conservative government is playing off the American right wing conservative base, You bet your booty they ARE!

Already in Canada immigration laws have been shifted so Gays/Lesbians will find it more difficult to use these laws to asses their human rights and or immigration standing. Just  one example of how it is done, a legal denial of Gay/Lesbian rights.

Having read, Marci McDonald, journalist and author of The Armageddon Factor: I can say it was a huge eye opener. Please give it a read and judge for yourselves.

By Niyomi

………

for more details: http://bchumanist.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:marci-mcdonald-the-armageddon-factor&catid=34:events

COMPARISON CHARTS – PART 2

By Mare Lane

LESBIAN TENNIS PLAYERS

This month, as we study the charts of 5 lesbian tennis players, we’ll be looking for indications of quick mind/body reflexes, an ability to keep their eye on the ball & to be fleet of foot. They would also be good strategists in order to plan where they send the ball in the court & be very competitive.

Well, being competitive is a given for most sports, because the winner/loser dynamic is built in to the purpose of each sport, especially for wimmin who attain fame & sometimes fortune. They would especially love the sport.

The first chart we’ll study is of a wommin who is one of the grandmothers of tennis, who has left a legacy for wimmin to follow. Her name is Helen Jacobs.

HELEN JACOBS

Born Aug. 6, 1908

Globe, Arizona, U.S.

Time unknown

MOON – late Scorpio – early Sagittarius

MERCURY – 29 Cancer – O Leo

NORTH NODE – 4 Cancer 27

VENUS – 7 Cancer 05

SATURN – 10 Aries 01r

URANUS – 13 Capricorn 47r

SUN – 13 Leo 50

NEPTUNE – 15 Cancer 42

MARS – 18 Leo 50

JUPITER – 22 Leo 01

CHIRON – 21 Aquarius 20r

PLUTO – 25 Gemini 24

The first thing I notice is Helen has her Moon intuition trine her Mercury thinking. The only criticism I read about her play was that, despite intense coaching she could never hit a flat forehand. She was noted for having a powerful serve & overhand as well as a good backhand.

The next configuration I studied was her Venus square Saturn. Then her Venus opposes Uranus & Saturn squares Uranus. This makes a figure called a T-Square & is coloured red because of the dynamic energy, need for challenges & hard work involved. She was stockily built & said to be plucky & a great fighter.

Now we focus on Uranus the rebel. Along with opposing Venus & squaring Saturn, it also makes an opposition to Neptune & an exact quincunx to her enthusiastic, performance-driven pride of the Sun in Leo. Her Sun in Leo is conjunct her Mars & Jupiter in Leo. Remember that 3 or more planets in the same sign or the same house is called a stellium (star Cluster)

1. She was the first womin, in 1933, to wear men’s shorts on the court.

2. Helen was open about being lesbian. Her life-long partner was named Virginia Gurnee.

3. Her Leo planets were very bedraggled when the games she lost were mostly to one womin called Helen Wills Moody. Not only did her main rival have the same first name, she – quote – “lost 14 of the 15 career singles matches she played against Moody”. I will not be sidetracked here, just to say Moody was born in 1905 & became an international star. She was married & never had children.

She was a whole fascinating story unto herself but I’m sticking to my lesbians.

4. Helen played in the U.S., England (Wimbledon), France, Italy, & Australia. One of the indications of international travel, public fame & wide publicity is her Jupiter connections in the Leo stellium along with the opposition to her Chiron – the Wounded Healer – in Aquarius.

5. She had the drive, stamina & enthusiasm to compete in tournaments & became well-known by 1928, when she was 20, until the war hiatus in 1941 (the U.S. joined the war in 1942). She served as a commander in the U.S, Navy Intelligence during the war. Helen was 1 of only 5 wimmin to achieve that rank. Because of the secretive aspect of her war work, I think her Moon may be in Scorpio. I also think so because of her intense competitiveness, will & stamina to keep playing, so frequently, in so many countries, for so many years, from the time she was 20 until she was 34.

The stress of travel & constantly competing must be very hard on the nerves & body. I think during her early years she had to learn to be a good-sport when she lost, as well as being a gracious, dignified winner.

So we can see that the Leo elite status & pride in her specialized accomplishments was lived out in her lifetime. Helen won 5 Grand Slam singles & 11 Grand Slam singles runner-up. She won 4 Grand Slam women’s doubles, 1 in mixed doubles, & was runner-up in 6 doubles. She was top-ranked in the world from 1928 through 1939 & top-ranked in the U.S. from 1927 through 1941. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1962.

Other Jupiter-ruled keywords are public relations & publishing. People with Moon – Mercury connections are often writers. Helen wrote 2 books on tennis, published in 1933 & 1936. Then she wrote her autobiography in 1936 & a novel in 1944. I don’t know what she did for the next 50 years but I did find one reference to her being a clothing designer. Oh well-her tennis career is the main focus.

Helen passed away of heart failure in Hampton, New York on June 2, 1997.

The next famous tennis star is Billie Jean King. One of her most famous exploits was of her playing, in 1973, against Bobby Riggs, a former Wimbledon men’s singles champion. It was called “the Battle of the Sexes”, & she won the match along with the winner-take-all prize of $100,000.

BILLIE JEAN KING

Born Nov. 2, 1943

Long Beach, California

Time: 11:45 A.M. (thanks to Astro-Theme.com)

MOON – 0 Libra 44

NEPTUNE – 3 Libra 40

MERCURY – 6 Sag 50

URANUS – 7 Gemini 09r

PLUTO – 8 Leo 43r

NORTH NODE – 9 Leo 45

VENUS – 13 Libra 20

CHIRON – 15 Virgo

MARS – 17 Gemini 41r

SATURN – 24 Gemini 56r

JUPITER – 26 Leo 16

SUN – 29 Scorpio 36

I notice that the Sun is out-of-sign sextile to her Moon/Neptune conjunction. Her Sun also squares Jupiter & quincunxes Saturn. I’ll refer back to this when I get to the relevant parts of her bio. It’s going to be hard for me to condense because Wikipedia printed out 28 pages! I also see she has 3 planets in Mutable Air Gemini & 3 planets in Cardinal Air Libra. She has no Earth Element except for her Ascendant (rising sign) in Capricorn.

Billie Jean’s Mercury is opposing unpredictable, rebellious Uranus, sextile her sensitive Moon/Neptune intuition, idealism, trust & vulnerability, & trine the Pluto/North Node. Her Mars & Saturn are both in Gemini which is ruled by quicksilver Mercury. So here are the fleet of foot & quick reflexes we’re looking for. Her 3 planets in Air Element Libra can indicate good strategy, a strong sense of fairness & injustice, with the need for a partner. With Jupiter sextile Saturn in restless Gemini along with the other Gemini planets, & her Mercury mind in Sag., travelling all over the world to play would be as natural to her as breathing.

She married Larry King on Sept. 17, 1965, had an abortion in 1971 which her husband revealed to MS mag in a 1972 article without her knowledge. They finally divorced in 1987.

In 1971 Billie Jean realized she was lesbian & had a relationship with her secretary Marilyn Barnett, which became public in 1981 when Marilyn sued her for ‘palimony’ When this happened she lost everything, including all her endorsements. She had to also pay her very expensive lawyers. It took years for her to play to pay it all. She was betrayed by her husband outing her abortion & betrayed by her lover by being out-ed as lesbian, & betrayed by the people who were endorsing her.

Besides being perhaps too trusting with her Moon/Neptune, Billie Jean has Pluto power struggles, which is the ruler of her Sun sign, in the Libra/Venus-ruled 7^th house of marriage & all one-on-one relationships, including friendships. When Pluto in the 7^th house is being positively expressed it can indicate an intense, fiercely protective loyalty to each other, & feel like the relationship is destined/fated. It can indicate the lesson in this life-time about becoming empowered in your own right & helping to empower others & ensure their Libran equal rights.

I don’t think she’d be easy to get close to & may not like showing her Moon/Neptune vulnerability. Her Scorpio Sun would be aware of sexual issues & would become embroiled in controversial issues & confrontations.

In order to heal the wounds of her Chiron in Virgo she’s had to learn discrimination, people now have to earn her trust, & she’s learning the difference between barriers & the more healthy setting of boundaries.

Billie Jean has always been an advocate against sexism in all areas of life, & has fought for equal pay for wimmin in sports. I’d better move along here & get to her achievements in tennis. In 1961 funds were raised to send her to Wimbledon where she won the doubles with Karen Hantze.

But in 1959, when she was only 15, Billie Jean went to her first Grand Slam match, then other U.S. matches & kept losing. Her confidence was destroyed by a womin who had been a tennis champ & told her she would never make it & not to bother. The womin thought using reverse psychology would work to spur Billie on, but the reverse intention became reversed & she was almost in despair, until she was coached by a womin who with patience & time built her confidence. Another example of a Pluto betrayal/destruction. Her coach Alice Marble was her Neptune & Jupiter Guardian Angel & Billie worked hard to rebuild what had been destroyed.

She’s done that rebuilding & found allies to support her all her life. Many people have described her as tough, never showing weakness, being impatient, being an aggressive player, being intimidated by her powerful presence, & being the best competitor they ever saw.

Her peak performance years were from 1966 – 1975, when she was 22 to 32 yr. She continued playing from 1976 – 1990. She’s been quoted as saying that she wasted 1976 . She had her 3^rd knee surgery later that year & stopped playing until she recovered by March, 1977. She stumbled through a few tournaments & then took off by winning 31-3 for the rest of the year.

In Dec. ‘78 she had major surgery to her left foot & didn’t compete until 1979. In Nov. ‘80 she had knee surgery to remove cartilage & adhesion. Billie Jean retired from playing competitive singles in 1983 & made her last appearance at Wimbledon in doubles. She continued to play doubles occasionally until March,1990.

She coached a tennis team for the Olympics, founded & joined a few tennis associations, along with her ex-husband ( I guess they‘ve remained friends), & had a few more confrontations with a few more people. Chris Evert describes her as being wise & having vision people can only dream about. She says Billie Jean is her mentor & gives her good advice.

During Billie Jean’s erratic Uranus type career with many losses, time-out for surgeries, & even more spectacular & powerful wins, she won 129 singles titles, played 695 winning games to 155 losses & almost $2 million in winnings. She’s won many awards & honours, including Seventeen Mag who polled their readers in 1975 & Billie was voted the most admired womin in the world.

In 1987 she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

On Aug. 12, 2009 President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for advocating the rights of wimmin & the LGBT community.

On Aug.5, 2011 she was inducted into the S. California Tennis Association Hall of Fame.

Billie Jean’s life-partner is Ilana Kloss. They have a home in New York & one in Chicago.

Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss at ceremony for induction into Tennis Hall of Fame.

Surprise!! Our next chart to study is Ilana Kloss who is a former professional tennis player & is the commissioner/CEO of World Team Tennis.

ILANA KLOSS

Born – March 22, 1956

Johannesburg, South Africa

Time unknown

MOON – early to mid-degrees Leo

SUN – 1 Aries

SATURN – 2Sag. 42

CHIRON – 8 Aquarius 50

NORTH NODE – 10 Sag. 50

MARS – 14 Capricorn 58

VENUS – 16 Taurus 10

MERCURY – 18 Pisces 10

JUPITER – 22 Leo 30r

PLUTO – 26 Leo 34

URANUS – 28 Cancer 17r

NEPTUNE – 29 Libra 45

My gosh, I have 3 charts with Jupiter in Leo. Another one we’ll do is Amelie Mauresmo & I see that she also has Jupiter in Leo! The last chart we’ll study is of Martina Navratilova & she breaks the pattern with her Jupiter in Virgo.

Ilana is left-handed which didn’t seem to hinder her playing against mostly right-handed players. In 1972 she won the Wimbledon juniors singles title & again in 1974 at the U.S. Open juniors.

She was only 16 – 18 yr. old & was the youngest ever ranked #1 player in South Africa.

Her doubles partner was mostly Linky Bashof. Ilana ranked #1 in the world in doubles in 1976. She played that year in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Britain & France. That year she was ranked 19^th in the world singles titles.

In 1977 she won the German, Canadian, & British championships & won the title in Cincinnati. Jupiter rules travel to other countries & Ilana’s Jupiter in Leo probably conjuncts her Moon, then conjuncts her Pluto, widely squares her Venus, & quincunxes her Neptune-ruled Mercury in Pisces.

After Ilana retired she went on a 35yr.& older tournament in 1999, winning the U.S. Open doubles & mixed doubles championship.

In 2001 she became CEO/Commissioner of World Team Tennis, which Billie Jean King had co-founded a few years previously. I found 1 reference to Ilana doing photography, which would make sense as she has her Mercury in visionary, creative Pisces.

Ilana & Billie Jean have been life-partners for about 25 yr. & seem to do everything together as a couple & to jointly care about the causes of wimmin in sports. They have a lot in common, including astrologically. For example Ilana’s Sun opposes Billie Jean’s Moon/Neptune. Ilana’s Moon conjuncts Billie’s North Node destiny point & Ilana’s North Node conjuncts Billie’s Mercury. There are many more connections between them.

Ilana is Jewish & was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

Our next chart is of Amelie Mauresmo, a French-born tennis champion.

AMELIE MAURESMO

Born – July 5, 1979

Saint-Germain-en-Laaye, France

Time: 4:30 P.M. (copyright Didier Geslain)

MARS – 6 Gemini 45

ASCENDENT – 8 Scorpio 05

MERCURY – 8 Leo 48

JUPITER – 11 Leo 43

SATURN – 9 Virgo 43

NORTH NODE – 10Virgo 14

SUN – 12 Cancer 59

CHIRON – 13 Taurus 03

PLUTO – 16 Libra 27

URANUS – 17 Scorpio 06r

MOON – 17 Scorpio 29

NEPTUNE – 18 Sag. 28r

MIDHEAVEN – 20 Leo 10

VENUS – 29 Gemini 03

Amelie’s Venus is un-aspected but if we add the degrees to Chiron it makes a semi-square (45degrees). I’m not sure what an un-aspected Venus can indicate but I’ll search my books & find out.

I do know that any un-aspected planet takes on a life of its own because it’s not being influenced mathematically by other planets in the chart. Chiron the Wounded Healer is not a planet & it’s position is between Saturn structure & Uranus unpredictability. It’s sometimes called the Rainbow Bridge. Anyway, her Venus being un-aspected can mean the planet is in the unconscious, can seem like a mystery, or the person doesn’t experience it as an integrated part of her core.

This could affect her relationships, her attitude toward money, how & whom she loves, her self-esteem &, being in Gemini, her nervous system & reflexes. She was ousted as lesbian when she was only 19 & had a girlfriend. This set up a storm of judgment, controversy & back-stabbing, including by some of the other tennis players. Some of the comments were about her aggressive play being like a man. Her sponsors & friends were loyal though & for a while -quote -“how her nerves were shredded, how petrified she was to face a French crowd in full flow”.

During Amelie’s career she won 25 singles titles, & won 554 games to 226 losses. She was World # 1, Sept. 2004 & held the title for 5 weeks.. Her doubles record is 92 wins, 62 losses.

During the more than 15yr. Amelie played in tournaments, she sometimes had a groin injury ( ruled by Pluto/Scorpio) & she has Moon, Uranus & Asc. all in Scorpio. Her Moon/Uranus can indicate an erratic career & unpredictable losses, often through groin injuries, which would emotionally be difficult for her to handle, partly because her wins were so spectacular with her unusual one-handed backhand & strong net play. She was only ever criticized for losing her mental strength because of her nerves.

Amelie has Saturn & North Node in Virgo which rules the intestines & in 2007 she had acute appendicitis & had to withdraw from some of her games. She was still not totally strong when she came back & had quite a few losses. Since Nov. 2003 she had been in the World Top 5, but that year dropped to sixth place. She also during those years won a #1 spot for 39 weeks.

Her Jupiter is conjunct her Mercury, square Ask., sextile Mars & she was an international player, although she competed quite a lot in her native France. She played in Australia, England, Warsaw, the U.S., Rome, Berlin, Montreal, Madrid, Moscow & Beijing.

In 2004 Amelie won a singles silver medal at the Athens Olympics.

Although she was a successful player, Amelie didn’t win her first Grand Slam until 2006.

March 16, 2007, President Chirac presented her with the Chevalier of the Legion D’honneur.

At a press conference in Paris, Amelie announced her retirement on Dec. 3, 2009. She’s one of the few to keep top ranking for years, before winning a Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2006.

The last & perhaps most well-known player outside tennis circles, is of Martina Navratilova. In 2006, Billie Jean King, another famous player, said “She’s the greatest singles, doubles & mixed doubles player who’s ever lived!”

MARTINA NAVRATILOVA

Born: Oct. 18, 1956

Prague, Czechoslovakia

Time: 4:40 P.M., CET (copyright Sy Scholfield)

SATURN – 0 Sag. 48

MIDHEAVEN – 5 Capricorn 59

CHIRON – 6 Aquarius 26

URANUS – 6 Leo 42

MERCURY – 9 Libra 14

MOON – 12 Aries 18

MARS – 13 Pisces 35

VENUS – 14 Virgo 25

ASCENDENT – 14 Aries 37

JUPITER – 21 Virgo 19

SUN – 25 Libra 14

NEPTUNE – 29 Libra 58

PLUTO – 29 Leo 58

NORTH NODE – 29 Scorpio 21

The first thing I notice are Martina’s oppositions. Simply put,she has her Moon emotions opposing her Mercury thinking. She has her Mars action opposing her Venus values. She has Uranus uniqueness opposing Chiron the Wounded Healer.

Then I see that all her transpersonal planets make strong aspects in her blueprint.

Neptune conjuncts her Sun & Pluto sextiles her Sun/ Neptune. Pluto also makes an out-of-sign square to her Saturn, with an exact square to her North Node destiny point. Neptune also is the ruler of her Mars in Pisces & Pluto is the ruler of her North Node in Scorpio

The next transpersonal planet to study is her Uranus. (Chiron is not a planet) Uranus in Leo trines her Moon in Aries, & trines Saturn in Sag –this makes a Grand Trine in Fire Element. Then Uranus sextiles her Mercury, with a quincunx to her Mid-heaven. I notice that Martina has 3 planets in Libra (3 or more are a stellium) which is Cardinal Air.

Martina wants to share with others, is a good strategist & communicator, aware of injustice, has a sense of fair play & dislikes coarseness or disharmony which could create conflict with her Moon & Asc. in Aries which can be fiercely competitive & a real scrapper when challenged.

She has a very complicated chart with everything connected to everything, EXCEPT JUPITER which adds to the complexity because Jupiter the planet of foreign countries, immigration, public relations & higher education only makes a wide opposition to her Mars & is too wide an orb to make a semi-sextile (30degrees) to her Sun. When I write her mini-biography, I’ll try to see where her Jupiter applies & note it. By- the- way, she’s another left-hander.

Martina belonged to the Czech Sports Association & was playing internationally in 1974 when she was 17yr. & in 1975, while she was playing in the U.S., the Association complained she was becoming “too Americanized” & in 1975 was stripped of her citizenship & wished to defect. She was granted political asylum as a temporary resident. This is a very Jupiter situation that she was not in control of, but did bring her the luck & mentors/supporters that Jupiter (sometimes called our Guardian Angel) is often credited for. Another example of her Jupiter not being in her control, but very lucky, was that her mother re-married, and her step-father became her first coach/mentor. She also took his last name.

Martina’s biological father left when she was 3 & he committed suicide when she was 8yr.

Her Uranus is always involved in the sudden, unexpected shocks/events in her life.

When she was only 15, Martina won the Czech national championship & at 16yr. won the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association games. Between 1982-84 Martina only lost 6 singles matches & had a 74-match winning professional record. Her final Grand Slam singles win was in 1990 at Wimbledon where she won a record breaking ninth crown.

In 1994, after she lost the Grand Slam at Wimbledon, she retired from singles full-time competition, but returned in 2000 to tour in doubles, & some singles events. She became the oldest ever Grand Slam doubles champion in 2003, when she was almost 47!.

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2000. She is actively involved with animal rights, underprivileged children charities. Martina speaks & protests for gay & lesbian rights & also in 2000 was awarded the National Equality Award from the large Human Rights Campaign organization.

During those years Martina racked up 18 Grand Slam singles, a record-breaking 31 Grand Slam women’s doubles & 10 Grand Slam mixed-doubles titles. She is the only person of any sex to win 8 different tournaments 7 times. Her career record in singles is 1,442 wins to 219 losses, her record in doubles is 747 wins to 143 losses. Her partner in doubles was often Pam Shriver, especially during the ‘80s.

In 2006 she lost at Wimbledon, then won the U.S. Open with mixed-doubles when she was almost 50!

She is a never-to-be-forgotten wonder.

Martina publicly came out as lesbian in 1981 when she was in a relationship with Rita Mae Brown. She was in partnership with Judy Nelson from 1984-1991 & their separation & legal battles were widely published.

She has written many books since 1985, when she wrote her autobiography, to co-writing tennis books & mystery novels to a health & fitness book published in 2006.

Martina was diagnosed with breast cancer in Jan. 2010, had the tumour removed & went through radiation treatments in May. Then in Dec. 2010, she tried to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro!! She was hospitalized after this adventure led to high altitude pulmonary edema (perhaps not allowing enough time for her body to recover) She eats mostly vegetarian with some fish.

Politically she’s very publicly out-spoken about her denunciation of Communism & her dislike of right-wing politics. This is a good example of her Libra planets looking for balance between the extremes of Pluto plutocrats ruling, or dictators ruling, along with her Uranus which fights for equal rights for the majority of people, as she sees more & more loss of freedom. (while the few control the many, no matter what name you give it. That’s my interjection) Her Aries Moon & Ascendant are right up-front taking on criticism & challenges in her interviews.

COMPARISONS – PERSONAL PLANETS ONLY, PLUS NORTH NODE & ANY KNOWN M.C. OR ASC. The total points when we know the M.C. & Asc. is 14, & when we don’t know the time of birth the total is 12

1. ELEMENTS IN POINTS (2 POINTS EACH FOR SUN & MOON)

HELEN has 4 points & possibly her Moon in FIRE ELEMENT

BILLIE JEAN has 3 points in FIRE ELEMENT

ILANA has 7 points in FIRE ELEMENT

AMELIE has 3 points in FIRE ELEMENT

MARTINA has 4 points in FIRE ELEMENT

2. ALL of the wimmin have very little or no points in EARTH ELEMENT

3. There is a mixture between all the wimmin of AIR ELEMENT & WATER ELEMENT, so now I’ll check the connections with their transpersonal planets which are Uranus, Neptune & Pluto.

URANUS

HELEN has 4 Aspects to Uranus. (plus her Chiron is in the Uranus-ruled sign of Aquarius)

BILLIE JEAN has 5 Aspects to Uranus

ILANA has 4 Aspects to Uranus, 3 of which are out-of-sign (plus Chiron in Aquarius)

AMELIE has 4 Aspects to Uranus, including a square aspect to her M.C. (she also has it opposed her Chiron)

MARTINA has 4 Aspects to her Uranus, including a quincunx to her M.C. (plus Chiron in Aquarius)

NEPTUNE

HELEN has 4 Aspects to Neptune

BILLIE JEAN has 5 Aspects to Neptune (1 is out-of-sign)

ILANA has 6 Aspects to Neptune (plus her Mercury in Neptune-ruled Pisces)

AMELIE has 4 Aspects to Neptune (her SOUTH NODE -past memories & connections, is in the Neptune-ruled sign of Pisces)

MARTINA has 3 Aspects to Neptune ( plus her Mars in Neptune-ruled Pisces)

PLUTO

HELEN only has 1 Aspect to Pluto, (plus a trine to Chiron) to Pluto (plus her Moon may be in late degrees Scorpio, which is ruled by Pluto)

BILLIE JEAN has 5 Aspects to Pluto (plus her Sun & Mid-heaven in Pluto-ruled Scorpio)

ILANA has 4 Aspects to Pluto.

AMELIE has 4 Aspects to Pluto (plus her Moon/Uranus & Asc. in Pluto-ruled Scorpio)

MARTINA has 4 Aspects to Pluto (plus her North Node in Pluto-ruled Scorpio)

Whew! I hope I didn’t make any mistakes. What I did manage to compare shows that the Fire Element is the most prominent & that all the wimmin are connected very strongly to all 3 of the transpersonal planets, which is not always the case. What did surprise me is how little Earth Element they each have. Maybe if I knew all their birth times they might have more Earth on the Asc. or M.C.

Well dear ones, that’s all for this month. I hope you manage to plough through it. Spring is on its’ way – I feel my sap stirring. I think for April I’ll do the charts of lesbian activists for comparison. All my Blessings, Mare

Just The Way You Are

I’m quite interested in seeing if there are any similar themes linking them to a common career.

The first chart is of a womin who was a contemporary of Bessie Smith & Ethel Waters, so I consider her a pioneer in her field.

Her name is ALBERTA HUNTER

Born April 1, 1895

Memphis, Tennessee

Time: unknown

MOON – Late Gemini, early Cancer

CHIRON – 5 Libra 27

SATURN – 5 Scorpio 35r

PLUTO – 10 Gemini 03

VENUS – 10 Taurus 39

SUN – 11 Aries 45

NEPTUNE – 13 Gemini 25

MERCURY – 15 Pisces 27

MARS – 17 Gemini 50

URANUS – 19 Scorpio 20r

NORTH NODE – 21 Pisces 41

JUPITER – 28 Gemini 49

Regardless of her Moon being late Gemini or early Cancer, Jupiter is conjunct it, but I think her Moon is in Cancer, partly because she has a stellium in Gemini, partly because for many years she was a nurse & also looked after her mother until she died. Also Ceres (one of the Asteroid Goddesses) the Nurturer is 7 Capricorn 47 opposing her Moon. Ceres is where the word “cereal” came from.

Alberta composed her own songs, performed in many nightclubs & made many recordings. Her creativity & variety of talents is indicated by her Mercury in Pisces square Neptune (the ruler of Pisces) in Gemini. Another indication of talent & the ability to manifest is her Venus in earthy Taurus (Venus rules Taurus & the throat) opposing the discipline & structure of her Saturn in Scorpio.

Alberta left home to become a singer, when she was young (some sources say about 11yr.), & she didn’t like her home life when her mother remarried in 1906. At some point, her mother came & moved in with her. She worked in a boarding house & nightclubs peeling potatoes, determined to persuade the owners to let her sing. She sang her way through many seedy dives until 1917 when she was given a 5yr. contract with the classy Dreamland Club, a venue for Black entertainers.

Her Sun in Aries gave her the courage along with the sextiles to Pluto Will to survive & Neptune Faith in her own abilities. She grew up in a hurry, & I’m sure she didn’t contemplate any dangers as she was so focused on her goal. Today, we would call her a child prodigy!

In 1917, she performed in Paris & London, where the Europeans admired & loved her.

This was about the time she started writing songs & was the first indication that she was meant to travel & become an international star, during the 1920s, ‘30s & ‘40s. She performed in clubs, stage musicals & began recording, starting with her famous song “Downhearted Blues”, which she wrote in 1922.

Her stellium (star cluster) in Gemini, particularly her Mars, gave her the need to move around & travel, meet many people, write & have lots of variety & audience appreciation.

She was cheated out of the royalties for her big hit “Downhearted Blues”, when it was recorded by Bessie Smith, & only received $368, so she never recorded for that agent again, as he had secretly sold the rights to Columbia records.

Alberta sang for the troops in 1944 & then again in 1953 for the troops in Korea.

Her mother died in 1954 & this event triggered a need to change her career, so she became a nurse. Once again, she achieved her goal in a very unorthodox way! First, she shaved a few years off her true age. (She was really 59 yr.?). Then she produced a fake high school diploma & enrolled in nursing school. I’m cracking up laughing at this bit.

Alberta was nursing at Goldwater Memorial Hospital in New York, when, in 1961 the record producer Chris Albertson asked her to record 4 of her songs on an album along with other performers, then made another album with Lil Armstrong & Lovie Austin.

She had no plans to return to singing full time as she intended to spend the rest of her life nursing. But the Universe had other plans for her. The hospital made her retire in 1977 as they considered her to have reached retirement age (she was 82!!).

She once again defied all logic, became restless & bored with retirement & returned to singing at a nightclub called The Cookery, where she wowed the packed -in crowds & the media reported her comeback. I’m laughing again! This womin was amazing & delightful. What spunk! She also made TV appearances & more recordings. She sang at the White House. She toured Europe & South America & her comeback lasted for 6 yr.

Her Saturn in Scorpio opposing Venus in Taurus sure gave her stamina & as far as I could discover she was in good health & performed almost until her death on Oct. 17, 1984. I guess she just ran out of energy & couldn’t quite make it until 90 yr.!

NOTE: Alberta was very private about being lesbian, but it is known she had an intimate relationship with Lottie Tyler & when it ended, they were good friends until Lottie’s death.

If you’re interested, you could look up the transits for 1954, then 1977 to help explain astrologically the long nursing hiatus from her singing career.

You all know my Fire & Air planets would like to sidetrack here, but I’m sticking to the purpose of this article – which is to compare some Jazz musicians. I’m laughing again – this time at myself.

This next chart is of a womin who was a Jazz singer, composer & a natural on the piano.

She is PIA BECK

Born Sept. 18, 1925

The Hague, Holland

Time unknown

MOON – late Virgo – early Libra

VENUS – 2 Scorpio 10

NORTH NODE – 3 Leo 36

MERCURY – 9 Virgo 02

SATURN – 11 Scorpio 06

JUPITER – 12 Capricorn 48

PLUTO – 14 Cancer 35

MARS – 22 Virgo 58

URANUS – 23 Pisces 26r

NEPTUNE – 23 Leo 30

SUN – 24 Virgo 02

CHIRON – 27 Aries 57r

Well, the first thing I see is another stellium, this time in Virgo. The similarity here with Alberta is that their stelliums are in Mutable Signs, to do with communication & the nervous system- but Alberta’s is Mutable Air, which is more risk-taking & with not much forethought, while Pia’s Mutable Earth is more careful, perfectionist & detail oriented.

They both have strong Uranus aspects to personal planets. Alberta has Uranus trine Venus & North Node, quincunx Mars, while Pia has Uranus opposing her Mars, Sun & Moon.

Pia has an interesting dilemma between her Virgo modesty or shyness & her exciting Uranus, which shakes her life unexpectedly & may have caused conflict between her need for an organized, calm life & her need for an international audience in order to express her abilities. I wonder if she had stage fright.

So far, what the 2 lives have most in common is their mutability (restless & adaptable), genius, composing, incredible talent & international success. They both had partners. Alberta’s relationship changed to friendship for life (Gemini) & Pia’s was long lasting & they lived together until death, but it also changed to close friendship as they aged. (Virgo)

Pia left home to join a Jazz sextet when she was 18 yr. to sing & play piano. What was amazing was that she had no formal training & had only played with her musical family as a child. She played with the Miller Sextet in Belgium, Germany, Sweden & the Dutch East Indies, from May 1945 until 1949 when she formed her own group.

Her first composition was called “Pia’s Boogie” & became a big hit, even though she never learned to read sheet music.

She performed all over Europe, then in 1952 performed in U.S. Jazz clubs & returned there annually until 1964. She was especially revered in New Orleans & Atlanta. Oscar Peterson called her, “the best jazz pianist in the world.” Her home base was a stage in Scheveningen, a resort near The Hague.

Pia & her life-partner Marga Samsonowski immigrated to the Costa del Sol, Spain in 1965 where they opened their own piano bar & started a real estate firm. (I think they went bankrupt, but can’t confirm from other sources). They returned to Holland in 1975, where Pia made a comeback at the Scheveningen resort.

They continued living near Toremellinos, Spain & Pia traveled back & forth on tours until her last concert in Sept. 2003, when she retired to concentrate on composing jazz & writing jazz articles. She (they?) owned many nightclubs in Holland, including the well-known Flying Dutchman Club.

There are sparse details about Pia’s life, but there is one source that says both she & Marga were briefly married to men. It mentions “their” 3 children, & that the eldest daughter died in 2008. Marga passed away in June, 2009, & then Pia passed away 5 months after Marga, on Nov. 26, 2009 of heart failure. She was 84 years young.

There is an authorized biography published in 2000, called “A Touch of my Life”, & a CD of her greatest piano solos was released.

My next Jazz musician is a bit different, as she mixes her own songs with other composers, is a blend of traditional-modern with a ballad-y almost bluesy 2-in-the-morning-voice. I her deeper voice sounds more traditional… that’s my take anyway.

Her name is PATRICIA BARBER.

Born Nov. 8, 1955

Chicago, Illinois

Time: unknown

MOON – early – mid Virgo

CHIRON – 0 Aquarius 25

MERCURY – 0 Scorpio 40

URANUS – 2 Leo 20r

VENUS – 2 Sag 50

SUN – 15 Scorpio 20

MARS – 16 Libra 42

NORTH NODE – 17 Sag 51… this is called a Little Ear figure— Libra-Scorpio-Sag in semi-sextiles, then Libra sextiles Sag to complete the figure, as per the Huber Method of astrology.

SATURN – 22 Scorpio 48

NEPTUNE – 28 Libra 38

PLUTO – 28 Leo 29

JUPITER – 29 Leo 04 – these 3 planets are at the end degrees of the sign & can be stressful because you have almost completed your understanding of the meaning of that planet in that sign & have some loose ends to figure out, before you can move on to the sign following. In Barbara’s case, her Neptune wants to be Scorpio-like, & her powerful Pluto/Jupiter is straining to be in Virgo.

When you have planets in the first 2-3 degrees of a sign, Sira & I call that a baby sign, as it’s a new experience for the Soul. This can activate or speed up the evolutionary journey & bring great rewards commensurate with your response to the challenge.

In Barbara’s case, the 3 end-degree planets are aspecting her new-baby degree planets. She’s simultaneously ending an old cycle & beginning a new cycle. I feel that’s strongly reflected in her music & eclectic repertoire.

Here are her out-of-sign, end degree aspects to her baby (early degree) planets:

Jupiter/Pluto is sextile Mercury, square Venus.

Her Neptune is conjunct Mercury, but doesn’t quite reach a semi-sextile to her Venus.

The theme of Mutable planets picked up in the first 2 charts is continued in Barbara’s chart, but not as strongly. Her Moon is Mutable Earth & her Venus & North Node are Mutable Fire.

Barbara’s parents were both professional musicians & her dad played saxophone in the Glenn Miller Band. When she was young, the family moved to Sioux City, Nebraska.

Barbara studied classical piano at the University of Iowa, then moved to Chicago in 1984 & was hired to play 5 nights a week at the Gold Stat Sardine Bar.

The huge line-ups to hear her grew & grew, until, in 1994 she moved to the Green Mill Club, which is still her main venue every Mon. night, when she isn’t touring all over the world & teaching.

She went to Northern University on a scholarship & received a Masters of Music degree in 1996.

As Patricia has her Sun in the very private sign of Scorpio, it’s understandable that she would downplay being lesbian. According to Wikipedia, “interviews with her suggest that she does not try to hide this fact, but that she tires of the public interest in her sexuality & dislikes the fact that it contributes to her fame.” Gregg Shapiro of the Gay & Lesbian News interviewed her in Nov. 2008.

Her beautiful compositions, which she began writing lyrics for in the early ’90s, are often described as dreamy, her song forms marked by “exquisite elegance”, with complex, witty lyrics.

In 2003, she began working on an album of 11 songs based on the ancient Greek mythology of Ovid. She is one of only a few jazz musicians to be awarded a Guggenheim Scholarship & this gave her the freedom to create what became her CD entitled “Mythologies”

Compare the above paragraph with her Mars in Libra, the Venus-ruled sign of love, harmony, aesthetics, & a need for balance. She also has her Neptune in Libra out-of-sign conjunct with her Mercury in baby 0 Scorpio 40. As we know, any Neptune aspects to personal planets add an idealistic, creative, intuitive, poetic, mystical quality–in her case, to her mind & how she thinks. She likes to share (Libra) with other musicians & her audience.

She also has her Uranus squaring Mercury, trining Venus in Sag & opposing her Chiron. This helps us understand the seemingly contradictory descriptions of her work, & of course, Uranus always upsets expectations. Her ability to successfully blend traditional blues with a warm, sultry voice while playing modern cool piano is a phenomenon much acclaimed.

Since 1989, she has produced 11 CDs. In 2011 she recorded live with her Patricia Barber Quartet a CD called “Monday Night”, then another live performance called “Patricia Barber & Kenny Warner – Live”

Barbara is so prodigious in her work, along with teaching & performing in so many places, my head is swimming & I can’t do her justice in this article. If you would like more details, you could Google www.patriciabarber.com/bio/main & another site www.fastatmosphere.com/artists/patriciabarber

The last chart to compare is an English jazz artist signed to the biggest-ever recording contract by a British jazz singer. She’s the youngest of the 3 other lesbian musicians, at only 39 yr, old.

Her name is CLARE TEAL

Born May 14, 1973

Kildwick, Yorkshire

Time: unknown

MOON – late Libra early Scorpio

PLUTO – 1 Libra 52

VENUS – 2 Gemini 58

MARS – 4 Pisces 40

NEPTUNE – 6 Sag 24r

NORTH NODE – 8 Capricorn 36

JUPITER – 11 Aquarius 43

MERCURY – 16 Taurus 36

CHIRON – 18 Aries 12

URANUS – 19 Libra 41r

SATURN – 20 Gemini 02

SUN – 23 Taurus 30

Once again, we see Mutable signs. In Clare’s case, she has Venus, Mars, Saturn & Neptune in 3 of the 4 Mutables. Her Neptune opposes Venus & squares Mars. Her Mars in Pisces aspected by Neptune is the ruler of Pisces.

When Clare was young, she became interested in jazz, especially big band singers, through her father’s collection of records. She took electronic organ, then clarinet lessons & went on to study music at Wolverhampton University. During an unexpected exam, she decided to sing instead of playing the clarinet, discovered she preferred singing & got her best grades ever. After graduation, she sang with amateur & semi-professional bands, in the spare time from her job in advertising.

Clare came out as lesbian when she was at university & lives with her life-partner in Bath, England, where she’s lived since about 1997.

Clare’s singing career took off after she stood-in for Stacey Kent at a weekend festival, then, using her advertising experience, promoted herself & landed a 3-album contract with Candid Records, & made many appearances on TV & radio. More & more of the public loved her & as a result, by 2004 Sony signed her to the biggest record deal by any British jazz singer.

She mostly sings standard songs, adding her own jazz flavour to them, along with some original songs. She says that quote- “as a singer, interpretation is what I do” I looked up a couple of sites where I watched her sing on You Tube. Her voice is absolutely wonderful & she looks gorgeous & strong, wearing her great “manly” hats. As an aside, I also love wimmin who wear ties. Another quote indicates her quirky sense of humour – “I’ve made a respectable career singing the songs of dead people but it was time for something more modern”.

Her 2004 CD “Don’t Talk” was #1 on the UK Jazz Charts & #20 on the mainstream UK Albums Charts. Since 1995 until her 2011 release “Hey Mo” Clare has made 10 CDs, & does live performances. Since 2005, Clare has been the BBC radio show host on the Mon. night “Big Band Special”, along with regular hosting of “Friday Night is Music Night”.

She also presents on “Sunday Night at 10”, since 2009.

Clare is the only one of the 4 musicians who doesn’t travel internationally, but she’s very intent on passing great jazz along to the younger generations. I don’t know to what extent she’s known internationally through her recordings, but she’s very famous in the UK.

Another theme I discovered is that all 4 wimmin have major Earth Element, the signs Virgo & Taurus. (The other Earth Element sign of Capricorn didn’t appear). Earth Element is necessary for anyone to manifest & give form out to the world of their creativity. They also need the Earth Element stamina in order to perform consistently, without losing or forcing their voices, to say nothing of the self-discipline required, which also involves Saturn, the planet of boundaries & commitments as well as responsibilities to ourselves & others.

ALBERTA has her VENUS in Taurus.

PIA has her SUN, MERCURY & MARS in Virgo

PATRICIA has her MOON in Virgo

CLARE has her SUN & MERCURY in Taurus, NORTH NODE in Capricorn

Before I finish, I think I’ll go back & check each of their Saturn structures—

ALBERTA has SATURN in Scorpio opposing VENUS, quincunx her SUN

PIA has SATURN in Scorpio sextile JUPITER, sextile MERCURY, trine PLUTO

PATRICIA has SATURN in Scorpio conjunct her SUN

CLARE has SATURN in Gemini semi-sextile her SUN, trine URANUS

I have no idea how I ended up with 3 Saturns in Scorpio!! I certainly didn’t plan it but it makes me laugh. Today the Moon is in the jazzy, happy sign of Sagittarius & I’ve been on the phone a lot making jokes & having funny conversations, in between writing this.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Jazz singers. Next month I think I’d like to do sports. I’ll check my files & see if I have 4 lesbians who play the same sport. Anyone for tennis?

I have a fridge magnet that says ‘Start every day with a SMILE… and get it over with!’ I have another one that says ‘If wishes were horses, I’d have a stampede!” I love funny fridge magnets.

Love & Good Cheer, Mare

Mitt Romney

The Mormon Church is having its most visible period ever.

The musical The Book of Mormon is the biggest hit Broadway has seen in years. TLC’s Sister Wives portrays the real housewives of polygamous families—granted, something no longer sanctioned by the church. And Mitt Romney, the world’s second or third most famous Mormon (after Donny and Marie Osmond, of course), has been fighting for the Republican presidential nomination, even besting Jon Huntsman, a fellow Latter-day Saint, along the way.

But being out in the mainstream is a mixed blessing for the faith, which has been a frequent target of ridicule (see: The Book of Mormon) and backlash (after introducing Texas governor Rick Perry, another of Romney’s now-bygone rivals for the GOP nomination, at the influential Values Voter Summit in October, Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress reiterated his belief that Mormonism a cult). So the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints launched a national advertising campaign last year that aims to introduce the public to a diverse collection of Mormons, including African-Americans and Latinos. The “I’m a Mormon” campaign hopes to dispel myths and end prejudice at a time when the stakes have never been higher.

This LDS media education effort bears striking similarities to campaigns that LGBT groups have undertaken over the years. Banking on the wisdom that knowing an individual builds empathy for a marginalized group has long been a tactic of the gays. With such shared desires and strategies, it seems as if the two communities ought to be able to find common ground. But Mormons won’t find too much empathy among gays these days.

In the campaign to pass Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that amended the California constitution to override the state Supreme Court’s decision allowing same-sex couples to marry, an estimated 40% of the pro–Prop. 8 funding came from Mormons, in California and elsewhere, acting at church leaders’ behest. (The exact figure is hard to determine because campaign donation records do not include individuals’ religious affiliation.) This caused a rift that endures more than three years later. Rage among gays over the LDS actions gave rise to the website StopTheMormons.com and the critical film 8: The Mormon Proposition. Gay Republican Fred Karger, another presidential aspirant, launched his Top 10 Craziest Mormon Beliefs website largely to challenge Romney’s candidacy.

But even as the Mormon Church is calling on its members to support a similar anti-equality initiative in Minnesota, there are individual church members bucking the party line—no small feat in the LDS denomination—and working to build bridges with LGBT people.

Mitch Mayne is a gay Mormon who was asked by Don Fletcher, bishop of the San Francisco Stake’s Bay Ward (ward is the church’s term for a congregation, and a stake is a larger body that includes several wards) to take a leadership post in the church to, Mayne says, “begin to repair the damage the church did during Prop. 8.” After the proposition passed, the Oakland Stake, where Mayne was long active, held public forums at which LGBT people and LDS members have come together to find common ground and do some healing.  He was asked to continue that work in the Bay Ward, where he became executive secretary in 2011.

“I’m not renouncing my sexual orientation,” says Mayne. “I got called, and I did it as my authentic self.” Like any Mormon, he must agree to not have sex outside marriage. The fact that he cannot yet legally marry is not lost on Mayne, but he feels his “calling” supersedes it, at least for the time being. “It was done in the right spirit,” he attests of his appointment to local leadership. “It wasn’t a shift in doctrine, but it was a shift culturally.”

While a cultural shift in the San Francisco area may be a politically expedient move and might even smack of pandering, Mayne’s work is an essential step in the right direction. And it’s resonating beyond Northern California. Through his presence on social media, Mayne has drawn the attention of straight Mormons who live in more conservative communities and are seeking to reconcile their immediate world with their own more progressive views.

Lindsay Hansen-Park is a Mormon mother of two children (with a third on the way) who lives in an area of northern Utah that is majority Mormon. A few years back, she experienced a crisis of faith when a local scandal forced her to confront her community’s prejudices. A little girl was attacked in her neighborhood; the only suspect, Hansen-Park says, was a man known to be gay. “He was the only gay man in the neighborhood, and there was no evidence against him,” she says. Seeing hatred and bigotry firsthand shook Hansen-Park’s sense of herself and her religion.

Living in an isolated community, she turned to the Internet, where she has found solace in a blog she’s active on called Feminist Mormon Housewives, which is part of “The Bloggernacle,” a consortium of independent-thinking LDS blogs. “We’re big in the LDS online community, where we’re considered liberals,” she says. Online she connects to like-minded women who discuss some challenging issues. “There’s a huge online community of people fighting against the homophobic rhetoric we hear,” she says. And yet she recognizes the harsh realities. “The trouble we have with the LGBT community is our own fault. We have a lot of repenting to do and we have a long way to go.” While Hansen-Park is confident that her online friends share her views, it’s tough to find allies where she lives, and even tougher within the leadership of the church.

In fact, Hansen-Park fears the “I’m a Mormon” campaign only pays lip service to diversity and doesn’t truly reflect the church’s stance. Still, she has hope—not so much for the power it has to teach the rest of the world about Mormons, which is ostensibly the campaign’s aim—but for what the campaign can teach Mormons themselves. “What I’m hoping for the campaign is it will show LDS people how diverse we can be and that that’s OK,” says the 29-year-old.

“This Mormon Moment,” as LDS members refer to the wave of attention currently focused on the church, is a mixed blessing to Hansen-Park. “I’m excited because from where I stand, the members need to open their eyes to the bigger world. This is forcing us to do that. We don’t have to be so exclusive.” One the other hand, she says, “It’s hard because a lot of members get really defensive and become more dogmatic in their stance.”

Laurie Maffly-Kipp believes that what we’re seeing with the church right now is the gradual evolution of a large institution. As chair of the department of religious studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with a specialty in teaching and writing about the Mormon Church, Maffly-Kipp sees incremental change. “There’s lots of homophobia in the church, but the line has shifted a bit,” she says. “I’m not hopeful that things are going to change quickly, though.” She says the LDS Church is like any other massive institution that is incredibly slow to change. “You don’t see the Catholic Church shifting quickly either.”

She adds that California is the most natural place for outlying sentiments to take hold within Mormonism. “Any change is going to start in a place like that, and that’s true in any church,” she says. “There are all kinds of Protestant churches that are struggling with gay issues all the time. It’s not like the Mormons are really out of step here [among religious groups].”

The “I’m a Mormon” campaign is further evidence of this slowly churning evolution. Maffly-Kipp has seen the church grow more media-savvy in the last five years. The fact that the campaign is interactive online is another signal of a progressive trend for the traditionally insular community. “They’re clearly aiming for a younger, hipper image,” says Maffly-Kipp. “It’s a way of saying, ‘We’re relevant. We’re not fuddy-duddy. There are even people who are skateboarders who are Mormon.’” She points out that there have always been LDS ads, but the presentation used to be of soft-focus images of family and purity. “There was always that sappy music in the background,” she says, laughing.

Those sappy ads used to run all over late-night TV, and they actually inspired one of the higher-profile gay campaigns that launched in the wake of Prop. 8. “Get to Know Us First” was the brainchild of filmmaker and gay parent John Ireland, who secured the support of POWER UP, an organization charged with upping the visibility of gay women in the media, to produce pro-gay ads. “It’s ironic,” says Ireland, who used as his model the “beautifully shot, golden sunlight images of families walking hand in hand” in the old LDS ads.

Ireland’s ads debuted on California airwaves during President Obama’s inauguration and show gay couples in happy times with kids, playing basketball and eating dinner “just like normal people,” he says, his tongue in cheek.

He was reacting to the fact that the pro-gay No on 8 campaign had expressly avoided showing images of gay parents before the election. In retrospect, of course, that choice — presumably driven by fear that such a move would stir up fear and hatred — was absurd and quite possibly disastrous. The ads featured straight people talking about the gay relatives who are important to them, as in one that showed a straight couple talking about how their gay daughter will “lose the right to marry.” The TV spots even avoided the phrase “gay marriage,” opting instead to couch the conversation in euphemisms (“Regardless of how you feel about marriage, it’s wrong to eliminate fundamental rights”) or respond obliquely to the opposition’s ads, as when California superintendent of public instruction Jack O’Connell argued on-screen, “Prop. 8 has nothing to do with schools or kids. Our schools aren’t required to teach anything about marriage.”

Ireland’s tactic is “replacement imagery,” giving mainstream images of straight couples a direct alternative. It’s also about stirring up emotion. “The opposition’s ads were all about emotion,” Ireland says of the Yes on 8 commercials, describing darkly lit images with creepy music, some even suggesting actions by gay men with young children. He was working to counter such insidious insinuations.

Ireland’s commercials got statewide play on local stations, but not without a fight. Initially rejected by KABC, the Los Angeles affiliate of the ABC network, Ireland was able to turn a ban into an embrace, thanks to a push by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “It became a pattern all over the state,” he recalls. “We’d get rejected, then GLAAD would issue a press release and an executive at the station would have a meeting with us saying that the previous decision had been the work of an employee who had been duly disciplined.” And then “Get to Know Us First” would receive free airtime. It was never clear if the turnaround was simply politics or a genuine change of heart, or a little of both. “All you have to do is get banned and everyone wants to see it,” Ireland marvels. “It started to feel like blackmail, but that became our model.” He says the campaign received $500,000 in free ad time.

The “Get to Know Us First” ads continue to run in California and will likely have a new life as part of a national campaign that Ireland was not ready to name. “We’re not in it for the name recognition,” he says, explaining that a gay rights organization will likely adopt the ads to promote its own work.

Though not Mormon himself, Ireland grew up in a heavily Mormon community in Modesto, Calif. He recounts that one of the great disappointments of his life came when he was reading the rolls of Prop. 8 donors and learned that the man who had been his best friend while growing up had given generously to the Yes on 8 campaign, as had others from his childhood. “But I saw that they too had been marginalized,” he says. “I understand that instinct [to protect one’s way of life] for any community. I feel for Mormon people who are targeted” for having funded Prop. 8. Ireland’s experience making these ads has only strengthened his belief that building bridges is the best way forward, even with the Mormon Church, which has not been much of an ally. “We have a lot to learn from other marginalized communities,” he says.

As an openly gay Mormon, Maynes maintains that there are lessons to be learned on both sides. “Do I find it ironic that the Mormon Church is doing something [gays have] done for decades? Yes!” he says of the similarly themed get-to-know-us ads. Still, he has been disheartened to see rage against LDS from LGBT people, even though he’s not surprised by it. “I’ve had yelling matches in the weight room about my participation in the faith,” he says. Some of those yelling matches have actually resulted in friendship. Mayne firmly believes in the power of individual interaction—getting to know a gay person, getting to know a Mormon—something perhaps too few of both groups do these days. “When you put a human face on it, a heart, then it becomes so much more difficult to discriminate,” he says, adding, “I don’t have to lose in order for you to win.”

The timing of the “I’m a Mormon” campaign is doubtless connected to the presidential campaign, though officially the church denies this, claiming it “has no position politically,” as Ron Wilson, senior manager for Internet and advertising told the NPR show On the Media last year. “It has nothing to do with that,” Wilson said of the timing’s coincidence with Romney’s campaign. (Wilson declined The Advocate’s request for an interview.)

Like any ad campaign, “I’m a Mormon” puts its best—and in this case, most diverse—face forward. In 2011 the church spent roughly $4.6 million to run its spots nearly 8,000 times, according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group. Mayne laments its lack of progressive voices, and Hansen-Park isn’t sure her testimony would be welcome. (“I’m a Mormon” accepts self-made submissions from LDS members, but they are approved by those running the campaign and she has yet to see anything vaguely feminist represented.)

“There is change coming,” says Hansen-Park, “but it’s coming from the people not the leadership. There are so many of us in the church who think there’s room in our doctrine, in our church, and in our hearts for the LGBT community.”

In recent months, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has made more and more public statements on gay rights, continuing a trend that started before his time as minister. 

Back in 2009, while he was still transport minister, he announced in Question Period, amid questions from the NDP’s then-critic on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and trans-sexual issues, that the prime minister would meet with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni at an upcoming Commonwealth summit to help stop a bill before Uganda’s parliament that proposed life imprisonment for homosexuals. 

Then-foreign minister Lawrence Cannon later released a statement again calling for Uganda to reconsider "its offensive anti-homosexuality bill" and "respect its obligations under international human rights law, ensuring equal enjoyment for all its citizens." 

Last March, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced funding for a pilot project to help refugees who have been discriminated against for their sexual orientation. 

Last fall, in the lead-up to another Commonwealth summit, at which gay rights were on the agenda, the NDP again called for the government to take a stand for gay rights. 

Mr. Baird said Canada would make it clear that Canada is against the criminalization of homosexuality. In 41 of 54 Commonwealth countries, being gay is illegal. 

Then came another proposed bill by an African government within the Commonwealth–this time, Nigeria. The bill, if passed, could see same-sex partners who marry put in jail for up to 14 years. People who publicly display homosexuality could be jailed for up to 10 years. 

In a statement on Nov. 30, Mr. Baird said that if the bill became law it would "disregard basic human rights and fundamental freedoms." 

In several end-of-year interviews with national media, Mr. Baird also noted Canada’s vocal support for gay rights abroad, mentioning the Commonwealth figures. 

"If you’re a government which doesn’t respect human rights, you’re probably not keen on Canada talking about the rights of women, the rights of religious minorities, the rights of gays and lesbians," he noted to Postmedia News. 

Embassy asked several academics who study foreign policy or gender about the gay-rights mentions, to which several replied that they hadn’t noticed. Others, though, said they have seen the government increase its public support for gay rights abroad. 

"We have noticed over the last little while that there has been more coming out of the government, more responses on some of these issues," said Helen Kennedy, executive director of Egale Canada, a national GLBT human rights group. 

The Commonwealth has been key to Mr. Baird’s messaging. That’s deliberate, said Conservative strategist Tim Powers. 

"Use your weight where you have it," he said. 

When Mr. Baird named Conservative Senator Hugh Segal as Canada’s special envoy for Commonwealth renewal, he said: "Human rights, including the rights of women and religious minorities, as well as the de-criminalization of homosexuality in certain Commonwealth countries, will be a focus of our government." 

Mr. Powers said Conservative governments in Canada have a long history of promoting human rights–Brian Mulroney’s government spoke out against apartheid in South Africa, for instance, and John Diefenbaker championed the Canadian Bill of Rights, which became law in 1960–and standing up for gay rights abroad is just part of that tradition. 

Lowest common denominator 

Other observers had other ideas why the Conservative government is vocally supporting gay rights abroad, and turning up the heat lately. 

Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, the Canada Research Chair in international human rights and a professor with Wilfrid Laurier’s Balsillie School of International Affairs, said she couldn’t speculate on the government’s motives, but said that in some cases the human rights situation for homosexuals is getting worse, and the international community has taken to responding to countries that are introducing new laws to put gay people in jail. 

She said what’s going on in Africa today in relation to gay rights is akin to women’s rights in the ’80s. 

"It’s a new form of anti-Westernism, claiming that this is a Western cultural imposition." 

Plus, she said, when societies are feeling the pinch in the pocketbook, they tend to lash out against minorities. 

Some observers noted that the Harper government’s promotion of gay rights abroad is done at the lowest common denominator (don’t kill homosexuals, don’t throw them in jail) rather than through the promotion of other rights such as equal treatment in the workplace, non-discrimination in the housing market or the ability to marry like a straight couple. 

There seems to be a disconnect between the Conservative government’s actions at home and abroad, said NDP GLBTT issues critic Randall Garrison. He cited the government’s actions last week during a controversy over whether foreign same-sex couples who marry in Canada would have their marriages recognized in their home lands and would be able to legally divorce. 

The government has also been criticized for taking away funding from gay pride festivals. Some members of the Conservative caucus have in the past voted against legislation supporting same-sex marriage. Mr. Garrison cited other court cases similar to the one revealed last week. 

"There’s a pattern of that intervention to limit equal marriage. And I don’t know how you square that with what they’ve done with foreign policy." 

He noted that in foreign policy, the Conservatives "haven’t said that there should be equal marriage, all they’ve said is that it should not be illegal." 

"So at a tactical level there isn’t any contradiction. You could be for not criminalizing being gay and lesbian and also opposed to gay marriage." 

He praised the Conservatives for speaking out on gay rights abroad, but said more needs to be done, in a comment echoed by other observers. 

"Let’s put our money where our mouth is," said Stephen Brown, an associate professor of political science at the University of Ottawa who studies Canada’s aid policy. 

British Prime Minister David Cameron created an uproar in several African nations when he suggested last fall at the Commonwealth summit that the UK could withhold aid from governments that criminalize homosexuality. The threat only applied to one type of aid giving that supports a recipient nation’s general budgets–it wouldn’t cut the overall amount of aid to any country. 

GLBT human rights groups have been wary to support the cutting of aid to countries who ban homosexuality because gays and lesbians in the affected countries may be blamed for the loss, which could make life worse for them. Also, such a move could do more harm to good aid programming directed towards the people of the state, rather than the state itself. 

Rather than having a global policy, Canada should work on a country-by-country basis to proactively seek to promote GLBT rights, in consultation with local actors. 

For his part, US President Barack Obama late last year directed that US federal agencies working overseas, through diplomacy and foreign aid, to "promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons." 

These bold moves by some of Canada’s closest allies could be contributing to its stance, said some observers. 

But Mr. Brown didn’t think the Canadian government would go so far as to promote gay rights abroad through actively funnelling aid money to GLBT human rights projects and programs. The government would likely be worried about socially conservative taxpayers speaking out against their tax money going to support such measures, he said. 

kshane@embassymag.ca

By Jeremy Kinser

Tennis legend Martina Navratilova will be among the celebrity competitors on the next season of Dancing With the Stars, according to an ABC press release.

55-year-old Navratilova, who came out as lesbian in 1981, "is the only player in history to win Grand Slam titles in four different decades, including a curtain-closing U.S. Open victory in mixed-doubles at age 49. Her resume is highlighted by 59 Grand Slam titles, a record 9 Wimbledon singles championships, and an unrivaled 344 tournament victories." Two years ago, Navratilova battled breast cancer and is now cancer-free and a spokeswoman for breast cancer awareness. She will be teamed with Tony Dovolani on the series.

Other celebrities who will join the 14th season on the ABC hit include actress Melissa Gilbert, The View co-host Sherri Shepard, and Grammy Award-winning singer Gladys Knight. Dancing With the Stars will return with a two-hour premiere March 19.

Read our 2011 profile of Navratilova here. Watch the announcement of the new cast below.

Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. 

When Pat Matthews turned 65, her declining health led her in search of a place that could offer increasing levels of care as she grew older.

And Matthews had one other requirement: She wanted to bring Carol Bosworth, her partner of nearly 20 years. At the very first place they visited, that was a problem.

"They didn’t say we couldn’t come. But they said that we would be best off if we were sisters," Matthews says. "We crossed them off our list, because that’s not the way we want to live."

As lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people age, finding suitable retirement housing can be a unique challenge. Some facilities allow only married couples to live together, and many gay seniors fear a cold shoulder from staff or fellow retirees.

But some retirement homes have begun catering specifically to LGBT seniors. Matthews and Bosworth found a more welcoming reception at one such facility, the Rose Villa retirement community in Portland, Ore.

It’s a fairly typical senior complex: People share gossip and do jigsaw puzzles in the lobby. Matthews says she and her partner were fortunate to find it.

"Some of our gay [and] lesbian friends that are older than us have chosen to stay home, because they don’t trust what they might find," she says.

Making A Home More Welcoming

Rose Villa CEO Vassar Byrd says the community had always welcomed gays, but that Matthews and Bosworth’s story was a wake-up call.

"I couldn’t believe that in this day and age that that would happen," she says. "I was absolutely shocked beyond belief."

Byrd set out to make Rose Villa as hospitable as possible to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She immediately integrated LGBT issues into the diversity training that all staff — from nurses to custodians — undergo.

Advocates for gay seniors say Rose Villa’s level of concern is pretty unique. And while it’s nearly impossible to quantify, they say a growing number are going back in the closet in order to find a retirement facility that will accept them.

Hilary Meyer, with the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging, says one of the biggest barriers to finding welcoming housing is a lack of sensitivity among staff.

"Older adults now have lived with this historic discrimination and stigma, and they have a tremendous fear, of course, of service providers carrying that into their work."

Meyer describes a typical case: An elderly lesbian grows infirm. With no immediate family, she moves into a nursing home, and "the staff at the facility dresses her in dresses and other feminine clothing. This obviously can be very disconcerting to a woman who has not worn a dress in 25 years."

’100 Percent Gay Owned And Operated’

Rainbow Vista, a gay-friendly senior complex in the Portland suburb of Gresham, is considered by many to be one of the most gay-friendly senior complexes in the nation. It proudly bills itself as "100 percent gay owned and operated."

Currently, everyone living there is gay or lesbian, but resident Doug Schukar says that’s not a requirement.

"If somebody over the age of 55 wanted to move in here, and they weren’t judgmental and bigoted and everything else, they’d be just as welcome here as anyone else is."

Schukar and his partner, Don McClure, moved here from central California in the summer of 2011. McClure says they spent months investigating retirement housing options.

"It was important for me that I could have a gay community; a place that I felt safe and I could be myself, especially as I start the aging process."

Despite stunning views of Mount Hood and relatively low rents, Rainbow Vista is only about one-third full. Elsewhere, some predominantly gay retirement complexes have waiting lists.

While an all-gay retirement center may be of interest to some, many gay seniors prefer to live in a more diverse community in their golden years. Back at the Rose Villa, Rod Dolan says he and Michael Stotts, his partner of 35 years, weren’t looking for a gay retirement home. They just wanted a place where they’d be accepted for who they are.

"People were actually glad to see us," Dolan says of Rose Villa. "They weren’t saying, ‘Oh boy, here’s our gay couple.’ They were saying, ‘Well, here’s our new resident.’ "

In fact, Dolan says, it’s precisely the sort of welcome they received when, in their younger years, they first moved to their old neighborhood.

This month’s article is about JEWISH RABBIS & the last section will be Lesbians.

The earliest reference I found was of a Rebbe called The Maiden of Ludmir. Her name was HANNAH RACHEL VERBERMACHER, & she was born in 1805 in a place called Ludmir, in what was then the Russian Empire, & is now the Ukraine. Hannah’s father was given visions & readings from his Rebbe, which led him to believe she was meant to study the Torah religious teachings, & he believed she had special spiritual gifts. Hannah didn’t want to get married & had no interest in traditional female occupations, so when she had a dream which confirmed her destiny as a Hasidic religious leader, she intensified her studies, while she was in her late teens.

She lived alone in a small hut, where she included Kabbalistic mystic practices along with her knowledge of the Torah, which were usually only allowed to Hasidic men. Hannah gave religious teachings on the Sabbath, through a small window in her hut. Her reputation eventually spread throughout Eastern Europe & people (mostly wimmin) travelled to hear her, to receive her blessings, advice or healings.

The Orthodox community ignored her as a crank, chastised her & insisted she get married, which she refused. Her rebuttal was brilliant & included her argument from scripture that women were allowed to study the Torah if it was their calling. She was famous as a scholar & holy woman who performed miracles.

Hannah went through so much negative criticism that she had a fake marriage, annulled it quickly, then continued her work. Finally, she moved to Jerusalem where she gathered a small group of loyal followers. She died in 1888 on the 22^nd day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz & is buried on the Mount of Olives. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Hannah & many people have visited her grave.

I found references to Hannah, by googling:wordpress.com/2008/08/06/ women-mystics-series-the maiden-of-ludmir I also found her on Wikipedia by googling maiden of ludmir There are 2 books published about her, that you may be interested in tracking down, as she was the only female Rebbe in Hasidic history. Nathaniel Deutsch wrote “The Maiden of Ludmir: a Jewish Holy Woman & Her World”. Gershon Winkler wrote “They Called Her Rebbe: The Maiden of Ludmir”

During my research I discovered a reference to a Rebbe who is from an even earlier time.

Her name was ASANATH BARZANI who was born in Mosul, Northern Iraq in 1590. Her father was a Kurdish Rabbi who was in total authority of Jews in Kurdistan. He taught Kabbala teachings to his daughter, whom she adored, & after his death took over as leader of the Yeshiva of Mosul, served as Rabbi & became the teacher of Torah in Kurdistan. Her husband, who died at a young age, founded a Yeshiva in Mosul & many years later their son took over as Rabbi, but until then Asanath was Rabbi. She was knowledgeable about Jewish literature & was a poet. Because she wasn’t officially ordained she was given the title Tanna’it. She was a Rabbinical Teacher, scholar, & famous for her knowledge of Kabbala, the Talmud, the Torah & Jewish law, but Asanath was not a judge, so she wasn’t considered a “real” Rabbi.

There are legends about the miracles she performed, especially one about how she called on Angels to save the synagogue which had caught fire, & as she had an intuition that day to perform the service outdoors, no one was killed or hurt. The Angels put out the fire with their wings & the synagogue was renamed after her & can be viewed to this day.

Before she married her cousin Jacob, her father insisted that her husband never expect her to do household duties so that she was always able to concentrate on her teachings & studies. Asanath had the rare ability to understand Hebrew & wrote her poems in that language. She lived & was buried in a tomb at Amedi when she died in 1670. Her tomb is still visited by Jews from Israel.

I found her at the site: judaism.about.com/od/women rabbis -then that discovery led to – where else? – wikipedia

Now we move along to more recent history & discover the first OFFICIALLY ORDAINED WOMAN RABBI IN THE WORLD. The key word here, of course, is “officially”. Her name was REGINA JONES who was born in 1902 in Berlin, Germany.

Regina’s father died when she was a child. Rachel first became a teacher, then enrolled at the Academy for the Science of Religion, which was a seminary for liberal Rabbis & educators. She graduated as an “Academic Teacher of Religion”, then her ambition led her to write a thesis that would qualify her to become a Rabbi. Her thesis was titled “Can a Woman Become a Rabbi According to Halachic Sources?” This should have qualified her for ordination as she used Biblical, Talmudic & Rabbinical sources —but no. Her Talmudic professor refused, as did another Rabbi. She was finally ordained on Dec. 12, 1930 by a liberal Rabbi, but he had delayed signing the official document until Dec. 27, 1935.

None of the Temple leaders would hire her, so she worked in many Jewish social organisations. The increasing persecution of the Nazis led many Rabbis to emigrate which left communities without one, so for a short time Regina preached as a Rabbi in a the ghetto synagogue, & continued even when she was ordered to work in a factory.

On Nov. 3, 1942 Regina’s property, including her beloved books, was confiscated & the next day the Gestapo arrested her & sent her to Theresienstadt, then she was deported to Auschwitz almost 2yr. later, along with her mother. She was murdered Dec.12, 1944.

Regina was forgotten in the mists of time & a wall of silence until 1991. After the Berlin Wall fell, researchers & scholars from all over the world began searching in all the cities in East Germany for documentation & papers in the archives. A researcher named Dr. Katerina von Kellenbach discovered an envelope containing a Teaching Certificate written in Hebrew & German that confirmed Regina as a Rabbi, by a famous, liberal seminary which was destroyed in 1942. An impressive photo was also in the envelope, of Regina wearing her robes, holding a book. A hand-written list of 24 of her lectures was found as well. This discovery led to some Rabbis in the U.S. & England celebrating her on the anniversary of her birth.

Two biographies have been written about her life. One is by the author Von Iris Weiss, titled “Zwischen Tradition und Aufbruch – Regina Jonas”. The other is called “Regina Jonas – 1902 – 1944” by author Von Rachel Monika Herweg.

I highly recommend looking up Regina on the sites where there are more complete writings. One is hagalil.com/bet-debora/jewish- women/history.htm It’s a history of women in the rabbinate. Then there’shaaretz.com/print-edition/ business/a-forgotten-myth

Now we come to a few modern-day openly lesbian Rabbis.

The first lesbian is RABBI SHARON KLEINBAUM, who has been Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah of New York City since 1992. It is the worlds’s largest gay & lesbian synagogue. Sharon was raised in a family of social activists & continued with her own social activism in college. Sharon was trained in the Reconstructionist tradition which began ordaining gays & lesbians in 1985, during her first year at rabbinical school. The Reform movement ordained them from 1990 which was her graduation year. Her age & timing were perfectly in synch.! Recently the Conservative movement has followed suit.

Rabbi Sharon has been a human rights activist for most of her life (she’s almost 53yr.) & -quote- “ has been arrested, jailed, vilified, & lauded”. She was arrested at a protest rally against the military “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule. In 1999 she testified in 1990 at a U.S. Congressional hearing about same-sex marriage. Sharon was named #19 in Newsweek’s article listing the top 50 most influential Rabbis in America, as well as being listed in a daily Jewish newspaper “The Forward 50” as one of the top 9 Rabbis in a list of 50 most influential Jews in America.

She loves children, including her niece & nephew & has 2 of her own children, who are now young adults.

I quote from Rabbi Sharon – “In later years , brilliant teachers revealed to me the profound depth of Jewish tradition. I became a Rabbi because I believe in the power of teaching to change a life & to change the world.———————— —– Feminism had a huge impact on my choice to become a Rabbi. When I became Bat Mitzvah in 1972, no women had yet been ordained as Rabbis. 13 yr. later, when I entered rabbinical school a generation of women had broken those barriers.——————— ——————I believe Judaism was diminished without the religious leadership of women.”

I’ll list some sites for you to google -queerty.com/lesbian-rabbi- sharon-klein baum-an-all-around-menschjwa.org/feminism glbtjews.org

I discovered the next few lesbian Rabbis in the site

jewishjournal.com/community/ article/gay_lesbian_rabbis_ share_hurdles

The author of the faxed article was Julie Gruenbaum, about a workshop panel sponsored by Hillside Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, Cal. on Mar. 2010. I quote from her article–

“The panel offered a personal lens into the sea changes in the gay community over the last 25 years, from the move out of the closet to the fight for marriage equality and the milestones in between.”

The first mentioned was DENISE EGER, who was at rabbinical school in the mid-80s, & disclosed that she was afraid she would be dismissed from the school if she admitted to being lesbian.

Rabbi Denise is a Reform Rabbi ordained in 1988 at New York Hebrew Union College. She was hired to serve at the Los Angeles Beth Chayim Chadashim which is the world’s first gay & lesbian synagogue. In 1992 she & 35 other people founded the Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, Los Angeles which serves both gay & straight Jews.

On June 16, 2008 Rabbi Denise performed the marriage ceremony of 2 wimmin, which was the first legal wedding in Los Angeles County.

In 2008 Denise was one of the wimmin named in Forward 50 & in 2010 was named one of the 50 most influential women Rabbis. She has served on many boards in various capacities & was chair of previous conferences. She is a founding member of the Religion & Faith Council of the Human Rights Campaign & a founding executive committee member of California Faith for Equality.

Rabbi Eger is known for her expertise & knowledge of Judaism & GLBT civil rights.

She counsels people with HIV/AIDS, is an author in many anthologies & has won many awards.

Denise was the founding president of the Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Interfaith Clergy Association, & became the first female & first lesbian to be appointed President of the Board of Rabbis of Southern California in 2009.

Another lesbian Rabbi the author mentioned in Julie’s article was RABBI LISA EDWARDS who was ordinated in 1994 by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion & came to Los Angeles Beth Chayim Chadashim as Rabbi. She is well-versed with a PhD in literature & this gives her sermons a memorable richness & diversity.Her Torah study group has met every Thursday for over 12 years. She has officiated at many weddings, funerals & baby-namings.

She is a popular speaker who is eloquent on issues of faith & sexuality, as well as authoring many sermons, handbooks & news columns, along with editing for LESBIOT, & is a respected activist on behalf of many social issues.

Rabbi Lisa & her life-partner Tracy Moore have been together since 1985, were married in 1995 under chuppah, then under California law in 2008.

There is another married couple – Felicia Park-Rogers at Beth Chayim Chadashim & Rabbi Rachel Timoner at Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles, that I’ll briefly mention. They have 2 boys. They are Rabbi Rachel Timoner & Executive Director Felicia Park-Rogers. Felicia is a member of the Professional Association of Temple Administrators. Rachel is Assistant Rabbi at Leo Baeck Temple in West Los Angeles. She’s involved in social action groups Peacebuilders, the Green Team, the Homelessness Task Force & the Sudan Focus Group. Rachel was ordained in 2009 by the Hebrew Union college – Jewish Institute of Religion & received many prizes. One of her multiple activities is a peer hotline she founded for lesbian, gay, bisexual & transgender youth.

RABBI JOCEE HUDSON is also mentioned in Julie’s article. She is Rabbi of Temple Israel of Hollywood as Educator-Religious School Director since 2009 & was ordained in 2007 where her first posting was with Temple Beth Shalom as Director of Religious Education & before that was student rabbi for Temple Israel of Marion, Ohio.

Among her many prodigious accomplishments & recently published book “The Torah: A Woman’s Commentary” is a recent venture into webinars, which she’s quite excited about joining. I found this site about Jewish learning webinars at

behrman house.com/news/teachers-learn- in-bunny-slippers

The last Rabbi I chose for this article is RABBI MALKA DRUCKER & she’s a Rabbi Author! Her pulpit is her books – I’ve never heard of that kind of Rabbi before now. Actually I’m kidding – she founded her own Temple, as well as writing, so far, 20 books.

Malka lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico & was ordained in 1998 (she was born in 1945) by the Academy for Jewish Religion. She is the founding Rabbi of HaMakom: The Place For Compassionate & Progressive Judaism, in Santa Fe. Rabbi Malka is openly lesbian & is in a long-time companionship with artist Gay Block.

Her many award-winning books are too numerous to list, but I will pick one that really appeals to me. She collaborated with Gay as photographer on a book titled “White Fire: A Portrait of Women Spiritual Leaders in America” which won the 2005 Southwest PEN non-fiction Award.

Thank you all who are interested in this series on wimmin religious leaders. Next month I’ll track down some wonderful Hindu wimmin & see if I can find some “out” lesbians.

Many Blessings to all —Mare Lane

Winner of the Changemaker Award

11:14 min
Documentary
Director: Jonathan Skurnik
Producer: Jonathan Skurnik

ABOUT THE FILM

More about I’m Just Anneke from filmmaker Jonathan Skurnik

I’m Just Anneke is the first film in a four-part series of short films called The Youth and Gender Media Project designed to educate school communities about transgender and gender nonconforming youth. The first two films in the series are finished and the second two are in production. The completed films are already being used in schools and conferences throughout the U.S. to train administrators, teachers and students about the importance of protecting all children from harassment due to gender identity and expression.

Transgender and gender fluid youth are the most courageous people I have ever met. Despite overwhelming pressure to conform to an oppressive gender binary paradigm, they refuse to do it in order to be true to themselves. I wanted to pay tribute to these courageous young people and to inspire all of us to reconsider our own decisions about gender identity and expression.

Anneke is going into eighth grade in the fall of 2010 and I plan to film her over the course of her first year in high school. This footage will become a feature length documentary about Anneke’s life as she starts to take testosterone and begins a slow and thoughtful transition to fully embody her own unique gender identity.

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Tenth Annual Media That Matters, family & society, gay / lesbian, gender / women, health / health advocacy, youth

 

 by Diana Denza in Features, News

Amelia Roskin-Frazeel, a 14-year-old from California and an out lesbian, has begun The Make It Safe Project, which provides schools without resources for gay and lesbian students packages of 10 LGBT-related books. Amelia said:

“When I figured out that a lot of schools didn’t have any resources about what it means to be LGBT or how to come out, I decided that I wanted to help send those books to schools.”

Though the project only began last month, it has already provided packages for several schools across the U.S. To support this worthy cause, visit the Make It Safe Project website and make a donation. All funds received will go to purchasing the book packages. [SheWired]

Author Elena Azzoni Talks Lesbians and Sexual Fluidity: The GA Voice chatted with Elena Azzoni, author of A Year Straight: Confessions of a Boy-Crazy Lesbian Beauty Queen, about her controversial tale and her thoughts on sexual fluidity. [TheGAVoice]

Pioneering Gay Journalist Peter Burton Dies at 66: Often referred to as the “Godfather of gay journalism”, Peter Burton died from an apparent heart attack last week. After contributing to two of the first gay magazines in the UK, he published the famous poem “The Love that Dares to Speak Its Name” and became the literary and features editor of Gay Times in the 1980s. [PinkNews]

Detective Lane Series Continues: Detective Lane, the fictional gay cop created by Lambda Literary Award-winning author Garry Ryan, will continue to fight crime in the newly released Malabarista. Inspired by the bullying of gay students, the retired teacher decided to take a stand against hate by making his main character gay. [CalgaryHerald]

Photo: Thinkstock

Good news: Single women are generally more cautious spenders than men, since they only splurge on a few items (the expected ones: clothing and personal care products like shampoo and teeth-whitening products, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics), while single guys tear through more money overall, on things like eating out, entertainment and car ownership. Bad news: Those same women are behind on saving for their futures. We asked Alexa von Tobel, founder and CEO of the women’s finance site LearnVest.com, and Barb Chang, head of product for the money management site Mint.com, what single women should be doing with their money right now.

You Need to Track Your Expenses (As Annoying As It Seems)
Chang says single women often say they’re too busy and don’t see the payoff of putting in a lot of time in tracking. In fact, Mint got started because its founder realized catching up on personal budgeting was taking up an entire Sunday afternoon every week. But staying on top of the money that comes into and goes out of the Bank of You every month is the first step in financial planning. More than 90 percent of Mint users say they have changed their habits as a result of using the service. Here are some different ways you can track your spending.

You Need an Emergency Fund More Than Anyone Else Does
The old rule of thumb was to have about six months’ pay in an emergency fund, but von Tobel says that in the current economic climate, highly educated people who are laid off find that it takes about nine months to find a job—and because more women are getting advanced degrees than men, it’s particularly important for them to have more put away. The best place to keep an emergency savings account, von Tobel says, is in a place you can easily access without penalty at anytime. This means a money market account or high-interest savings account. And as you know but it probably bears repeating, don’t put the money in the stock market or in equities, as volatility in the market could decrease your savings.

Debt Can Hurt Your Future…Even If You Wind Up Marrying Mr. Perfect Credit
In 2009, 15 percent of American adults were late making a credit card payment; 8 percent missed a payment entirely. Those fees added up to about $20.5 billion, according to R.K. Hammer, a consultant to the credit card industry. Although those numbers decreased a bit last year, they’ve started creeping up again as some of the country’s major credit card issuers posted increases in the number of credit card payments that were at least 30 days late in September. Even if you’re only a week or two late, a credit card company can still disclose your missed payment to credit reporting agencies, and that may damage your credit score. You should know your debt-to-income ratio (the percentage of your income which you use to pay off your debts). These numbers impact anyone’s credit score—so you want it lower than 36 percent. (If you’re a single woman, even if you do end up marrying someone with pristine credit, banks will take the lower of you and your partner’s credit scores.)

Next: The one thing childless women are almost always wrong about

You Still Need a Life Insurance Policy
Von Tobel has noticed that a lot of childless women say, "I don’t need life insurance because I have no dependents." If they died and didn’t have insurance, though, their family would be responsible for paying off their car and education loans, mortgage, estate taxes and other debts. If you’re a single mom and don’t have it—and research from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Genworth Financial shows that almost 70 percent of single parents with children living at home are in this situation—you risk your children not having their basic needs met, especially if there’s no dad in the picture. Most experts say you should carry life insurance that’s equal to six to 10 times your salary. If you have children, add more.

Saving for Retirement Is More Important Than You Think
It’s easy to procrastinate when retirement seems so far off and other demands—like student loans for 20-somethings and mortgage payments for 30-somethings—seem more pressing. And while you definitely should not neglect those obligations, retirement should be just as high a priority. In a panel on women and retirement sponsored by Merrill Lynch earlier this year (watch the 45-minute talk here), moderator Charles Gibson noted that in 2007 the average amount a woman had in her 401k was about $56,000, while a man had $95,000. Another fact from the seminar: Finance expert David Bach, who’s written 11 books on money, said the general rule for anyone (men, women, married or single) is to save at least 10 percent of your gross income for your twilight years. But because of women’s longer life spans (and think about how expensive those additional seven to nine years can be with nursing homes or extra medical care), he recommends that they save 15 percent.

You Still Need a Life Insurance Policy
Von Tobel has noticed that a lot of childless women say, "I don’t need life insurance because I have no dependents." If they died and didn’t have insurance, though, their family would be responsible for paying off their car and education loans, mortgage, estate taxes and other debts. If you’re a single mom and don’t have it—and research from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Genworth Financial shows that almost 70 percent of single parents with children living at home are in this situation—you risk your children not having their basic needs met, especially if there’s no dad in the picture. Most experts say you should carry life insurance that’s equal to six to 10 times your salary. If you have children, add more.

Saving for Retirement Is More Important Than You Think
It’s easy to procrastinate when retirement seems so far off and other demands—like student loans for 20-somethings and mortgage payments for 30-somethings—seem more pressing. And while you definitely should not neglect those obligations, retirement should be just as high a priority. In a panel on women and retirement sponsored by Merrill Lynch earlier this year (watch the 45-minute talk here), moderator Charles Gibson noted that in 2007 the average amount a woman had in her 401k was about $56,000, while a man had $95,000. Another fact from the seminar: Finance expert David Bach, who’s written 11 books on money, said the general rule for anyone (men, women, married or single) is to save at least 10 percent of your gross income for your twilight years. But because of women’s longer life spans (and think about how expensive those additional seven to nine years can be with nursing homes or extra medical care), he recommends that they save 15 percent.

Oprah.com readers can get 25% off a 3-month ($39.99) or 1-year ($129.99) subscription to the LearnVest Advice Center. Enter code Oprah25 at checkout; offer expires 12:01 AM ET December 16, 2011.

Wimmin who change the system from within the system

by Kristin Flickinger

Q: After many years in a marriage to a man that was unfulfilling intimately and emotionally, I met a woman I am extremely attracted to. At this point I know I am not straight, but I’m not sure if I’m bisexual or lesbian. How do I know for sure?

A: My test is simple. Sexuality is about sex. I want to have sex with only women. There are men whom I love deeply. But the thought of sex with them is completely unappealing—whereas women I’d never spend my life with have visited me in my dreams. That makes me a lesbian.

I have a friend who identifies as “bisexual, but not bi-emotional.” She’s attracted to both men and women, but because of the emotional fulfillment missing in her relationships with men, she doesn’t date them.

Don’t beat yourself up about it if you’re not sure. It might be a moving target for you. A lot of people find their sexual orientation shifting throughout their lives. Attraction to both genders is a lot more common than we talk about in our society—or even in our community.

It seems like bisexual and lesbian women are two very different groups of people. Why is that?

Being gay is like being a member of a club—a somewhat secret club. There are relatively few of us in the world. Even if it’s 10 percent of the population, that’s not a lot. And being gay still isn’t totally accepted, which means that 90 percent of the world doesn’t know a lot about us. When we find each other, we have a common language, and shared experiences. We have slang, and jargon, and little inside jokes.

Many of us—both those who grew up knowing we were gay, and those who came out later in life—went through struggles, whether it was being teased in school, or losing bits and pieces of acceptance by our families and friends. A huge percentage of “street kids” identify as LGBT.

There are gay people who, if given the choice, would rather be straight. They’d rather be accepted in society, and not fear physical attack. They’d rather be “normal,”  get married and have a white-picket-fence kind of life. So it can lead to resentment when we see someone moving between the two worlds—the one we’re in and the one we might rather be in.

When I was coming of age during college, embracing my lesbian self and coming out, I had a problem with the idea of bisexuality. I thought it was a cop-out: an unwillingness to do the work to discover who you were, or a way to have more than one partner at a time.

The idea of “choosing”  to be gay was a big issue then. I remember expressing my discomfort with bisexuality to a friend. She asked me, “Did you choose to be gay?”

Of course not!”

Well, I’m attracted to both men and women. It’s not something I chose. You think that’s easy?”

She had a good point. That question really shifted the way I think about bisexuality. I actually think coming out as a bisexual can be equally, if not more, difficult.

Out bisexuals don’t fit into the straight community, because they’re “queer.” And they’ve faced alienation within the gay community because of the perception that they may at some point live, undetected, in the world that so many of us have tried desperately to fit into.

Additionally, many lesbians who don’t live in relationships that require traditional gender roles shrug off the social norms that dictate how women “should”  look and act. Women pursuing relationships with both men and women might appear different from lesbians, because they inhabit a world where relationships require men to look and act like “men” and women like “women.”

In the end, both groups of women are very diverse. There are super-butch bisexual women, and ultra-femme lesbians. And many of us would never give up being lesbian in order to be “normal.”

Typically, how do people transition from straight to bisexual or lesbian?

I can’t give you a roadmap. But I can tell you that there are a lot of women in the community who have done just that. The first step is realizing that you belong somewhere in the LGBT population. From there, the process is up to you. Start meeting people. Pick up a local queer paper, or look online for a dance party in your area. Many places have gay outdoor groups that can give you a way to get to know the community, and how you most comfortably fit into it.

Once you start meeting people, you will find that many share your story of self-discovery. In fact, I know very few people in the community who aren’t still on that journey to some extent.

And, wherever you feel safe, keep having conversations. It will help us consider each other and where we come from, and give us a better sense of our community.

http://www.justout.com/issues/11-11-11/ask-a-gay/     

Posted by admin on Nov 11, 2010 in 11-11-11 | 0 comments

Reviewed and submitted by Niyomi, of TeaDanceSocial, facebook

A Lesbian friend Up! Place.

 Meg Mallon an 18-time winner on the LPGA who represented the United States as a player in The Solheim Cup on eight different occasions and as assistant captain once, today was officially announced and introduced as U.S. Team Captain at the 2013 Solheim Cup, to be played Aug. 13-18, 2013 at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colo.

The announcement was made at the PGA Merchandise Show. Mallon sat alongside PING Chairman & CEO John A. Solheim at the news conference which took place on the floor’s main stage and was hosted by LPGA Chief Communications Officer Kraig Kann.

Set on land that course designer Ben Crenshaw has called "gifted for golf," Colorado Golf Club – host of The 2013 Solheim Cup – opened in 2006 to national acclaim. The 7,604-yard Coore & Crenshaw course debuted as GOLF Magazine’s Best New Private Course in 2006. Surrounded by more than 1,100 acres of open space, the golf course plays through ponderosa pine forests and open meadows and features dramatic views of the Rocky Mountains. Tom Lehman won the 71st Senior PGA Championship at Colorado Golf Club in

 

Sarah Burke ( )

Donations have been pouring in on behalf of Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke who died Thursday at the age of 29 in a Utah hospital.

A fundraising website has been set up by Burke’s family for the skier’s medical costs and related expenses.

Burke crashed Jan. 10 in Park City, Utah, while training in a halfpipe. The Olympic gold-medal hopeful and four-time Winter X Games champion tore one of the major arteries supplying blood to her brain and went into cardiac arrest.

She underwent surgery and spent nine days on life support at the University of Utah Hospital. But Burke had suffered irreversible brain damage after the fall because of lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.

The website originally set up at www.giveforward.com/sarahburke was organized by her agent, Michael Spencer and has marked a goal for $550,000. Her husband Rory Bushfield, a fellow skier from Alberta whom she married in 2010, is listed as the beneficiary.

Burke, who was born in Barrie, Ont., and grew up in nearby Midland, was considered a pioneer in her sport. She lobbied to add superpipe skiing to the Winter Games program and her arguments won over Olympic officials.

The discipline will debut in two years in Russia, where Burke likely would have been a favourite for the gold medal.

A moment of silence for Burke was observed Thursday night before Canada’s women’s soccer team played Haiti in an Olympic qualifying match in Vancouver.

A tribute to the first lady of freeskiing, Sarah Burke. Thank you, Sarah.

With love, MSP Films 

  http://vimeo.com/35730474

PinkNews to celebrate 25th January as Peter Tatchell Day – legendary campaigner turns 60

by Stephen Gray for PinkNews.co.uk
8 January 2012, 11:33am

 

Peter Tatchell: "Don’t accept the world as it is. Dream of what the world could be – and then help make it happen"

 

To mark the 60th birthday of our most iconic human rights campaigner, PinkNews.co.uk will be naming Wednesday 25 January Peter Tatchell Day.

To celebrate the day, we will look back at the enormous contribution Peter Tatchell has made to the fight for equal gay rights and human rights in general across the UK and abroad with contributions from all around the globe.

Late January will also mark 45 years of human rights campaigning by the naturalised Briton, and 10 years since the Peter Tatchell Foundation was originally launched.

For the day, all advertising space on the PinkNews.co.uk website and email newsletter will be donated to the Peter Tatchell Foundation, which promotes and protects human rights in the UK and globally. The foundation will use the estimated 300,000 spots (of varying sizes and locations) to raise awareness of its campaigns and to recruit new donors. More importantly, for the rest of Peter’s 60th birthday year, PinkNews will donate advertising on at least one spot on every piece of content on the PinkNews website to the foundation as well as space on our iPhone/iPad apps. It is hoped that in total 41 million advertisements will be shown to mark the 41 years since Mr Tatchell first joined the London Gay Liberation Front.

Born in Australia in 1952, he began his career as a campaigner at the age of 15 by opposing the death penalty.

Two years later, he realised he was gay and two years after that was bound for England because he objected to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war and was not willing to be to drafted.

In 45 years of non-violent human rights campaigning, Mr Tatchell has been arrested hundreds of times, but only one conviction has been upheld. Convicted under the Ecclesiastical Courts Jurisdiction Act 1860, he received a fine of £18.60 for interrupting the 1998 Easter Sermon of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, in protest at his support for homophobic discrimination.

We are also appealing to our readers for their messages to Mr Tatchell, which we invite you to leave in the comments section below for publication on the day.

Today, Mr Tatchell said: “I am immensely grateful to Benjamin Cohen and the rest of the PinkNews team for their support and generosity. This advertising blitz will increase awareness of our human rights work and raise much-needed funds.

“The Peter Tatchell Foundation has no organised funding. Donations from readers will help us continue our campaign for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty for gay sex, and assist our efforts to win same-sex marriage, football without homophobia and the decriminalisation of homosexuality throughout the Commonwealth.

“My message to everyone is very simple: Don’t accept the world as it is. Dream of what the world could be – and then help make it happen.”

PinkNews founder Benjamin Cohen explained why this publication is celebrating Peter Tatchell Day, writing: “More than any other person or organisation, Peter has, often single handed, campaigned for the rights we now enjoy in the UK. He’s also been a huge campaigner all around the world for LGBTQI rights.”

Interview: Patricia Nell Warren……lgbtSr

By Mark McNease

I came out at 16 in a small Indiana city of 30,000 people. It was 1974, and I was deeply hungry for images of myself as a gay person. There wasn’t much available then, aside from books I ordered from the Psychology Today book club, some of which did more harm than good. Then came a novel called “The Front Runner” about the love story between a young college athlete and his coach. The book gave me hope and, along with the few others I could find, let me know I was not alone in the world.

Patricia Nell Warren has never stopped writing. At 75 she has a new non-fiction collection out, titled “My West,” that presents her personal impressions of the American West, a book she describes as, “a collection of blogs, commentaries, historical essays and other personal writings… past, present and future.” It was a privilege to interview her and very much a reminder that passion has no shelf life.

MM: Thank you very much for this interview. As I mentioned in our emails, your landmark 1974 novel “The Front Runner” played a pivotal role in my gay teenage life in Indiana back then. I’m a sucker for a love story and a tragedy. But most importantly it let me know I wasn’t alone in the world. Is there any downside to having written such an iconic novel? Do you ever tire of being identified with it?

PNW: No, I don’t ever tire of that. The Front Runner has kept groceries on the table for over 30 years, and I’m grateful to all the readers who continue to buy the book. Even today the fan letters still roll in every week. And… I have written 10 books by now, and am a better writer than I was in 1974. So it would be nice if some retrospective attention would be given to my entire body of work. Some of my best writing is in the recent books, like The Wild Man.

MM: The follow up to that novel was “Harlan’s Race”, which was also the first book published by Wildcat Press when it launched in 1994. What prompted you and your business partner, Tyler St. Mark, to start your own press?

PNW: In the past, I’ve had problems with a couple of trade publishers on royalty reporting and contract compliance. When I joined up with St. Mark in the early 1990s, we made the decision to go independent. I had the prior experience in the publishing business to do books on my own. Being an independent publisher is admittedly a lot of hard work. But I prefer it to having to get a lawyer to get my royalties paid.

MM: You’ve just published your tenth book, “My West”, a collection of 47 short pieces on everything from agriculture to cooking, politics, sexuality and more. Can you say a little about this collection – why you decided to put it out, and what makes it close to your heart?

PNW: Two years ago in L.A., at the urging of gay author/filmmaker Gregory Hinton, the Autry National Center decided to display the two iconic Brokeback Mountain cowboy shirts in their Western film gallery. It was a courageous step, that opened a mainstream door on growing interest in LGBT presence in the American West. At the Autry for the media event, the day the Brokeback shirts went on display, I met Gregory Hinton, and felt very inspired by the Autry’s move.

The fact is — I’m a Westerner born and bred, and grew up in a ranch that is now a national historic site. Over several decades, I’ve written one novel (The Fancy Dancer) and dozens of short pieces that explore my growing sense of myself as an LGBT Westerner. After talking with Hinton, I decided to do an anthology that celebrates this self-identity of mine. My West is a real departure for me. But what surprised me, when I got all the pieces together, was how consistent my voice was, through the many years.

It’s important for us to stake our claim out here, because some imagemakers for the West put forth the notion that the West is all bible-thumping and neo-con. Yet the real West has its liberal and progressive streak as well. LGBT people have always been here — we continue to have our roots here, and to contribute in many ways. Gregory has since launched a program series called “Out West” that he’s taking to other cities and states, with 12 successful events in 2011, and more planned for 2012. Subjects range from gay rodeo to notable LGBT Western artists and other cultural figures of the past and present.

This year I did “Out West” events for my book in California, Montana and Nevada. Next year I hope to tour with the book in other states as well. What’s striking is the numbers of non-gay people who show up for these events. “Out West” is proving to be a strong crossover draw in these communities. So I support this wonderful series as much as I can.

MM: You talk about the importance of oral tradition in the YouTube video from the Out West at the Autry reading. It made me wonder if oral tradition has a place within our own LGBT communities, and also if oral tradition can survive in our modern technological age when the very idea of tradition is being replaced with 140 character tweets.

PNW: This is a good question. Oral tradition starts in the family, and a sense of its importance spreads into the wider community, where events and personalities of the past get carried along on a widening unwritten record. But today, oral tradition – even in families – is definitely on the wane. That includes a sense of family genealogy. I meet growing numbers of Americans who have no idea what their family roots are, even those who descent from immigrants. In many cases, when LGBT people are rejected by their families and communities after they come out, they are cut off from the oral roots. So there goes the chance to find out if Great Aunt Jane was really a lesbian.

Today, in spite of all our official emphasis on LGBT history, I see a dangerous lack of personal interest in that history. Especially in the blogging and tweeting world, where posts on the latest red-hot issue always get tons more comments than the history stories do. Yet achievements of the past, and what we’ve learned collectively from decades of organizing and lobbying, are the foundation of our civil-rights gains today. When activist veteran Frank Kameny died recently, how many of our people – especially young people – had any idea who he was? Yet Kameny was a towering pioneer in the history of our battle to end DADT. Oral tradition is very important in the military world, as I know from my many relatives who served in uniform and cherished their personal archives of war stories. I hope Frank’s best war stories got recorded by somebody before he passed on.

So sorry, but the tweet of the day will never replace a good story with a beginning, middle and end. It’s up to us LGBT elders to kick some butt and make sure that the oral traditions in our keeping are cherished and recorded.

MM: You’ve written eight novels and many more short stories, poetry, essays and editorials. Do you have a favorite form (short stories, novels, essays)?

PNW: During the Fifties and Sixties, I went for poetry and short stories. But I haven’t written a poem since 1978. Today I focus on full-length fiction and short nonfiction – historical articles, commentaries, etc. And I continue to operate in both those genres. I do have a passion for nonfiction, to the point where my fiction writing has a tinge of nonfiction “reality feel.”

MM: Publishing has changed so dramatically the last few years, with eBooks now being a way for people to get their work out there – good, bad or otherwise. What do you make of these changes?

PNW: E-books were in the cards, for sure. Everything in publishing is now obsessively digital, even the printing process. And it’s easy to get hooked on the low price tag of e-books.

But there is a huge danger inherent in e-publishing. Digital information is so fragile and ephemeral. It’s not in the interest of LGBT culture, or American culture, or any culture, to have our precious information or creative expression disappearing into thin air when e-books go out of print. Digital archives large and small can be wiped out by crashes, or hacking, or breakdowns of the power grid. At least with hard-copy books, an out-of-print title is still available as a used or collectible item. It can still find its way into a public library, archive or private collection. Print books (including the laboriously hand-written ones dating before Gutenberg’s press) have been on shelves for thousands of years. Since those books were well-made, they survived many centuries of use, including accident and neglect. This is how we get to have the great thinking of 2000 years ago – because books containing that writing have survived.

So I see ebooks as an economically attractive option for publishers and bookbuyers, in a time of recession when costs are critical. But e-books should never be viewed as a substitute or replacement for print books. A community (or a country) that invests entirely into e-publishing will be in danger of someday having a vast void where a recognizable past could have been preserved in real books. Paper recycling makes it possible to create new books without killing trees.

MM: For writers (not necessarily young ones, either) who might look at the publishing landscape today and find it intimidating, a confusing sea of options, what would you say that could encourage them to do it anyway?

PNW: Yes, it’s hard to get published. Big corporate trade houses, even independents and small presses, are cutting back on their book lists. They’re getting ever more picky and cautious about what they choose. But even in the best of times, it was never easy to get published. It took me a few years of rejection letters before my first novel (The Last Centennial) finally got published in 1971.

So new writers always need a determination of steel as they look for their breakthrough. Today I always tell newbies (including the seniors among them) that they can help their chances a lot by doing two things. First of all, to educate themselves about what the options are. (There are many online resources with information on how different types of publishing.) And second, to simply fight off that feeling of discouragement and never give up in their efforts to break into print. If they want others to believe in their writing, they have to start by believing in their own work.

MM: You ran for city council in West Hollywood in 2007 but lost that election. Any interest in doing that again?

PNW: It was an illuminating experience for me. Unfortunately, even at the local level, running for office takes big money. I was unable to raise enough contributions to compete with the city-hall incumbents, and wound up with a campaign debt that took me a while to pay off. Nobody ever talks about the campaign debts, but election losers usually have them! Even Hillary Clinton had a campaign debt! Presently I look for other ways of being “political” besides running for office.

Posted byMadeMark at8:00 AM

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When the men went off to war, the women were left behind to hold the fort.  In this first episode entitled Jumping Tracks we’re introduced to Lorna Corbett (Meg Tilly), a hard, yet fair matron who takes the girls under her wing as they manufacture the weapons of war.  Gladys Witham (Jodi Balfour) has it a little easier than the other girls, in that she’s led a privileged life. She still wants to do her part however, and as the episode progresses she finds a way to get herself removed from the cushy secretarial role she’s been given so that she can join the other girls on the work floor.  Kate Andrews (Charlotte Hegele) has come from a different sort of situation herself.  Her father is a religious fanatic who torments her, and as the episode begins she runs from her family with her mother helping her escape.  And then there’s Betty McRae (Ali Liebert) the farm girl who is used to hard work, and is highly regarded by her co-workers.

The first episode is not much more than a way to introduce us to not only the women of the era, but the harassment they face while doing their part for the war effort.  You also get a nice glimpse of the world they live in, from the parties with the soldiers to the dangers they face on the job.  It does a great job of pulling you in, and when it ends you can’t wait for the next episode.  Bomb Girls should be a hit.