Friday February 23, 2007 SGN.org |
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Volume 35 Issue 08 |
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Saturday, Aug 30, 2008
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Letters |
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SOAP'S $100,026.33 SEATTLE CENTER DEBT Dear SGN, I read with great interest SGN's story regarding Seattle Out And Proud's problems settling their bill with Seattle Center. SOAP's failure to follow through on the original terms of the agreement is irresponsible. Their actions of canceling meetings, coupled with their refusal to reply to Seattle Center's letters, demonstrates childish avoidance. And their failure to meet the deadline for the delinquent payments creates a situation that paints them as deadbeats. What does this add up to? Irresponsible, childish deadbeats. Sadly, when this news hits the mainstream press the term "Gay pride" is what will be remembered. Sure, SOAP will be mentioned. But people will remember that this scandal involved "Gay pride." I guess we can all thank SOAP for dragging the Gay community's reputation through the mud. Mark Felpine Seattle, WA Dear SGN, Thanks for your well written and excellent article at www.sgn.org. Your reporter, Robert Ra[k]etty, clearly took his time and laid out the events as they took place. Personally, I am appalled by [Seattle Out and Proud]'s business practices. It's like going to a restaurant, ordering a bunch of food and drinks and walking out without paying the bill. A person doing so would certainly be charged with a crime. Whether legal or not, Seattle Pride has committed a crime a against the [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender] community. A serious offense they [should] pa[y] for with the dissolution of their organization. Sincerely, Jay Whitehead Edmonds, WA Dear SGN, This is what happens when you don't seek or get the community's buy-in first. SOAP high-jacked the Queer community's Pride festival and tried to high-jack all of the organizing committees as well. They lost exclusive endorsements because they split the community. Plus this just isn't SF, downtown made it more money and less people who actually do the work and raise the funds wanting to support the downtown choice. Make the individuals who signed the contract with Seattle Center pay individually for this debt, it was solely their and Mayor Nickels' idea, not ours! The Queer community has much better things to do with our money! Like organize this year's Volunteer Park festival and fight the overdevelopment on Capitol Hill that is taking our clubs and gathering spaces. Sincerely, Misha Dear SGN, Pity! What goes around comes around! Let's send them a $20.00 donation in three dollar Queer bills. Sincerely, Nevin Jefferson Dear Seattle Center staff, [Editor's Note: The following is an e-mail an SGN reader sent to the Seattle Center.] As a member of the LGBT community, I support your side of things completely in this situation with SOAP. In my opinion, they handled many things badly during this whole event. You have my support should you decide to never rent to them again. Sincerely, Lincoln Rose Seattle, WA YOU CAN'T MEASURE OPPRESSION, ITS ALL WRONG Dear Editor, [Editor's Note: The following is a letter the editor of the Seattle Times. The author asked it be republished here for the readers of the SGN.] Leonard Pitts, Jr. really hit the mark in his op-ed piece yesterday [Seattle Times, Feb 20] called "The True Face Of Homophobia". Pitts, a black man, rips the face off of the arguments of people like Ken Hutchinson of Antioch Bible Church that the Black struggle for civil rights and the Gay struggle for civil rights are not the same. These struggles are the same exactly because of the bigotry and hatred directed against them by people like Ken Hutchinson, Bull Connor, James Dobson, the KKK, and all the rest. Equal rights for Gays and Lesbians in Washington State is exactly the same struggle as Blacks' right to vote in Ohio, a women's rights to abortion in Kansas, and an immigrants right to fair treatment in Arizona. Any struggle against hatred and prejudice, whether it comes from a pulpit, a police truncheon, or a lynch mob is the same struggle. It's a struggle that all fair minded people should be proud to support. Sincerely, JOIN EFFORT TO STOP ANTI-GAY VIOLENCE IN JAMAICA Dear SGN, [Editor's Note: Metropolitan Community Churches' Moderator Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson calls for an international letter writing campaign in response to anti-Gay violence in Jamaica, which targeted members of the MCC. including the Valentine's Day mob attack on three Gay members of Metropolitan Community Churches.] A series of escalating attacks against Gays and Lesbians in Jamaica has prompted our call today for island officials to guarantee the human rights and safety of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender persons across Jamaica. Today I am calling upon people of conscience around the world to speak up and to support those who are struggling for human and civil rights in Jamaica. The lethal combination of homophobia and AIDS-phobia must stop. We cannot stand by and watch as our sisters and brothers are tormented, beaten, raped and killed solely for being who they are. There are leaders in Jamaica, including political and religious leaders, who have failed to speak up. Such silence is not acceptable. Now is the time for all people of goodwill to speak out for justice and against intolerance. No person of conscience should remain silent in the face of the continuing horrific attacks on Gays in Jamaica. The Valentine's Day attack on three Gay men at a pharmacy in Tropical Plaza in St. Andrews parish of Jamaica is part of a pattern of violence against Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender persons. This pattern of anti-Gay violence, which has included public beatings and numerous murders of Gay people, has often flown under the radar of the Jamaican press and received scant attention from civil authorities. According to the Gay rights group Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays (J-FLAG), three men were shopping in a local pharmacy in the parish of St. Andrew when two of them were targeted by an unnamed woman who reprimanded them for what she termed "distasteful" behavior. According to eyewitnesses, she left the store and made a phone call that resulted in a large crowd gathering at the Monarch Pharmacy. The crowd called for the three men to be "sent out" to face them. The incident is tragically reminiscent of the infamous biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, found in the 19th chapter of the Book of Genesis. The management of the pharmacy locked the three men inside for their safety until police arrived. To get the men out of the pharmacy and into a waiting police van, officers fired tear gas into the crowd. One of the men reported he was gun-butted by the police and another was hit in the head with a stone. All three men report they were repeatedly taunted by the police officers with anti-Gay slurs. Since the Valentines Day attack, the tragedy and violence have continued to grow. Over the last few days, other Gay people reportedly have been attacked in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, and at least one Gay person in Montego Bay has been murdered. And on Sunday, there was an unconfirmed report that one of the three men attacked on Valentines Day had attempted suicide in the aftermath of the attack. Metropolitan Community Churches, which recently opened a worshipping community in Jamaica, offered to relocate the Gay men to a safer venue. The men have also been encouraged by their friends to go into hiding until their safety can be assured. We are deeply concerned for the safety of these men, and for the well-being of thousands of Gay men, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender persons in Jamaica -- a country designated by Time magazine as "the most homophobic country in the Western Hemisphere." One of the young men, whom we will only identify by his first name of Gareth, said, "They may kill me, but I am dead already if I do nothing." He said he will stay and continue to fight for the human rights of all Jamaicans, including its Lesbian and Gay citizens. While viewed throughout much of the world as a vacation paradise for its pristine beaches, the sad truth is that Jamaica harbors the world's highest murder rate. Over the past several years, Metropolitan Community Churches has confirmed a pattern of abuse, hostility, attacks, and murder of persons solely because they may be perceived to be Gay or Lesbian, from the mutilation of Gay rights activists Brian Williamson and the murder of Steve Harvey, to the killing of two Lesbians whose bodies were left in a ditch and whose known slayer was for days left unquestioned by police, to the father who upon learning of his young son's Gay identity, invited a crowd to the boy's school to lynch him. In light of these developments, I have asked the Global Justice Team of Metropolitan Community Churches, led by Rev. Pat Bumgardner, to monitor the situation in Jamaica and to assist the Office of the Moderator in developing an on-going plan to support human rights for the Gay community there. I have also designated Rev. Robert Griffin as MCC's representative to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender people and groups across Jamaica. On behalf of Metropolitan Community Churches, I am today calling upon people of goodwill everywhere to stand up and say, "Enough is enough!" There can be no moral or Biblical justification for the targeting and slaughter of any group of people simply because of who they are. It was wrong to target Jewish people in World War II, and it was shameful to target U.S. citizens of Japanese origin for internment during that same time. It was wrong to target ethnic groups in Eastern Europe and Chesnya; it was wrong to target the Hutu and Tutsi tribes of Rwanda for genocide in the 1990's; and it is wrong to target the people of Darfur in the Sudan today. And such targeting is just as morally reprehensible when used against Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender people in Jamaica. It is imperative that the world raise a united voice once again -- this time against the violence, hatred, and murder that is targeted against God's Gay children, not only in Jamaica, but also around the globe. Today I call upon political leaders and spiritual leaders in Jamaica to work publicly for an end to identity-motivated violence. Today I call upon all people of goodwill to speak out on behalf of those whose lives are marginalized and jeopardized by hatred, bigotry, and violence in Jamaica. Today, I call upon people of faith to hold these three men who were attacked on Valentines Day in your prayers, along with a growing number of individuals and families across Jamaica whose lives have been touched by a pattern of anti-Gay violence. Today, I call upon the leaders of all religious communions to join in declaring Ash Wednesday a day of fasting and prayer for an end to the violence against Gay people in Jamaica. And today I call for concerned people everywhere to write directly to Jamaica's Prime Minister, The Most Honorable Portia Simpson Miller, by e-mail at HPM@opm.gov.jm. Ask her to speak out publicly against the violence, to establish a tone of respect and tolerance for all life, and to guarantee the human rights and safety of Jamaica's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender citizens. This Lenten season is an appropriate time for people of goodwill everywhere to change course and live together in ways that honor the sanctity and value of all life. Sincerely, Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson Office of the Moderator Metropolitan Community Churches |
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