INTEGRITY

GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM

c Integrity 1976   ISSN: 0095-2184

Vol. 3  No. 3   January 1977

 

INTEGRITY:  GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM is the official newsletter of Integrity, Inc., a nonprofit religious, charitable, educational, and literary organization of Gay Episcopalians and our friends.  Integrity, Inc. maintains a national office with The Rev. Ron Wesner, President, 5014 Willows Avenue, Phila., PA 19143, tele. 215-748-2118.  Membership and subscription correspondence should be sent to Forum Business Manager, Dave Williams, INTEGRITY, P.O. Box 891, Oak Park, IL 60303, tele 312-386-1470.  Editorial correspondence should be sent to Louie Crew, 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030, tele. 912-825-7287. 

 

Signed articles represent the views of the contributors.  The editors reserve the right to revise all sexist language. 

 

Copyright 1976 by Integrity, Inc.  10 issues per year.  Membership subscriptions are $10; subscriptions without membership are $12.  Add $3 for all subscriptions that require plain envelopes; Canadians add $2 if paying in Canadian currency.  Couple rates are $13 for one newsletter. 

 

President................................ The Rev. Ron Wesner

Vice President................................. John Lawrence

Treasurer............................. The Rev. John Lenhardt

Editor............................................ Louie Crew

Business Editor............................... David Williams

 

Trustees:     Ernest Clay, Louie Crew, Julie Peterson,

              The Rev. Richard Younge

 

Consultants:The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, The Rev. Robert W. Cromey, The Rev. Norman Pittenger

 

A GAY EPISTLE

 

They had been preaching the Gospel even to the previously despised Samaritan when an angel of the Lord said to Philip, a young man of good Jewish upbringing, "Go downhill south on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza" -- a very bleak assignment, since the road goes through the desert.  Nevertheless, when Philip obeyed, he had a startling new experience, meeting on the road a Black Gay male who was riding in his fancy chariot in charge of all of the treasure of the Ethiopian Queen Candace, for whom he was a minister.  The Black Gay male was reading the Jewish prophet Isaiah when the Holy Spirit said to the young Jew:  "Go up and join with this Black Gay male."  Philip ran to him.  When Philip heard him reading Isaiah, he asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?"  The Black Gay male said to the young native Jew, "How can I unless someone guides me?"  And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

 

Later, after baptizing the Black Gay male, Philip miraculously disappeared, but the Black Gay male "went on his way rejoicing." From Acts 8.

 

RENEWED SUPPORT OF HOMOPHILE MISSION

 

Rochester, NY.  On 6th November the Diocesan Convention meeting here passed the following reso­lution:

 

"Whereas the Rochester Episcopal Diocese has been active with a homophile mission the past three years in a totally unfunded capacity; and

 

"Whereas the responsibility to this mission has increased significantly and will continue signifi­cantly in the immediate years ahead with greatly limited time to the presbyter already involved, and that much time is already lacking to fully implement the task of the mission already at hand; and

 

"Whereas the Diocesan Convention of 1975 by overwhelming majority moved to seriously study the issue of funding such a ministry which has been able to maintain a meaningful base of operation working from St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Rochester, and

 

"Whereas that ministry has been given almost unanimous support by at least three Diocesan districts, and

 

"Whereas the funding mechanism of the Diocese has not been able to respond favorably to implement a budget for such a ministry, and

 

"Whereas the General Convention meeting in Minneapolis in 1976 has moved passage of several supportive resolution to implement study and mission to the homophile community at the national level,

 

"Be it resolved that this Diocesan Convention of 1976 again consider funding a full-time Homophile Mission beginning with the year 1978."

 

WARDEN CUTS OFF INTEGRITY MAIL

 

Marion, IL.  C.E. Fenton, Warden of the federal prison here, has denied mailing privileges to INTEGRITY's person in charge of prison ministry, a retired speech professor.  The warden said: "We do not wish to take issue with the legality or moral implications of homosexuality.  Rather, through experience, we are aware of the violence attributed directly to homosexual activities if condoned in an institutional setting.  It is our opinion that your correspondence, if permitted to continue, will, in effect, condone such activity within this institution."

 

 

IN BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES --

 

BISHOPS REFUSE TO CELEBRATE GAY RELATIONSHIPS

 

Washington, DC and Essex, ENGLAND.  Acting independent­ly four Anglican bishops have enjoined priests of the Church to desist with plans to celebrate Gay relation­ships.

 

The Rt. Rev. John T. Walker, Bishop Coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, threatened to cut off diocesan financial aid of about $7,000 annually to the Episcopal Church of St. Stephen and the Incarna­tion when the rector Fr. Wm. Wendt and the vestry voted to override the Bishop's earlier rejection of announced plans to celebrate what the parish newsletter, Bread, called the "holy union" between Wayne Schwandt, 27, and John Fortunato, 29.  Fr. Wendt canceled the ceremony but announced his intention to participate in the "holy union" of the couple rescheduled for the same date, but at the Washington First Congregational Church.

 

In inviting all Gay sisters and brothers, Fortunato and Schwandt said:  "The harsh words, misunderstandings and strife which have surrounded [Bp. Walker's and Bp. Creighton's] decision are regrettable and we feel deeply the pain brought by their inability to bless, sanction, or affirm our covenant.  Would that the Episcopal Church could move with the powerful resolution made at General Convention into supportive ministry with the homosexual community."  Fortunato and Schwandt went on to praise Fr. Wendt, the parish vestry, MCC, and other friends for their support.

 

In the issue of the parish Bread for the week of the "holy union," Fr. Wendt explained:  "The Church too has been engaged in re-thinking its attitude from a pastoral and theological view.  E.g., the Episcopal Church passed a resolution at the Minneapolis convention in support of the human rights of homosexual persons. I want to say that in my opinion this resolution was adopted with insufficient consideration of the full implication or even the meaning of its action.  What has happened here with Wayne and Jon, myself, our bishop, our vestry, and our congregation which has been so badly reported in the newspapers, has seemed outrageous, untimely and unnecessary.  It also needs to be said that it was an attempt to deal openly, prayerfully and most lovingly with the needs of two members of a Church community which because of its model, Jesus Christ, is committed to offering sustenance to all of the children of God."

 

Fr. Wendt further stressed that "at no time were the terms marriage or wedding incorporated in the resolution."  Also, he noted that even "holy union" had been deleted by the vestry before their support.

 

In England, similar episcopal maneuvers have been afoot, as reported by the Living Church.  Fr. Elers expressed in our November Forum some of his own views:

 

The Rev. Peter Elers, 46, president of the Gay Christian Movement in England, has given a "solemn undertaking" to his two bishops that he will not conduct any more lesbian "marriages" in his parish church.

 

His pledge followed disclosure that he conducted a form of marriage ceremony for two lesbian couples in the Lady Chapel of his church at Thaxted in Essex county.  He denied that the ceremony was one of marriage, but rather one of blessing.

 

"There can be no such thing as a wedding or marriage when two people of the same sex are concerned and to describe it as a mock wedding would be grossly inaccurate," he said.

 

A service called "Blessing of Lovers" was used.  It follows part of the wedding service in the Prayer Book but uses the formula for living together "so long as we both shall love."

 

Following a conference called by Fr. Eler's bishops, the Rt. Rev. John Trillo of Chelmsford and the Rt. Rev. Roderic Coote of Colchester, the priest issued his pledge.

 

The Thaxted parish remains split as it has been ever since Fr. Elers disclosed earlier this year that he was a homosexual, and, at a ceremony in London, was elected first president of the Gay Christian Movement.

 

"A SPECIAL DEGREE OF PASTORAL UNDERSTANDING"

 

From the pastoral letter on moral values -- To Live in Christ Jesus:  A Pastoral Reflection on the Moral Life -- which was adopted by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at its Fall meeting here.

 

Some persons find themselves through no fault of their own to have a homosexual orientation.  Homosexuals like everyone else, should not suffer from prejudice against their basic human rights.  They have a right to respect, friendship and justice.  They should have an active role in the Christian community.  Homosexual activity, however, as distinguished from homosexual orientation, is morally wrong.  Like heterosexual persons, homosexuals are called to give witness to chastity, avoiding, with God's grace, behavior which is wrong for them just as nonmarital sexual relations are for heterosexuals.  Nonetheless, because heterosexuals can usually look forward to marriage and homosexuals, while their orientation continues might not, the Christian community should provide them a special degree of pastoral understanding and care.

 

Though most people have two families, the one in which they are born and the one they help bring into being, the single and celibate have only the first.  But from this experience they, too, know family values.  Love and sacrifice, generosity and service have a real place in their lives.  They are as much tempted as the married -- sometimes more -- to selfishness; they have as great a need for understanding and consolation.  Family values may be expressed in different terms in their lives, but they are expressed.

 

KING FOR QUEENS

 

PHILADELPHIA ‑‑ "I believe that gay people s­hould have civil rights equal to any other people ­under the Constitution," Coretta King, widow of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, said recently.  Th­e Philadelphia Gay News reported that Mrs. King made that statement after a brunch in Philadelphia on Oct 15.  The civil rights leader told Gay Raider Mark Segal that gay people are entitled to hav­e equal protection under the law and encouraged gay people to exercise their present rights of protest.

 

              -- From GCN

 

DRAMA BEFORE INTEGRITY/NYC

 

NYC.  INTEGRITY and DIGNITY here will be treated to performances of British playwright Charles Williams' "The House by the Stable" in January.  In the play the Nativity of Christ is treated as a spiritual entry into man's mind and soul.  Sexuality is very much a part of the vision.  The Acting Company is made up of professional actors who are members of DIGNITY/NYC.  Performances are scheduled with INTEGRITY at Church of the Ascension on 19th Jan. and with DIGNITY/Metro NJ at Seton Hall University on 20th January.

 

GAY METHODISTS TO MEET

 

Texas.  The Gay Caucus of the United Methodists will meet here 25-27 March 1977, either in San Antonio or Austin.

 

The Northeastern Jurisdictional meeting will be in Washington, DC, 14-16 January 1977.  For information contact convenor Chester Sturm, 3818 Davis Place, #102, Washington 20007.

 

Information about the Texas meeting can be had from Keith Spare, #2 Janssen Pl., Kansas City, MO 64109.

 

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN AND MENNONITE GAYS

 

Lancaster, PA.  Informal visits have taken place with the Mennonite Church and Church of the Brethren leadership.  Those contacted thus far have been accepting and have wanted to learn more about Gay lifestyles and Gay issues within their own church.

 

More information can be obtained from the Brethren/Mennonite Gay Caucus, Box 582, Lancaster, PA 17604.  Strict confidence will be assured.

 

NGTF LESBIAN SOURCEBOOK PROJECT

 

NYC.  According to a press release from the National Gay Task Force, women of the NGTF are cooperating in the preparation of a Lesbian resource book being edited by NGTF media director Ginny Vida.  The book will be published by Prentice Hall in the fall of 1977 or spring of 1978.

 

Anyone wishing to submit brief personal testi­monies (3-5 typewritten, double-spaced pages) on any of a variety of subjects is encouraged to do so.  Contact NGTF, 80 Fifth Ave., NYC 10011.

 

"ENGLISH TEACHERS GO GAY!"

 

Chicago.  "If we pass this resolution, the papers of the world will headline 'ENGLISH TEACHERS GO GAY!'!" threatened one of the opponents on the floor of the business meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English meeting here over Thanksgiving.

 

Nevertheless, the Council voted for the resolution, and to the best of our knowledge, ours is the only use of the promised headline.  We suppose most other editors did not take the assertion as news.

 

The text of the NCTE resolution reads:  "Whereas Lesbians and Gay men are now and have always been present in society and members of our profession, both as students and teachers, we the members of NCTE urge the immediate end of all discrimination against them wherever it may exist, specifically in the hiring and firing practices of our profession, in the textbooks of our discipline, and in our own classroom practices and exchanges with students.  We further urge that NCTE establish an appropriate group charged with both investigating problems faced by Lesbian and Gay male colleagues and students in the discipline of English and the formulating of recommendations to the Council concerning their welfare in the profession."

 

Thus NCTE joins other professional organizations in officially condemning discriminatory practices.  NCTE has a membership of 87,000 teachers, from kindergarten through the university level.

 

The resolution was drafted by Forum editor Louie Crew and by Dr. Julia Stanley of Univ. of Nebraska.

 

INTEGRITY VICE-PRESIDENT TO CO-COORDINATE NURSES

 

Miami Beach.  The Gay Nurses' Alliance meeting here in October named INTEGRITY vice-president John C. Lawrence of Boston as co-coordinator of GNA for the Eastern United States.

 

Lawrence succeeds G. David Waldron, who has been named to the American Nurses' Association's newly established Commission on Human Rights.  E. Carolyn Inness, co-founder of GNA with Waldron, remaining as co-coordinator for the Western United States, headquar­tered in San Diego.

 

A ROSE THAT'S NAMED A DUNG HEAP--

"ACCEPTANCE" AS A STUMBLING BLOCK

 

Providence.  The Rev. Edward K. Packard, editor of The Rhode Island Churchman of the Diocese of Rhode Island, has found what appears to be the most inventive and diabolical way to thwart the meaning of the Gay resolutions at General Convention, as reported in his paper:

 

More immediately, however, there was, later in the day, a noisy flurry in the Deputies about a press release concerning the resolution passed.  It seems that the word "acceptance" is a troublesome one, insufficiently defined.  Some seemed to fear that the use of the word -- which actually appears in the resolution -- might imply that the church intends to accept homosexuality as a way of life entirely permissible within the church, to the point that homosexual persons might be ordained without question.  (To our personal mind there is no such interpretation to be applied, although admittedly the word "acceptance" is vague.  In our own interpretation, "acceptance" means acceptance as fellow sinners within the Body of the Church; but there should not be any blinking of the eyes at the impediment, a very real impediment, so long as the condition of active involvement in what is probably aberrant behavior continues.)

 

We have not heard the last of this issue, of course.

 

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A good illustration of the hypocrisy which has always surrounded homosexuality is illustrated in an entry in Evelyn Waugh's Private Diary, 1924:

 

"11th July Chris (Hollis) told me a good story.  Mr. Justice Phillimore was trying a sodomy case and brooded greatly whether his judgement had been right.  He went to consult Birkenhead.  'Excuse me, My Lord, but could you tell me, what do you think one ought to give a man who allows himself to be buggered?'

 

'Oh, about 30/- or two pounds; anything you happen to have on you.'"

              From Reach Newsletter

 

FORUM

 

As many of you know, I was the floor manager and a lobbyist for INTEGRITY/National at the General Convention.  In order to do the job properly, I decided it was necessary to go to the INTEGRITY convention in San Francisco.  As a result, I had to pay money out of my own pocket.  The total personal cost was over $500.  (This figure does not include the reimbursement of $155 for my plane fare to Minneapolis and the $25 scholarship I received towards the $35 INTEGRITY Convention fee.)

 

I was able to afford the expense only because I was able to borrow money.  I was only working part-time before the General Convention.  Now I have to pay the debt back.  Fortunately, I have a full-time job now, and I have kept the courts off my back. However, I am also ln the process of paying back a $4000 debt incurred from the last 5 years of schooling.

 

What I am asking is that the members and friends of INTEGRITY partially reimburse me.  The fund for General Convention of INTEGRITY/National was not large enough.

 

I am not suggesting that people should be responsible for the decision I made about the money I spent.  What I am asking is that people decide that the work that was done was worth such an expense to them personally.

 

What I am proposing is that people send their contribution to John Lenhardt, treasurer of INTEGRITY/National (see Phila. on back page).  My expenses came to $510 beyond reimbursements.  Any amount contributed in excess of $300 (I'll carry the other $210) will enter a fund for the travel expense of the president of INTEGRITY.

 

If each sends only $1, we would have well over $600.  If each active chapter sends $30 and others accordingly, the fund would grow similarly.

 

I believe that this is a good time to express you personal support for the efforts of those of us who worked at the General Convention.

 

              In Christ,

              Richard H. York

 

I am very interested in organizing a Seventh-­Day Adventist Gay Caucus.  If anybody in your organization knows any Seventh-Day Adventist Gays, please have them write me.  With love, a Gay brother in Christ,

 

              Jim Stuart

              Box 6732

              San Francisco, CA 94101

 

We aren't Gay (we're hopelessly monogamous heteros in fact), but we offer you our love and support.

 

Tell us more about active membership in INTEGRITY and what we "straight" Children of God can do to help strengthen the Body of Christ.  We can tell you that we are presently active in working, playing, worshipping with, and loving the Gay Anglicans (and non-Anglicans) we share our lives with.

 

The birth and growth of INTEGRITY strengthens and inspires us.  We hope to move and grow with you.

 

Our Love to you in Him; His Love to you in us.

 

              Augie and Bill O'Connor

              410 Loma Avenue

              Capitola, CA 95010

 

I think that one trouble Churchpersons, both lay and clergy, may have with the Gay issue is that neither projects a sufficiently macho image by defini­tion of the role of the Church to feel entirely com­fortable with variations from traditional stereotypes.

 

              Maxine

 

I have arrived at a point of paradox in my own thinking.  I absolutely refuse to recognize the present Church's authority to judge me or my values.  Unfortunately, I am Catholic enough to believe in Apostolic Succession, even where the author­ity is rendered null by abuse and ignorance.  Ergo, MCC or similar groups are not an alternative.  I no longer attend church, and I will not continue to waste my effort on the education of the nincompoops who are allowed to hold Apostolic Sees.  I can no longer in good conscience encourage Gay men and Lesbians to support an institution of pigs and monkeys.

 

There is too much suffering in the Gay community and not all of it is caused by straights.  We are our own worst oppressors in our failure to support one another, in our failure to act, in our failure to cease our sexism, ageism, and racism against our own people.

 

I will not be renewing my INTEGRITY membership this year, because I consider it a futile expenditure.  Let us concentrate our energies for our own people, and let the straights and capitalists do without us, whether in the Church, the Legislatures, the Arts, or wherever.

 

All this must sound pretty heavy, and I don't wish to cause hard feelings.  My anger has been building for years, and will no longer be restrained.  I will submit neither to the straight-male-dominated tyranny of the Church and State nor to the Gay-dominated sexism of the so-called subculture.

 

I hope you understand at least part of my feelings.  I wish you the best ln your work, but my energies must go elsewhere.

 

              Gary

 

One of my students this semester is working on the problem of concepts in nuclear physics.  A physicist in the science division is seeing to the student's progress in scientific study and I'm looking after the philosophical side of things.  To supervise the stu­dent's work I've had to apply myself some to the study of photons, quantum theory, bubble chambers, complimentarity, probability waves, and other puzzle­ments that keep you awake at night.  It's more torment­ing to the intellect than unravelling the pro­cession of the Holy Ghost, whether it be from the Father or out of the Father and the Son.

 

A couple of examples.  "If we ask ... whether the position of the electron remains the same, we must say 'No'; if we ask whether the position of the elec­tron changes with time, we must say 'No'; if we ask whether the electron is at rest, we must say 'No'; if we ask whether it is in motion we must say 'No.' (Philip Oppenheimer, Science and the Common Understanding).  "... the particle ... weaves through space and time, backward and forward: At time T2, the parti­cle emits two photons and turns back in time to reach spot T1.  There it is scattered by a photon and again moves forward in time."  (Frauenfelder and Henley, Sub-Atomic Physics).  "We are absolutely convinced that we are up against a world here that has nothing to do with space and time."  (Robert Oppenheimer, lecture).

 

Since these elementary particles are the basis of matter, the whole of the cosmos, galaxies and constel­lations, Orion and Aldebaran, suns and planets, humanity, all life, everything that is, is built upon a foundation in which there is neither rest nor motion nor any time.  Doesn't that boggle your mind?

 

              Thor

 

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One bishop at General Convention in accepting a leaflet from an attractive young male leafleter at the foot of an escalator, said, "Right on, stud!"

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The Bishop of Oxford visiting General Convention told how he'd advised a young vicar to get a male roommate to help clean up the vicarage.

 

"But my Lord, people will say I'm Gay," the vicar replied.

 

"But you are, aren't you?" responded the bishop.

 

"Yes, but...."

 

"Well, do get the vicarage cleaned up, my son."

 

It was with much pleasure that the Bishop of Oxford reported to friends at our General Convention that on his next visit to this vicarage every item was spic and span and the vicar most happily displayed a new roommate.  "I am glad that you have so well obeyed my Godly admonition," said the bishop.

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WORDS FROM OUR PRESIDENT

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

 

I would like to catch you up to date on what is happening with me, with INTEGRITY, and with the movement, at least with as much as I see of it.  This ­will probably mostly be a reflection on how I have been spending my time, but I hope that you will be interested.

 

First to share is that we have new chapters in all states of birth.  The New Orleans chapter is having problems with their bishop, who has forbidden the clergy of the diocese to have any contact with INTEGRITY, but they have a strong and good convenor in Sam Myers, who is persevering with intelligence and faith.  The Knoxville chapter is pursuing conversations with the Roman Catholics of the area to do a joint chapter.  Jim Fleenor in Southern Ohio is in the stage of beginning a chapter with Jay Friend as the convenor.  They are attempting to have chaplains ln the several major cities of that diocese with one chapter which meets monthly in each city.  The Rev. Bill Baker in Washington, DC, is gathering forces soon to get the chapter there on its feet.  The Detroit chapter has been found!  Bill Giles called and said they were alive and well and wondering why we had dropped them.  I wish that we had a computer to blame it on, but actually we have never listed them in earlier listings.  We rejoice in their presence.

 

In my various travels recently I have visited with our mother chapter in Chicago and I had a delightful time celebrating their 2nd anniversary with them, and especially enjoyed the company of Dean Carroll of the Cathedral, who is a good and faithful friend. The Hartford chapter, under Canon Jones, Odis and Bonnie, were more than fifty strong when I was with them.  I preached and celebrated and then heard State Senator Betty Hudson tell about the good things she is doing with the state government in Connecticut.  If any legisla­tor deserves the name of Integrity, she does.  The Richmond chapter of INTEGRITY/DIGNITY, with our own Pope Gregory, provided a very exciting evening of conversation, heated arguments, and vital theo­logy.  Coming up soon are trips to visit with our chapters in New York, Southern Ohio, and Washington.

 

Besides visiting the chapters, I have spoken at Yale Divinity School, Virginia Seminary, The Gay Students Union at University of Virginia, The Catholic Clerical Union of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  I have been meeting regularly with the Diocesan Commission on Human Sexuality here in Philadelphia, and corresponding with a lot of our sisters and brothers who are not near a local chap­ter.  One of the things that would make this too, too busy life more complete would be the chance to meet with the Philadelphia chapter more often than I have of late.  I would rather have more time to sink my own roots down in this soil and enjoy their presence more than I have.  By the way, in your intercessions please include John Lenhardt.  Not only is his heart in a generally bad condition, he now has an undiagnosed form of meningitis and is not doing well at all.

 

I have experienced one superb bit of fall-out from General Convention.  When I was in an elegant hotel in Richmond last week, I raised my voice loudly enough so that our waiter could hear me.  I mentioned INTEGRITY and he joined in the conversation.  He mentioned that his rector had sent him a newspaper article reporting the decisions of General Convention regarding Gay people.  The headline was "Episcopal Church Accepts Gays."  He said he has put that on the wall of his apartment and when friends drop over he points to it and says, "See, my Church accepts me."  Let's keep working and praying for that to be a continuing reality.

 

                                     Ron

 

MARCELLUS (MARK) GARDNER -- R.I.P.

 

Brother Mark was strangled to death in Chicago and Fr. Grant Gallup preached the following homily at the Solemn Requiem Mass at his funeral at the Church of the Epiphany, Tuesday, 23rd November 1976.  The text was John 6:37-40.  Pray for Mark and for he souls of all of our martyrs past and to come.

 

I should love nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day: words for us to hear as we come to mourn, but also to celebrate, the life of Mark, who himself saw the Son.  We have each of us lost: some of us a friend; some, a brother; some, a child; some, even, a father ‑‑ for Mark was spiritual father to some of these school children here, looking after their tuition, and loving them.  We have each of us lost, in Mark's death.  Mark has lost much more:  Mark has lost his very life amongst us.  His life was brutally taken.  Yes, Mark was vulnerable; he was carefree and even careless in his love, and ln his acquaintances. But we must in love and justice refrain from judgment which blames the victim.  Since Cain slew his brother Abel, on down through the cruel history of humanity the blood of brothers cries out for judgment.  We mourn for Mark, but we mourn also for the con­tinued cruelty of the world which slew him.  Mark was an openly Gay person, a member of the Gay community.  Of that community, the Jesuit Father John McNeill has written, "Perhaps no single group of human beings has been subjected to greater injustice, persecution, and suffering than they."  Mark lived as a Gay person, openly, courageously, vulner­ably -- and he died as a Gay person.  His confusion, his mistakes, his impatience, all his faults, he shared with us -- with all human beings.  His love, his commitment, his work, his delight in the world, he also shared with us all -- with all human beings.  With many of us he shared his charm, his ability, his life itself -- all of this seems lost to us now, and to him.

 

In the face of these losses, we have the assurance of Jesus that at the last day Jesus will lose nothing, we will lose nothing, Mark will be saved ln the fullness of Mark.  Jesus assures us that nothing will be lost.  The last sermon Mark heard at St. Andrew's, where I am pastor, was on the second coming of Christ, which the Church draws our attention to at this time of the year -- the time of the end, symbolic of the end of all things, of our own lives, of time and history, the profane and even the sacred -- all of it is to end, the end even of nature.  The meaning of the second coming, of death, judgment, heaven and hell, is a liberating meaning:  it means one doesn't have to judge.  You don't have to.  I don't have to.  The world may not judge (it frequently sentences our sisters and brothers to death, but it may not judge) for judgment is reserved to the Christ who is coming to judge.  It also means we do not really need to create the perfect solution to the world's problems, to its horror, to its crimes, to its lovelessness, its bigotry.  He whose Name is Love is coming to do all that.  He will decide and make clear what is right, perfect, best.  And He will decide who goes where -- to heaven or to hell.  We are not called upon to make these judgments.  A Loving God is to do that.  St. John of the Cross said that "at the end of life we shall be judged by how much we have loved."  Mark is safe in the hands of such a Love.  Such a belief even liberates us all from judgment upon those who have slain this boy's body, but who cannot slay his spirit.

 

But the word of Christ is more than a relieving us of the duty or the right to judge.  It is also a promise for Mark to hear, for us to hear:  which Christ, the beautiful Savior, the friend of sinners, speaks to him and to us now:

 

"All that the Father gives me will come to me."  Mark began his journey to Jesus in Holy Baptism.  He turned again and again to the Body of Christ and received that Body in the Holy Eucharist. That the Father had given him to us we knew.  That the Father has taken him we also now believe.  All that was good and loving and outgoing in his life is to be caught up and woven into the tapestry of eternity; it is to be grafted into the Body of Him who cannot die, who has overcome death.  Christian brothers and sisters, let us hear this word of Christ now also:  Jesus shall lose nothing, Mark shall lose nothing, you shall lose nothing.  Jesus says, "I shall raise him up."

 

A PROPHET AMONG THE TENT-MAKERS

By Dick Sheppard

 

The second day of the conference began with ­Eucharist celebrated by the bishop.  At the Peace, Robert Los Angeles stepped down from the altar and I gave him a joyous hug (as is my wont) to which he responded humorously:  "What are you doing here?"  Good question.

 

It was the Sixth Annual Conference on the Self Supporting Ministry, sponsored by the national association for the Self-Supporting active ministry (NASSA), held 18-20 November at the Miaramar Hotel in Santa Monica.  My proximity prompted father-founder Louie, who holds a membership on behalf of INTEGRITY, to urge me to attend (with modest expenses forwarded by el presidente Ron).  The brochure proclaimed encouragement "for person­s called to a local self-supporting ministry through a lay service, the diaconate and the priesthood."  Well, the first evening there were 42 (the number dwindled steadily):  39 clergy and 3 lay, and all male and all white.  Basically a conclave of worker priests, also known as "non-stipes," or "tent-makers," an allusion to Paul's secular occupation.

 

The principal speaker was the Rt. Rev. William Gordon, formerly Bishop of Alaska, now Assistant Bishop of Michigan.  The sessions consisted of talks by Bishop Gordon alternated with small discussion groups.  Alabama-native Bill Gordon, he of the white shock of hair and ruddy face, proved to be gently humorous and continuously entertaining, a good ole boy with a folksy manner that would be the envy of Andy Griffith.  All of this jovial Southern Comfort is the entrance rite for a zeal and profound conviction which sent him flying all over Alaska in his famed "Blue Box," driving dog teams, occasionally falling through into icy waters, and living a number of Jack London-like experiences  -- all to communicate Jesus Christ up in the Frozen North.  For the past two years he has logged 300,000 miles all over this hemisphere (and Africa as well) as a one-man mission articulating his vision of what the Church must become to better discharge its Divine Commission.  He had not spoken ten minutes before I knew exactly why I was there.  Here are some highlights of his several talks.

 

The call comes not to priesthood, but to ministry, and equally to all Christians.

 

The call is, first to represent Jesus Christ, and that means to know Him (and not to put Him on and take Him off conveniently at will) and really to be what He expects us to be.  In this connection, trying to be "like" Christ is a misconception.  C.S. Lewis presented the process of surrender (in Mere Christianity) in which the total human instrument is given up to Christ as a vehicle to work through.  Similarly Bishop Gordon feels the question in every human situation is:  "What would Christ do?"  And then acting accordingly.  (This sparked a lively subsequent small-group discussion around the question:  "Which Christ?")

 

Twenty years from now, most of the ministry may well be done by non-stipendiary personnel, many, if not most of them, lay people.

 

The time has come to make the ministry of the laity explicit, visible and active in the world.

 

The greatest gift that can be given is to train people to do their own individual ministry.

 

Every congregation should be a small seminary to train and equip and send people out -- vs. the idea of Sunday attendance as a favor we all do God once a week.

 

In that connection, Bishop Gordon believes that the concepts of "processional" and "recessional" should be changed.  The service should begin with a recessional from the world, for purposes of recharging and refueling, and then we should process out into the world to do God's ­work.  (Cf. Rite II Dismissal).

 

As for attacks on the Church as Institution, without regard to available alternatives, they remind Bishop Gordon of the following exchange:

 

Q:  "How's your wife?"   A:  "Compared to what?"

 

Bishop Gordon's comments on present institutional priesthood were many and pointed.

 

One thing we need to lay to rest is the idea that ordained people ought to be more "holy" than anyone else.

 

The biggest problem is that we've tried to put all our ministry into the one package of priest as all-purpose superman.

 

Also, everyone is trained the same way in seminary, subjected to the same smorgasbord everyone else gets.  What we need are persons deeply committed to Jesus Christ who are trained in depth in specialized areas, e.g., sacraments, homiletics, budget and finance, ministry to the aged and infirm, etc.  (cf. St. Paul's remarks on the varieties of gifts).

 

There is something definitely amiss in parishes in which 75% of all theological knowledge is coming from one individual, i.e., the rector.

 

Even as it is demeaning to priesthood that priests should be viewed exclusively as sacrament-dispensers, so it is harmful nonsense to think that any one man could be an expert in so many lines of endeavor.  As an example, if a man has no real preaching gift but feels compelled to get up and anesthetize a congre­gation 52 times a year, his congregation tends to judge him on his weakness, and his strengths are thus obscured.  No wonder so many shrink from parish ministry or flee it outright.

 

As for bishops:  Too many are content to be exclusively defenders of the faith instead of being actively out on patrol for the faith in terms of serious experimentation.  The Church is a vast supermarket of possibilities.  Why restrict yourself to one section?

 

Interestingly, Bishop Rusack's homily at the Eucha­rist stressed a four-fold ministry (Priestly, Pastoral, Prophetic and Evangelistic) and he called for a restoration of the rector-priest-minister as a parson or "person" of knowledge and influence in the community.  Bishop Gordon's subsequent response was that our traditional prayer-book emphasis on so much of the service being said and done by the priest reflects the days when most people couldn't read and were not formally educated.  We've revised our Prayer Book but not our thinking about why it was originally written that way.  What does this say about a modern situation in which there are many persons in every community, and experts in every single line, whether budget and finance, public speaking, healing (both physical and mental), and so forth?  What precisely is to be the role of ordained clergy in the church of the future?

 

If Bishop Gordon's vision become reality, they will principally be facilitating individuals to discover their own vocation and ministry in a church which -- to put it bluntly -- clergy have stepped out of medieval role-play, lay people have stopped copping-out, and everyone is carrying his or her proper load.  "We've made mercenaries of our clergymen, paying them to do for us the ministries Our Lord intends all His followers to share."

 

Not surprisingly all of this got a mixed reception and, at the end, even Bishop Gordon's formidable zeal was visibly wilting in the face of rather overpowering apathy cum fatigue cum confusions cum suspicion cum inertia cum inability to be open and trusting with fellow-clergy (a curse that seems to be nationwide).  He remarked that this was one of the toughest groups he had ever talked to.

 

In defense of worker priests:  They work in situ­ations in which the inability and/or unwillingness fully to support them compels them to keep a foot ln both camps.  They, in turn, must then suffer the accusation, spoken and unspoken, of an inability and/or unwillingness to "put on the whole Armor."  Further, they struggle to realize a vocation in a church in which women's ordination and liturgical revision are but the tip of the iceberg of a mighty change which will eventually shake it from top to bottom and in which many former certainties are now in flux.  Status of Gay People, parish structure, role of ordained clergy, relationship of clergy to lay, revision of the creeds -- all, and more, must pass through the wondrous and terrifying fires of the Holy Spirit.  Finally, they (as, indeed, all of us) testify in a century which has emphatically and effectively rejected the claims of Christ  ‑ in a culture in which the unforgivable sin is bad breath -- in a country in which the three greatest sins are to be poor, to be ill, to be old.  Not easy.

 

As for my personal response to Bishop Gordon, I made it three months ago in a farewell message when I stepped down as Chairman of Los Angeles INTEGRITY:

 

"We hold firmly to the conviction that every Christian has a vocation to ministry, of which priesthood is but one particular function.  Exaggerated deference to those in Holy Orders is nothing more than a lay cop-out, sometimes unhappily reinforced by a few clergy trapped in role-play.  From the beginning it was not so.  Nor does it behoove mature adults truly free in Christ to be constantly seeking supermen or other divinely-gifted authority figures in a vain attempt to lay off the hard work of individual salvation."

 

So in tune was I with the message of this conference that I requested (and received) podium time to address the group about the general nature and purposes of INTEGRITY, and particularly about the lay-orientation of the structure of Los Angeles INTEGRITY with reference to Bishop Gordon's beliefs.  "We are doing it," I told them, "and it works."

 

GENERAL CONVENTION SUCCESS:  WHAT NOW?

By Richard H. York

 

Success at the General Convention was a great surprise to some of us.  The support was greater than we expected.  So now, how do we capitalize on it through reflection?  The first and most obvious conclusion is the need to educate the Church parish by parish about the issues.

 

What are the issues?  The most discussed issue was the perennial one, is homosexual behavior sick or sinful?  Can it be seen as both sinful and good, sick and healthy?  Almost all the arguments used at the General Convention, both positive and negative, no matter how sophisticated, had these questions at their core, either consciously or unconsciously.  For example, Dr. Ruth Barnhouse's argument was a tortured one.  She suggested a quasi-acceptance of Gay people, stressing that openly Gay people should not be ordained.  Dr. John Maltsberger testified in committee that latency children could be influenced by the "evangelical" [sic] Gay person to become Gay.  (So what's so bad about that?)  Both these arguments assumed homosexual behavior and lifestyle were at base bad or unacceptable human conditions.  And the worst thing is that the arguers would not admit that they rejected homosexual behavior­; they simply qualified it to death, damning by faint praise.

 

The second issue was the one involved in the one resolution which was defeated, the repeal of the sodomy law.  On this issue it was clear that people simply were not aware of the laws and how oppressive they are.  One delegation thought this resolution would repeal adultery and incest laws.

 

What this experience clearly indicates is that we need to educate people.  We need to go from parish to parish in each diocese with a well­ planned program.  We need to give information about the laws and about Gay people, our lifestyles, our oppressions, our loves, our love of God and the Gospel, in order that others may get a chance to know us and not to be terrified by us or by their own homosexuality.  We need to teach them that the homosexual side of human nature which they repress and attempt to destroy through us is good.  We need to gather enough information to be clever ln countering their arguments and force those who resist to expose their homophobia for all to see.  We need to demonstrate to people that the society is scapegoating us for their inability to deal with their relationship with their own homosexual side.

 

The major problem involved in the educational process is the cost to the Gay person who is doing the education.  It is very difficult not to take on the burden of "their" problem.  The struggle to attempt not to take on this burden frequently ends up in depleting our reserves and sometimes it has driven people to neurosis and nervous breakdowns.  Another danger is taking the martyr role.  Conse­quently, we need to develop a means of nourishing, caring support to ward off the sapping monster.  In order to accomplish this end we need a group of Lesbians and Gay men who can function together.  We need strong local support groups.  As importantly, we need to develop a cadre of nonGay people who can mediate the Gay experience to other nonGay folk.

 

How are we to do this?  First of all, there is the need for an organized network of Gay people based in the eight provinces.  INTEGRITY/National needs to be aware of the need to use the provinces as a way to cut up the enormous job of organizing the country by including such a division in the national constitution, by-laws, and polity.  I attempted to test the possibility of creating such a network through contacting key people that I knew in each province for lobbying with the deputations for General Convention.  The results were not very good but there were a number of key people who showed great creativity and promised to be reliable people for the future.  This mechanism needs to be set into motion.  In addition, we could tap the already existing networks such as The Witness network and the various coalitions for Women's ordination.  The Witness network has already been suggested to us as a possible resource.  Further, if this organization were thought to be feasible, we might even get funding for starting it through the Women's Triennial.  In addition, we could use the Standing Commission on Human Affairs and Health empowered by the General Convention as an umbrella for the effort.

 

Secondly, we need to find a means to contact the willing hidden Gay priests and lay persons.  I am coining the term hidden for those people Fr. Wesner pointed out to me at the General Convention.  The hidden Gay person is the one who is willing to speak out in situations where Gay issues are involved but does not intend to declare their sexual orientation publicly, except to a select support group, for various personal and professional rea­sons.  The purpose of this term is to distinguish this group from the closeted Gay person who tends to be destructive to herself or himself and to our purposes.  These "hidden" people are sometimes relatively open and frequently willing to help by coming out to us personally and privately.  They are often in positions of great influence.  Many things happened at the General Convention and earlier because of their help.  We need to enlist their help and assure them that we can be trusted with keeping the cover they wish to maintain.  This end could be accomplished by working through those we already know as well as through open requests for the aid of the hidden Gay persons.

 

Thirdly, we need to decide on a clear policy to solicit nonGay membership in INTEGRITY or to form an "INTEGRITY Auxiliary" for nonGay members.  One disadvantage is that if nonGay people are members of INTEGRITY we will lose the Gay space which some people find very sup­portive and necessary.  Some Gay members might feel we are allowing "them" to invade what little Gay space we can find in the Church.  Yet the advantage of nonGay people as members is that these people will most likely be those who have a good Gay consciousness themselves and those who want to work with us.  They will begin to see better who we are and most assuredly, they will begin to see the oppression and ostracism we face.  I suspect that they will experience some oppression themselves merely because they have become associated with us.  These people could be the ones to mediate our Gay experience to those we are unable to talk to for numerous rea­sons.  Some people are best approached by their own peers because the peer is felt to be "unbiased."  The result will be that we will increase our power and influence, not to mention the numbers who can witness to what God has done in us.  Another reason for nonGay people as members is that they would color the organization "heterosexual" enough to serve as a cover for those Gay people who could not join otherwise.  It would not be possible to know who is who.  The hidden Gay person and the closeted Gay person, who so often desperately need our support, could be less vulnerable.  The other suggestion of the INTEGRITY Auxiliary could work for similar ends.

 

However, in order to launch this venture with nonGay people, we need to have extensive discussion and planning before we embark. It needs to be discussed in local chapters, in the Forum and at our next national convention in Philadelphia in the summer of 1977.  It is too important an issue to enter upon lightly.  The issue is one that Black people faced and resolved by two separate organizations.

 

All of the suggestions I have made and whatever the plan is for the next three years, need careful planning and consideration.  We need to identify key Gay people, organizations, networks, friends, money.  It needs to be well planned and instrumented within a year if it is to have any significant effect on the 1979 General Convention.  I would suggest people make responses in the Forum so others can respond to their letters.  Whatever is decided as an approach can only be effective if there is widespread support by people who are willing to give significant amounts of the old trinity, i.e., time, money and energy.  These three as one will make a success.

 

GAY PEER COUNSELING

By John C. Lawrence, M.S., R.N.

 

(John Lawrence is Vice-President of INTEGRITY.  This article is also appearing in The Journal of Psychiatric Nursing and Mental Health Services.)

 

The Homophile Community Health Service of Boston is a mental health clinic serving homosexual persons and their families, fully licensed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  There are two major divisions; the Clinical Service and the Education Department.  The clinical service is composed of five major areas including an alcoholism program, a drug rehabilitation program, a hotline, a family ser­vice program, and the more conventional outpatient service providing group and individual therapies.  Founded in 1971, it is one of the oldest agencies in the country created and perpetuated to serve the gay community through the provision of mental health facilities.  Since its inception, we have found it not only necessary, but desirable to use both allied health professionals and paraprofession­als in providing counseling and therapy services to our constituency.

 

We have had only three psychiatrists on our staff, one of whom is the medical director.  Be­cause of limited financial resources we could not from the pragmatic point of view afford even one full-time psychiatrist, and certainly our clients could not afford to subsidize that level of personnel, since it would almost certainly necessitate a dramatic rise in fees.  Since our psychiatrists, all volunteers, have limited time to give to the clinic operation, it was necessary to evaluate how best to utilize their services and expertise, thus maximizing the benefits of their involvement.  Their role has become largely supervisory.  They hold case confer­ences and provide supervision on an individual and group basis for the staff.  They also may evaluate clients that present difficult or unusual problems for the attending therapist and make recommendations for management.

 

The divisions themselves are under the direct management of what I refer to as allied health pro­fessionals, that is non-psychiatrists, but people who are members of professions in their own right -- nurses, social workers, psychologists, and pastoral counselors -- who have demonstrated and proved clinical expertise based on education and experience.  Other such professionals make up a good part of the staff of each program area.  On the staff of our outpatient service about 50 of the people doing counseling might be considered paraprofessionals, that is, people who have no specific, formal education or experience in counseling and therapy other than what we have provided most of them in our training seminars.  Some of these persons are educationally prepared in areas other than mental health; some are not.  Some are former clients who have been signifi­cantly helped and wish to help others.  Some are just concerned individuals from the community who seek to do whatever they can to help others within the gay community in times of trouble.  Our hotline staff is composed largely of these types of volunteers.  In every area we have found these individuals, after a training period, to be extremely useful and effective ln the roles ln which we use them.

 

The training program provided for the para­professional counselors is extensive.  First they are screened by a committee of the staff to assess suitability for work at HCHS and particularly for the area ln which they hope to function.  The committee seeks to affirm that the individuals are reasonably "together" themselves, and also attempts to ascertain that applicants' attitudes toward sexuality gay lifestyles, gender issues, feminism, etc., are in keeping with the philosophy and purpose of the agency.  Once a group has been accepted, they are given a series of didactic lectures that may include material on inter­viewing, history taking, crisis intervention, counseling techniques, an overview of theories rela­tive to psychiatric practice, and some pointers on handling some of the common problems and issues for which people may come to us for counseling.  The ses­sions often include role plays and practice inter­views, as well as some sensitivity training.  They then sit in on several intake interviews being done by one of the professional counselors, after which they must do several supervised intakes.  At this point, if performance has been satisfactory, they are allowed to do their own intake interviews.  They then present the client intakes to the Disposition and Review Committee which reviews all clients for appropriate modality and place­ment with a therapist.  This process provides still further supervision.  After functioning as an intake worker for a designated period (usually 3 to 6 months), they may then apply to the medi­cal director for counselor status. If approved, they are able to see selected clients on a regular basis.  Hotline workers pursue much the same course of activity, except they are supervised by an experienced hotline worker, designated by the director.  Instead of the internship as an intake worker, they are co-assigned with another hotline volunteer for a similar period of time.

 

The type of client assigned to the paraprofessional counselor is determined by the Disposition and Review Committee after careful screening.  Homo­sexuals, like heterosexuals, sometimes have major psychiatric problems that range, if we must label, from severe depressions to schizophrenia, though I hasten to add that homosexuals experience these illnesses no more frequently than the rest of the population as far as we have been able to discern.  More often than not, such difficulties are no more related to one's homosexuality than they would be to one's heterosexuality.  Clients with such major problems are frequently assigned to the professionals on the staff who have a greater degree of experience and expertise to deal with them more effectively.  It is worth mentioning, however, that few of our clients fall into this category.

 

Being a clinic that serves a largely gay popula­tion, we encounter clients with a wide array of short­-term problems that revolve around, and reflect, society's negative attitude and behavior toward the homosexual lifestyle.  These situational pro­blems invariably involve some level of anxiety, usually a realistic feeling in view of the circumstances.  They often require only short-term counseling or crisis intervention.  It is this category of client that frequently is greatly helped through counseling with another gay person who has some, though not necessarily expert, coun­seling skills.  It is often that experience of talking with someone who can empathize, either because they have been in the situation themselves or have dealt with others in their lives (friends, colleagues and clients) who have been there, that proves most beneficial in assisting the client to problem-solve the situation.  Again, it can be pointed out that in many instances these are society's problems, not really ours, but since it can't or won't deal with them, we must.

 

Some of the problems that may come up in this category are "coming out" or the process of dis­covering one's homosexuality, job, school, or other life-related problems that involve leading a double life or playing it straight some part of the time, telling parents or other relatives about one's lifestyle, relationship problems within a gay union ("marriage"), or social problems largely related to finding suitable and fulfilling outlets for socialization.  Most of our counselors have also faced these kinds of issues at one point or another in their lives and have been able to deal with them effectively.  It is this kind of exper­tise that comes with no university degree or ten years experience in traditional practice.

 

Another large category of problems revolves around the sense of religious guilt that haunts many gay persons; the questions that arise in attempting effectively to reconcile one's religious beliefs with one's lifestyle when the two would seem to be in      direct conflict.  While at times our paraprofessionals might deal with such concerns, more often these clients are referred to pastoral counselors on the staff.  Some Roman Catholics, for instance, may feel that the only information that they can accept or believe must come from a priest.  In this case, a lay counselor of any sort often cannot provide the needed authority to deal with the problem.

 

It is not only our feeling at HCHS that gay paraprofessionals can be used effectively to counsel other gay people in need, but it, in fact, has been our experience that in many cases what the client gets at our agency is far superior to what s/he might receive at a traditional mental health facility.  Many of our clients state on interview that they have had a negative experience with a traditional mental health facility or professional.  Some of our clients would never feel comfortable going to a traditional facility and even broaching some of the issues that may concern them.  Most psychiatrists and other professionals in the more traditional agencies know about homosexuality only in very theoretical terms, and then usually negatively so.  They have little or no knowledge of the lifestyle, the culture, the feelings, the community, or the realities of being gay in a straight society.  I could write a volume, after dozens of lectures and consultations with straight professionals about the naive, ignorant, and insensitive remarks I've heard from otherwise very well educated and experienced people, some of whom are regarded as among the best in the respective fields.  Few can view the homosexual lifestyle objectively, much less recognize it as a valid and potentially healthy way of life and love.

 

Our clients don't have to defend or justify their lifestyles to us, yet many have had first to do just that while engaging in previous treatment within traditional settings.  Often, they have been coerced to change and if that is not their choice, they are safely dismissed as resistant to, or unmotivated for, treatment. I have seen homosexual clients who have been locked up, shocked, bombed out on medications, and engaged in lengthy and costly treatment programs which in fact seldom produce the supposedly "desired" results.  Mental health professionals have often convinced gay persons that treatment for change is not only desirable, but possible, but in our experience it seems to be neither for most gay people.

 

Our philosophy is to develop the potential of all individuals and to foster a sense of goodness and self-worth, regardless of sexual preference.  It is our belief that homosexual relationships provide the same opportunities for growth, love, satisfaction, and fulfillment as heterosexual ones.  Interestingly enough, only a negligible percentage of our clients seek to change, even among those experiencing the greatest of pressures.

 

In most urban communities, there are vast resources available to the gay person about which we are both aware and knowledgeable.  Most traditional agencies ­have little or no knowledge of the groups and organizations that provide services to gay people in any number of areas -- social, religious, economic, professional, legal, and otherwise.  What traditional agency, for instance, would have the foresight to refer gay people seeking to deal with some religious issue to DIGNITY, INTEGRITY, Metropolitan Community Church, or other such supportive groups for gay persons within the organized religious community?  What traditional facility has had the initiative to start groups for parents of gay children in order to enable them to deal with their own feelings and better to understand the lifestyles of their gay offsprings?  Few, if any.  Instead, parents are left to anguish in their own feelings of guilt and anger, while the psychiatrist reinforces the "illness" of the child to them.  The adolescent is promptly engaged in a program of "change therapy" at the behest of parents and mental health professionals, often not consulted as to her/his own wishes about therapy, which in fact the child may not want.  Parents and children are set against each other, and any attempt at reconciliation and understanding of the feelings involved on a mutually agreeable basis is seldom considered.  The immediate goal is set of "curing" the child.  At the end of the process, usually when the adolescent is old enough to do as s/he pleases, the parent-child relationship may well be beyond repair.

 

There is also intrinsic role-model value in a gay client receiving counseling from a gay counselor.  Since most of us choose to view or perceive our therapists as healthy people, and usually as healthier than we (which may not be so in reality), it follows that it can be very beneficial for a client to see, talk with, and relate to a gay counselor who is happy, healthy, and substantially well adjusted as a gay person.  Many gays on discovering their same-sex preference don't know how to act or what to do, except in terms of what they have heard society has mandated that a homosexual ought to be.  The result is often a period of playing roles that are inappropriate and unnecessary stemming from society's erroneous stereotyping of homosexuals as persons who wish to be the opposite sex.  Thus, many gay men may initially play out the "perfect lady" role replete with all the affectations, and gay women may look and act like prize fighters or truck drivers for all it's worth.  Fortunately, with the increasing visibility of gay liberation, this phenomenon seems to be abating.  (Note:  This example is not to imply that men should not be able to express traditionally female attributes such as gentleness and nurturance, or that women should not express traditionally male attri­butes such as aggressiveness and dominance, but only to say that it is one thing to choose to express certain characteristics and roles, but quite another when such roles are expressed to extremes because they are psychologically imposed from without.)  In counseling with a self-assured gay person who feels positively about the lifestyle, is comfortable with her/his own feelings, and who engages in a variety of durable relationships, this individual client may have the positive emotional experience of realizing that it is self-defeating, self-denying, and a perpetuation of self-hatred to conform to the intolerant standards of a heterosexist society that presumes to dictate how we ought to act and who we have to be so that it, in turn, can categorically dismiss gay people as weird and/or sick.  Gay people certainly find that they do not need to play such roles to "fit in" or to gain acceptance within the gay community.  They may also find that the role is not really who they are nor who they wish to be.  It might just be much more comfortable and exciting to be themselves and to strive to be all they can be as individuals who happen to be gay, without incorpor­ating or adopting society's stereotypes in defining their own personhood and gayness.  There is room for everyone within the gay community as one recognizes that homosexuals are just a diverse a group as heterosexuals, not all fitting some prefabricated mold as the myths would have us believe.

 

Our counselors, by virtue of their own experience, as well as the training provided, understand and comfortably deal with these concepts.  Our agency is well aware that there are few positive role models and support systems in our society for gay persons and gay relationships, and we are keenly committed to providing them.  For many gay people, such discoveries can be particularly exciting and positive experiences when one realizes that most gay persons, initially at least, view themselves negatively, and often to extremes.  That negativism is what society puts out for us to absorb, and unfortunately we usually do to one degree or another introject those awful adjectives ‑‑ sick, sinful, criminal, abnormal.  It is sometimes difficult to turn this around, but gay people who have done it for themselves are eminently qualified to help others find the good and positive feelings and experiences that provide cause for celebration rather than despair.  It is for all these reasons, and more, that gay counseling can be the best of all possible worlds for treatment.

 

The late Dr. Howard Brown, former New York City Health Commissioner and New York University Professor summed it up well. He was once asked by David Susskind in a television interview how he, as a doctor, viewed homosexuality.  Dr. Brown wisely replied that he was not going to get caught in that trap.  He added that as a physician he knew little or nothing about homosexuality, as he felt was true of most, but as a gay person he knew most all there was to know.  Earl­ier in a speech in Boston, he stated unequivocally that gay people would never be entirely safe within the health care system until there were gay advocates for gay clients in every health care institution in the country.

 

We do know about it, most all there is to know -- intimately so

-- both the problems and the great potential from a comprehensive perspective of personal reference that one will not find in books nor in a sterile clinical practice where one will only ever encounter problems, and especially so if your reading and practice are limited to the likes of Charles Socarides or Irving Bieber.  That, to me, says it all.  Gay people, to know them, I mean to know them really, is to respect and care for them for just exactly who they are, and when a gay person counsels another gay person, that sense of integrity, worth, acceptance, and an air of goodness forms an integral basis for the helping process. Few traditional professional mental health workers, from psychiatrists on down, are either willing or able to foster that process based on such a positive foundation of feelings about a same-sex lifestyle.  But based on sessions such as today's, as we experience both recognition and participation within this great professional association [American Public Health Association, the original audience -- Editor's note], I have great hope that the time for positive change is coming.

 

for Gay Women

GAIA'S GUIDE, 1977

 

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MOTHER

by Ellen Marie Bissert

 

today's was not the ordinary phone call

i flung at you the dirtiest word from any gutter

Lesbian

you cannot understand how

it happened

your angelic stringbean girl of satin ribbons

making skirts for toni dolls

cartwheeling thru any living room

 

both ways

look ma, don't cry

i whispered to you

that morning as I sat by the window tearing at bandaids

he had come back

drunk

& beat you

22 years old with a 3-year-old daughter

married to a tubercular alcoholic

beating you

beating me

he left

shooting back like a bleeding snake to his family in Pennsylvania

what was the terribleness in the dark

that night as he grew

large & potent with rage corrosive as the liquor

swishing in his belly

all day he'd spit it up

warm, red mucus

his lungs punching back for him

every day

as he'd wake knocked-out in that boxing ring

his defeat rising red & thick

in his mouth

he swallowed hard

he was a man

this was the Navy

throwing him in the tubercular ward

releasing him

200% disabled

that was the cure

they told him

operated

& killed him

in his will i am called by a name other than my own

did you learn to love him

as i did the woman of gin-spiked breath

long for his body

like a thick blanket in the night

somewhere to rest yourself

swim effortlessly thru soft waters  Float

did you cry

& let him go coo

& useless like a jar of bacon fat

into the ground

did you find it

in his death

did you find it

marrying again

marrying that man

whose knee i'd sit on

did you do it to make us

smile

always i fall backwards in my dreams

cheating on everyone

talking about

the dirty jokes

the girlie pictures

the bathroom games

of his family praying before

& after

each day

each meal

they were not like my father's who had betrayed & punished you

so evil so evil

my mind kneeled on rice in the corner

holding itself on a mantel

like a clock

can you hear me

hold me

now that i choose the sex you are

to love

                        forthcoming in Sunbury

                        used by Ms. Bissert's permission

 

 

TWO SPECIAL ITEMS FOR SALE FROM INTEGRITY/SAN FRANCISCO

 

INTEGRITY T-SHIRTS

$5 each, incl. postage

 

White BVD Shirts

Piped with Red at Collar and Sleeve

INTEGRITY Cross on the Front

 

S, M, L, and XL

---------------

CONVENTION SERVICE BOOKLET

A Eucharist for the Second Annual

National Convention of INTEGRITY, Inc.

Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, 1976

 

75¢, incl. postage

 

Both of the items above are available from:

 

INTEGRITY/San Francisco

P.0. Box 6444

San Jose, CA 95150

 

TWO SPECIAL ITEMS FOR SALE FROM INTEGRITY/CHICAGO

 

THE INTEGRITY MEDAL

 

Nickel-Silver Plate Over Bronze

Outlined in Blue Enamel

 

$10 postpaid

-------------------------

IN CELEBRATION

 

Edited by Jim Wickliff, the 92-page paperback record of INTEGRITY's First National Convention including the keynote address by The Rev. Dr. Norman Pittenger.

 

$3.10 postpaid

 

Order from:

 

INTEGRITY

P.0. BOX 891

Oak Park, IL 60303

 

INTEGRITY:  GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM SUBSCRIPTION FORM

 

Enclosed is my check or money order for $_______.  Please [check one] ___ enter or___ renew my subscription as indicated below.

 

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___ $50 Sustaining Membership

___ $25 Supporting Membership

___ $10 Regular Membership

___ $13 Couple Membership

ALL OF THE ABOVE INCLUDE ONE YEAR OF Forum.

___ $12 One year Forum, non-member

    $ 3 Plain Envelope

 

IF YOU WANT FORUM MAILED IN A PLAIN ENVELOPE, YOU MUST    ENCLOSE THE $3 ADDITIONAL.

 

Enclosed as my contribution for the general purposes of the national office.

 

Canadian and Foreign subscription remit in U.S. funds.  Air Mail extra.  Return to: INTEGRITY, P.0. Box 891, Oak Park IL 60303.

 

[Last page blank on hard copy, though referred to in text.]