thank you.

The young activists of QueerToday.com express our utmost gratitude for the support we have received for our recent protesting efforts.

I want to personally thank Gerry of the StoneWall Warriors/International Action Center, and Karen, Christine, and the other leaders of the October 29th Coalition. We could never have pulled off a successful protest against Focus On The Family without you!!

I am sorry that QueerToday.com is not a larger more established and organized group so that we could have offered more support and marchers in the anti-war efforts - but we are a new young group so very grateful for the support we have received from you. As QueerToday.com grows we will not forget the support you have given us and we promise to work together on future initiatives.

I would also like to thank the Bisexual Resource Center, who endorsed our protest last week.

In addition to our official endorsements we have received support from many individuals in our community. Most people in our community are glad we are asking the gay establishment to broaden their agendas to create a truly queer social justice movement. Thank you to all of you who showed up at the protests and sent us e-mail. I would especially like to thank the queer adults out there who showed up to support the young activists of QueerToday.com.

There are others in our community who do not understand why we are not single-issue focused. They send us emails complaining that we show up at pro-choice rallies, anti-war marches, etc. I hope that after they saw the awesome protest we created with the October 29th Coalition they will see the importance and effectiveness of true coalition building.

Still there are others in the gay community who sent us emails and complaints about being too radical, too outraged, too in-your-face. They are mostly adults who are worried we will seem too bizarre or angry in the news, thus ruining the "mainstream" image they wish the gay community would show the world.

Let me be very clear to the gay community of Boston: QueerToday will continue to express our outrage against all forms of injustice. We do not care if the news captures us in drag protesting on the streets in the spirit of Stonewall. We do not care if we threaten your obsession with presenting the gay community as "mainstream." We know that being queer is innately NOT mainstream, and it never will be. - Mark Snyder

What happened?

We had about 50 protestors in front of the Love Won Out Conference throughout the snowy afternoon. QueerToday.com supplied 2 lifesized coffins to represent queer youth suicides caused by Focus On The Family's homophobic attitudes and their refusal to support gay straight alliances in high schools. We also had a large banner that read Focus On The Family: Racist Sexist Anti-gay. In the afternoon about a thousand people joined us from the anti-war march. QueerToday led the anti-war protestors in chants against the Love Won Out Conference. Our spies tell us you could hear it in the main room of the conference. We have also learned that Love Won Out cancelled their lunch break and had lunch catered because of our protest!


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Queerphobia: Shut It Down. War: Shut It Down!

When QueerToday.com and Stonewall Warriors protest the Focus on the Family's "Love Won Out" conference in Boston on Oct. 29 we will be doing so in concert with the massive regional Anti-War March happening at the same time on Boston Common. For us, Focus on the Family and the Bush war machine march in lockstep every day against the LGBT community and all oppressed people of the world.

We are committed to shutting down both of these twin evils, and we call on all of our brothers and sisters to join us.

Bush and the far right depend on the ideology of "God, Family, and Country" to shore up support for the war at home - at the same time those "family values" are used to dehumanize our community and separate us from those that should be our natural allies. Pat Robertson and Donald Rumsfeld drink from the same poisoned well of war, racism and poverty.

Three-hundred billion dollars for the war in Iraq steals desperately needed resources from HIV services for LGBT youth, school-based youth programs, victims of Katrina and social programs for us all. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has slammed thousands of us with dishonorable discharges, while trying to degrade our very humanity at the same time. We oppose the recruitment of gay youth - and all youth - into the military to fight and die for this immoral war!

We as a community cannot afford to be silent on this war. We certainly weren't silent during the Vietnam War. Our movement's history with the Gay Liberation Front and the Stonewall Riots sprang out of counter-cultural opposition to that war. Thirty-five years later the Iraq war is very much our issue too, and we cannot give it a pass. We must unite with other movements and forsake the divide and conquer disaster of single-issue politics.

Nothing makes Bush and Romney happier than seeing 16 social justice movements each separately working on just its own issue. Nothing worries them so much than to see all of our communities marching together. Look for our contingent on Boston Common at noon on Saturday, Oct. 29 and march with us past the Tremont Temple where the Love Won Out conference will take place. Join us to oppose the Ex-Gay Movement. We must build a movement that fights for all the issues!

Gerry Scoppettuolo
Stonewall Warriors,
www.iacboston.org

Mark Snyder
QueerToday.com

Protest Schedule for October 29th.

Case-in-Point: Racism and the Rightwingers

Because "ex-gay" groups are basically PR and propaganda tools for the Christian Right's anti-gay agenda, it is rare that you wil get a comment that really exposes their political motivations and agendas. Virtually every syllable out of ex-gay leaders' mouths is spin and orwellianism and they do their best to keep the politics behind their groups hidden.

But sometimes, actually more often than one would think, "ex-gay" leaders will let the cat out of the bag. Everytime they do it is an opportunity to expose these charlatans for what they really are: right-wing ideologues who just want to delegitimize same-sex relationships.

Joe Dallas, former president of Exodus International (the largest "ex-gay" group), who will speak at the "Love Won Out" conference in Boston is a case-in-point. Very recently, Dallas showed that "Love Won Out" is not about "helping" same-sex attracted people who are unhappy (which is what they desperately want people to buy), but about a political agenda of delegitimizing same-sex relationships. While those comments by Dallas are illuminating, it was another one of Dallas' statements that actually caught my attention. According to the recent report on "Love Won Out" by the NGLTF, at a 2004 "Love Won Out" conference in Minneapolis, Dallas disparaged gay rights activism by comparing it to the LA riots of 1991. The NGLTF report states:

"Dallas made comparisons, for example, between gay activism and the 1991 LA riots/uprising. This is an exemplary example of how references to race--here, to perceptions of inner city African-Americans as symbolic of decay and immorality--are a code to reinforce ideas regarding LGBT activism as productive of social disorder."

I don't know the specific content of the comments, but a transcript is not necessary. The fact that Dallas could use the LA riots in such a cavalier way shows how he views the riots.

People who understand the issues behind the LA riots have a different perspective on this critical event in American history. The roots of the riots were legitimate and understandable rage and anger at repeated police brutality, poverty and racism in Los Angeles. In addition, despite the portrayal of the riot as a "black" riot, it was a multiracial uprising--even queers participated. In fact, Hollywood was a major center of riot activity. Though not everything that went down in the riots was politically acceptable (e.g. attacks on Korean grocery owners, the one attack on a white truck driver), most of the riot was an expression of understandable fury. And despite assertions to the contrary, most Americans, who lived through the same recession that the blacks and Latinos of LA did, sympathized with the rioters and viewed the acquittal of the white officers who beat Rodney King as illegitimate. This shows, also contrary to the assertions of conservatives in the LGBT civil rights movment, that the American people will not necessarily run away scared when radical action is taken--if they clearly see that the issues behind the radical acts are legitimate (I am not suggesting that queer people should riot!).

Racism and the Christian Right are two peas in a pod. The Christian Right supported Reagan and Bush, two Presidents who used subtle racist imagery such as the image of the (black) welfare queen to further their neoliberal, militaristic plans. But you don't need to go to the '80's to see the Christian Right's racism. This week, darling of the right-wing William Bennett said on his radio program: "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down...That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down..." Bennett tried to defend his comments by pointing to the fact that he said aborting black pregnancies would be "morally reprehensible." Actually, what's morally reprehensible are the racist assumptions behind Bennett's "example." Without the assumption that black people are the main reason for crime in this country (which is just plain wrong), the "example" would not have worked.

Dallas may not acknowledge the racism and poverty that sparked the riot, but we should see the LA rebellion, like the Stonewall rebellion, as a necessary wake-up call and expression of legitimate rage at a cruel and vicious political order that has it in for people of color, the poor, and queers. We should also remind the black and Latino communities that the "ex-gays" and the Christian Right are not on their side. They are on the side of those who oversee and manage this political order. Black and Latino queers need to demand that their ministers and leaders clarify whose side they are on. Are they squarely on the side of anti-racism, or are they flirting with the Christian Right?

Grim Reaper Greets Homophobes!

Hey who brought the scythe!?

Upon returning from the anti-war march in DC I thought it would be a good idea to do something artistic to get our messages into the media. Although humorous, it worked! We were the only group to point out that women's rights are queer rights too, and that the same people bused in to the Cathedral on Sunday were the folks who attended the pro-life rally.

``Shame on you, Sean O'Malley!'' a man in a black hood, holding a scythe, bellowed at the Boston archbishop, who joined the largely peaceful afternoon procession. - Boston Herald Hmm... wonder who that was!?

Two activists were dressed as the grim reaper with black hoods, scythes, and placards that read, ''Homophobia + Sexism = Death." - Boston Globe

NGLTF Love Won Out Report

The National Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Task Force has issued a report from the Love Won Out Conference held in Minneapolis earlier this year. The report offers insight into the pseudo-science and psychology so often used by the right. Read this report. It will help us understand their strategy so we can effectively respond.

Read the report.

Protest Love Won Out on October 29th in Boston!