Saturday, May 2, 2009

Empty Closet Mission Needed

At the recent rally in Albany, organized by NYS Pride Agenda, there was a sizable contingent among the 2,000+ people there from Albany.

It was reported in the Empty Closet, Rochester's gay "newspaper" by Ove Overmyer. The article raises a huge issue about how this local broadside functions as a communication tool in Rochester.

Overmyers article spent a great deal of time rehashing the recent advances. Perhaps a large portion of our community is not aware of the the advances in Connecticut, Vermont and Maine. If the are not then Overmeyer did a service. However, I don't know that most people who read the Empty Closet do it to get national news. They do it to find out what the local connection is.

I huge local connection was that the Bishop of the Episcopal Dicoese of Rochester was an invited speaker at the Rally which is a pivotal point for the day. When I contacted the empty closet and said that dismissing this, not gving it some press, perhaps even featruring it was a mistake, that Prop 8 folks ignoring the progressives in faith communities might have cost them a few crucial points, I was the one that was dismissed... and called arrogant for calling them into account for resposible journalism.

Here's the only mention of Bishop Singh's presence:

Bishop Prince Singh of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester and Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun gave benedictions.

A writer should know what the word benediction means. Neither of these religious leaders gave a closing prayer. The Bishop talked from his perspective of religion that all are welcome. He talked from his perspective as a native of India that anything short of marriage is a "caste system."

I understand that many in the LGBT community are ignorant of organized religion. But we need to build bridges and give credit where it is due.

In Milk, when the community activist approaches the publisher of the Advocate and suggests that the community might be more sophisticted than he assumes, he is dismissed. We have come a long way since then, but paying more attention to people of faith is an area where we have not.

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