Discussion Group, "Uncovering the Gender Transformation Experience", tonight in Roanoke

There will be a discussion group entitled "Uncovering the Gender Transformation Experience" tonight at Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge, planned and led by Brandi Parker of the MCC Congregation, with assistance from members of the MCC-Blue Ridge Social Justice & Outreach Ministry. Ms. Parker will be sharing her amazing journey through the MTF transition process.

With so much debate in the LGBT community about the inclusion of the transgender and transsexual people in our fight for equality, we owe it to ourselves to become better informed about our trans brothers and sisters. I challenge you to take part in this discussion group tonight. Ask your questions, listen with your heart. Admission and refreshments are free. Donations will be gratefully accepted.

Join us tonight, Friday, June 18, 2010
7:00pm - 8:30pm
MCC of the Blue Ridge
806 Jamison Ave. SE
Roanoke, VA

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Documentary, "Ask Not" Showing in Roanoke, Va. (Video)

Roanoke Equality, Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge (MCC) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) are proud to present the PBS/Independent Lens documentary "Ask Not", which follows the lives and careers of gay and lesbian service members as they tell they compelling stories of serving under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

The policy banning gays and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. military was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1993 as a compromise to lifting the outright ban on gays servicing. According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, in the seventeen years since, over 13,500 military personnel have been discharged under the policy, including 59 Arabic linguists, including Lt. Dan Choi who has made headlines in recent weeks for being arrested for chaining himself to the White House fence for protesting this unjust and bigoted policy.

Two weeks ago, members of Roanoke Equality, including gay military veterans, held a lobbying meeting with the staff of Senator Jim Webb in his Roanoke office. Sen. Webb is on the fence about repealing DADT, pending completion of the year long study on the impact of repeal. Join us Friday evening to learn more about this discriminatory policy and what you can do to fight to overturn it.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the military leaders charged with conducting the year long study, have told congress to push back repeal efforts until after the study in complete and the results have been analyzed. This could push back repeal until 2013. This is unacceptable. With midterm elections coming up in November, the political climate is likely to be vastly different from what we see today. The time for repeal is now.

The FREE showing will be this Friday, May 14th, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at MCC 806 Jamison Ave., SE, Roanoke in the community meeting room. There will be free refreshments and sncks (donations accepted). The viewing will be followed by a discussion group led by HRC's Terry McGuire. Take a look at the trailer.

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Saturday Edition: Gates and Mullen Call for Push-back of DADT Repeal, Pelosi Calls for Moratorium on Dismissals

 
Friday was a very busy news day for Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal, both locally and in Washington. Developments have been unfolding almost by the hour.

Friday, the members of Roanoke Equality along with Rev. Joe Cobb of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge and Terry McGuire of Human Rights Campaign met with Martin Mash, Field Representative for Senator Jim Webb, in an effort to urge Senator Webb to commit to moving forward on full implementation of repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

Among those in our group were three gay veterans who shared their very moving stories living in fear of exposure while trying to serve their country, a fear that all of them agreed, kept them being able to fully focus on their jobs and giving their best to their country.

Also among our vets was a straight ally in the fight for equality who helped drive home the point that for most straight service members, the sexual orientation of the soldier beside them is less important than that soldier's ability to do his/her job.

Rev. Joe Cobb spoke compared being called to serve your country with being called to serve God and how crushing it is to be faced with rejection and discrimination in both.

Our group spoke with Senator Webb's field representative, Martin Mash for about 40 minutes. Mash promised to relay our message to the senator. We all left the meeting feeling very good about our first lobbying effort and cautiously optimistic about the outcome.

By the end of the day Friday, however news broke about a letter from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff urging congress to wait until after the Pentagon study to be completed and analyzed before taking action on DADT, which would in push back repeal until 2013:

As we discussed with Martin Mash on Friday, with the mid-term elections coming this Fall, the political landscape could be very different from what we see today, resulting in a more conservative environment for many years to come. The window of opportunity is closing fast. If repeal of this discriminatory policy is to happen, it must happen this year. 

House Speaker Pelosi released a statement Friday night in response to Secretary Gate's letter in which she called for a moratorium on dismissals under DADT while the study is allowed to proceed, pending the full implementation of repeal. 

Pelosi said, "We all look forward to the report on the review of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy by the Defense Department. In the meantime, the Administration should immediately place a moratorium on dismissals under this policy until the review has been completed and Congress has acted."

We have not forgotten the president's State of the Union address to the nation in which he asserted his commitment to repealing DADT this year. We understand that the Pentagon's mission is to study the impact of repeal, not to determine whether repeal should happen. We intend to hold the president to his word.

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Roanoke Equality and HRC Lobby Sen. Webb on DADT Repeal

Today is the day, folks! Members of Roanoke Equality and several gay military veterans are meeting this morning with the staff of Senator Jim Webb in his Roanoke office to ask for the senator's support in repealing "Don''t Ask, Don't Tell".

Sen. Webb serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has stated that he wants to wait until the Pentagon completes its year-long study on the impact of repealing the 17-year-old policy before making up his mind on whether to support it.

It is our hope that we can impress upon the senator the sense of urgency we feel over this issue. With mid-term elections coming up in the fall, there is likely to be a reshuffling of the deck in Washington. The political landscape in DC could look markedly different that what we see now, with anti-Obama sentiments giving Republicans more clout than they have had since the '08 elections gave Democrats a majority in the house and senate.

This morning's meeting was arranged by Terry McGuire of the Human Rights Campaign, who will be joining us for coffee before the meeting. Also joining us for this morning's meeting will be Rev. Joe Cobb of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge. I'll post a follow-up later today to let you all know how it goes.

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S.T.A.R.'s first Open Doors discussion on Diversity and Community a huge success

I had the pleasure of attending Open Doors on Thursday night at the Shenandoah Club in downtown Roanoke. The free event, an open discussion on diversity and community held by S.T.A.R., the Spirit of Tolerance & Art in the Region, was an opportunity for Roanokers to talk about what it means to live in our increasingly diverse region.

The discussion was hosted by S.T.A.R. co-founders Rev. Joe Cobb of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Blue Ridge and Jane Rorrer, Coordinator of Recruitment and Diversity Initiatives at Va. Tech's Graduate School.

It was a great discussion attended by a cross section of people from the area. Roanoke Vice-Mayor Dr. David Trinkle and Local Colors Executive Director Peal Fu were in attendance. I had a the chance to talk to both of them afterward. With leaders like these in our community, there may be hope for us yet.

I was asked to do a story for Star City Harbinger, which you can read here.

For the full schedule of upcoming S.T.A.R. events and information about the next two Open Doors discussions, visit the S.T.A.R. site here.

Roanoke Activist Frank House: One man trying to make a difference

Roanoke is the largest city in the Southwestern part of Virginia and over the last few decades it has become a magnet for LGBT people from all over the region. When I arrived here from the Washington DC metro area in the spring of 1994, I was relieved to find that Roanoke has a relatively large LGBT community for a city of 90,000.

I recently sat down with local activist Frank House at Mill Mountain Coffee in downtown Roanoke. I'd discovered his Yahoo news group, Roanoke Equality, where he has been making arrangements to help Roanoke's LGBT community arrange travel and lodging to the National Equality March on October 11 in Washington. I was so stunned to find another person who cared about the fate of our community in this politically apathetic area, that I immediately joined the news group and contacted Frank to arrange an interview.

When Frank House and his partner realized it was time to leave the crowded, smoggy environs of Phoenix, AZ, they did some research and decided to look to the North Carolina/Southern Virginia region and took a road trip east to take a look around.

Finding several quaint little hamlets along the way and ample affordable properties, Frank told me they found "nothing gay" in North Carolina, so the pair headed north into the Old Dominion. As fate would have it, they arrived in the Star City on the day of Roanoke's annual Pride in the Park festival. Frank says he and his partner looked each other and decided, "Well, this might be the closest mixture of where we want to be."

Before long the couple realized that beyond the 2 1/2 gay bars, the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) and the Drop-in Center, which offers free HIV testing, counseling and education, there really wasn't much going on in for LGBT people in the valley. In the three years since moving here, Frank has gotten involved with these and other local organizations doing what he could to make a difference in his newly-adopted home town. But there was always a sense of frustration over the lack of activism in Roanoke's gay community.

Last Spring Frank heard about The Equality Forum event which took place in Philadelphia the weekend of May 3rd. He and his partner and a friend decided to attend and perhaps get some ideas to invigorate his new community back home. Frank describes standing in the the pouring rain, with no umbrella, in front of Independence Hall with thousands of people listening to San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome and other speakers.

The sense of irony and injustice of standing at the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, while being denied so many basic civil rights, combined with the passionate words of the speakers stirred such an overwhelming flood of emotions, that Frank was moved to tears. He recalls thinking, "Why am I here? I shouldn't have to be doing this."

Coming home to Roanoke, invigorated by his experience in Philly, Frank brought his newfound passion with him and organized the Rally For Equality in Roanoke's Elmwood Park on June 28th, the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

Frank is quick to point out, "I went into this with no idea what I was doing." He asked himself what he would want to see at an LGBT rights rally and made a list. He needed a permit from the city, which took about two weeks to get approved, a variety of speakers from diverse groups in the community and music. A few phone calls lead to more phone calls and within about four weeks, the Rally for Equality was born.

Frank gave the opening address to the modest crowd and introduced Virginia Senator John Edwards. Other speakers at the rally included Rev. Joe Cobb of MCC of the Blue Ridge, Len Rogers of the Stonewall Society, Rev. Steven Stanley of Christ Episcopal Church and Barbara Hale of the Roanoke NAACP. Frank also enlisted the help of the Roanoke Pride Committee, and Molly McClintock of Equality Virginia in putting the event together.

In the wake of his success with the rally, Frank's passion for activism has only deepened. In recent weeks his energy has been focused on getting Roanoke's LGBT community fired up for the National Equality March in Washington, DC on October 11. He's been hard at work organizing transportation and lodging, talking to people, handing out fliers and doing everything he can to motivate the valley's queers to take an active interest in their own fates.

Unfortunately, Frank's efforts to charter a bus and reserve a block of rooms in Washington did not muster enough support to meet the minimum number required for a group rate, but he is not deterred. He keeps fighting the good fight and is continuing his efforts to rally the troops.

Frank has set up a FaceBook page for Roanoke Equality where he will continue to get the word out and continue organizing for the National Equality March. After a full and active day at Roanoke's Pride in the Park yesterday, he wrote this morning, "I've never seen so many young GLBT people at a pride ...God loves you all....please help us to attain full equality....for your future...for our future....together we can be one strong...very loud voice....we all have had quite enough hatred against us."

The Roanoke Valley needs more people like Frank House.