Hey Blogger friends, So this Weekend is the National Equality March here in DC and I am helping to liveblog some events on faith and the GBLT Community. I will be using the “iQreport” label so just giving you a heads up so you aren’t thinking that this blog has been taken over.

I want you to do something for me. See that button over there? –> The One that says “Get a Color!” Click on it for me…. Did you do it or are you reading this on a feed reader? This is an interactive post, but well worth it… trust me! So clicking that button should have given you a color. Remember your Color!

Now you see this star here? Take out a sheet of paper… or if you have to use a mental picture, but paper is better. Draw a picture of a star and write your name in the center. Now in each point you are going to write something different.
1st point: Name of a Best Friend
2nd point: Name of a Trusted Family Member
3rd point: Name of a community you are part of
4th point: Your Dream Job
5th point: Your Hopes and Dreams.
It should look something like this:

Now that you have built out your star and know your color follow along with the scenario. For the purpose of this project, you are all GBLT about to come out.

As you start to feel ready to tell someone about your peculiarity, you decide to confide in your best friend. If you are a Blue, your friend responds great, they accept you and treat you exactly the same. If you are Orange or Purple, your friend takes some time to come around, but eventually things will work out, fold that point of your star back. If you are Red, your friend rejects you. They tell you that you are an abomination, that they can’t be your friend if you insist on being a pervert. Tear off that point of your star.

After the first foray of coming out you decide to tell a family member. If you are Blue, your family member embraces you as their blood relative and as a part of the family. If you are Purple your family takes their time in accepting you but eventually come around, fold the point back to signify this. If you are Red or Orange your family rejects you. They might disown you, or kick you out of the house, to them you are lost. Tear off that point of your star.

Next you decide to tell those in your community organization. If you are a Blue, they are accepting and inclusive. If you are a Purple or Orange they take time to realize that you are the same person that you were before. Fold back this point of your star. If you are a Red, tear off the point of your star because this community is harmful towards you. They see you as a threat that must be removed and so they exclude you from everything.

As things progress people at work begin to suspect. If you are a Blue of Purple you find allies around the water cooler and you do well. If you are an Orange your co-workers feel alienated until they see that your work is well done and start to socialize with you more, fold back this point of your star. If you are a Red, you arrive at work one day to see your desk has a box with all your stuff in it and you are pulled into your boss’ office and fired for “poor performance,” This black-lists you from your dream job… tear off this point of your star.

If you are a Blue you have an immense amount of support from those around you leaving you free to pursue your hopes and dreams.
If you are Purple your work has supported you where your friends, family and community have taken longer to understand and see the real you. Your dreams are within reach!
If you are an Orange, you have struggled without a friend, or community and in a hostile work environment for a while but that has changed through perseverance, unfortunately your family never came around, but because of the eventual support around you your dreams are open to you still.
If you are a Red, you represent 35% of all Queer Youth and 50% of Trans Youth who have become abandoned by all those they hold dear. You feel alone and realize that your hopes and dreams are beyond reach, that you have little will to live. One day you decide to end your life because you feel completely alone and isolated. Rip up the rest of your star.

Unfortunately too many end up with a red star. They are left all alone by those who they need the most support from. They end up taking their life because they felt alone. Each day we have the power to either be a strong point of support, or a sheared part of someones life. Whether they are struggling with GBLT issues, simple depression, conversion to a new church, trauma, social injustice or any form of prejudice, we have the power each day to offer support to those in need. Can we really, in good conscience, turn away those who are different from us? So next time a friend comes out to you, tells you they are having issues at home, or simply needs someone to talk to, be there to listen, to offer support, and to prevent the lose of life.

Just wanted to let you all know that Russ Morley from WFTL just called (at least I think it was Russ Morley – I could be wrong,) and it was a live interview. He led in with the ABC News quote from Dr. Julie Harren Hamilton where she said gays are “…free to live that way.” It was perfect for my talking points.

As soon as he got me on the phone he asked me how Stand Up Florida came into existence, so we talked for about 15 seconds on the National Equality March and the lack of support from the main LGBT organizations that should have been behind that march. I told him that Anthony Farver filled two buses from the other coast and Gainesville, and that my husband and I drove up from Fort Lauderdale because there was so little support from South Florida. I brought the conversation back by saying that it was on the drive home when we were already organizing the NARTH Protest and supporting the gay-straight alliances throughout the state.

When I indicated that I was “just another senior” at FAU I embarrassed myself by not knowing what he was talking about when he said, “Too bad about Troy.” I had no idea that the Owls were playing an out-of-town game, and apparently lost. I said, “You’re talking to a gay man and I don’t follow those sports.”

When he asked how many were at the protest I mentioned that about 140 showed up, mostly students, but with a great showing of support from PFLAG parents who had the message that the kids are just fine and the parents who cannot accept their gay children are the ones who need therapy, and that the best advice would be to walk across the street to find a better church.

The interview went from the “…live that way” and “ridding themselves of unwanted homosexual attraction” quotes by Harren Hamilton to the fact that she wants to start little boys into therapy before they start preschool if they are not “manning up” quick enough. I also indicated that the father is expected to start therapy with the child to help him be a better parent. It was at this point that the news guy said, in his very deep voice, “I’m a raging heterosexual and I remember playing with dolls as a kid.” He then added, “So, it is the parent who is taking these kids into therapy?”

I agreed with him on that and explained how it gets even worse for teenagers, when these parents are still taking their kids in with the expectation that they be “cured.” I mentioned how Dr. A. Dean Byrd and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson in Utah are NARTH members and that the suicide rate for gay teens in Utah is 8 times the national average, and that 52% of the homeless teens in Utah are gay.

I managed to state that the two APA’s (American Psychiatric Assoc. and the American Psychological Assoc.) and the ACA (the American Counseling Assoc.) are all pressuring the 158 NARTH practitioners to conform to their ethics codes, and how there are 480,000 professionals lined up against these 158 extremists. I mentioned that that number was a “best guess” because NARTH claims a much higher number, but that all of my sources support the 158 number.

The interview ended with me stating that these ethics guidelines are even supported by the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP,) and that there were two pediatricians as presenters at the conference. By tying it in back with the expectations on the part of the parents that the child be “cured,” these gay youth face rejection by the families if they fall short. The AAP came out in Dec 2008 saying that these youth are more than 8.4 times as likely to attempt suicide, 5.9 times more likely to suffer depression, and 3.4 times more likely to abuse drugs and engage in unprotected sex.

Talk Radio WFTL at 850 on the AM dial.

Listen to Lester Leavitt’s radio interview with Russ Morley, November 23rd, 2009, Monday morning.

http://www.jamescrystalradio.com/Web_Player/Russ/
(filed by date: 09-11-23 “Gay Convention – Lester Leavitt”)

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This is the meeting place after you park your car.

PARKING ISSUES:

Please note that the parking in the parking garage is free for the first hour and $2/hour for the second hour. Meters on the street have a maximum of 2 hours and cost $1.25 per hour. The parking garage does not take debit or credit cards. CASH ONLY.

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The route will head down along this lawn toward the Kravis Center and Okeechobee Blvd. This road in this photo is Sapodilla Avenue.

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This is Okeechobee Blvd. in front of the Kravis Center. The Marriot Hotel is just a block ahead of here over the Tri-Rail tracks.
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This is the space that is available to gather in front of the Marriot Hotel. If we have a very large crowd, there is a rugged area along the interchange right where the photographer is standing.

That is the Kravis Center you see in the background.

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Please note that the West Palm Beach Tri-Rail Station is right at the very heart of the where the protest and march are taking place. Everything is in walking distance (see area map further down in this same blog.)

The cost of an all-day pass on Tri-Rail is $5 and it is cheaper than a round trip fare if you are coming from Miami or Fort Lauderdale (weekend days only.)

Northbound Trains that will get you to West Palm Beach in time are:

Miami Airport Station – 8:00AM (arrive at West Palm Beach at 9:34AM)
(that same train leaves Fort Lauderdale Airport station at 8:32AM)

Miami Airport Station – 10:00AM (arrives at West Palm Beach at 11:34AM)
(if you catch this train, head straight to the Marriot Hotel, not the City Place parking garage.)

Southbound Trains after the protest are at:
4:06 PM
6:06 PM
8:36 PM (last train)

West Palm Beach, Fla. – In a bold move, a group of South Florida university students have set out to discredit the few remnants of the last professional association to claim that homosexuality is a treatable mental illness.

Stand Up Florida needs help getting dozens of students down from Gainesville (UF GSA Club) and over from Fort Myers (FGCU GSA Club.) Not only does Stand Up Florida need money to rent the vans or bus, but the students will also need places for the students to stay over night on the 20th and 21st.