Post No. 480 - Heaven Bent

In 1998 or 1999, I attended the Health-In-Difference 2 (HID 2) conference in Melbourne.It was an eye-opener - a conference devoted to LGBTIQ health, by members of the LGBTIQ communities, so there was none of the stupid assumptions and ignorance by mainstream health people trying to 'research' these areas of health (who often missed fundamental, obvious points such as using the wrong pronouns for trans* people, or missing the impact of discrimination). Mind you, that doesn't mean there weren't mistakes, as there have been and often still are tensions between these disparate communities and their disparate sub-sections - just as there are with the broader communities.

Anyway, I was impressed enough to want to contribute to the next HID conference, in Adelaide, and eventually decided to do so by trying to research some statistics on the levels of interest in spiritual/religious matters amongst the LGBTIQ communities. Surprisingly, I found there was a strong multi-faith segment at HID3, and my paper was just one of several. That interest was evidently significant, and a few years later, in 2003, Adelaide hosted the first National Queer Spirituality Conference (NQSC). I've written about the impacts that the NQSC on me elsewhere, but in the context of this post, it was fantastic that probably no more than a couple of dozen of people with a spiritual  religious bent at HID3 led a few years later to a National conference with probably a couple of hundred people - the Victorian based VQSC some of us organised in 2005 had130 people attend, mostly from Victoria, but some also from New South Wales.

Attempts to organise follow up NQSC / VQSC have not yet come to fruition, but now we have a book about LGBTIQ people's experiences in relation to the interaction between being LGBTIQ and also spirituality / religion - not in the more widely known sense of the discrimination of some religious minorities against LGBTIQ people, but mostly the experiences of those LGBTIQ people for whom spirituality / religion is significant. That book is "Heaven Bent", edited by Luke Gahan and Tiffany Jones, published by Clouds of Magellan Press (paperback RRP: $29.95 | ISBN: 978-0-9874037-4-2 | 334 pp), and my partner Sharlot is one of the contributors, along with a close friend and others I know.

"Heaven Bent" had its official launch tonight, at the Hares and Hyenas bookshop, and it was wonderful to see the march of increasing acceptance of the spirituality / religious beliefs of LGBTIQ people - although apparently floating the idea led to some reactions along the lines of "can you find enough LGBTIQ people to write chapters?", which goes to show just how desperately needed this book is. (It was also wonderful to catch up with old friends and share experiences and chew the fat [3] , but that's another story :) )

There is still much to do about the discrimination and violence LGBTIQ people experience (particularly in some sections of the world), but this book is an important step in the march towards genuine acceptance of LGBTIQ people by the broader communities, and by the LGBTIQ communities of those LGBTIQ people who do have an interest in spirituality / religion (some of the responses I've personally encountered over the years from other LGBTIQ people has been, at times, extremely vitriolic - largely based on the experience of discrimination those people had experience at the hands of bigots who happened to be misrepresenting their religion in order to attack LGBTIQ people).

If you can, I urge you to buy this book: I consider it to be ground breaking, and its a good read :) .

[3] Six grey hairs and 2 wrinkles? Ha! That's nothing - wait till you see me without the pancake on! :)

[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). 

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr 
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux?)

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.  

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...  See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag.

• One size does NOT fit all. 
• May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
• Ban the dream interpretation industry! 
• A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
• Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master. 
• "Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
• Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
• The means shape the end.  
• Sometimes you just can't argue with a biped that is armed with a sharp stick, a thick head and not too much in the way of grunts.
• As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
• My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi". However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Jesus loves you.  Odin wants you to grow up. (Facebook meme, according to John Beckett)

Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious. JANE ELLIOTT 

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." EINSTEIN

We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY

Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech) 

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that -- counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. ... Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." ROBERT F. KENNEDY 1968

Tags: attitudes, discrimination, lesbian/bisexual/gay, LGBTIQ, religion, society, spirituality,

First published: Wodansdagr, 16th October, 2013

Last edited: Wednesday, 16th October, 2013