Homosexuality

There's a sea change going on around marriage equality/homosexuality/alternative sexuality, and one sign is 3 new memoirs. Chana Wilson wrote Riding Fury Home, including the trials of the "mental illness" of her lesbian mother. Annie Lanzillotto released L is for Lion: An Italian Bronx Butch Freedom Memoir, including her trials with cancer, a raucous Italian family, and much more.

Mel White is an eloquent, incisive, and compassionate voice exposing the lies of the Christian Right. This is something he knows from the inside, having ghost-written "autobiographies" for Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and others, before he accepted his homosexualtity as a gift from God, rather than a sin to be obliterated.

Glen Retief paints vivid pictures and addresses vital questions of identity & social justice in The Jack Bank: A Memoir of a South African Childhood. His stories deal with race, apartheid, homosexuality and homophobia, physical violence, sexual abuse - and much more - and he leads us on a journey of discovery and insight. And I learned that Post-Apartheid South Africa was the first country to protect the right of same-sex marriage.

Lizzi Dahlk, Voices of Faith Coordinator of Equality Wisconsin, works to unite people of faith in making Wisconsin a more welcoming & just place for LGBT folks and all folks who get treated as "Other". Today she's joined by David Huber of Plymouth UCC and Scott Miller of First Lutheran Church, both in Eau Claire.

John Calvi was led to found QUIT (Quaker Initiative to end Torture), in part, because of the profound healing work he has done over the decades with victims rape and other sorts of torture, including refugees from Central America. John knows the external facts of torture, including statistics, laws and motivations, but because of his work as a healer, he knows the suffering from the inside as well.

Anne Feeney is a rabble rouser activist whose music is zeroed in on exposing the failings and promoting the positive possibilities for our world. She's a modern union maid and hellraiser, working for the people and against war, injustice, corporate greed and much more.

Visit with Louise Knight, author of Jane Addams: Spirit In Action. Around a century ago Jane Addams stood at the head of the major peace & justice efforts of her day.

Dr. Ken Stone of Chicago Theological Seminary leads workshops on Eco-Justice & The Hebrew Bible and he's written and edited several books including Practicing Safer Texts: Food, Sex and Bible in Queer Perspective. His analysis is spiritual fuel for lives of justice.

Sara Thomsen is strongly called to heal the world through her music. One of her songs, "Is It For Freedom", has been heard repeatedly on Democracy Now, because of its poignant call for our nation's self-examination following 9-11. Her concerns are wide - women, LGBT issues, care for creation, peace and more - and she writes and sings with soul-deep sensitivity.

All the songs in this program are performed by Sara Thomsen