No to labeling
I was appalled and infuriated to read about the executive director of Center on Halsted’s attitudes about the youth that the organization serves. The Center, being located in a horribly gentrified North Side community, serves primarily white and upper-class clients. By referring to the clients in the youth program (primarily minorities) as “gangbangers,” they are further alienating queer people of color from the LGBT community.

Being queer is hard enough. Being young is hard enough. Being a racial minority is hard enough. Being homeless is hard enough. Each of these things, while separate aspects of an individual’s identity, are all interrelated. If the Center is truly committed to creating a safe space for these youth, they should work harder to understand and appreciate the intersections of sexual and gender identity, age, race and class in their clients. Instead, it seems that they are unwilling to take responsibility for their lack of control over the situation and are quick to shift blame onto people who are already too disempowered to adequately fight back.

The Center on Halsted is the leading provider of comprehensive resources for LGBT and queer people in Chicago. The executive director making racist and classist assumptions about clients that his own organization serves should not be tolerated by any of us. I sincerely hope that Mr. Valle will issue a public apology for his comments and begin to change the way the Center treats minority clients, instead of slowly kicking them out.  

Fatima Arain
Chicago

Pressuring Jamaica
In light of published news reports and first-hand accounts of growing anti-gay crimes and threats in Jamaica, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association strongly condemns Jamaica’s climate of fear, hatred and hostility towards all LGBT people. We call immediately on Jamaica’s community leaders to cease their oppression, and we will continue to speak up and to spotlight these cruel and bigoted actions before tourism and business leaders everywhere.

IGLTA is in complete solidarity with Jamaica’s own LGBT leadership, J-FLAG. Therefore, like J-FLAG, it is not our intention to provoke reprisals or political condemnation in Jamaica by supporting a global tourism boycott. We understand this step could be counter-productive to making true progress in that Caribbean nation, and instead we will focus on education, publicity and market competition to highlight and help curb these terrible abuses.

At our upcoming 25th anniversary convention, IGLTA leaders also will be able to highlight the degrading situation in Jamaica and call on all global hospitality industry leaders to unite in condemning this and any hostile and violent climate towards our community.

International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Hagee, McCain and Donohue
GOP presidential candidate John McCain recently picked up the endorsement of San Antonio pastor John Hagee, who said at a news conference that he was giving his “vigorous, enthusiastic and personal support to an American hero.”

Following the announcement, far-right Catholic League President Bill Donohue criticized the endorsement because he believes Hagee has “waged an unrelenting war against the Catholic Church.”

This is what you get when you mix politics with religion. The “in religious” crowd is fearful of losing its political connections in the White House, or, more specifically, who has the right to speak for all Christians within the Republican Party, and therefore the country.

So what is really happening? Is it about anti-Catholic bigotry, as the Catholic League argues, or is it about a political endorsement? Neither Donohue nor Hagee are the brightest crayons in the box. It is all about ego. When two bigots point fingers at each other for being bigoted we have a curious situation. Both are anti-gay and would not take issue with rounding us all up for the final solution.

Clearly this is not about religion, but about politics and bigots trying to grab the media spotlight. If the Catholic League was so concerned about anti-Catholic bigotry why did they not raise this issue when John Hagen supported President Bush for his second term? Both individuals and their organizations promote their ideas with the catnip of bigotry. So why is the Catholic League so twisted over this? It is simple—they will not be part of the in crowd if John McCain wins the election. Out with the old; in with the new.

The Catholic League should be worrying about our clergy sexual abuse scandal, and keep its paws out of politics. This is the season of Lent, where truth should be promoted. Unfortunately, truth has become a casualty and half-truths the norm in this Lenten and political season.

Furthermore, John McCain does have to account for his clear anti-Christian message that is pro-war. John Hagen clearly supports a first strike on Iran, and McCain would appear to be following in the same old Bush mentality: Start the bombing without thinking. This election is clearly about war and peace, not anti-Catholic bigotry.

The question that needs to be answered by people of faith is, “Will the next President be a religious leader or a political leader?”

The Rainbow Sash Movement calls on all people of good will to promote love, and not bigotry or the money-centered word of faith theology that is promoted by John Hagee, which the Republican Party seemingly has embraced under John McCain.

Joe Murray
Rainbow Sash Movement
Chicago