Date: January 22, 2012 4:58:08 PM CST

Cc: Jamie Curtis <JCurtis>

Subject: Important document

Friends,

Please take a good look at this resource. I believe you will want to provide copies of the document for many of your members.

Dale G. Merkle
PFLAG Gulf Regional Director
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

DO LGBT STUDENTS KNOW THEIR RIGHTS? If a female student wants to wear a tuxedo to prom, would you tell her it’s all right? Can a school district “out” students to their parents? Do you feel confident answering the many questions that crop up on LGBT issues? Our colleagues at the Southern Poverty Law Center have put together essential information to help students know their rights: http://www.splcenter.org/what-we-do/lgbt-rights/students-know-your-rights

Sam Wolfe is a civil rights lawyer with the Southern Poverty Law Center where he helped launch the LGBT Rights Project and continues as a leading team member of the nation-wide project. The project’s cutting edge legal action has been reported on the front page of The New York Times, CNN Presents, and in an hour long program for Anderson Cooper 360. Previously, Sam was a litigation associate at a leading international law firm in New York City where his pro bono practice focused on representing LGBT clients. The National LGBT Bar Association recently recognized Sam as one of the Best LGBT Lawyers Under 40. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center.

Sam will be joined by Ashley Jackson, SPLC’s LGBT Rights community advocate who helped found the youth-led Mississippi Safe Schools Coalition.

Thanks for helping get the word out.

Sam

Sam Wolfe
Staff Attorney
LGBTQ Rights Project
Southern Poverty Law Center

Gail Stratton
byges

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dale Merkle <dgmerkle.pflag>

Date: January 20, 2012 7:16:20 PM CST

Cc: Jamie Curtis <JCurtis>

Subject: Microsoft Calls for Gay Marriage in Washington State

Subject: Microsoft Calls for Gay Marriage in Washington State

“The company argues that it’s hard to hire the best people in the
world when the state where it’s based discriminates against them.”

http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/01/19/marriage-equality-in-washington-state-would-be-good-for-business.aspx

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/microsoft-calls-for-gay-marriage-in-washington-state/251680/

Dale G. Merkle
PFLAG Gulf Regional Director
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

dgmerkle.pflag

1651 Executive Park Lane, NE
Atlanta, GA 30329

home- 404-633-718
cell- 989-798-6148

PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi will meet this Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7:00 at the Sarah Isom Center on the campus of the University of Mississippi.

A map is available on our web page: http://pflagoxfordms.wordpress.com/contact-us/
or call if you need directions: 662-801-2820 or if you have questions.

The meeting will be to share the concerns of those present and Gail Stratton will do a short presentation on the book "Coming Out While Staying In" by Leanne McCall Tigert. This book is about working within churches to make congregations welcoming to lesbians, gays, bisexuals , transgender in the intersex individuals.

See you there!

Gail
Convener for PFLAG Oxford North Mississippi

as always, please let me know you want to be taken off of this email list.

check our web page for news!

http://pflagoxfordms.wordpress.com/

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dale Merkle <dgmerkle.pflag>

Date: January 11, 2012 7:49:16 PM CST

Cc: Jamie Curtis <JCurtis>

Subject: Dear Abby

Hello all –

A heads up that the Dear Abby column mentioning PFLAG as a resource ran today, and is also linked to on PFLAG’s Facebook page.

For your reference: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/11/3363131/dear-abby-you-cant-spend-life.html

Thanks!

Dale G. Merkle
PFLAG Gulf Regional Director
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays

dgmerkle.pflag

1651 Executive Park Lane, NE
Atlanta, GA 30329

home- 404-633-718
cell- 989-798-6148

From: “Dale G. Merkle” <dgmerkle.pflag>

Date: December 6, 2011 9:51:02 PM CST

Cc: Jamie Curtis <JCurtis>

Subject: LGBT human rights worldwide focus of Obama administration effort

Our best meeting of the year is about to happen!!

One of our wonderful traditions is our annual PFLAG Oxford North Mississippi Holiday party!! Please come and bring a friend!

Ron Nurnberg and Joe Osgoode will again be hosting the party at Ditch Crest on Thursday Dec. 8, 2011.

Location: 551 N 9th Street, in Oxford.
9th Street runs parallel to Lamar, and it is several blocks north of the Oxford Square. It is easily findable on google maps.
Phone 662-238-2591.
Time: 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Ron will certainly make some scrumtious food! Please feel free to bring other delicious items to share! There will be a good variety of beverages.

Please RSVP to this email by Monday Dec 5 if you can come so we can have an approximate count!

It’ll be great! hope to see all of you there. Call or email if you have questions (my phone: 662-801-2820).

warmly,

Gail Stratton
Convener for PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi

Subject: Amy-Jill Levine and Douglas Knight: The Bible and Sexuality

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amyjill-levine/the-bible-and-sexuality_b_1087405.html?ref=mostpopular

The culture wars over family values have yet to reach détente and will not until the messiah comes (or returns, depending on the reader’s affiliation). Battles continue over women’s equality vs. a wife’s graceful submission, no-fault divorce vs. attempts to strengthen marital bonds, the ordaining of gays and lesbians and the legalization of “gay marriage” vs. exhortations to “love the sinner but hate the sin,” birth control and abortion, private sexual expression vs. public interest….

People who read the Bible often find themselves on the opposite sides of many of these issues. This does not mean that they are necessarily reading their texts incorrectly. Indeed, before we even ask, “What does the Bible say?” we need to ask, “Whose Bible?” Canons – and so, cannons – differ among various Christian churches as well as between Jews and Christians, as do translations. Moreover, the Bible is open to multiple interpretations: we need to determine what is metaphor and what is to be taken literally, what is case specific and what is timeless, what is a matter of personal choice and what should be legislated.

How then do we read in a manner that is grounded and thoughtful rather than uninformed or soporific? Here are five general guidelines.

One approach is to begin with the broad picture of what the Bible says about physical intimacy. Before addressing the various “Thou shalt nots,” it is often salutary to look at the “Thou shalts” and the “Thou might want tos.” For example, although traditionally read as a love song between God and Israel, or Christ and the Church, the Song of Solomon/Song of Songs celebrates physical intimacy between a man and a woman. Even Sarah, Abraham’s menopausal wife, speaks of the pleasure she will have with her husband (Genesis 18:12, a verse easily remembered given the cannons in Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture). Ancient Hebrew women were not expected to lie back and think of Torah.

A second is to acknowledge that the Bible is often less a book of answers than a book that helps us ask the right questions. From the narratives of rape, we learn to listen for the voice of the victim; we find that sexual abuse happens in the best of families, including that of King David; we realize that revenge taken on the perpetrator of sexual abuse leads to more abuse, to war, to death; we discover that this crime, like that of adultery, impacts more than just the people directly involved: it impacts their extended families, and society as a whole. And it means knowing that the perpetrators as well as their families are also human beings, also in the image and likeness of the divine.

Third, we must read carefully. This means not simply looking at what the text says: it requires seeking accurate translation, knowing to the best of our ability why the text was written and what it meant to its original audience, determining how it has been interpreted over time and what other passages say concerning the same subject.

For example, the first interpreter of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophet Ezekiel, condemns Sodom not for homosexuality but for “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease” and for failing to “aid the poor and needy” (Ezekiel 16:49). Nor does the story suggest that homosexuality is the problem. The Hebrew of Genesis 19 tells us that all the people of Sodom sought to “know” the two visitors: the people would have included the women, and they, like the men, died in the conflagration that destroyed their city. The problem is sexual violence, not homosexuality; attempted rape, not love.

As for the Levitical commandments typically cited as prohibiting homosexuality, the Hebrew is not as clear as some claim, and the historicizing rationales typically proposed for the injunctions – e.g., keeping up the birth rate, avoiding Canaanite practices — lack foundation. Some readers even find the Levitical codes trumped by earlier pronouncements: given that Genesis 2:18 states that it is not good for the human being to be alone, they cannot support condemning gay people to lives of singleness and solitude.

Fourth, we do well to recognize that biblical standards are not always our standards, and nor should they be. The Bible makes adultery a capital crime; if that legislation were put into practice, we’d knock out a third of our population. King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines; we become apoplectic over bigamy.

Fifth, we should continually reassess our views. If we ignore tradition, experience, science, and the personal testimony of our neighbors and look only to Scripture, we become bibliolators: we turn the Bible into an idol. And if we listen to those with whom we disagree rather than dismiss them as benighted literalists or atheistic relativists, then at the very least we might be able to avoid the demonization that usually comes with the culture wars.

PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi will meet with the University of Mississippi GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) this week, Wednesday at 7:00 at the Sarah Isom Center on the campus of the University of Mississippi. This will be instead of our usual thursday meeting.

A map is available on our web page: http://pflagoxfordms.wordpress.com/contact-us/
or call if you need directions: 662-801-2820 or if you have questions.

We wil join the GSA in a conversation about some strategies of self care as students head home for the holidays. Being in school often allows for a lot of growth, and it can be challenging to go back to a place where you may no longer fit so well.

Other events to know about:
This coming Sunday, at 11:00 am. the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Oxford will host a service honoring transgendered people. The date is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Our speaker will be our own Mykki Newton! detalls and a map here: http://www.uuoxford.com/
The title is: "The Truth set her free"

And mark your calendar!! Thursday Dec 8, we will have our annual Holiday party, again hosted by Ron and Joe!! That will be fabulous.. and will be from 6:30-8:30 that evening. More details will follow!!

warmly,
Gail Stratton
convener for PFLAG Oxford/North Mississippi

Our regular monthly meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 20 at the Sarah Isom Center, 7:00 p.m. on the Campus of the University of Mississippi!! A map is available on our web page: http://pflagoxfordms.wordpress.com/contact-us/
or call if you need directions: 662-801-2820 or if you have questions.

October is a membership month! If you would like to be a formal member of PFLAG Oxford N Mississippi the dues are $15 per individual or household per year (more if you can, less if you can’t!). You can also be a friend, and support our work if you do not chose to be a member.

PFLAG of Oxford North Mississippi is an organization that works to support, educate and advocate for gays and lesbians, bisexuals and transgender and their families. Please come and support this important work!

Looking forward to seeing everyone!

warmly,
Gail Stratton,
Convener for PFLAG Oxford, North Mississippi

The vigil that was scheduled for tonight is postponed because of weather!! stay safe!

Gail