Category Archives: LGBTQ & Gender

Ultimatum in Northwest Yearly Meeting?? (Yawn.)

I mean, who gives a fig about blatant Russian hacking & corruption of a presidential election, when we can obsess some more over whether a Friends church or two in Oregon might actually marry a samesex couple, or even change a couple of restroom signs?

And in the nick of time, here it comes again: another ultimatum: pull the trigger to stop that, or else.

The occasion is the mid-year session of NWYM, set for this weekend (January 13-14, 2017), a conclave like unto the Roman college of cardinals, with attendance strictly limited to the properly-credentialed.

And high on the agenda will be the question that has smoldered and flared unbanked now through more than eighteen months, two yearly meeting sessions, several closed meetings in between, and yet another specially called, carefully vetted assembly last month: will NWYM carry out the decision to expel West Hills Friends in Portland. And then will it follow up by purging Camas Friends, which has recently adopted its own affirming stance? Plus impose firm order on any others who go wobbly?

HB2 Fallout: $42K Taxpayers Money Produces $Millions in Bad PR

Several times, NC senators who supported HB2 repeal noted that the one-day special legislative session cost the state’s taxpayers $42,000, money spent to achieve nothing.

Well, the senators were not fully correct abut that last part. Yes, the session produced nothing in legislative terms.

But as an investment in public relations for the state, it was a bonanza, a real goldmine. We’re talking negative PR, but hey: this is the year when such notions have been upended, right?

The Wall Street Journal, another business bible that is hardly a liberal rag, was right there too. I looked up its ad rates: for a half page, it would be $157000, not counting the color.

The Great Carolina HB2 Bathroom Bill “Repeal” Ripoff

As the actual import of Berger’s bill sank in, the optimistic aura generated by the blizzard of media buildup dissipated like the frost on my car window as that morning’s sun came up.

The small band of Democratic senators, mostly black, blew the whistle: this was not “repeal” at all, they pointed out. It merely changed the form of the ban, then extended it for six months, and came with an additional warning that localities must still abide by the ban afterward or risk its revival.

Senator Jeff Jackson of Charlotte put it bluntly and angrily: “This breaks the deal!” he shouted.

Northwest Update: The Expulsion Plot Thickens

When it comes to West Hills Friends in Portland, Oregon, expelled from its association for becoming LGBT welcoming, , the main positions are pretty well laid out:

— If the expulsion is overturned (West Hills can stay), then some are clear NWYM is headed for hell in a handbasket, and they may head for the door.

— If West Hills is indeed forced out, then some others are sure the YM will be barreling toward Hades in a Prius, and they may look for an exit.

— If there’s no decision?

(This last is the only possibility that’s much interesting to me. That’s because there have been numerous times in Quaker history when yearly meetings have been in conflict, and decided to stay together and live/work them through. Taking such a path in NWYM might also provoke some attrition, but would be both novel and for many, uplifting — even Christian.)