The Bilerico Project

Arizona - National Equality Rally

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:00:00 -0500

After the election and events of the past year we have learned a valuable lesson. In order to have an equality initiative on the ballot in 2012, we have to educate the hearts and minds of everyday citizens of Arizona. We know they want equality. They believe in equality. What we have failed to do is educate people on what equality means and looks like in our everyday lives. We are now redirecting ourselves to that mission of education on a one-on-one basis the fundamental concept of a free nation... where Equal Means Equal. Our goal: Equality in all matters of civil law.

That is the slogan and logo for our upcoming campaign.

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Mormon Men of Power and Authority in our Governments: Why They're Big trouble!

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0500

I'm an 'inactive Mormon.' That means I don't go to church and don't give 'em money anymore. For my grandchildren's sakes, it sounds better in Mormon parlance for Grandpa Parker to be inactive rather than a nonbeliever. Semantics...but don't we live and die by it sometimes? Even Grandpas?

With 12 grandchildren, including six grandsons so far, all in 'active' Mormon families, I have an overwhelming wish to protect them from their parents and the LDS Church, in case one or more turn out to be like Grandpa...gay. Statistics being what they are, there's a good chance one of them is gay. Abhorrently, gay Mormon boys in Utah commit suicide at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country. Their families and the Church generally leave them with what they believe is no other option. So sad.

Whenever I'm interacting with Mormons, like my kids, old friends in the church, and Mormons in positions of power and authority, it is vitally important to me that I keep giving them the message to listen to their children. What influence I have may save the life of one of my precious little ones someday.

To that end, I wanted to publish for your edification an exchange of emails I had with a member of Mesa's City Council. It's important, because a basic strategy of the Mormon leadership in America is to put Mormons in office wherever they can. The problem is they can't separate their religion from their governing...and that is bad for us gay guys/gals. Do you know where Mitt Romney is these days? He'll be baaack!

(Note: The last part of this post is something you might want to copy and send to a Mormon friend.)

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Open Letter to Arizona LGBT Community

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:00:00 -0500

Open Letter to Arizona LGBT Community:

How Much Do You Really Want Equality?

How much do you want equal access to and security in employment?
How much do you want equal opportunity to live where you want?
How much do you want equal recognition of your relationships?
How much do you want equal rights to live open and true to what and who you are?
How much do you want equal protection under the law?
How much do you want to be an equal citizen of this nation?

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Resurrecting Arizona Stonewall Democrats

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:30:00 -0500

Steve Brittle has been described, probably by himself, as a 'hell-raising environmentalist.' People refer to me as a gay rights activist. Together we have decided to use our network of friends and acquaintances, Steve's political savvy, and our combined organizational ability to re-start Arizona Stonewall Democrats.

So far so good. We have officers and a board, a steering committee of 15, a bank account ready and accepting donations, we've registered with the Secretary of State, we'll distribute flyers at the National Kiss In this Saturday, and will have regular meetings at the Arizona State Democratic Party HQ (Thomas and Central in Phoenix) starting Saturday, August 22nd at 4:00 p.m. We are in the final design stages of designing our logo and now that we're organized, we are ready to launch our website, Arizonastonewalldemocrats.org, which will be up as quickly as we can get it designed.

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Brokeback Poetry that will 'Blaze the Trail' for TBP

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Sat, 02 May 2009 12:00:00 -0500

My friend, Dwayne Purrington, a poet from the Twin Cities area, has accepted the challenge to be what I hope is the first of many creative writing projectors.

His brand new, never published poems, like spring breezes this time of year, bring fresh images to our mind's eye. They are full of the wonder, poignancy, and longing of a special group of newly gay older men, post-Brokeback Mountain men, trapped in aged bodies with young minds yearning to be free...to be understood...and to be in love!

The movie of our generation, the older generation, is Brokeback Mountain. It was a watershed movie especially for closeted gays. We immediately connect in our minds with that time when we were young and could have gone up on Brokeback ... and come down with the love of our lives. No matter that it is a starcrossed love. Those boys actually found what we are all searching for...as the song says, "a love that will never grow old."

I was born the same year as Jack and Ennis, 1944, and in 1963 when they went up on Brokeback I was a 19-year-old in my prime, a thin, lightly muscular water ski bum on the Colorado River in California. As we saw the movie and now contemplate what it did to our thinking, the biggest question in our lives...is it too late for us?

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Notes from an Arizona radical

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 10:30:00 -0500

Statement: Arizona GLBT organizational leadership just cannot get its shit together. Because of that we are miserable failures, patting ourselves on the back now and then for small successes, when we could have set and achieved Heroic Goals. There, I've said it, damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!

As a result of the lack of true leadership: We failed in our attempt to block the Gay Marriage Amendment, when we could have won! And in point of fact, we are so embroiled in a cult of 'personalities' that cannot get along with each other, that we are either failing or going to fail in everything as we move into the future. Sadly, I find myself falling into that trap, which is unacceptable and I'm trying my damndest to figure a way out.

Question: In Arizona, why is there not a strong coalition of GLBT and allied organizations providing a united front in our across the board fight for equality?

Answer: We have no leader. No one has stepped up with the kind of credentials it takes to say, "Follow me, I will lead you to the Promised Land."

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Of Icebergs and the Mormon Church

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:00:00 -0500

Wake up people!

We have seen only the tip of the Mormon Church Iceberg. There is so much underneath that the average person would be astonished at the depth and breadth of an organization that thinks it is the only true religion in the world, and has the money and will... and the organization to accomplished its unholy goals.

For decades LDS members have been encouraged to become totally involved in every kind of organization. Many, like me, were actually "called" by the Church to be community organizers. Since callings come from God himself, through proper Church channels from the Prophet, who speaks for God, very few callings are ever rejected. Like it or not, you do the work. And since it is for God, you do the best you can, wearing yourself out in service.

Admirable, I suppose, except it is always to further the Church's agenda.

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Heroic Goals, Gay Marriage, and the Mormon Church - Why You Should Worry

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0500

Yesterday Alex and Serena both wrote about the tremendous amount of money that the Mormon Church is directing towards the gay marriage bans in California and Arizona. But this story is about more that just money. It's about a powerful church with coffers full of money, stung for a century by an untruth about polygamy that just won't go away . . . and now, the opportunity to mount a campaign to kill this old bird and in doing so add the bonus of stamping out for a generation or more the hopes of thousands of GLBT folks to find marital bliss . . . this is the Perfect Storm of Religion vs. State.

Something is happening in the land, and by the time the electorate awakens on Wednesday, November 5th, it will be all over except the shouting. The Mormon Church, in my opinion the most powerful church in the United States (and perhaps the world), has very carefully orchestrated the process needed to write into the constitutions of three states the ultimate in discrimination against GLBT folks . . . forever forbidding them to marry.

Why? It may be just as simple as this . . . a final attempt by the gerontological leadership of the LDS Church, averaging in age in the 80's, hearkening back to a previous century and all the grief they've taken about polygamy, to convince the world once and for all that this is not the weird church out of Utah that believes in polygamous marriage, but the global church that believes in one man, one woman marriage. Oh, and it's the church with the power and wherewithal to write discrimination into the constitutions of our states.

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Breaking Out: A Gay Mormon Comes Out After All This Time

bobby@bilerico.com (Bobby Parker) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:00:00 -0500

On 02/06/06 I found The Ultimate Brokeback Forum. The remarkable journey I have been on since is probably the reason I have been invited to write for TBP. We call ourselves "Brokies," and coined the name "Brokeaholic" to describe our affliction.

A tremendous benefit of being on the Forum was that I could start a thread to help me lose weight. The Brokeback Mountain Lovesick Diet. It's not really a diet, just groups of people dedicated to helping each other lose weight and keep it off. Check it out . . . I lost 70 lbs!

To introduce myself, let me quote from our book, Beyond Brokeback . . .The Impact of a Film. (The book came about when sixty of us on the Forum read 50,000 posts and winnowed them down to 4,000 that we thought were good enough for a book. The Editorial Board chose 176 from those to represent the other thousands on the Forum.)

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