MORE PHOTOS AVAILABLE AT:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/SoulforceInColorado/photos/browse/17a7
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More Soulforce Arrests At Focus HQ
12 May 2007 by Cara DeGette
Two more members of the gay civil rights group Soulforce were arrested Friday at Focus on the Family headquarters, marking the third nonviolent direct action against the Colorado Springs-based media empire in as many months. …
http://www.coloradoconfidential.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2043
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YOUNG ADULTS ARRESTED AT DR. DOBSON’S MINISTRY HEADQUARTERS
Couple Faces Charges to Publicize Dobson’s Divisive Politics on
Fostering and Adoption
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SOULFORCE PRESS RELEASE:
May 11, 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact: Paige Schilt, Director of National
Cell: 512-659-1771
paige@soulforce.org
www.soulforce.org
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(Colorado Springs, CO)–At 11:00 a.m. on May 11, 2007, Amanda Harris,
22, of Conway, Arkansas, and Kourt Osborn, 21, of Kanab, Utah,
entered Focus on the Family headquarters during a regularly scheduled
tour.
Once inside, they spoke to fellow visitors about their experiences as
a lesbian and a transgender man, and they held a sit-in to raise
public awareness about the organization’s defamation of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans. They were arrested for
trespassing at approximately 12:30 p.m., processed at a nearby
facility, and then released.
The sit-in, which is the third action in an ongoing campaign
called “Focus on the Facts,” coincided with Focus on the Family’s
summit on orphan care. Although summit materials speak of “unity in
the Body of Christ for the sake of the orphan,” the organization’s
politics on adoption and foster care have historically been more
divisive than uniting. Most recently, in his April 19 broadcast,
Dobson urged Colorado citizens to pressure the governor to veto HB
1330, the Second Parent Adoption Bill.
James Dobson and his colleagues have consistently misrepresented LGBT
families and individuals as dangerous, sinful, and undeserving of
equal protection under the law. These dehumanizing portrayals are
often bolstered by misleading references to social science research.
In recent months, several social scientists–including Dr. Carol
Gilligan of New York University and Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale–have
publicly rebuked Dobson for mischaracterizing their research
conclusions.
“The misinformation that Focus on the Family employs does not create
a stronger family and does not defend it, but creates barriers and
breaks apart families across the country, including my own,” says
Osborn.
Focus on the Facts calls on Dobson to take a step toward
reconciliation with the LGBT community by ceasing his misleading
statements about social science research on LGBT families.
Focus on the Facts aims to intervene in Dobson and Focus on the
Family’s representations of lesbian and gay families through an
ongoing campaign of civil disobedience modeled on Gandhi’s
nonviolent “Satyagraha” movement. In the words of Nelson Mandela,
Gandhi “believed in the efficacy of pitting the soul force of the
Satyagraha against the brute force of the oppressor and in effect
converting the oppressor to the right and moral point.”
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The Focus on the Facts campaign is coordinated by Soulforce, a
national LGBT social justice organization founded on principles of
nonviolence. For more than a decade, members and allies of Soulforce
have confronted Focus on the Family’s anti-gay rhetoric and
publicized its harmful impact on the lives of individuals, parents,
and children. For more information go to Soulforce.
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Gay Sailor Called Back to Active Duty
Stars and Stripes | Joseph Giordono | May 08, 2007
On his wedding night in July 2004, then-Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Knight finally accepted a truth he had fought against for years: he was gay.
Almost immediately, he moved to get his marriage annulled. He apologized to the woman he’d married. And when it came time to explain his changing circumstances to the Navy, he left nothing out. Under the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, he was quickly discharged from the service.
But now — whether through a clerical oversight or what some claim is an unwritten change in policy to keep more gay service members in the ranks at a time of war — Jason Knight is back on active duty…
Gay Sailor Called Back to Active Duty
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A MUST LISTEN: The podcast lecture of the week is The New Dream: Updating MLK`s Vision (Feb 27, 2007 at Middlebury College, Rohatyn Center for International Affairs)–in which Van Jones (Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights) discusses the intersections of the significance of student involvement in the environmental movement, the “greening” of the economy, and issues of race and poverty in 21st century America.
HONORABLE MENTION: Tufts University hosted The `War on Terrorism`: Where Do We Stand?–a two-day conference sponsored by the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. This series of podcasts including nearly 12 hours of forums and lectures constitutes a veritable crash course exploring the roots of international terrorism, intercultural discourse, and the direction of U.S. foreign policy during the final two years of King George II’s ignominious reign.
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