By Cliff Dunn

I always enjoy explaining the difference between what’s “natural” versus what’s “normal.” For something to be considered normal, it just needs the behavioral approval of the thundering herd. What defines the “norm” explains what is normal. (Example: Culturally, it is “normal” for many African-American males to disdain the homosexual lifestyle.

This, of course, fails to account for the large number of brothers who are living on the “down-low.”) What’s “natural” is informed by one’s “nature” (duh). This isn’t to say that all things that are natural are necessarily good (Ted Bundy, for instance, found it perfectly natural to kidnap, sexually assault, and murder young women). This is where a strong moral compass (and a liberal application of impulse control) comes in handy, but I suspect that all of us deal with personal demons (or at least imps) as we marry behavior that is socially-acceptable with that which is secretly-desired, and live productively as members of the greater mass of humankind. This isn’t the point I want to make, however.

I was secretly pulling for the chop-logic coalition of libertarians, establishment stalwarts, Ron Paul mavericks, and gay conservatives who banded together in Tampa last month in an effort to drag the Grand Old Party of Lincoln and Eisenhower into the 21st Century (and the company of the rest of the civilized world) and modulate the anti-gay flame that has burned so brightly since the late-1980s in the party’s ideological cauldron. (The thinly-disguised veneer of soft homophobia that was ushered in by Pat Robertson lived long past the political career of his protégé, some time-hottie Ralph Reed, and of the bullhorn they wielded— the now-discredited Christian Coalition. Clearly, dreams can come true.)

Unfortunately, when the dust settled, the Republican National Committee adopted language that calls court decisions supporting marriage equality “an assault on the foundations of our society,” and adds that “we believe that marriage, the union of one man and one woman, must be upheld as the national standard, a goal to stand for, encourage, and promote through laws governing marriage.” Take that, child-corrupters in GOProud and Log Cabin Republicans.

This lurch to the extreme would have drawn consternation from even Ronald Reagan. You scoff? Consider: When “Dutch” accepted his party’s nomination in 1980, the Republican platform acknowledged the national debate over reproductive freedom, introducing its abortion plank by saying that “we recognize differing views on this question among Americans in general—and in our own party.” Consider that conciliatory prose in light of this year’s authoritarian “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.” (The 2012 GOP platform also calls for public display of the Ten Commandments.)

As a small “d” democrat (and a small “l” libertarian), I believe that religious and socially conservative folks should have a voice in our great democratic republic, and representation in our halls of legislation. I have had many close friends from my childhood to the present who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, Southern Baptists, Latter-day Saints, Evangelical Christians, and orthodox Jews, and they have each had a way of believing how the world/cosmos/ existence works, as seen through the prism of their individual faiths, as well as a humane way of treating and dealing with those who their beliefs might consider “different.”

That’s perfectly well and good. Score one for tolerance. (Or in the words of Tony Soprano, “They don’t want my son with their daughters, and I don’t want their sons with mine.”)

Every one is entitled to their own beliefs—but no one is entitled to their own facts (a word that comes from the Latin factum, or “deeds”), and when all is said and done, in a nation of laws, every citizen is entitled to engage in the same “deeds” as every other citizen, including that most desperate deed of all—getting married to the consent adults of their choosing.

Gay Republicans are certainly free to vote how they like, selecting the candidates and ideologies that most closely calibrate to their beliefs, values, morals, principles, and ethics. But they must know that they are doing so as second tier technocrats, who have been granted only the most grudging of nods in their party’s platform. (“We embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with respect and dignity.”)

From my vantage point, that just encourages the bad behavior, perpetuating the “Jim Queer” mindset in many on the far right with the tacit endorsement of those who should instead be calling for the full measure of their civil rights the loudest. A dirty deed, indeed.

By Cliff Dunn

NORTH MIAMI – Nearly 100 people— gay, straight, bi, and curious about the issues— gathered last Wednesday night to discuss inclusion, tolerance, discrimination, and just what it means to be “anti-gay.” The Inclusion Forum held at Temple Beth Moshe in North Miami brought together disparate elements of a rich but lately-troubled community to air grievances and find the common ground.

An often-intense night of discourse and debate reached its zenith when one attendee, a gay man named Jamesly Louis, gave an emotional account of his earlier struggles with suicidal thoughts—brought upon by his insecurities over his sexual identity.

Moderated by Rabbi Jory Lang, the forum also included Pastor Jack Hakimian, who leads the congregation of Impact Miami Church, and who has been a lightning rod in the north Miami-Dade community, especially concerning his controversial comments regarding homosexuality and gays.

Hakimian’s Impact Miami sermons— which can be seen on YouTube—often concern homosexual themes. One he preached earlier this year was entitled, “Bible Says Gays and Sex Addicts Can Change and Should Change.”

Those sermons brought him into conflict with Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, because Hakimian’s church rents its congregation space from North Miami Senior High School. Carvalho called the sermons and their messages “contrary to school board policy, as well as the basic principles of humanity,”

adding that he had “asked for immediate legal review to seek the termination of the contract that is involved … as a rejection of prejudice and intolerance.” An agreement has since been reached which allows for Impact Miami to remain as a tenant of the school.

The intolerance of which Carvalho spoke wasn’t on display August 8, when Hakimian sounded a conciliatory tone—including comforting the emotionally-devastated Louis. “Our message isn’t ‘go out and harm homosexuals, discriminate against them, treat them bad’—it’s from a theological perspective, this action is not sanctioned by God,” Hakimian told television station NBC 6 South Florida.

Hakimian sounded a similarly conciliatory tone after the forum. “Love doesn’t mean Christians can’t disagree,” he told the Christian Post on Thursday.

Openly-gay North Miami City Councilman Scott Galvin, who attended and helped organize the forum, expressed optimism in the event’s aftermath. “I was thrilled to have both sides of the debate around the same table,” Galvin told the Agenda. “The heartfelt story of Jamesly Louis had to have given everyone in the room, including Pastor Jack and his wife, pause for reflection.”

One could say without any irony that Greater Fort Lauderdale’s Gayborhood is truly blessed in its abundance of places of worship, where both the LGBT and the straight can find comfort and connection to the mysteries of the universe with likeminded (and “like-souled”) individuals seeking nourishment for the spirit. One congregation that calls Wilton Manors—and, more specifically, the antique district—“home” is Shine Ministries, a small Pentecostal church located on North Dixie Highway, led by “out” pastors Jayeson Owen and Michelle Lugo.

Owen—known as “P.J.” growing up in South Carolina and North Florida—recalls getting more serious about his faith following graduation from high school, when he decided to attend the Assembly of God College in Lakeland. Early on in his academic life, he decided that he should be “up front” about his sexual identity with the school’s dean, so he scheduled an appointment, and announced that he was gay. In a line reminiscent of “Sordid Lives,” the dean told Owen, “You are not participating in your own recovery.”

After returning to South Carolina to enroll at Clemson University, Owen began working with a group of transgendered and transsexual persons, and he was asked to work with the group in “drag.” During his first year working with the T community, Owen found himself running late for a meeting one night, so he compensated by speeding over the posted limit.

“I saw the red and blue flashing light behind me,” Owen, now 34, recalls. “I pulled to the side of the road, and was arrested for going 10 miles per hour over the limit.” That was only the start of it.

After being booked into jail, Owen asked a corrections officer for permission to use the restroom. The answer was shocking. “We don’t allow faggots to use the bathroom,” he was told. It’s the kind of moment that can have a profound impact on the rest of one’s life, and work.

After finishing school, Owen moved to Broward County, and took a job teaching. “I loved teaching,” says Owen, but he knew that “there was just something missing. I heard about Shine Ministries, and I liked what I saw.

Words to gospel songs had always kept me close to God. I was at the beach one day listening to a couple near me, and they were also discussing Shine Ministries. That week, I attended my first Pride event, and Shine had a booth— it was the first time I knew there were gay Christians,” Owen remembers. “I began a Bible study in my home.”

Owen began to work more closely with the ministry at a time when he was experiencing his own personal upheaval, one familiar to a great many. “At the time, my home was in foreclosure. I was trying to get through this— and to personally ‘shine’—when I was notified that someone had passed on, and had left me some money for a new home.” At around the same time, Owen continues, “the call came from First Congregational Church, and they asked me to teach a small class.” His life had taken a 180-degree turn for the better. Owen has no hesitation about whom he credits. “HE truly does work in mysterious ways.”

Of the worship at Shine Ministries, Owen says, “We reject the legalism of Pentecostalism. We embrace that God is love 100 percent. We also believe in SODA: ‘Significance, Opportunity, Destiny, and Authenticity.’ We believe this is how we should live our lives— that you have to put yourself out into the Universe.”

Shine Ministries—located at 2401 North Dixie Highway, in the same building as the Scissorium and Cricket Finds—holds services at 10:30 a.m. on Sundays, and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. For more information about services, and a wide array of activities like snorkeling in the Florida Keys, music festivals, free weekly flapjack nights, and other events, visit mayweshine.weebly.com.

CLIFF DUNN

I’m going to depart this week from my usual tones of conciliation and tolerance because, as my grandmother would say, My Irish is up. This sort of mood often accompanies casting caution to the wind, and speaking in broader generalities than with I am normally comfortable. So be it. My feeling as I write this is that anyone who decides to vote for a Republican U.S. House candidate come November must harbor some— realized or unknown—degree of homophobia, or at least a well-honed sense of Schadenfreude that is focused on one group, namely us.

(Note that I said “decides” to vote: I recognize that there are many factors that go into casting one’s vote, not the least of which are a predisposition to choose a political party based upon one’s parents’ voting habits, or one’s geographic region of birth, which also relates to the first. If you vote solely based on one of these criteria, I am hard-pressed to think of you as homophobic—more properly, you lack self-identity, or may just be lazy.)

In the reverse, any GOP House candidate who supports LGBT rights (to my present, captured-in-amberin- the-moment way-of-thinking) must be either a) insincere, or b) in the wrong party (but there’s redress for this). Sorry, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. I believe that 5 million guncontrol advocates should get together and join the NRA (which claims a membership of 4.3 million), vote out the hard core gun nuts (the ones who think Junior should get a howitzer for Christmas), and the next day add the Brady Law to its membership platform. (But, see “laziness,” above.) and I am not saying that there aren’t good Republicans—gay and straight—who want the same things for themselves and their families that I want for mine.

I was a very right-of-center member of the Grand Old Party during the mid-90s—a reaction, I realize now, to the entitlement and corruption that marked the early Bill Clinton years. I have since made peace with Clinton, and both my beliefs and my political self-discovery have matured into selfknowledge that I am left-of-center, with some traditionalist values (like a gay Mike Logan on “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” but less boozy). On Tuesday, July 31, U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant, in Hartford, Connecticut, issued a 104-page decision, in which she ruled that a provision in the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act violates the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. This is the fifth federal judge to rule that DOMA is repellant to the U.S. Constitution.

Bryant—who was appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush—ruled that the provision, which denies federal recognition of tax, health, and other benefits to married same-sex couples, “obligates the federal government to single out a certain category of marriages as excluded from federal recognition, thereby resulting in an inconsistent distribution of federal marital benefits.” She added that “many courts have concluded that homosexuals have suffered a long and significant history of purposeful discrimination.”

The ink on Bryant’s ruling was barely dry when the House Republican leadership—which has made itself the guardian of DOMA’s sacred screed since Attorney General Eric Holder decided last year to no longer waste tax dollars defending the indefensible—announced that it would continue to represent the interests of bigots and the narrowminded, by hiring outside legal counsel to fly to the nation’s far reaches when danger exists that American citizens might exercise their rights as free men and women. That sends a powerfuly bad message that is impossible to ignore.

Although I have no allegiance to the party of Jefferson, Jackson, FDR, and Obama, I would challenge any gay American to name another issue as important to the future of civil rights as marriage equality. I don’t think that civil unions are a terrible idea, but I understand the outrage of those who believe that a right for one should be a right for all. This is plain fairness. For House Republicans to throw ideological red meat to bigots and demagogues is an endorsement of hate, and in this moment, those gay Republicans who give their political or monetary support to GOP House candidates are endorsing hatred, plain and simple.

I don’t know if North Miami pastor Jack Hakimian hates gays as much as his words would indicate, but through his sermons, he is creating another generation of bigots and small-thinkers, and for what? A regular paying job? The satisfaction of being shepherd to the anchorless and rudderless? Maybe 5 million LGBT Americans should descend upon Chick-fil-A and order “Santorum shakes” to make the point that we may not like bigotry, but we think so little of it that we will ignore your narrow-mindedness, and show you true power, to forgive as well as to buy. But I would rather take my money—and my vote—elsewhere.

Abiding Savior Church, 1900 SW 35th Ave., Fort Lauderdale – Christmas Eve, 7:30 p.m. Church of the Beatitudes, 2812 Eighth St. N., St. Petersburg – Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, 7 p.m.

Church of the Holy Spirit Song, 2040B North Dixie Hwy, Suite 3, Wilton Manors – Christmas Eve 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

First United Church of Tampa, 7308 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa – Christmas Eve Service, 7 p.m. Holy Angels Catholic Church, 2917 NE Sixth Ave., Wilton Manors – Christmas Eve, 7 p.m. (Dignity) and 11:45 p.m. Christmas Day, 11 p.m.

Holy Angels Catholic Community, at First UCC, 4605 Curry Ford Road, Orlando – Christmas Eve, Vigil of Christmas, 3 p.m., Raphael’s Oratory Christmas Eve, Christmas Carol singa- long, 11:30 p.m., Midnight Mass Christmas Day, Mass 11:30 a.m.

Joy MCC., 2351 S. Ferncreek Ave., Orlando – Christmas Eve, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Lakewood United Church of Christ, 2601 54th Ave. S., St Petersburg – Christmas Eve, 7 p.m. Music of the Season, 7:30 p.m. Service with carols, communion and c

andlelight.

St. Dorothy Catholic Community, 301 New England Ave., Winter Park– Christmas Eve Mass, 7 p.m.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 1200 Snell Isle Blvd. NE, St. Petersburg– Christmas Eve, 4 p.m. (Harmony), 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. (Choral Eucharist) Christmas Day, noon, (Holy Eucharist)

The Parish of Sts. Francis & Clare, 101 NE Third St., Fort Lauderdale – Christmas Eve, 10 p.m. Christmas Day, 10:30 a.m.

Sunshine Cathedral/MCC, 1480 SW Ninth Ave., Fort Lauderdale– Christmas Eve, 7:30 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m.