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Lavender Hill: Heartland Pride & More

LHv6A

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Anthony Tirendi, president of Heartland Pride in the Omaha, Ne metro area, joined Corwin and Phil in the studio this week for a conversation about Pride, specifically about Heartland Pride. Anthony had never been on the radio before, but he did well. Pride this year in the Omaha air covers three days of official Heartland activities. Some of the local bars, churches and other organizations may also be hosting pride events around the metro area.

  • THURSDAY JUNE 26th: 8:00 PM Candlelight vigil and 9:00 PM viewing of the movie “MILK” atHeartland Pride 2014 logo Hanafan Park in Council Bluffs, IA
  •  FRIDAYJUNE 27th: 6:00 PM Youth Pride festival and evening dance at Hanafan Park in Council Bluffs, IA
  • SATURDAY JUNE 28th: 10:00 AM Heartland Pride Parade in Council Bluffs, IA followed by:  11:00 AM Festival and Entertainment to begin after the parade at Stinson Park in Omaha, NE

The Saturday festival has three main musical acts, all local to the area. Eckophonic, Voodoo Method!, and Recess Girls. The Recess Girls will also be in the Kid Corner after their stage appearance to meet with fans.

There is a small entry fee to attend the main event. Tickets can be purchased in advance through the website for $5 or at the gate for $10.

Lavender Hill being a news program, as well as a talk show, the hosts had some local, national and world news to talk about. Not nearly as much time for news as usual, but they squeezed some things in. It should be noted that many of the below links will take you to stories Corwin and Phil did not have to talk about this week.

Links to News Stories Covered During the Show

Marriage Equality

  • A brief opinion piece from the Lincoln Journal Star expresses the disappointment many have with the recent decision to deny the divorce of a lesbian couple in Nebraska.
  • Opponents to marriage equality in Pennsylvania missed the deadline to file an appeal to the decision to over turn the ban on same-sex marriage. Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum remains largely silent on the matter despite his past vocal stance on the issue.
  • South Dakota attorney general files to dismiss “implausible” marriage case. You can read the motion here.
  • The Presbyterian Assembly affirms that same-sex marriage is Christian. A vote is pending from all 172 presbyteries over the course of the next year to make it official. Until then, effective now is an amendment to the church constitution allowing ministers to perform gay marriages in state and municipalities where it is legal with approval from local congregational leaders.
  • A Michigan man is “shunned” by St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Marquette after his commitment ceremony shows that he “acts on’ urges.
  • The National Organization for Marriage claims 10.000 people attended their anti-gay marriage rally in D.C. last week. More accurate estimates say between two and six thousand attended.

Across the United States

Politics

  • The Senate made history last Tuesday by confirming, unanimously, the first openly gay African American judge to a high court. Darrin Gayles now sits on the bench for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
  • The Texas GOP has some wacky ideas on their current political platform. Everything from pornography, the elderly, immigration and marriage equality.
  • Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass) has introduced a new bill that would create a special envoy for LGBT rights in foreign affairs. The International Human Rights Defense Act already has 20 co-sponsors, all Democrats.
  • CNBC’s Joe Kerner schools Texas Gov. Rick Perry on-air after Perry’s statements in California that copared homosexuality to alcoholism.

Queer World News

Health & Science

Arts & Entertainment

  • A Kickstarter campaign. is in full swing to support the filming of the first transgender comedy, staring Canada’s first transgender lingerie model Julie Vu.

Remember to tune in every Sunday at 11am Central to KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln to hear Lavender Hill live. You can email Corwin and Phil at lavenderhill89.3@gmail.com and follow the show on Twitter.

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MMM: Soundbackers Union 2014

ad bannerLast year started a new membership drive at KZUM, the Soundbackers Union. An exclusive group of member-listeners who get special benefits from KZUM – including discounted concert tickets, elite swag, and other exciting benefits. For one week every June the station does a fund raising campaign for the Soundbackers Union. Murphy’s Magic Mess put together a special playlist for  the event. The campaign for the 2014 membership of the Soundbackers ends on the 23rd at midnight Central time, but KZUM is always open to new member-listeners and donations to support Nebraska’s first and only community radio station.

Tracks 7 and 8 were arranged in honor of Sparky T. Rabbit, one of the voices of Lunacy. Sparky passed away a little over two weeks ago. As Murf said during the show, “what is remembered never dies.”

  1. God is Alive, Magic is Afoot – Buffy St. Marie – Best of Buffy Sainte-MarieSoundbackers-Final
  2. The Gift – Louis Colaiannia – Closer
  3. Orange Sky – John Luttrell – The Dream Exchange
  4. Summer Reunion – Jennifer DeFrayne – by a wire
  5. Songbird in the Morning – Larken Lyre – Extraordinary Voyage
  6. One and Only – Lisa Hilton – Kaleidoscope
  7. For the Love of All Who Gather/Floor of Heaven – Betsy Tinney – Release the Cello
  8. Shango – Lunacy – Lunacy
  9. Noon of the Solstice – Damh the Bard – Spirit of Albion
  10. Down in the Garden – Damh the Bard – Antlered Crown and Standing Stone
  11. Flowers to Make into Wine – Alan Austin –
  12. Flower of Ireland – Spiral Dance – Over Nine Waves
  13. Family Garden – John McCutcheon -Family Garden
  14. Crying for the Honey Bee – Cernunnos Rising – (unreleased)
  15. The Garlic Waltz – Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt –
  16. Salad of Doom – SJ Tucker – Mischief
  17. Fin and the Old Man – John Redbourn – Wheel of Fortune (story)
  18. White Rabbit – Tuatha Dea – The Tribe
  19. Little Which House – Serpentine – Rock the Goddess
  20. Pagan Born – Inkubus Sukkubus –
  21. House of Mama Dragon – SJ Tucker –  Haphazard

Murphy’s Magic Mess airs  live every Sunday morning at 9am Central, bringing the listener two hours of new age and Pagan music from around the world. Celebrating 20 years with KZUM, Murf, *K8, and Phil are thrilled to bring you a unique collection of music every week!

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PWN S4E3: Trouble in Beebe – Persecution of Seekers Temple

On June 17, 2014, Jason Pitzl-Waters of the Wild Hunt reported that the High Priest and High Priestess of the Seekers Temple in Beebe, AR had run into some major snags in establishing their church within the town. Zaracon immediately jumped in and contacted Bert and Felicia Dahl about visiting with he and RevKess on the Pagan Weekly News. This morning we made that happen.

Bert Dahl, photo courtesy ArkansasMatters.com

Seekers Temple, originally from El Paso, Ar, has been around for five years. By the request of many members of the Temple, Bert and his wife moved the church to Beebe. After nine months of paper work and leg work, it was only when the Temple applied for a permit to use a local park for an outdoor event that the city of Beebe realized  they were Pagans.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the FBI, and Lady Liberty League have all been informed of what is taking place. The ACLU has a limited budget and is at this time monitoring the situation. The FBI cannot act at this time as their has not been any violence involved (thankfully). Lady Liberty League coordinator, Selena Fox, called Bert personally after the story broke to the media and stated that LLL is very much aware and is continuing to monitor the situation as well. Zaracon contacted the Mayor’s office and has not yet received a response. You can also contact the Mayor, but please remain civil and rational in any correspondence. His email is mrobertson@beebeark.org.

Zaracon and RevKess opened the show up to Bert, allowing him a venue for voicing what is going on in Beebe. A detailed timeline of events can be found at the Seekers Temple website.

On Monday July 23, 2014 at 6:30pm is the monthly Beebe City Council meeting. The Dahls will be attending and ask that any Pagan or supportive ally who is in the area and wishes to attend do so as well. In previous meetings, Bert has been denied his request to speak to the City Council. Perhaps with a showing of support from other Pagans and our allies, his request to speak will be granted with this month’s meeting.

A search on Google, Bing, or your favorite browser should produce a number of links to more information. One of those would be some video coverage from ArkansasMatters.

MUSIC

  1. Ian Corrigan – A Charm for Religious Liberty – (single, released through Creative Commons via youtube.com)
  2. Celia – Build the Wall – Military Religious Freedom Foundation
  3. Celia – Symbol
  4. Big Bad Gina – Freedom Connection – Lake of Dreams

Donations can be sent via PayPal at seekerstemple@yahoo.com or direct through mail at Seekers Temple, 608 E DeWitt Henry Dr., Beebe, AR 72012. Emails can be sent to priest@seekerstemple.com.

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PMP: Erick DuPree

KaliSara and RevKess invited Erick DuPree to join them on the show for a conversation about men in Goddess spirituality, religion. Erick had already been invited on the show by the time Devin Hunter made the following status update on Facebook: “I am not a ‘male priestess.’ That’s quite offensive, the term is Priest of the Goddess. We exist, matriarchy, we exist. Calling me a male priestess is a bit like spiritual castration.” That comment led to a great conversation on his page that included both men and women, priests and priestesses alike. It also lead to the creation o a group page on Facebook called Project Pagan Priest.

Purchase on Amazon

Erick DuPree, the author of Alone in Her Presence, The Hero Within: Reframing Masculinity with the Goddess (to be released in 2015), and a blogger is editing the upcoming anthology Finding the Masculine in the Goddess’ Spiral: Men in Ritual, Community and Service to the Goddess. The call for submissions is open until July 30th.

The full submission guidelines can be found on Erick’s webpage. In brief, those who wish to submit and article, essay, poem, or ritual are wide open on what they can write about. The only restrictions, if you will, for submissions be that the author identifies as male. Erick and the publishers at Immanion/Megalithica want to keep the submissions open to men – straight, gay, bi, trans – of all walks of life. The commonality of the contributors is simple this: self-identified as male with a connection to the Goddess in her myriad forms, names, and manifestations.

When I’m alone with her 
My soul learns worship 
In spirit and in truth 
Peace fills my heart 
Joy reigns and rules there 
Nothing but love overflows 
And Her truth clearly shown 
When I’m Alone in Her Presence

— Erick DuPree

Erick DuPreeErick is a contributor to the anthologies Rooted in the Body, Seeking the Soul: Magic Practitioners Living with Disabilities, Addiction, and Illness edited by Tara ‘Masery’ Miller; Bringing Race to the Table: An Exploration of Racism in the Pagan Community (late 2014, early 2015 release) edited by Crystal Blanton, and the book Universally Unique: Homilies, Lessons, and Lore. He also writes for Witches&Pagans’ online presence under the heading of Wisdom Within. Listen to  his conversation with Devin Hunter on the Modern Witch Podcast and read his interview with Tara Miller on Staff of Ascelpius.

MUSIC

  1. Elaine Silver – The Lady of the Lake – The Lady of the Lake
  2. Damh the Bard – Morrighan – Spirit of Albion
  3. Annette Cantor – Kuan Yin – Songs to the Goddess
  4. Cernunnos Rising – A Fire Fit for a Queen – Wild Soul
  5. Lis Addison – Hearts & Bones – Crown in the Sky
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Lavender Hill for 15 June 2014

LHv6AAs usual, Corwin and Phil tried to cram a lot of news into one hour, almost having to skip some of the music they had planned for the day. Rest assured, they did get all five pieces of music played. You can find the list of music at the end of this posting. Unfortunately the jump drive Phil was using to record the show malfunctioned, so there is not a podcast feed of the show at this time.

The lead story on Sunday 15 June 2014 was an update on the divorce appeal case before the Nebraska State Supreme Court. A lesbian couple wed in Iowa in 2009 filed for divorce in Lancaster County Nebraska. The divorce was denied on the grounds that it would require the state to recognize the marriage in the first place. Bonnie Nichols, one of the women involved, filed appeal with the State Supreme Court. According to an Associated Press article, the appeal was denied by the State with some wiggle room for a new appeal. LGBTQNation carried the article, along with many online and print media sources.

LINKS to ARTICLES

(not all were referred to during the broadcast) in no particular order

MUSIC

  1. Ryan Amador & Jo Lampert – Define Me – Ryan Amador
  2. Candye Kane – I Didn’t Listen to MY Heart – Songs from the Stage
  3. Sam Smith – Stay with Me – In the Lonely Hour
  4. Doug Strahm – Slumbertown – Freedom Rings
  5. Patricia Barber – You Don’t Me – Night Club

Remember to tune in every Sunday morning for the full live broadcast of Lavender Hill on KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln. Listen on the web, on the radio (in Lincoln, NE) at 89.3FM, or use your favorite mobile listening app. You can find Lavender Hill on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

Subscribe to the Lavender Hill Daily to get a daily dose of LGBTQA related news.

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MMM: “All-Father’s Day” Playlist

ad bannerFather’s Day on the Mess was a fun and sometimes confusing mess. The Mama Dragon had two master discs to play from, so Phil found himself bouncing back and forth between the two. Along with those two masters was the collection of new age music for the first half hour and a variety of other selections from the KZUM stacks and the random CDs all three brought with them. The below playlist is courtesy the efforts of *K8, Phil has made any minor corrections that were needed.

  1. Wytches’ Chant ’98 – Inkubus Sukkubus – Away with the FairiesBuff All-Father w Wolf
  2. The Dreamer – Peter Calandra – Inner Circle
  3. Heartstrings – Matt & Rebecca Stuart – Minstrel Streams
  4. Sunrise to Sunset – Jennifer DeFrayne – By a Wire
  5. Wondering – John Luttrell – The Dream Exchange
  6. Paso Doble – Bob Ardern – Craftsman
  7. Kaleidoscope – Lisa Hilton – Kaleidoscope
  8. Lord Fenugreek – Sharon Knight – Incantation
  9. Waltzing with Bears/the Neat thing about my Father was… – Rosalie Sorrels – What does it mean to love?
  10. Daddy’s Little Girl – Heather Bishop – Taste of the Blues
  11. The Undertaker’s Daughter – Mama Gina – The Undertaker’s Daughter
  12. Ink Bah Tah/Horned Lover/7-fold Chant – Lady Rhiannon – Covenant of Kernunnos Chants (rough cut)
  13. Sky Father – Murphey’s Midnight Rounders – I Am the Goddess
  14. Mother Earth, Father Sky – Teresa Spirit Song – Hand of Time
  15. He’s a pretty good man, if you ask me – Buffy Sainte-Marie – Best of Buffy Sainte-Marie
  16. My Dad – Ray Stevens – All Time Hits
  17. Dad’s Got that Look – John McCutcheon – Family Garden
  18. Talkin’ to the Wrong Man – Eddie Blazonczyk’s (Sr. & Jr.) Versatones – Music Music Music
  19. Man with the Weird Beard – Heather Bishop – Belly Button
  20. Hymn to Herne – SJ Tucker – Blessings
  21. Some Fathers Have Gone to Glory – Sally Rogers and Claudia Schmidt –
  22. Alester’s Wake – Haze – Book of Shadows
  23. Brothers Fallen – Saor Patrol and the Dolmen – Crann Tara
  24. Cernunnos – Faith and the Muse – Shoumei
  25. What’s up yours – Barleyjuice – The Barleyjuice Collection

Remember to tune in live every Sunday morning at 9am Central for two hours of New Age and Pagan music brought to by the hosts of Murphy’s Magic Mess: Nadine “Mama Dragon” Murphy, *K8 Smith, and “Rev. Moonbeam” Phil Kessler.  Listen on the website for KZUM, on the radio (in the Lincoln, NE area) at 89.3FM, or using your favorite mobile listening app (like TuneIn). You can find the show on Facebook where the hosts share a rough-draft playlist immediately after each show and links to videos and Pagan news throughout the week.

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MMM: *K8’s 3rd Dozen

drunk_dragon_drunkon_by_sssilver_c-d32orug*K8 celebrated her birthday over the weekend, which means that it was her birthday show! She turned 3 dozen and had a lot of fun putting music together for the show. The new age segment of the show was planned out, for the most part, by Phil – otherwise the show was *K8’s.

A special note about Track 11: The Kirtan Aid CD is a special compilation put together to benefit the children of an orphanage in Rishikesh, India. From the back of the CD case: “Kirtan Aid isthe music of yoga in service to the planet. 100% of the profits from this album will build a shelter for homeless orphans at a sanctuary for children called Ramana’s Garden in Rishikech, India.” You can learn more about the Sat Nam Foundation’s Kirtan Aid projects at www.satnamfoundation.org.

PLAYLIST for 8 June 2014

  1. Unreleased Backgrounds – Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
  2. By a Wire – Jennifer DeFrayne – By a Wire
  3. Sailing – Louis Colaiannia – Closer
  4. Orange Sky – John Luttrell – The Dream Exchange
  5. Bele Cheri – Mike Rayburn – Wooden Voices
  6. I Remember Summer – Carl Weingarten – Life Under Stars
  7. So Much to Say – Peter Calandra – Inner Circle
  8. Back to the Sea – Mark Barrott – Sketches From an Island
  9. Golden Amrit – Ashana – River of Light
  10. Guru Brahma – Manish Vyas – Shivoham: A Journey Into Bliss
  11. Kashi Vishwanath Gange – Krishna Das – Kirtan Aid
  12. Donnar, Norse – God of Drum – Get Tribal
  13. Soulful Old Man Sunshine – Beach Boys – Endless Harmony
  14. Eagle – Life in General – No Need to be Lonely disc 2
  15. The Battle of TYR – Black Sabbath – TYR
  16. Neptune – SJ Tucker – Mischief
  17. Poseidon – Kelly Andrew – Olympus
  18. One tin Soldier – Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Have a Ball
  19. the Tsamikos – Brave Combo – the Exotic Rocking Life
  20. Pagan Polka – SONA – Spoonwalk
  21. Vitame Vas – Frenchy & the Punk – Happy Madness
  22. Highly Illogical – Leonard Nimoy – Spaced Out: the very best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner
  23. Miss Conception – Leslie Fish – Chickasaw Mountain
  24. Chasing the Beer – Saor Patrol – Black Bull
  25. The Gods aren’t Crazy – Leslie Fish – Avalon is Rison
  26. Pije Kuba – Brave Combo – Polkas for a Gloomy World
  27. Is anything better than Beer – Big Lou – Dogs Playing Polka
  28. Let’s Go Beer Drinking – New Generation Band – This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Polka

Remember to tune in and listen live to Murphy’s Magic Mess every Sunday morning on KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln at 11am Central. You can follow the show on Facebook and get links to music, stories, and so much more from the page!

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PMP: Shamanic Astrology

RevKess and KaliSara were joined for this episode by Shamanic Astrology Mystery School founder Daniel Giamario and Shamanic Astrology Mystery School co-founder Cayelin Castell. With fifty some years experience with astrology, Daniel brings a unique perspective to astrology – a non-Sun Sign based perspective. Daniel and Cayelin have also written a handbook to go along with their mystery school, The Shamanic Astrology Handbook – Revised for 2014. Through the art work of Roy Purcell, Daniel has developed a 64 card astrology deck, Shamanic Astrology Divination Deck.

Daniel Giamario & Cayelin Castell

RevKess pretty much sat back and listened for the first half of the show.  As some of you may know, astrology goes right over his head. Could be a partial explanation for his pre-mature balding. As happens with most of our guests who are passionate about their topic or field of study, Daniel and Cayelin were wonderful guests. Open the floor to just about anything related to Shamanic Astrology and they just talk and talk. Clearly they are both passionate about this path.

Music

  1. Omnia – Shamaniac – Wolf Love
  2. Telergy – Exoneration – Legend of  Goody Cole
  3. Spiral Dance – Boys of Bedlam – Notes of  Being
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Lavender Hill for 8 June 2014

Lavender Hill airs live every Sunday morning at 11am Central on KZUM-HD/KZUM-Lincoln out of Lincoln, NE. For over three years Corwin and Phil have brought their listeners news, views, and interviews from the LGBTQIAA community with a focus on Lincoln and Omaha.

LINKS

In no particular order, here are links to much of what we discussed on this edition of Lavender Hill. Some may be to stories we didn’t have time to cover.

  • The Texas GOP has approved a platform for their 2014 campaign season that endorses reparative therapy, also known as conversion therapy. Reparative therapy has been shown to cause more harm than good. Developed decades ago to “cure” people of homosexuality, many states have already banned its use with adolescents and many psychologists and psychiatrists are pushing for it to be removed as an acceptable means of treatment for adults as well. Even former “x-gays” have made apologies for encouraging people to use reparative therapy.  The International of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses issued a position paper in 2001 on reparative therapy, you can read it here.
  • The legislative arm of Salt Lake City’s government has formally asked the organizers o the Days of ’47 Parade to reconsider their decision to disallow Mormons Building Bridges from participating in this year’s parade. Days of ’47 celebrates the mass migration of Mormons to the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. I have news for our Mormon friends, there were queer Mormons in 1847 and there are queer Mormons in 2014. Check out the official page for Mormons Building Bridges to learn more about this organization.
  • In related news, a police officer in Salt Lake City was suspended after refusing to work police security at the annual Gay Pride Parade.
  • In more Pride news, for the first time the US Armed Forces Color Guard will be participating in the Washington D.C. Pride. In 2013 an Armed Forces color guard did perform on the grounds of the Pentagon for a Defense Department pride event, and another performed there again this year.
  • Sex like gender is more fluid than most are willing to believe. Conservative blogger Kevin D. Williamson on National Review said that famous transgender actress Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) is not a woman. Ms. Cox graces the cover of a recent edition of  Time Magazine. Slate.com has a lengthy article discussing the fluidity of sex as well as gender, with plenty of links for more information.
  • Puerto Rico has nominated its first openly lesbian lawyer to the Supreme Court. Maite Oronzo Rodriguez was nominated by Governor Rico Alejandro Garcia Padilla on 4 June.
  • Actor John Lacy gets a standing ovation, but not for his role as Big Daddy in a production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Lacy threw a heckler and homophobe out of the audience in Act II. He was then fired by the director for his actions.
  • In a Rand Paul conference call, Republican E.W. Jackson says that “there is something wrong with them on the inside” in reference to LGBT people and liberals, that they are full of “hatred”.
  • General Mills and Lucky Charms cereal launched their second Lucky To Be campaign on 2 June. Read about it here and then visit the Lucky To Be site.
  • Woodrow Wilson High School principal Pete Cahall comes out to his students during their 2nd annual Pride event in D.C.
  • Last month Iowa rewrote the law that criminalized HIV transmission and this month in a symbolic gesture two men convicted of exposing their partners to HIV (knowingly or not) were freed from their GPS monitors.
  • On 4 June the constitution of Slovokia was amended to ban same-sex marriage, IGLA-Europe issues a statement condemning the act.
  • In related news, the CDC and DOJ have released a report on the 33 states (67 laws) that have criminalized HIV transmission since 1987. POZ Magazine’s Ron Valdiserri wrote this op-ed piece in April of this year.
  • The United Nations is treading thin ice with the global LGBTQIAA community with the nomination of Ugandan Samuel Kutesa to the presidency of the General Assembly. No member nation has yet voiced a formal protest. Kutesa has even received support from US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Minister William Hague. Kutesa serves as Uganada’s Foreign Minister under the anti-gay leadership of President Museveni, who recently signed into law severe punishments for homosexuality.
  • Laura Jane Grace, lead singer for the metal band Against Me!, has been the recent target of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists (view this site to learn about RadFems). The Twitter back-and-forth can be seen here. We couldn’t read the Twitter comments over the air for obvious reasons (if you take a look). The host stream (Pagan-Musings Podcast Channel) for the podcast version of Lavender Hill has had an ongoing conversation about certain elements of the RadFem movement, specifically the Dianic Wicca founder Z. Budapest and her banning of transgender women from official rituals and gatherings (pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3).
  • MS. Magazine has an informative op-ed piece on their blog on TransFeminism – worth the read!
  • One of the most vocal opponents of Texas’s “bathroom bill”, that would allow trans people to use the bathroom of their self-identified gender, has been shown to be a sexual predator himself. Pastor Baker, who has worked as a city chaplain, has expressed his belief that allow transwomen to use the women’s bathroom would allow a potential predator into the same bathroom as a six year old girl. Baker was suspended and later fired in the past for sexually harassing female employees.
  • In Maryland the “bathroom bill” was passed and signed into law by the governor. But State Delegate Neil Parrot (R) started a referendum to reverse that law. For the sake of all Marylanders, that referendum failed.
  • A transgender man in New York is suing the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation for discrimination. The man is still in transition and was denied use of the more private locker rooms reserved for handicapped people and families. Staff at a public pool reportedly told him to use the women’s locker room.
  • One of the suspects in the recent Atlanta beating of a transgender woman on their mass transit system claims that “transgender women provoke” such attacks. Much of the incident was caught on video by witnesses, the video and the witnesses could not clarify how the altercation started.
  • Perhaps the first transgender murder victim for 2014 in the United States was identified in Baltimore earlier this month. Kandy Hall was found earlier on 3 June in a field in Northeast Baltimore. TransGroit also blogs about the murder.
  • As of Friday 6 June 2014 all 31 states that currently ban same-sex marriages have lawsuits filed in either state or federal courts challenging those states’ bans. North Dakota was the last of the 31 to join in the battle on this level.
  • GOProud, the LGBT Republican group, is “re-branding”, or is that “dis-banning”?
  • Robert Garcia is the first three times around in Long Beach, CA. The first Latino mayor, the youngest, and the first openly gay mayor.
  • Shooting victim from the 2013 San Francisco Pride event is suing the SF Pride Committee for $10mil, citing a lack of security made it possible for the shooter to enter the event site with a gun.

Upcoming Pride Events in the Lincoln & Omaha Area

  • Heartland Pride is right around the corner. This the Omaha Metro area’s annual LBTQIA (etc) Pride event and is hosted every year in Omaha and Council Bluffs. Visit their website to learn more and see the calendar of events. The main events will be on Saturday 28 June in Council Bluffs and Stinson Park in Omaha.
  • Star City Pride is about a month away. Star City Pride is the Pride event in Lincoln, NE. Hosted in part by Panic Bar, the main event is a street party with vendors, information booths, and live entertainment outside the Panic, this year on Saturday 12 July.
  • The 4th annual Prairie Pride Film Festival will be 24-26 July at the Mary Riepma Ross Theatre  in Lincoln, NE.
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Sacred Oak Circle #1 Pagan Festivals

Air date: 03/18/14

In this episode we discussed pagan festivals, and the benefits they can provide to a new seeker on the path.  The festivals I mentioned in the show were:

My advice to get the most out of festivals:

  • Go to the workshops – Broaden your horizons, learn about new approaches to the craft, see the craft from a different view point, and learn something new!
  • Go to the rituals – I always go to the opening and closing rituals because they provide a nice context for the festival.  Look at your program/schedule, and attend the other small rituals that may be held during the festival.
  • Camp, and make friends – If you are attending a camping festival, then plan to set up camp and make friends!  We are a nature based religion…so camp and experience nature!
  • Join into discussions – Don’t be afraid to tell people you are new to the pagan path!  We are a friendly lot, and people will be more than happy to answer questions.

Don’t forget the Pagan Pride Days!  These events are designed to share our path with the community.  http://www.paganpride.org/

 

Music from the show:

  • There is NO Time – Kellianna
  • The Clock Ticks On – Blackmore’s Night
  • Oak Broom and Meadowsweet – Damh the Bard
  • The Return of the Sun – Kellianna