Faithful discernment in reactionary times.

March 30, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

There is little doubt that America and the world are going through “reactionary times.” The whole human race seems to have a “knee-jerk” response to every stimulus, from fundamentalist Islam to fundamentalist Christianity on several continents. Then there is politics, in which it seems every commentator strives to become a loudmouth, and every loudmouth strives to run for office.

We might like to walk away from all this, but the apostles of reactionary thinking hunt us down, invade our privacy, and badger us with inflammatory and indignant dichotomies. If I hear one more person, secular or religious, who declares that the current state of affairs is an “Armageddon” I think I will puke.

(Armageddon, by the way, appears only once in the entire Bible in one measly verse, Revelation 16.16. Its place and meaning are fraught with interpretive pitfalls, but I think it’s interesting that the folks who insist that the entire Bible must be taken literally take this one verse symbolically. If Armageddon is an actual geographical place where the final battle between God and Satan will take place, then that will be in the Holy Land—if anybody can ever figure out where Mount Megiddo is. Even crazier, Rev. 16:16 indicates “the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon,” but alas there is no such word or place in the Hebrew Bible or Hebrew language. Hmmm.)

One thing seems certain to me ~ the final battle between good and evil is not likely to happen in New Brighton, Minnesota (home of the reactionary Word Alone club) or any of the dozen odd places around the U.S. where conservative Lutherans have their shorts in a knot over last summer’s decision by the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to allow the ordination of lesbian and gay clergy.

As we have observed in recent months, there are sub-armagiddish battles going on in Lutheran congregations over whether they should stay in the national churchbody or instead run to . . . wherever they think that queers are least likely to turn up, I guess.

Even I have to rethink my time-honed prejudices about red and blue states, open and closed minds and the progressive or retentive expressions of ideas about God and human sexuality. I was delighted to read that as group of 18 current and retired/emeritus faculty from one of our seminaries —not one I had considered “progressive” by any stretch— have decided to speak up in favor of the ELCA’s churchwide decisions, in other words, in support of its discernment that LGBT people are also children of God and full brothers and sisters to other Christians. Faculty from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina have issued the Columbia Declaration, with an entire web site publishing various resources in support of the ELCA’s actions, including materials with biblical, historical, confessional, practical and missional focus.

Some of these resources tread over well-worn liberalizing paths, but one can hope that perhaps some new people will walk these paths and discover new territory. If you want fresh material to think through these controversies today, I commend the articles published here.

The “Columbia Declaration” (obviously dubbed in distinction from the so-called Manhattan Declaration last fall) says in part,

We believe that the ELCA’s Assembly actions are consistent with the biblical and Lutheran confessional tradition. We therefore support the opening of the roster of the ELCA to qualified and approved candidates for ministry who are in lifelong, committed, publicly accountable, monogamous same-sex relationships. We also support the actions of the Assembly that create the possibility for individual congregations who so choose to bless same-sex unions.May I just quote and echo the concluding remarks of Rev. Dr. Harold F. Park from Southern Seminary: After instituting the Lord’s Supper, Jesus said to the eleven disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you LOVE one another, just as I have loved you.” Jesus did NOT say, “that you AGREE with each other.” Then in His prayer to the Father before being crucified for OUR sins, Jesus prayed, “…that they may all be ONE, just as we are one . . . completely one.” (John 17: 21,23)In reading and applying the Bible, I give much more importance to the words of JESUS than to the words of Paul or the Old Testament writers.Amen.— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Doctrine, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Bible & Interpretation, LGBT Christian, Ministry, History, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

A sign of genuine progress.

March 26, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

This story would have been much more welcome news if it had come in 1985 or even 1995 or 2000. But the full story is encouraging because it moves away from blame to compassion, and from asking “who sinned?” toward “how can we show compassion?” – D.H.

Religious groups pledge to end AIDS stigma

By The Associated Press
03.25.2010 1:00pm EDT(The Hague, Netherlands) Religious groups from around the globe pledged Tuesday to prevent the stigmatization of people living with HIV and AIDS, in a joint statement welcomed by a senior U.N. official as a sea change in attitudes.Representatives of some 40 religions and faith groups including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism ended a two-day retreat in the Netherlands by signing a “personal commitment to action” in which they vowed to “be clear in my words and actions that stigma and discrimination towards people living with or affected by HIV is unacceptable.”  Read entire story here.

Posted in HIV and AIDS, Ecumenical Issues, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Prayer in the heart of Hollywood.

March 25, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

The music of Taizé has been around for a generation or more, but continues to grow in popularity, in part because of those who come from around the world to pray in this southern French town are met with simple and direct piety in an amazing blend of experiences.

Taizé was founded by Brother Roger during World War II, quickly became a refuge for Jews escaping the Nazi slaughter, and today draws as many as 7,000 visitors per week.

We have begun to pattern our prayer life on the piety and music of Taizé here in Hollywood. It has begun as a Lenten experiment, will continue on Maundy Thursday next week, and hopefully in the weeks after Easter.

There is no doubt that the experience is monastic — it provides a temporary retreat from the world into pure contemplation. There a re few words, time for silence and easily repetitive prayer. But when monasticism gently opens its arms to the outside world, it is grace.

Better yet, the brothers of Taizé welcome imitation all over the world. Their simple ecumenism fits our emerging church sensibility that the only way to be post-denominational as Christians is to start living like Christians with no prefixes or suffixes.

Even more amazing, doctrine and official dogma clearly are in the back seat or not present at all. The texts give voice to the words of Scripture alone, and interpretation is simply left to the Spirit to bring to each heart. The worship style of Taizé takes seriously the prophetic words of Jeremiah 31, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD.”

In our experience, the role of the leader is unimportant, and formality is forgotten. Some sit on the floor or on cushions. Different people simply rise to read or to offer pray from the heart.

What is gratifying to many is that this kind of faith and spiritual expression is attracting young people. The music is singable, not complex, not packed with theology, and the mood enhanced by things as un-high tech as candles allows each person to bring what she or he has to offer and place it before God with honesty and simplicity. In our house of worship, each week different people have been close to tears. I hope we can continue this in the future to welcome people who don’t feel they belong in a church on a Sunday morning.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Doctrine, Catholic matters, Bible & Interpretation, Ecumenical Issues, PRAYERS, Faith, Spirituality | Print | No Comments »

Did you think you’d ever see the day?

March 17, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

When my parents were “getting up there,” fifty years ago the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) was in its infancy, but it was obvious that among other things the organization was a national union for conservatives and elderly poor who wanted a better break on insurance. So when I hit the Big Five-Oh! and started getting membership invitations from AARP, I did what any boomer generation member would do: I shredded their mailing immediately.

Maybe it’s time to revisit that decision.

This morning’s Los Angeles Times had a prominent article on LGBT seniors and the efforts of mainstream advocacy organizations such as AARP to get our elders a better deal. See: “Medicaid and Social Security changes urged to help gay seniors.”

Of course I’m still not comfortable counting myself among them,but stay tuned.

In following the Times story, I was actually quite amazed at the links I found.

Did you ever think you’d see the AARP web site covered with stuff about Stonewall, gay, and faith? This entire page has stories and information on point.

The AARP web site: Did you ever think you would see the day?

With something like 40 million members, AARP is becoming one of the champions for equal rights for LGBT people because there are millions of us over 50. All the discrimination we’ve faced earlier in life is morphing into forms of elder discrimination. If you haven’t paid attention yet, it may be the time to start realizing how the lack of equal rights in this nation is going to hurt you big time as you age. If you’ve never been an activist for LGBT causes, your own aging may change you.

The Times writer mentions three issues as examples: Social Security and Medicare rules, survivor benefits, and making medical and end-of-life decisions for your partner. The SAGE report, which is being released today, also draws attention to another flashpoint issue in our society: “It calls on federal and state lawmakers to consider ways to legally recognize same-sex relationships so aging partners in a committed relationship can have access to the same support systems that benefit heterosexual seniors.”

I guess I never thought I’d live to see the day that senior citizens’ organizations would basically be calling for same-gender marriage rights. My hunch as to why it is happening is three-fold: boomers are becoming elders; older lesbian/gay people who were resistant to coming out earlier in life are gradually doing so as social acceptance of LGBT people continues to improve; and younger sexual minority persons who are coming out are more and more likely to come out to their entire family, including grandparents. So (heterosexual) elders who become sensitized and supportive of an LGBT grand child are also on the rise.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Links: AARP and gay seniors issues • Wisdom of the Elders • American Society on Aging • SAGE USA

Posted in "The Closet", LGBT Rights, Health, Public Affairs, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »

Did you feel it?

March 16, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

February 27:  a freeway in Chile, not Los Angeles

For many people it was no big deal, but at 4:04 a.m. today we were jolted awake by an earthquake. It was enough to make our chests pound more than a little with excitement and fear.

The bedroom is on the second floor, so we tend to feel shaking a little bit stronger than on the ground floor.

Today it was only a 4.4 by the way, not strong enough to cause damage, centered east of Los Angeles around Pico Rivera and 12 miles below the surface. See the USGS Preliminary Earthquake Report.

Here’s what shakes me up in California. You can’t always tell when an earthquake begins if it’s going to get much, much stronger and last longer, or if is will end in a few seconds after a light shaking. At 4 in the morning, it’s not like you can really tell what’s going on right away.

At 4:31 a.m. on January 17, 1994, we were shaken up a lot more seriously by the Northridge quake. I remember the precise time and date, after all these years, because it was bad enough to be etched in my permanent memories. That one turned out to be a 6.7 on the Richter scale, or more than 120 times stronger than the one this morning.

In the stillness I lay there doing the familiar mental calculus, the what if’s, etc. The electricity had not gone out, as it did in 1994. There was no aftershock within 3-4 minutes, as there always is with a more serious quake.

But what if we were feeling only the faint echo of a really terrible quake hundreds of miles away? What if it was San Francisco that was completely wiped off the map at 4:04 a.m. Should I get up and turn th radio on, or rush to the computer for information?

Then there’s the nasty possibility of foreshocks. The scientists tell us about those — meaning that this little 4.4 could have been the precursor to The Big One which could hit within 10 minutes. Should we jump out of bed, get dressed, moved the cars out of the garage (possible collapse?), and fill every bucket and pot with water for emergency use in case the pipes break when the Big One hits. We have only minutes to react, if this is the harbinger of impending disaster.

As it was I couldn’t fall asleep right away and kept listening for creaks and groans in the building — from settling or shifting. There were none. But after the terrible geological disasters in Haiti (January 12) and Chile (February 27), no one in California can really rest easy all the time. We think we’re prepared for disaster, and we have emergency kits, and know about “drop and cover” etc. But you can never be prepared to awaken suddenly in the night. It really rattles your cool, dude.

—Dan Hooper

Also see:  the Los Angeles Times on-line report updated at 6:30 a.m.

P.S.  The nation of Chile has been struck with three more aftershocks on March 11, two of them very serious. A 7.2 shaker was followed by a 6.7 aftershock, followed by yet another of 6.0 on the Richter scale, all within about 27 minutes. Extensive damage is reported in the city of Rancagua. Pray for the poor and wounded.

Posted in Public Affairs, PRAYERS | Print | No Comments »

Left at the altar or before the bench?

March 15, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Somebody recently asked me to clarify what is going on with the Federal Proposition 8 case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger . So I’ve been web surfing for information.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights doesn’t seem to be updating its site. Bill Moyer’s Journal has no new entries since February 26. We thought that Judge Walker as going to issue a ruling by now. Matt Coles of the ACLU has posted his analysis on Huffington Post as recently as March 11, but he seems to ignore the significance of a plaintiff’s win in federal court because of the 99% likelihood that the case would be appealed all the way to the Supremes.

Cole thinks “he’ll conclude like most constitutional lawyers that discrimination based on sexual orientation shouldn’t be treated as generally permissible. If it isn’t, it is very difficult to come up with a credible argument for excluding same-sex couples from marriage.”

The lawsuit, in case you’ve forgotten, is asking for the federal court to strike own the state constitutional amendment as discriminatory. Plaintiffs’ attorneys Ted Olson and David Boies are conservative and liberal—they argued on opposite sides in the U.S. Supreme Court case in 2000 that gave the Presidency to George W. Bush. But on this case, they are working together.

Before the attorneys has finished presenting their case, it came out that the U. S. District Court’s Chief Judge Vaughn Walker is himself gay, but any scandal about that one doesn’t seem to have traction. If it did, what would prevent plaintiffs form crying foul if the judge was heterosexual? Does whom the court judge sleeps with, if s/he even has a partner, really affect his/her judicial reasoning? Walker, by the way, was appointed by President Bush #1 in 1989. According to the San Francisco Chronicle coverage, NCLR’s Kate Kendall isn’t worried about bias, or for that matter, reverse bias.

The Senior Policy Counsel for the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center published an update in the March 2010 Vanguard from which I quote:

Walker’s decision seems likely to be favorable. Either way, it will almost certainly be appealed, first to the Ninth Circuit and then in all probability to the U.S. Supreme Court. A final decision is likely two or more years away.A Supreme Court victory could strike down all marriage bans across the country and allow same-sex marriages everywhere in the U.S.A.; a defeat would establish an adverse federal precedent, but it would not affect marriage equality in states where it already exists. And although such an adverse ruling could well make some ongoing -state-by-state efforts for marriage equality more challenging, it would not in any way stop those efforts from going forward.

This means that there is a lot riding on this case, and the conservatives mighty have much more to lose that the liberals. But he continues: Ultimately, though—with a conservative Supreme Court with at least two justices hostile to LGBT equality—the prospects for a winning outcome there are uncertain at best. We cannot relent for a single moment any of our other efforts to advance LGBT equality in general, and marriage equality in particular, at every opportunity.Unfortunately, the article segues, as all Vanguard articles seem to do, into a request for money for the Center.After District Court on the road of appeals is the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. If our side wins, the win would very likely be “stayed” until the appeal is completed, and that means two more years. Cole goes into the internal wiring of the Circuit courts and how unlikely they are to make any sweeping decision on anything, even though the Ninth Circuit, which rules the western U.S. is more progressive than most others. Conservatives hate it for that reason.

But the whole appeal and counter-appeal thing strikes me as a game that children play to get the best of each other— whether by manipulation, trickery or even violence— while each side knows that the parents could step in at any moment and end the game. Both sides in the equal rights movement have reason to fear “the parents” on the Supreme Court—not because they would necessarily be right in their decision, but because they seemingly have the legal right to make a final decision at least for a generation or more. As we have seen in far too many cases in the last decade, the legal reasoning of U.S. Supreme decisions often comes down to “because I said so.”

This is why court watchers are so diligent. Add to this mix the fact that President Obama does not have a blank check to appoint more liberal voices to the Supreme Court. He himself had a constitutional law background as an attorney, but his power to appoint open-minded justices to the high court and ease the court into a more liberal mind-set rests on a couple iffy situations: one, if one of the sitting justices retires or dies in office during Obama’s term; two, whether the first Justice to retire or die on the bench is identifiably conservative or liberal; and three, if OBama doesn’t lose his grip on the Senate before a Court vacancy occurs.

Tonight Associated Press has reported that Justice John Paul Stevens, who was appointed by President Ford in 1975, has indicated he will definitely retire in the next three years and will soon if this term will be his last. Stevens, who turns 90 in April, is considered the leader of the court’s “liberals.”

And on number two, we have to seriously consider that Congress could flip back to being controlled by the conservatives in the midterm elections. It is not merely possible, it’s likely that a conservative-controlled Congress would introduce a federal constitutional amendment to ban all same-sex marriage.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Are we individuals or couples before the law?

March 12, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

I am no attorney, and I often try to talk law students out of their intended career. But after working in law offices for more than 15 years it is impossible not to attempt to think legally. And it is less dangerous to blog about law than to practice amateur medicine; no one will die if I’m wrong.

But on this same-gender marriage issue that will not go away for years to come (it first burst into our consciousness in 1997 when the Hawaii Supreme Court saw no reason to people of the same gender shouldn’t have the right to a civil marriage), sometimes it is hard to express a legal reasoning that even makes senses in the court of public opinion. After all, the public doesn’t follow anything which is too complex or convoluted, so if you want to change public opinion you have to keep it simple. But that’s how Proposition 8 slipped by the voters in the first place.

Anyway, it occurs to me that all LGBT people already have the right to get married! As individuals, we can get married in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Just not to each other except in a handful of states. In other words, as individuals we can always marry heterosexually. We can marry someone of the opposite gender.

So by my reasoning we are not fighting for individual rights. (Well, I know we really fighting for the right to marry the human being of our choice without some wingnut insisting that it would lead to bestiality.) My reasoning is that it is lesbian or gay couples who are fighting for equal rights. My fundamental question is, Does the concept of justice and equality before the law extend to couples, period, not just to individuals?

We’ve already seen corporations given enormous legal rights, including the recent Supreme Court decision that gives corporations the right to buy candidates for public office and sell them to the voters (but that’s another issue). So it isn’t a stretch to begin analyzing this issue by arguing that lesbian couples and gay couples are entitled to legal rights.

Is that hair-splitting or unimportant? No, it’s central, because in fact American marriage laws grant rights to couples. Federal law, it has been determined, grants 1,049 distinct rights to married couples which are given to them through the vehicle of civil marriage. Most of these rights, I think it can be argued, are grant to the couple, not to the individuals who are in the marriage.

If that can be satisfactorily explained, then it makes perfectly clear sense to me that, under “due process” and a lot of other legal theorizing which make up the stuff of civil rights cases being argued in courtrooms, gay couples and lesbian couples cannot rightfully be discriminated against and heterosexual couples be given carte blanche.

Okay, that much is clear in my mind, but so what? Well as we watch the Perry v. Schwarzenegger case play out in the next 2-3 years, I want to watch how couples are treated legally. Do lesbian couples, for example, have the same rights under domestic partnership law as they would have under marriage law? Do gay male couples have identical rights under a civil union as they would automatically receive in a civil marriage?

Good questions. Check back often for answers.

—Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in wingnuts, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Counting on both visibility and invisibility.

March 4, 2010 by Pastor Dan.

Diane Silver at 365Gay.com has a good perspective on the coming U.S. Census: “Get Counted! Why the Census is crucial to Gays.”

The article quotes Jaime Grant, the director of the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.  “Without data, you have no community portrait, and without a portrait, you have no needs, you have no identity, you have no funding. The census has always had a civil rights component to it,” says Grant.

The LGBTQ community has its share of disagreements, and the Census is no exception. We know it can be to our advantage to be more visible. I remember paying attention ten years ago that our household could mark the form indicating we were unmarried partners, and still mark us both as being male.

Silver points out that the Census Bureau did not tabulate the data, beginning in 1990, which would have revealed a portrait of some of America’s lesbian/gay households. Outside entities, including the Policy Institute, dug out the story from the raw data.

Credo Action is pushing a campaign to “Queer the Census” and if you identify yourself to them, you get a free sticker (Wow!—bumper, or back-pack?). Their web site says they’ve given away 29,940 stickers so far.

So why doesn’t the Census Bureau gather more information about LGBTQ households? There are two obvious reasons. Silver only mentions one: Congress has control of the Census. Although it is mandated in the U.S. Constitution, what data are gathered every ten years is tightly controlled by law and therefore by politics. At present there is no plan to add questions to the 2020 form about gender identity, sexual orientation, etc.

But the other reason that data is not gathered nor processed is that LGBTQ people have an ambivalent attitude about being visible. We like being out and proud when it is cool or advantageous to be out and proud. But we also like to evade detection when that is advantageous. We are sometimes evasive about describing or naming our significant relationships, for example. We deflect questions or avoid situations where we might have to leave a paper trail (a legal trail) about our lives.

Much of this is closetedness, but it is not enough for all of us to prod each other to “come out” and be counted. As a community, we still have reason to be fearful to identify ourselves as lesbian/gay/etc., as individuals, if the present openness of our society could possibly turn more negative and punitive again.

And we’re aware that coming out is usually a multi-part process that has to go on for a long time: first to a few trusted friends, and maybe family, employer, neighbors. But in public records?

It is often said that none of us are free until we are all free, and so it can be argued that none of us can truly be “out” until we’re all “out.” But with the constant rants and manipulations of the Religious Reich and the well-funded social conservatives/reactionaries at all levels of politics, it could be dangerous if the social, legal and political reforms we’ve made since 1969 were reversed.

How do you go back into a closet, if there are documents in publicly records in which you’ve identified yourself as lesbian or gay or transgender?

Personally, I threw my hat in the ring for the liberalizing trend and permanent change decades ago, but it was not without misgivings. When I accepted the call (job offer) to serve my church as an openly gay/partnered Pastor, and the story hit the Associated Press and the internet, I knew there was no turning back.

But I am very aware that not everyone has moved in that same direction of being permanently and irrevocably out, at least at the same place. So the Census Bureau forms will probably not change to fully and completely include us and count us until the LGBTQ people in this nation are overwhelmingly ready to take all the risks in order to claim all the rights.

— Pastor Dan Hooper

Posted in LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Coming Out, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

A tall order for California.

March 2, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

Another pebble slipped off the slippery slope of official and public homophobia yesterday, when John A. Pérez was sworn in as the California State Assembly’s first openly-gay Speaker. (If you haven’t paid attention to LGBT officer-holders in Sacramento, click here.

Equality California wasted no time in congratulating Pérez. Geoffrey Kors issued a statement that said in part:

“Speaker Pérez is a role model and an inspiration to the LGBT community, especially to LGBT youth struggling to find acceptance at home and in school. We wish him the very best of luck as he embarks on this momentous journey and look forward to continuing our partnership with him in our mission to achieve full equality for LGBT Californians.”Pérez faces a time, however, when almost no sentient being puts any trust in California government, and that includes the Governor (27% approval ratings in December) and both houses of the Legislature. Districts are so gerrymandered to favor the incumbent party that no current office-holder and no candidate can really hope to sway anyone’s minds.

Recently I had opportunity to meet one of the candidates for the vacant seat in the Assembly’s 43^rd District, at a house party to introduce him to potential supporters. Mike Gatto further explained the brokenness of the Legislature by referring to the “third house” — not the Assembly or the Senate but the lobbyists who attach themselves to everything they can in Sacramento (and Washington, etc.), especially to every dollar that adheres to campaigns for public office.

Gatto knows that Sacramento is broken.  I question whether, even if he wins, he can have any impact on fixing it under current term limits law. (The predecessor in his district, Paul Krekorian, bailed out of the Assembly a few months early, because of term limits, and landed himself a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.)

What Pérez and young bucks like Gatto would need to fix is worse than gerrymandered districts. It includes our pathetically amended state constitution and its really screwed-up ballot-box legislating with one “initiative” after another.

(My personal view, which Gatto verbally endorsed, is that it is time to make it unlawful to pay for or be paid for gathering signatures for ballot measures. If an “initiative” actually started because citizens took the initiative, that would be one thing. But when big out-of-state money can literally buy a spot on the ballot to peddle reactionary social views, as has been done over and over with ballot Propositions, well, “… there ought to be a law!”)

And if they have time, the Legislature needs to re-think sentencing laws for juveniles (SB 399) ; adopt SB 906 the Civil Marriage and Religious Freedom Act which would have taken the wind out of the religious liars’ sails when they purposely misled California voters in the Proposition 8 campaign; and seriously consider AB 1878, which require California to include gender identity and sexual orientation in state government forms.

Fixing some of the things that are broken might be a good way to restore confidence in younger voters that they should bother to pay attention to state politics and state laws.

–D.H.

---

---

Posted in Homophobia, History, Public Affairs | Print | No Comments »

Your camouflaged life.

March 1, 2010 by Dan Hooper.

I thought this was pretty interesting.  Source:  e-mail from Billy Glover carries this story about an exhibit at the San Antonio Museum of Contempary Art.

How many of us thought we had some kind of camouflage on?  Have we worn it so long it has stained our skin?  Is emotional, spiritual, relational camouflage so long  been a part of our lives that we could no longer recognize our authentic selves?  I wonder if those of who have lived long periods of our lives with such camouflage have actually moved back and forth between “cover-up is fun” and “closet = despair.” — D.H.

Contemporary Art Month in March • by Gene Elder

The HAPPY Foundation celebrates CAM: March with this article about the history of camouflage and honors the memory of William Pahlmann, an internationally-known interior designer.

Pahlman was born December 12, 1900, grew up in San Antonio where he graduated from the old Main Avenue High School (now know as Fox Academic and Tech High School ) and then from the Parsons School of Design in New York City and Paris

Pahlmann embarked on his professional career as an interior designer moving into the position of chief executive of the interior design department and buyer of antique objects for Lord & Taylor. During the 1930s at Lord & Taylor, he launched his concept of model rooms to provide additional merchandise display and emphasize the value of advance planning of interiors. These distinguished model rooms achieved the reputation of art exhibitions and attracted an international following.

Pahlmann led the movement to integrate antiques into modern living arrangements and is considered the founder of the Eclectic School in Interior Design.

At the outbreak of World War II Pahlmann accepted a commission in the Army Air Force, where he served throughout the war in various duty posts, emerging as a Lieutenant Colonel. In one of his duty stations during the war he served as the director of camouflage school in St. Louis, Missouri, Jefferson Barracks, and in South Carolina. During this time he developed ideas about how to architecturally disguise locations by building false architectural exteriors. Netting and the patterns used on combat uniforms were also redesigned for modern warfare.

The camouflage design that we know and love today is attributed to William Pahlmann. Each terrain required a different design. It does seem logical that camouflage would come naturally to a gay designer since we know that growing up in a straight world we have all had to camouflage our gayness.

Pahlmann made many important contributions to the military and to the advancement of camouflage as a talented designer. It is important to note that during this CAM:March after listening to the military’s reasons for resisting the lifting of the ban on gays and lesbians that something as fundamental and as popular as the camouflage design we see today on our military personnel owes its success to a gay San Antonio designer who served in the military.

After the war Pahlmann worked as the Interior Design and Decoration Editor for Harper’s Bazaar and contributed to the syndicated column “A Matter Of Taste.” He then formed William Pahlmann Associates in New York City, which he headed until his retirement in 1977.

Throughout Pahlmann’s career he received numerous awards and citations for excellence in design. He was made a Fellow of the American Society of Interior Designers and was honored with the prestigious Elsie de Wolfe Award. In 1979 he received the Designer of Distinction Award for lifetime achievement.

Interiors of many of the best known stores and hotels in the country were designed by Pahlmann. He not only designed the exhibition rooms for Lord & Taylor but also interiors for Bonwit Teller; for the Matchabelli Crown Room; for the Henry Morgan Company Ltd; the overseas Press Club; and private homes in the United States, Canada, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.

The list also includes the interiors of the Lombardy Hotel, the Ziegfield Theatre, the Carnival Room of the Sherry-Netherlands Hotel the Billy Rose home, the John Wanamaker Cross Country Store, and Students Activities Building at the University of South Carolina. Seven buildings at Texas A&M have interiors designed by him and the Pahlmann Research Library where he left his books, is in the A&M Architectural School.

Pahlmann originated many widely popular innovations such as the over -scaled cocktail table, the double and triple chest, the double headboard and mobile furniture on rubber-tired casters. His “Hastings Square” contemporary furniture is sold all over the country. He has also designed fabrics, carpets, bedspreads, and served as president and chairmen of the board of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Decorators.

Pahlmann wrote the William Pahlmann Book of Interior Design and his papers and journals were left to the The Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware. In Pahlmann’s book about interior design, he covers all the rooms—the Living Room, Dining Room, Living-Dining Room, Library, Study, Den, Master Bedroom, Children’s Bedroom, Guest Room, Foyer, Power Room and Bathroom, the Kitchen, Porch, the Patio, and Terrace … even the ceilings, walls, floors, and windows.

Everything is discussed but The Closet. How did one decorate the closet in the 30s, 40s, and 50s? Why of course, you very smartly camouflaged it so that no one would know it was there.

Pahlmann died at the age of 86, November 8, 1987, in Guadalajara, Mexico. He always maintained a residence on the San Antonio River, near the Alamo, as well as home in New York City and Mexico. He was survived by his long-time partner of 30 years Jack Conners.

Gene Elder is an arts activist and the Archives Director for the HAPPY Foundation.

Posted in Go figure!, Public Affairs, Coming Out | Print | No Comments »