Zelenskyy Came For Help… How Real Leaders Respond

As many who come here to read my rants and Ali’s up lifting posts, and Randy’s deep thought out posts may understand I have a troubled issue with religion. At 17 after years of abuse, emotional, physical, and sexual, I took a bad beating just as school ended. I was working for a wealthy local farmer who was deeply religious. He found me hiding in one of his barns, his wife was a nurse and she addressed my bleeding wounds. I begged him to let me stay in his barns for a while sure the anger at home would blow over. He had a totally different idea. He talked me into going to a church school he supported and paid for other kids to go to, but there was a catch, I would have to agree to the principles of his church and honor them while at school. Considering where I was in my life I would have agreed to become his sex slave it if would have saved me from more beatings. I don’t know how he did it but as he left me in the hands of his nurse wife he went to face my adopting parents. I have no idea what was said, but when he came back he told me to go home and promised I would be safe, pack my clothing needed … and he gave me a list. Then he would come get me in the morning. I was terrified to return back to the place I lived and still very sore from my beating. But I did it. No one spoke to me or stopped me. I got my stuff and stayed in my room until the next day when the farmer showed up in the driveway.

That is why I have conflicted feelings about religion. See I feel that man saved my life. Yet his religion was very much against gay people. By now I had accepted that I was gay, I was a homosexual that they claimed were all these horrible things. I knew I was not that, and I was a good church boy. But inside I knew I was something they felt was an abomination. After school the farmer took me to his Livingroom and told me he felt I would make a great pastor for his religion. He decided to pay for me to go to their seminary. I knew two things, I couldn’t tell him why, and I couldn’t do what he asked. I was gay and my desire for male sexual comfort was too high to be hidden. I thanked him, and too the only choice I had left, the US military.

Which leads to the video posted below. I love this Priest. Maybe if I had been in his accepting church I could have given my best to joining that ministry. But the faith that saved me also was a faith that hated me for existing. Hugs

OK Senator – Bible Says It Is Okay For Teachers To Hit Kids

Hello All. I know I posted a lot of videos today. I wear headphones when doing things out of my Pink Palace office and because I like what I am hearing I post them. I do that while in my office also. I am having crackers and sharp cheese as I write this because of my recent steroid shot I get hungry quickly. I was down to 168. Every time I have steroids my weight goes up a bit because I get so hungry. But to this video and why I am posting it. I hate abuse of children as you can imagine, that includes beatings which I got frequently. Please tell me how a 6 year old 40 pound child can stand up to a 200 pound barroom brawler who can put three chimney blocks over one arm and go up a ladder. I soon learned that to complain would get me told that parents have the right to discipline their children, it was in the bible. I am not sure that included the black eyes, broken bones, or seeming all over me bruises. I would gladly take the hits rather than the belts that left welts that would take weeks to stop hurting, and if on my butt made sitting still in class to learn impossible. So to hear a man of the cloth stand up and say that hitting a child is not that passage meant is very important to me. Thank you all for reading and watching. Hugs

Neutrality Is NEVER An Option!

What I love about this video is that Rev Ed makes a point about using pronouns and one I plan to start doing. Hugs

Responding to Ben Shapiro and other videos on LGBTQ+ sex and the bible

Episcopal Bishops Encouraging Flock To Stand Up For Migrants

I like this person and his teachings. Clearly. In truth had he been the one to save me as a 17 yr old beaten boy hiding in his barn I think he may have still sent me to a church school to protect me but he wouldn’t have then expected me to go on and become a priest in their religion. I couldn’t tell my savior who wanted that from me why I rejected his strong demand / offer and instead went into the military was that I was gay. I had accepted it to myself. I was well versed enough in the acts of it due to my abuse to know that along with my internal emotions about guys vs women that the acts themselves did not repulse me. Just the way they were forced on me. Remember I had been forced to please females as well as males since I was 3 years old and I understood my attractions were to males. I was very gay. Instead I think he would have asked me my goals and I would have had to tell him the mystical parts of the religion I had issues with … but the reason I need to withdraw was I was gay. If he responded as he did in my comment to him, then I would have stayed in his congregation. Not believing the magic parts of the religion but the community and acceptance that their god has for those different. Rev. Ed Trevors admits he doesn’t preach facts, he preaches faith, and much of what he stresses is things as a humanest I can fully endorse.

I do wonder with his … more violent past if he had found a badly beaten very thin small 17 year old boy who told him he was being abuse if he would have done more than force the parents … well in their mind’s owner of the boy to let him leave. But again maybe that is my hopes / emotions talking over my understanding of reality. Hugs

So, You Say You Want To Be Like Jesus – Are You Sure?

Is God Punishing Los Angeles?

Local Unitarian churches host Big Gay Wedding Day to support LGBTQ+ rights amid uncertainty

https://www.wxxinews.org/local-news/2025-01-12/local-unitarian-churches-host-big-gay-wedding-day-to-support-lgbtq-rights-amid-uncertainty

I post this to again affirm that not all Christian denominations / churches are bigoted racist jerks using their holy book to bash others they don’t like. There are many good supportive Christians in the world as there are members of other faiths along with people of no faith. We should call out the bigots who use their religion to control others rather than as a guide for how they live their lives. But remember we must not blame all religious people / people of faith for the actions of those who are abusive of others. I am a live and let live person. I don’t want to control the lives of other people. I can barely handle being an adult in my own life, I don’t need the job of telling everyone else how to live. The caveat I will add to the live and let live way of life, it assumes others do not want to cause harm to others. Society has a responsibility to protect and care for each other and protect those who need such from those who do not respect the personhood of others. Hugs

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WXXI News | By Stephanie Ballard-Foster

Published January 12, 2025 at 10:48 AM EST

Stephanie Ballard-Foster

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WXXI News

Beth Bloom (L) and Pat Uleskey (R), among the couples getting married Saturday in downtown Rochester.

Love and resilience were on full display this past weekend at the inaugural Big Gay Wedding Day, held at Rochester’s First Universalist Church.

Organized by local Unitarian Universalist congregations, including First Unitarian Church of Rochester, First Universalist Church of Rochester and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Canandaigua, the free event offered LGBTQ+ couples the opportunity to marry in a safe and affirming environment.

The event came at a time of growing concern over potential shifts in federal policies that some worry could threaten marriage equality and other LGBTQ+ protections under the incoming administration. Advocacy groups have voiced fears that hard-won rights for queer and trans individuals may be at risk.

Stephanie Ballard-Foster

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WXXI News

Caliana (L) and Angelas Rolon Torres (R) who were among the couples getting married Saturday in downtown Rochester.

Rev. Lane-Mairead Campbell, Minister of the First Universalist Church of Rochester and one of the event’s organizers, said the importance of providing certainty and support for LGBTQ+ couples in the face of these challenges cannot be overstated.

“We’re seeing anti-transgender legislation being upheld and passed like across our country, and so this is a way that we could provide some certainty for our community and be able to provide some space to be able to get married legally, safely, quickly, inexpensively,” said Campbell.

Local vendors were on hand to donate flowers, cakes and professional photography services to create a celebratory atmosphere. After the ceremonies, couples and their supporters gathered for a reception.

Rev. Shari Halliday-Quan, Lead Minister at the First Unitarian Church and an event organizer, said her own experience demonstrates why events like this are important. In 2012, same-sex marriage was illegal in New York, so she and her now-wife planned to marry in Massachusetts, where their Unitarian Universalist congregation welcomed same-sex weddings. By the time they wed, New York had legalized same-sex marriage, allowing them to marry at home.

Stephanie Ballard-Foster

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WXXI News

A wedding cake at an event in downtown Rochester on Saturday, titled, ‘Big Gay Wedding.’ Local vendors donated flowers, cakes, and professional photography for the event which was organized by LGBTQ+ advocates.

Even though more than a decade has passed, Halliday-Quan said the need to create safe and affirming spaces for queer couples remains pressing.

“It matters deeply,” she said. “I think today, that right now, we’re helping couples secure rights that they’re worried will be taken away. We all hope that that won’t be the case. But what I want folks to know, and what I think today really celebrates and uplifts, is that queer and trans people have a place in our community, that you are loved and worthy.”

Among the couples married during the event were Caliana and Angeles Rolon Torres, who first discovered the opportunity while scrolling through Instagram. The couple, grateful for the chance to marry without financial barriers, said the event was especially meaningful after facing financial struggles.

“It means the world in that regard,” said Caliana. “The fact that we can do something like this, and there’s any organization doing something like this that enables people to get married, not only for free, but also before people are worried about it and things like that, is incredible. Like, outside of the marriage itself, the fact that this is happening is an amazing concept.”

Since the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York in 2011, more than 25,000 same-sex couples in the state have tied the knot. Nationally, there are an estimated 711,000 married same-sex couples in the United States.

NY Unitarian Churches Hold “Big Gay Wedding Day”

Yesterday an event by the same name was held in Missouri courtesy of the local Pride organization.

https://twitter.com/columbiatribune/status/1873670398627254344

We Don’t Have To Keep Doing The Same Old Thing…

The same goes for gender roles and gender stereotypes. We can advance our way of thinking on LGBTQ+ issues, on trans people being welcome in the gender spaces of the genders they identify as. The idea that well we always did it this way or we have believed that if it dangled it was a male and that was it. We can let go of that regressive thinking and embrace a new understanding progressive future. Hugs