My Passionate Interest~What I Spend My Life Fighting For~Be the Change you want to see in the world~ Gandhi | |
Link: http://www.soulforce.org/equalityridePrejudice and ignorance are globally pervasive, and even academic communities are subject to their grip. In 2006, during the inaugural Equality Ride, thirty-four participants traveled to eighteen schools and engaged students, faculty, and administrators in conversation about the destructive effects of doctrine and policy that label lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities as sick and sinful. And in 2007 two buses carried fifty young adults to thirty-four Christian colleges and universities with the same goal of dialogue.
In just two years, the Equality Ride has become a national forum wherein diversity is affirmed and discourse about faith, sexuality, and gender is effectively beholden to truth. And now, the journey continues once again. This fall, twenty-five young adults will visit schools in the South where there is a distinct legacy of religious, social and legal conservatism that further informs LGBT oppression. The expanding lineup will include new denominations, seminaries, and several faith-based Historically Black Colleges and Universities. For six weeks in October and November, young revolutionaries from all over will unite in the nonviolent pursuit of social justice. A movement in itself, the Equality Ride is set to empower a generation to challenge tradition and secure a brighter future for everyone.
What we hope to experience at every school is a time of scholarly dialogue. In the past we have planned schoolwide panel discussions, classroom visits, meals with students, informal discussions in coffee shops, shared Bible studies, and presentations. Unfortunately, not every school chooses to participate. The need for dialogue is so urgent, however, we come to every planned school with a message of hope and peace. Voluntary redemptive suffering in the form of civil disobedience may become our avenue toward progress if, and only if, a school rejects dialogue.
Link: http://www.gayintostraightamerica.com/372.html
A Call to Action
Through a rainbow of diverse people,
WE can bridge the polarization,
creating authentic connections and
dissolving differences that separate us
I am only one; but still I am ONE.
I cannot do everything; but Still I can do Something.
I will not refuse to do the something I can do!
Helen Keller
| |
