I wrote this piece a few months ago as a thank you to the Old Woman, the Crone who saved my life. I've just come back from her funeral in Algeciras, Spain. She died at the age of 104 years. One of her housemates, at the 'wake,' handed me a picture that was on her bedside, of a group of young feminists during the anti-coup uprising that took place in Madrid. I was one of the four estudiantes pictured and she kept this photo next to her image of her Mujeres Libres compatriots from the Civil War. I wept unashamed.
This post is the story of our first meeting, a weak elegy for a great woman.
My life was changed by an old woman. She saved me, saved me from what my parents had intended my life to become and how they had intended to distort my psyche and twist my very soul to do so. The day that she rescued me, I did not even know her name.
I was 18 years old when I stepped off of a rail car and onto the streets of Madrid for the first time. Leaving a boarding school in Britain where I had been placed after being shuttled for a bit, bearing the disapprobation of my family and with a veneer of shame over me, the Capital city was just another place to be a stranger and where I would not belong, at least so I thought when I arrived.
My family had forbidden my studying in Paris; Paris was considered the environment where I undoubtedly acquired the ideas and defiance that led to "Maureen's scandal" as my family continues to refer to it. In some sense it was true. Paris was where I had been encouraged to speak out, to be myself, to think. My parents wanted no more of that and considered Madrid, so associated with Franco, an appropriate place to continue my "re-education" that had begun in the harsh environment at Gordonstoun. For me as stranger to the place, my new school the Complutense seemed to promise only to be Gordonstoun with a degree.
Arriving early as relocating me to Madrid offered my family the promise of casting me into permanent exile, I began to wander a bit in the portions of the city near the Universidad.
So it was that I found myself siting in a sidewalk cafe, writing self pitying entries in my journal two days before classes began when an old woman spoke to interrupt my dark reveries. "May I join you, Senora?" "It is senorita and yes." "Women are senoras. Virgi. Virginity should never be the measure of address. No such demeaning measure is apportioned to men" my guest replied in English, piquing my interest immediately.
I offered her coffee from the carafe. "I thought that you English preferred tea." I replied that I was Irish and pointed to my red hair. I studied her a bit. She was wearing slacks and a baggy blouse of red silk. Her eyes were absolutely arresting, two orbs of vivid blue set in a weathered face that spoke of years in the sun, below shortly cropped and askew white hair. She, in turn, was analysing me. She asked how it came to be that I spoke English like an Englishwoman and Spanish with a hint of a French accent. I told her everything. I do not know why, but it seemed safe to and somehow I felt that nothing less than the truth would do for this conversation. I spoke of home in Ireland with my grandmother, of Paris with my aunt, of my imprisonment in the Laundries and my acts of defiance there, of my unwelcome return to my parents and my loathing of the years at Gordonstoun that had been inflicted upon me in retribution for my non-conformance. "...and now I am here, for more of the same, to become what they want me to be." "Is this what you wish, are you so weak to be broken? I do not see that in you."
I told her that I did want a degree and that I thought that I would have to conform more than a bit to earn one just as I had ground my teeth to get through the misery of school in Scotland. She laughed and told me that the joke was on my parents and then insisted that I follow her to the Universidad offices. I was stunned when she was greeted at the registrar's desk as "Profesora."
"Senora Hennessey is to be in my 9:00 am class. There will be no argument. Now, we have coffee to drink and stories to tell, " and she led me across the green park back to the cafe. "Use your name, Maureen, while you study here. Change nothing, only grow."
She waved some other women over to our table and introduced me "This is Maureen Hennessey, a rebel in our own model and a rebel by instict. Now, we must teach her why we find it necessary to rebel." Tables were pulled together, soon there were 20 women, some profesoras, some estudiantes, some grad assistants, all debating ideas, discussing authors that I had never heard of but was determined to learn of and ideas that I found myself attracted to and wanted to understand more deeply.
And a few days later, at 9:00 am, I began to. Not only in class, but in her real classroom, the cafe where I met her and where we would gather nearly daily, with our wise crone.
Rebeca.
The goddess-mother to a generation of Feminists, an out Lesbian who became my example of possibilities, the woman who saved my life.
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
Yet more proof regarding what I said last week about the religious right and their links to discredited researcher Paul CaPaul Cameron has come about via our friend (and I use that as an extreme euphemism) Peter LaBarbera and his phony Christian group American for Truth:
LaBarbera Calls for Federal Studies on the Health Risks of Homosexual Behavior
More Dangerous than Smoking? Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have an HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population and 800 times higher than first time blood donors, the FDA reports. When it comes to combating cigarettes, the government not only restricts, taxes and bans smoking, it also funds and encourages anti-smoking messages and advertisements. Given the immense health risks of male homosexual sex, shouldn’t the federal government do a comprehensive study on the matter, tax sodomitic establishments, and educate the public and especially young people about the dangers of “gay” sex?
Speaking Friday at the annual Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ conference in Edmond, OK, Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) President Peter LaBarbera called for government study on the heath risks of homosexual behavior.
LaBarbera read from a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) report explaining why “men who have sex with men” (MSM) cannot donate blood due to the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases linked to MSM. He noted that since government agencies and politicians are active in confronting the health risks of smoking (using taxpayer dollars), they should do the same for homosexual sex — especially between men — which appears to be as dangerous or more so than smoking cigarettes.
LaBarbera is linking badly. For the record, no study done by any medical group has said that homosexuality is as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. No legitimate researcher or physician has ever said this either.
But Paul Cameron has.
Unless I am inaccurate, it was Cameron who first espoused this lie in 2005.
Of course Cameron's claim was disputed by folks who have actual expertise in the area but he continued to persist with his charade.
Now in all honesty, some folks may dispute my links claiming that since they are "pro-gay" sources, they are biased.
Well another source here from the rightwing Free Republic bear up my contention that Cameron was the first to push the lie that "homosexuality is as dangerous as cigarette smoking:"
Studies have shown that years of smoking shortens the lifespan of the smoker from 1 to 7 years. But analysis of the age of death in Norway and Denmark for gays who are legally married suggests that engaging in homosexual behavior reduces the lifespan by 24 years!
So reported Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron at the annual convention of the Eastern Psychological Association on March 23.
"What justification is there for condemning smoking and endorsing homosexuality?" asked Dr. Paul Cameron, of the Family Research Institute, a Colorado-based think tank. "Today, all across the Western world, school school children are being taught the acceptability of homosexuality and the wrongness of smoking.
So the question here is not whether or not there should be research regarding the supposed health risks of homosexuality.
The question here is why would LaBarbera, who is supposed to be a Christian man, stoop to channeling the research of a total fraud?
But here is the most important thing to remember - While Paul Cameron's name may fall back on the dungheap of ridicule, his lies will always plague the lgbt community unless we call them out every time they pop up.
It’s been a little slow in coming but it looks like Republicans are finally getting the message that being outright homophobic is not the wave of the future.
This week in New York, the Republican county chairs of the 23rd congressional district tossed aside a handful of other candidates and tapped state Assemblywoman Dierdre Scozzafava to run for the seat being vacated by Rep. John McHugh, whom President Obama has nominated as Secretary of the Army.
Scozzafava is one of four GOP assemblymembers who voted to pass New York’s first marriage equality bill back in 2007 – a vote that some deemed a potential death knell in her conservative upstate district. But conventional wisdom imploded and Scozzafava ran for re-election uncontested – meaning no one thought she was vulnerable enough to lose.
In Illinois, the Senate seat kept warm by the departing Roland Burris is up for grabs and the Republican party there is eyeing Congressman Mark Kirk.
Though Kirk is not on the record for marriage equality, he co-sponsored the House’s hate crimes bill, voted for the Employment Nondiscrimination Act in 2007 and against the Federal Marriage Amendment in both 2004 and 2006.
Kirk may be assailed by some die-hard social conservatives as a traitor and a RINO (Republican In Name Only), but clearly the GOP leadership senses that he is their best hope to win back a seat from Democrats.
So is this a real trend based on the principle that TEH GAY is not so bad after all, or is it only a matter of survival for the GOP in Blue states because being virulently anti-gay is a losing POV? Eleveld quotes GOP insider Fred Malek, who writes on Red State about his top 10 Republican leaders who are making an impact (one who made the de the list is...Charlie Crist):
My fellow conservatives may not like this one, but hear me out: Unless our party can embrace a big tent policy that welcomes moderates like my friend Colin Powell, we will not win elections. In liberal-dominated Illinois, Delaware and increasingly purple Florida, we need to be open to supporting officials who can win and will support our issues most of the time, instead of electing more Democrats who will oppose us nearly all of the time.
While this is all well and good to diversify in a party in disarray that has lost big, the cautionary note in the column is that the "pro-gay" party in name only, the Democrats, are doing the flip side in the South by throwing us under the bus, trying to craft wins by fielding anti-gay, forced-birth advocate candidates who do a lot of bible-quoting and family values shilling.
This doesn't move the ball forward for equal rights at all; at the very least candidates in the South need to learn how to frame the social issues differently; the right wing groups are going to ask them anyway, so pols better get used to questions from them, as well as LGBTs who want to know a stand on the issues. We cannot make gains if the issues are not discussed publicly -- no education occurs to make progress by fielding candidate who are hostile to LGBT rights.
'Tis the season for PRIDE Festivities everyone! Listed below are this summer's upcoming PRIDE festivals around the state. Click on the image or link for more information about each festival, and make sure you show up and are PROUD!
Oregon PRIDES Calender & Information
When: August 8th from 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: Alton Baker Park in Eugene
BRO Staff in Attendence: Aubrey & Alejandro
When: August 15th from 12 p.m.-7 p.m. Where: Cascades Gateway Park in Salem
BRO Staff in Attendence: Juan
When: September 18th- 20th. Where: Various locations in Lincoln
BRO Staff in Attendence: Andrew
When: August 8th. Where: McKenzie Park in Hermiston
BRO Staff in Attendance: Jessica & Dan
If you are interested in volunteering with Basic Rights Oregon at any of these PRIDES, please contact Kyle at kyle@basicrights.org.
Don't see your city's pride here? E-mail Andrew at andrew@basicrights.org to have it added to BRO's Pride calender.www.GayTalkRadio.org
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