Green Jello Hotdish

A female couple emerged from the Milwaukee County Courthouse yesterday as wife and wife. The hitch: one of the women is still a man.

Circuit Judge David Hansher confirmed with doctors that Barbara Lynn Terry possesses male genitalia and thus her marriage with new wife Nicole Winstanley is not prohibited under Wisconsin’s new same-sex marriage ban.

Barbara Terry legally changed her name from Ronald Francis Terry in 1980. Nicole Terry recently moved to Milwaukee from Melbourne, Australia after meeting Barbara on an Internet dating site.

I even have to admit things sound a bit weird. You see, when Barbara was Ronald, he was convicted in 1970 for rape. In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Barbara says she has never felt any attraction to women. Nicole, on the other hand, is repulsed at Barbara’s, er, “maleness” and wants sex reassignment surgery as soon as possible.

Madison attorney and director for the family law project at the University of Wisconsin Law School Leslie Shear says the newlyweds should move to Massachusetts pending immigration visa decisions — it’s the only place where their new marriage will be valid post-op.

Last night a group of anti-war protesters got together on Oakland Ave and ruffed up an army recruiting station. The Journal Sentinel reports 21 were arrested following the mess.

Indymedia broke the news with pictures from the protest — which were featured on the 10:00 TMJ4 news along with their live standup on Oakland. The point of any protest, obviously, is to get the media focused on you for a minute or five. But the key response to this came from a commenter, Steve, over on Indymedia. I can’t summarize it better myself, so I’ll just let him finish the post:

Big Deal
20.03.2007 - 07:41
Congrats, kiddies. You got some ink. You broke some windows. That should bring the troops home any day now, huh?

You guys are angry, and I can relate, anyone who’s been awake for the last four years (not too many, sadly) is angry.

And having broken a window or two I am not about to rip you guys for doing the same.

But getting all dressed up and playing guerrilla ninja protest warrior is the easy part.

Now what are you going to do?

Just being loud and breaking stuff may make you feel good and may draw the attention of the lapdog media for a few seconds.

But now what do you do?

Yeah, right, dude, the people will see you’re pissed. That’s like, so incredibly interesting. Put that together with two bucks and you can buy a cup of coffee at Willow Creek.

The challenge is to come up with something that serves an interest that’s broader and more worthwhile than letting you blow off steam and making you feel good. Otherwise you’re just like those losers who break windows on State Street in Madison every time a sports team wins a big game.

What are you going to do?

C’mon, don’t be shy.

The Twin Cities got its first taste of light rail transit a few years ago with the opening of the Hiawatha Line. This was after decades of fighting to build a rail system in the region over the complaints of suburbs — which were the recipients of some of the original design developments in the early 1980s.

Now, they’re the head cheerleaders to build light rail to their region.

I’m all for transit, and I believe it’s long overdue in the ‘Cities, but will someone check western Hennepin County leaders for brain malfunction?

Vice President for Governmental Affairs the Rev. Rick Cizik at the National Association of Evangelicals, and the organization itself, are under fire from those within their own contingency for calling on Christians to fight against climate change spurring global warming.

You see, it’s deflecting attention from sanctity of life issues. I suspect that bad “L” word is being spoken of. In fact, I know so. But I digress.

According to this Washington Post report, Cizik is now primary apostate from the ranks which include the likes of Jim Dobson, Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer.

“Cizik and others,” they said, “are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children.”

Worse, they smeared Cizik because he had expressed concern about the size of world’s population in a speech last year at the World Bank. “We ask,” they wrote, “how is population control going to be achieved if not by promoting abortion, the distribution of condoms to the young, and, even by infanticide in China and elsewhere?”

They must have forgotten the children they encourage are going to need those unnecessary things like clean air and water along with dry land and a temperable climate. (You can read the whole letter here.)

The NAE has been a big player in the GOP victories of 2000 and 2004 and once again become a household name among liberalati and moderates since the release of the movie Jesus Camp, then again right before the 2006 midterms when ousted president Ted Haggard was outed paying for more than a massage with a Denver man in October.

On one side of the coin — the cynical side — I wonder how much the renewed interest in “return[ing] to being people who are known for [their] love and care for our fellow human beings and the Earth” is a calculated effort to climb back to good graces with the church-going public. But as a professional church worker experiencing the growing dissatisfaction with organized church and its political ties, the entire Christian community regardless of denomination, theology or polity are needing to reevaluate our standing within our gospel mandate to love and serve one another. On both sides, our motivation needs to hold up to Christ’s example of impoverished response to creation.

Having the weight of the NAE behind the fight to reverse the effects of global warming, no matter its motivation, demonstrates the notion of yet another reformation to go back to the core principles of our Christian faith: And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. -1 Corinthians 13:13 (NRSV)

Anyone from the upper Midwest will attest to competition between states. I frequently declare myself a Minnesota expatriate, banished to the land of Wisconsin. When push comes to shove, Minnesota wins.

And apparently, Minnesota wins more frequently than Wisconsin.

A report today released by a group of business leaders across the state delivered news of a Wisconsin underperforming neighbors Illinois and Minnesota, particularly in job growth and education.

Although Wisconsin churns out students with high college entrance exam scores, they apparently leave when they graduate from college. Only 25% of the state’s population has at least a bachelor’s degree, less than the U.S. average of 27.7%. In Minnesota, 34% of the population is college-educated.

In Gov. Doyle’s State of the State address, he spoke of the state’s need to intervene in the crisis in Milwaukee. And it is a crisis. Milwaukee is the state’s largest city and economic hub. It is the city and region through which business leaders are introduced to Wisconsin. Yet only 12.3% of the population over age 25 has at least a bachelor’s degree. At 20.7%, the population of college dropouts is striking.

The report wasn’t all doom and gloom, but it demonstrated stagnant action on the part of state economic indicators. The lack of growth combined with troubling education stats is a perfect recipe for future disaster. Rather than focusing on problems at Mayfair, it’s time to have a real discussion — with real solutions — to work toward fixing the problems that plague Milwaukee.

Of course, the Minnesotan in me will keep welcoming the move to that great state.

When I get to the office in the morning, I chat with Jane (our receptionist) for a little while before clearing my way through the brush to find my desk. Morning tea, phone mail and computer startup later, I double-check a number of sites and blogs.

• Church Marketing Sucks. I’ve linked to CMS for a while on the blogroll, but I really can’t tell you how much I enjoy checking in on the discussion here. If you’re a church communicator, this should be one of your top bookmarks.
• PeaceBang’s Beauty Tips for Ministers. Alright, so I’m not rostered clergy, but I do take communication as a ministry and I am a public face. While I admit there are a number of days when, after a major event or the like, I’ll show up to my office in ratty jeans, sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt, I think there is a lot of truth in “fighting frumpiness” from PeaceBang.
• The Lutheran. Check in on their blog and news from around the ELCA.
• World Faith News. It’s not so much an online thing as I am subscribed to their e-mail listserv, but it’s a great roundup of the worldwide American abroad faith community.
• Moravian Daily Texts. Subscribe to receive one of the world’s best ecumenical Bible readings on a daily basis.
• Be Still and Know… From Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in Indianapolis, this daily blog is a great resource for quiet time before a crazy day in the office.

Of course, don’t forget our own Web site. And if I know we’re going to be on public radio or in the newspaper that day, or a quick roundup to see if any of our members or leaders are there.

When news broke of the illegal bingo ring at Southridge, I couldn’t believe that they had finally done it: they found another group to pick on other than the nerdowells at Mayfair. Little old ladies and men playing bingo. Because we all know that’s a terroristic training cell if there ever was one.

The objectors were the churches, although the article wasn’t clear if it was churches against bingo or those who play bingo weekly to support their budget. No matter who it is these people need to get a life. Chief among them (no pun intended) is Greendale police chief Rob Dams, who feels it’s more important for strict legal interpretation than common sense.

“I called the head of Boston Store security and told him that either this stops right at this moment or we start making arrests,” Police Chief Rob Dams said.

Does anyone make demands like that, really? If you’re the king of England, I guess possibly, but a suburban chief of police? In case he hasn’t learned by now, it doesn’t look good for your department or community if you start handcuffing 88-year-old folks and their walkers.

In his own defense, he did recognize later in the article that the bingo games are small potatoes. But we also learn that the games have been going on for more than 20 years with a feature newspaper article from 2002 highlighting the playful games framed near the entrance. Was there an ongoing investigation since 1984?

And now here comes the battle of wits in Madison. Mary Lazich, the Republican senator from New Berlin whose district includes Southridge, is outraged and thinks the games were legal and if they weren’t they should be made legal. Greendale Republican Rep. Jeff Stone blames Boston Store for not doing its homework and doesn’t feel the state should play any part.

(If you pull up Rep. Stone’s picture from the Legislature, he even looks like a mean, grumpy old man who would take away senior’s fun.)

The head of the state’s Division of Gaming, said he saw an ad in the local shopper for the bingo games. But wait, didn’t the police chief say churches complained? I think something else is going on here, and none of it smells like roses.

While the state figures out which way is up, let the games go on. Let the regulars have something to look forward to. By the state’s own magic three criteria — prize, game of chance, and cost — even a mother and child playing bingo at home is illegal. The prize is extra dessert at dinner tonight. Bingo’s a game of chance. And the cost was incurred by the mother buying the game and ice cream. How ridiculous are we going to have to be?

The Human Race…
I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didnt have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends im a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to “teach me a lesson”

IT IS WRONG TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS AND DENY THEM THE SAME RIGHTS EVERYONE ELSE ENJOYS.

(Original post here)