The Pridelets Files for October 22

On this day in 1998, "With grief we must tell you that as long as you are living as a homosexual, you, of course, would not be welcome on the campus and would be arrested for trespassing if you did visit," announces a letter from the dean of students to graduates of Greenville, South Carolina's Bob Jones University. Once it's revealed that the Religious Right colleges' threat threatens their tax exempt status, they do relent and allow grads access to the school's art museum.

BIRTHGAYS (and the occasional straights)
* 1844 - French actress / diva Henriette Rosine Bernard AKA Sarah Bernhardt
* 1870 - Uranian poet Lord Alfred Bruce "Boise" Douglas, friend and lover to Oscar Wilde
* 1887 - American Communist poet John "Jack" Silas Reed
* 1925 - Abstract painter, sculptor, and graphic artist Robert Rauschenberg
* 1935 - Homoerotic, naturalistic artist Delmas Howe
* 1949 - Gay Insurgent founder, activist Daniel Tsang
* 1955 - "Kinsey" and "Dreamgirls" filmmaker and screenwriter William "Bill" Condon
* 1959 - Film, television and theatre composer, lyricist, arranger and performer Marc Shaiman

Q.UOTE
"It’s tragic that extremists co-opt the notion of God, and that hipsters and artists reject spirituality out of hand. I don’t have a fixed idea of God. But I feel that it’s us – the messed-up, the half-crazy, the burning, the questing – that need God, a lot more than the goody-two-shoes do." -- Mike Doughty

THE BEDSIDE TABLE
"Sons Of The Church: The Witnessing Of Gay Catholic Men" by Thomas Stevenson
"How can you be gay and Catholic?"
Sons Of The Church: The Witnessing Of Gay Catholic Men spotlights testimonials from over forty gay Catholic men to address this vexing question. This thoughtful, surprisingly reverent book is the answer for those gay readers who long for a religious connection, as well as for Catholic readers and those in pastoral positions who want and need to hear the stories of gay people firsthand. Dr. Thomas Stevenson, who received degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Boston College, and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, analyzes the many dimensions of being gay and Catholic, at the same time providing a powerful and convincing criticism of Church teaching on homosexuality.

This work is copyright© 2006 Thomas Allen Heald, all rights reserved. Contact the author at tom@idontgetit.org and the latest column are always available at www.Pridelets.com.