Second Gay Episcopal Bishop Ordained

From Episcopal News Service:

Two historic ministries were welcomed in a huge and joyous celebration May 15 as thousands witnessed Diane Jardine Bruce and Mary Douglas Glasspool being consecrated bishops suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

During the three-hour service at the Long Beach Arena, themed 'Rejoice!' Bruce and Glasspool were ordained and consecrated the 16th and 17th women bishops in the Episcopal Church. Bruce is the first woman to be elected a bishop in the Los Angeles diocese. Glasspool, elected Dec. 5, a day after Bruce, is the diocese's first—and the Episcopal Church's second—gay, partnered bishop.

About 30 bishops, including the Rt. Rev. Martin DeJesus Barahona of El Salvador and retired Ugandan bishop Christopher Senyonjo, attended the service.  Retired Massachusetts suffragan bishop Barbara Harris, who in 1988 became the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church and worldwide Anglican Communion, served as one of seven co-consecrating bishops. She received sustained applause and a standing ovation when Bruno paid tribute to her in his sermon. 

"It's a joy to participate in her consecration," Harris later said of Glasspool, who in 1988 nominated Harris for bishop. "We're great friends. Little did either of us know that both of us would be sitting in the House of Bishops."

"She is going to make a very good bishop," Harris added. "She's a wonderful, caring, loving, pastoral person."  New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, who in 2003 became the first openly gay, partnered bishop in the Episcopal Church, was among the bishops attending the service.

Sunday Drive: Dust in the Wind

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

So make the most of it.

Help for You Homos

Dear friend, have you been impacted by same-sex attraction issues?

Are you struggling with homosexuality?*

Do you think God doesn't want an abomination like you in church?

Do you secretly yearn to be married indissolubly to a nice, wholesome, middle-aged lady who reminds you of your mother, and have two-and-a-half kids, a picket fence, and musty-damp control-top desert-tan pantyhose draped across the shower rod every blessed morning of the rest of your life?

Well, brother, in that case get your faggot ass down to West Texas because Stonegate Fellowship, a "plant" of the Southern Baptist Church in Midland, Texas - hometown of that great American patriot, President George W. Bush - has got a real hope for you:  be a Christian, not a cocksucker. 

Golly gee, fellas, wouldn't that be swell?  You too can be a practicing heterosexual just like George Rekers Ted Haggard Larry Craig dear old Mom and Dad.

Cruise on over to Rob Tisinai's blog and catch the video now.  Be sure to read Rob's dead-on-target analysis of it while you're there.

Oh, and take a barf bag with you.  I'm just saying.

P.S. - My late husband, a native Texan himself, used to say the reason they call West Texas "God's Country" is because nobody else wants it.


* - It may be you're just not doing it right.  If unsure, call your Head Trucker for expert mentoring and, um, guidance.  Special rate for regular Blue Truck readers . . . group discounts also available.

Physician, Heal Thyself

Via Joe.My.God.:

There is a moral crime here. We are, after all, talking about men in positions of authority and reach, men who could make laws and influence public perception and who used that power against their own.

Put yourself in the shoes of the teenager, bewildered and frightened by these feelings he or she is not "supposed" to have, feelings of sexual attraction to people of the same gender. You try to deny them, try to ignore them, try to suppress them, but they will not go away. You are all alone, isolated behind a secret that presses down on you like weights, a fear of rejection that haunts you like ghosts.

And here comes Dr. Rekers telling you that you are abnormal, telling you that you are bad, telling you he can cure you, as if you had a disease like measles or the flu. Then, in his off hours, after he's done curing you, he's trolling rentboy.com looking for young men to handle his, ahem ... baggage.

That's more than hypocrisy, more even than self-loathing. It is a betrayal of one's own, a sellout of the most vulnerable. And what's sad is not just that a George Rekers would do this, but that ours is a culture that would encourage and reward such duplicity in the first place.

He purported to heal homosexuals? One is reminded of an injunction from the book of Luke: "Physician, heal thyself" (4:23). Rekers would be wise to heed that advice.  Homosexual urges are the least of his afflictions.

--Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr.

On a lighter note, via Box Turtle Bulletin:  Reker's I-am-completely-heterosexual defense was anticipated by The Onion five years ago.

Standard Time: But Not for Me

From Girl Crazy, 1943:  there's nobody can break your heart like Judy.

After the Rain

You have to imagine here, after a long, dreary day of downpours, the clear, cool freshness that comes wafting along like a sudden gift, and the sweet, homely scent of the boxwood shrubs in full bloom.

Note to the technically inclined:  someone needs to invent a scratch-n-sniff blog.

Afternoon Drive: I Want to Make You Move

Fuck Arizona, Viva Mexico!  Especially with hombres like these . . . .



Actually, um, I'd like to . . . oh never mind.

See you down the road, fellas.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Oh all right, here's your damn cowboy.  Don't spend him all in one place.

Change Dribbles In

Republican women seem to be getting it; you remember John McCain's wife took part in a photo shoot supporting equal marriage a few months ago.  Now this from Laura Bush:



Where the women go, the men always follow.  Eventually.  It's a straight thing.

People who say Laura should have spoken up while her husband was in the White House are simply immature, juvenile in judgment - and probably have never been married.  It wasn't her job to pick a public fight with her husband over any political issue, was it? 

You know guys, we need to take our allies wherever and whenever we find them, and not be overrighteous, ungrateful, bitchy queens about it.  You want to have a friend, you have to be a friend, my mama always said.

And across the water, this startling fact from Andrew Sullivan:  11 members of the now-governing Conservative party are gay and out.  Here we have only 3 openly gay congresspeeps, all Dems.  Wonder when we will ever see the first out gay Republican in national office?

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Lifeboat, Red River, and Niagara

No, this is not about watersports.  Just catching up on some of Steve Hayes' priceless reviews.  First it's Tallulah, dahling, in one of my favorite Hitchcock films:



Next, wish I had been the one to ask Monty Clift, "Nice gun, can I see it?"



And if you've never seen Marilyn at the height of her beauty in Niagara - do.  You won't be sorry.

Thinking Things Through

Sometimes you just need to close the door, get out of your day clothes, and be alone in your own space to sort stuff out.  Not something anybody else can do for ya.

Appreciate the kind comments and emails, guys.  I'll be back on track soon.  I hope.