In the light, Fall 1999

              V
\
i I
/
Fall 1999, Volume 2, No. 2
IN
IGHT
My Path
Beyond Prejudice
PFLGC Marches in Pride Event
z
by Fred Cothern
For most of my life I
have held strong feelings against homosexuality. It's taken me
years to let go of the
prejudices I learned
as a child and as a
P
young man.
When I was a young person
growing up in the hills of North
Carolina in the 40s and early 50s, no
topic related to sexuality was considered acceptable conversation. I never heard sex
of any kind discussed —
not in personal conversations and not at
church, except when the
preacher would say
something like, "Men
shouldn't take up with
loose women." The
preacher also made it
clear that sexual activity
was supposed to produce children. But that was it.
Homosexuality, as such, was never
discussed by anyone at any time in
my presence-contjmeci on page 2, column 1
Fred Cothern
— growing up
in Cherokee
County near
the Nantahala
Gorge.
Inside	
Page 3 — Building Bridges — an
outreach to churches
Page 3 —   There's no such thing as
an ex-gay
Page 5 — Jerry Falwell apologizes
to gays
Several members of Piedmont Friends for Lesbian
Gay Concerns show off the banner they carried in
Pride inarch. Several PFLG members were
peacekeepers for the event.
Downtown Greensboro's
Governmental Plaza had never seen
such a riot of rainbow balloons rising
in a 15-foot multicolored arch at the
entrance to the NC Pride rally on
Sunday, June 6. And an equally full
contingent of PFLGC members and
supporters were there, cheered on by
bystanders as we carried our new
banner, "Quakers for Equality."
Telling Our Stories.
and
the
More than 50 other local,
regional and national organization were there, too, along with
3000 participants who showed
their support for the 30-year
old gay rights movement.
At mid-day, Pride participants were welcomed by
Greensboro Mayor Carolyn
Allen and other local, state and
national officials. Festivities
included singers and speakers
from around the country.
An early morning worship service on Sunday was organized by
members of New Garden Meeting,
Metropolitan Community Church
and Temple Emanuel. Rabbi Fred
Guttman from Temple Emanuel wrote
a midrish which was read at the service. About sixty people attended,
including the Rev. Richard Groves of
Wake Forest Baptist Church.
See related story about
Faith Communities on page 3
Straight Father/Gay Son
by the Rev. Edward Heath
On March 5,1996 my son Mike
called and said he wanted to come
and talk to his mother and me. Since
his birthday was March 11, we
planned a meal with some of his
favorite foods. We knew he was worried about something because he ate
very little, and this wasn't like him.
After the meal, we went into the
living room. As soon as we were seated, he moved to the edge of his seat
and blurted out, as if he were giving
birth to the words," What I wanted to
talk to you about
is that I am gay."
Even though
we had suspected
this, we were not
ready to hear it.
We felt awkward,
but Ruth and I
told Mike we
loved him. He was
our boy. He was
still the same person, and this
The Rev. Edward
Heath
continued on page 4