Gay bars are often designed specifically for cis, white men, she said, and when that’s also the lens through which much of LGBTQ+ culture and politics is filtered, there’s a need for concepts that offer something different. These customers become family members.”Įrica Rose, co-creator of the Lesbian Bar Project, sees spaces that cater to women, non-binary and transgender people as essential. “There’s so much more to running that bar than having 10 employees and customers coming through. So coming into a queer space like I have and the ones that are remaining, you find your new family there,” she said. “A lot of people don’t have family because they’re rejected by their family. Read about the meth abuse in the gay community on Cindy’s blog at /rodriguez.Ĭindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Sundays.Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
It’s a good question for ex-pastor Ted Haggard. If you are going to criticize this community for being unstable then why on Earth would you not do something to fix it instead of enabling it to continue the way it is?” “Even when I was in the closet I didn’t understand the bigotry. “I think we have to look to the future for sure and try not to think this is the end of the road, because I do believe we are evolving and moving positively towards inclusion and accepting diversity as it really is, but we have a long way to go to help people understand we are human beings like anyone else,” Bigner said. Another ballot initiative that passed means Colorado will have an amendment to the state constitution banning same-gender marriage.īigner, a retired therapist and professor of Colorado State University who now edits the Journal of GLBT Family Studies, a quarterly for academics, is disappointed with the outcome of the election but he knows society is becoming more enlightened. Yes, the vote on Referendum I, which would have allowed gay couples to enter into domestic partnerships, was close. He said his partner “loves me in a way I’ve never been loved in my life.” Bigner asked that I not publish his partner’s name because his partner works for a “homophobic company.”Īnd from the looks of last week’s election, Bigner’s life journey will continue to be tough because he lives in a homophobic state. Bigner and his partner have been together ever since 17 years and counting. They met in 1989 through a personal ad in Out Front Colorado, the same newspaper Jones used to advertise his services. Gay people had few rights they were not protected from workplace discrimination.īigner craved stability, but it took four years to meet the man of his dreams. The evangelical movement was on the rise. He divorced his wife – who is still his best friend – and they shared joint custody of their three then school-age children. Bigner finally realized he had to undo his life of lies. It was charade.”ĭuring Bigner’s midlife crisis, his father died. The psychiatrist would talk about the joys of heterosexuality, about how a life of homosexuality would mean being alone for the rest of my life,” Bigner told me. “My dad would sit in on some of the sessions. Haggard, who preached that homosexuality is a sin, is now undergoing a church-based “restoration process.”īigner’s dad forced him into a similar therapy when he was 15, back in 1959 when homosexuality was listed as a mental illness by the American Medical Association. In some ways Bigner’s story parallels that of Ted Haggard, the former head of the 30 million-member National Association of Evangelicals who was renounced by his church after admitting “sexual immorality.” The admission came after Mike Jones, a gay prostitute, alleged that Haggard paid him for meth-fueled sex over a three-year period.Įvangelical Christian fundamentalists believe that people choose to be gay and that therapy can undo homosexuality. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu