{"id":4843,"date":"2010-04-30T00:00:27","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T05:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=4843"},"modified":"2017-06-22T11:32:17","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T16:32:17","slug":"diversity-rally-calls-for-equal-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2010\/04\/30\/diversity-rally-calls-for-equal-gay-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity rally calls for equal gay rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A rainbow of balloons on a platform stage dominated the courtyard in front of Building 7.\u00a0 The BriTe SiGnaL Alliance, a student club at Sinclair Community College, hosted their first annual diversity rally on April 29. \u00a0Gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight and transgender people from the school and beyond gathered for four hours to promote equality for all.<\/p>\n

Speaking out<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several prominent community leaders spoke out about the need for equal rights for the gay community.\u00a0 Dayton Board of Education member Joe Lacey recounted the difficulty he and his partner Tony Ballis had adopting a daughter together.\u00a0 City Commissioner Nan Whaley spoke about the importance of being an ally, or a heterosexual person who supports the homosexual community.<\/p>\n

Some of the most powerful stories came from student speakers.\u00a0 Some of BriTe SiGnaL\u2019s student members spoke candidly about their experiences in or with the gay community.\u00a0 Mental Health student Tim Kriswell spoke openly about being HIV positive and club secretary Christopher Perkins recalled being threatened in high school, physically abused and the day his mother called him a faggot.<\/p>\n

\u201cBriTe SiGnaL Alliance is here to promote tolerance for the LGBT community and keep things like this from happening to other people like me,\u201d Perkins said.<\/p>\n

Dissenting voices<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone agreed on the topic of homosexuality.\u00a0 During the rally, Judah Marx, a member of Kai Alpha, preached to students in the courtyard as part of his regular evangelical outreach efforts on campus.\u00a0 The group was not there to protest the rally, Marx said.\u00a0 He said they speak in the courtyard every Thursday and just happened to be present during the rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not bigots, we do not hate gay people,\u201d said Gustave Bizimana, a member of the group.<\/p>\n

Around 12:30 p.m. Sinclair police, who had been present since the rally started at 10 a.m., told Marx he had to stop speaking and leave the courtyard.\u00a0 The police told Marx he was not breaking any laws, but he was being taken away according to school policy.\u00a0 The officers refused to say what the specific policy was despite being asked numerous times by group members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not tell us the policy,\u201d Bizimana said.\u00a0 \u201cWe have the right to be there.\u00a0 We have the freedom of speech.\u00a0 That was a public area, and (Marx\u2019s) rights were violated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other religious views<\/strong><\/p>\n

Marx did not speak for all Christians at the rally, though.\u00a0 Vicki Massman, who teaches religion at Sinclair, attended the rally as an openly bisexual woman.\u00a0 Massman said she has studied what the Bible says about homosexuality on several levels from multiple points of view.\u00a0 She believes that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.\u00a0 She also thinks many people who oppose homosexuality are afraid of the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding something is not the same thing as embracing something,\u201d Massman said.\u00a0 \u201cI think sometimes people confuse that and because of that they\u2019re afraid to investigate these sensitive issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaker Reverand Lawrence Rezash, former president of the Dayton chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), also addressed homosexuality from a religious standpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a United Church of Christ minister,\u201d Rezash said.\u00a0 \u201cI deplore religious groups and organizations who discriminate against all of you based on the Bible.\u00a0 Jesus, as I said earlier, loved everyone unconditionally, and that\u2019s why he was crucified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Club thanks supporters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Club vice president Sean Watkins closed the event with thanks to the speakers and a call for equal gay rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope today that we were able to maybe not change minds, but change some perceptions,\u201d Watkins said.\u00a0 \u201cGLBT people are just that\u2014we\u2019re people.\u00a0 We don\u2019t ask for special rights, only equal rights, the same rights afforded to everyone in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

For photos of the event, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rainbow of balloons on a platform stage dominated the courtyard in front of Building 7.\u00a0 The BriTe SiGnaL Alliance, a student club at Sinclair Community College, hosted their first annual diversity rally on April 29. \u00a0Gay, lesbian, bisexual, straight and transgender people from the school and beyond gathered for four hours to promote equality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1135,488,1134,708,1976,30],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-civil-rights","tag-club","tag-equal-rights","tag-gay","tag-meagan-ewton","tag-rally"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-1g7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4843"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10077,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions\/10077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}