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Gay Arts Center Targeted by Homophobic Zealots
by Sura Faraj
The sidewalk outside the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, which was the featured gallery for Gallery Night and Day, was the stage used by rightwing Christian homophobes to showcase their ideology. On Friday, April 15, during Gallery Night, a handful of members of Wisconsin Christians United (WCU) -- all men -- set up a protest on the corner of 2nd and Pierce Streets.
Carrying signs that said, “Homosexuality is a sin” and “Christ can set you free,” four men stood outside unsuccessfully trying to persuade gallery attendees to take biblical tracts entitled “What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality.”
Paul Masterson, curator of the Gay Arts Center took some quick photos while gallery visitors enjoyed the art. Masterson had a concerned but creative attitude and noted that the protest helped to call attention to the Gay Arts Center and LGBT issues. He said, “It keeps us aware, it makes people aware that we’re not accepted and that we have to confront the reality of those who are trying to deny us rights.”
One of the protestors, armed with a bible, insisted that “Jesus said, ‘Marriage is between one man and one woman.’” He tried in vain to find the nonexistent verse. (What Jesus actually spoke out about, and against, was divorce. -- Matthew 19:3-12)
Masterson says, “This isn’t the message of Christ. If anything it’s totally contradictory to it. If you’re actually living a Christian life, you’re out there loving others and not judging them.”
The tract that protestors were handing out was slick and professional, printed on glossy paper with a stylized design. It’s clear at first glance that it is coming from a well-funded organization, yet it contains the unpolished rhetoric and out-of-context quoting of selected verses from both the Old and the New Testaments typical of extremist Christian literature.
The tract, written by the self-titled Pastor Ralph Ovadal, who heads both WCU and the unlicensed Pilgrim Covenant Church in Monroe, Wis., calls for recriminalizing homosexual acts.
A search of WCU’s Web site gives an unambiguously clear understanding of what this group believes. One piece, “Is Someone You Know a Bugger?” argues against using the terms “gay” and “lesbian” and for the use of “sodomite” and “bugger.” Ovadal’s reason? He wants to “frame the debate,” and so he gives definitions: Bugger: One guilty of the crime against nature. A vile wretch. Buggery: That unnatural and detestable crime of carnal intercourse of man or woman with a beast; or of human beings unnaturally with each other. Sodomy.
Another tract is entitled “A Little Discrimination Can Be a Good Thing.” In it, Ovadal compares homosexuality to bestiality. “Almost no one would condone a law which would force landlords to rent to those who engage in bestiality or a statute which would require employers to hire drug addicts.” He continues with over-the-top claims comparing gay people with Jeffrey Dahmer.
In “Rape, Murder and Homosexuality,” Ovadal compares “sodomites” to cannibals. He credits the conqueror/oppressor Cortez (referring to him as an “explorer”) with writing that “the blood-encrusted Aztec priests who spent their days brutally murdering human sacrifices to the Aztec gods were sodomites who found time to engage in a few other pursuits such as cannibalism.” He asks, “Why on the average do homosexuals tend toward violence so much more than the rest of mankind?”
Ovadal doesn’t limit his protests to gay people. His targets include abortion, the Catholic Church, and nudists. On the recent death of the Pope, Ovadal wrote, “That the pope and his church are evil is an understatement.”
Undaunted by ineffectual protests, the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center will continue with the present show through May. The show highlights three Milwaukee-specific panels of the AIDS quilt and art by Steve Slaske, Maureen Kane, Ross Johnston and Jef Raasch in diverse media exploring loss, remembrance, compassion, passion and life.
A Pride Art show will open on PrideFest eve, Friday, June 10, and will showcase the work of Christine Taylor, photography; Joe Simon, acrylic paintings; Ross Johnston, three-dimensional tiered constructions; and Greg Jacobson, multi-media painted images.
Also, in June, RSVP Productions brings “Twilight of the Golds” to the stage, and in August, Uncommon Theatre presents “Naked Boys Singing.”
In addition to art shows, the Gay Arts Center is the location of Monday night yoga classes, the “check-in” location for the LGBT Center’s Rainbow Tour of Homes on June 18 in the Walker’s Point neighborhood, and the host of various other events of interest to the queer community. The Gay Arts Center is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sura Faraj is a writer, organizer, activist, poet and flag dancer. She calls Riverwest home and headquarters for action.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Sura Faraj at sfaraj@queerlifenews.com
by Sura Faraj
The sidewalk outside the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center, which was the featured gallery for Gallery Night and Day, was the stage used by rightwing Christian homophobes to showcase their ideology. On Friday, April 15, during Gallery Night, a handful of members of Wisconsin Christians United (WCU) -- all men -- set up a protest on the corner of 2nd and Pierce Streets.
Carrying signs that said, “Homosexuality is a sin” and “Christ can set you free,” four men stood outside unsuccessfully trying to persuade gallery attendees to take biblical tracts entitled “What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality.”
Paul Masterson, curator of the Gay Arts Center took some quick photos while gallery visitors enjoyed the art. Masterson had a concerned but creative attitude and noted that the protest helped to call attention to the Gay Arts Center and LGBT issues. He said, “It keeps us aware, it makes people aware that we’re not accepted and that we have to confront the reality of those who are trying to deny us rights.”
One of the protestors, armed with a bible, insisted that “Jesus said, ‘Marriage is between one man and one woman.’” He tried in vain to find the nonexistent verse. (What Jesus actually spoke out about, and against, was divorce. -- Matthew 19:3-12)
Masterson says, “This isn’t the message of Christ. If anything it’s totally contradictory to it. If you’re actually living a Christian life, you’re out there loving others and not judging them.”
The tract that protestors were handing out was slick and professional, printed on glossy paper with a stylized design. It’s clear at first glance that it is coming from a well-funded organization, yet it contains the unpolished rhetoric and out-of-context quoting of selected verses from both the Old and the New Testaments typical of extremist Christian literature.
The tract, written by the self-titled Pastor Ralph Ovadal, who heads both WCU and the unlicensed Pilgrim Covenant Church in Monroe, Wis., calls for recriminalizing homosexual acts.
A search of WCU’s Web site gives an unambiguously clear understanding of what this group believes. One piece, “Is Someone You Know a Bugger?” argues against using the terms “gay” and “lesbian” and for the use of “sodomite” and “bugger.” Ovadal’s reason? He wants to “frame the debate,” and so he gives definitions: Bugger: One guilty of the crime against nature. A vile wretch. Buggery: That unnatural and detestable crime of carnal intercourse of man or woman with a beast; or of human beings unnaturally with each other. Sodomy.
Another tract is entitled “A Little Discrimination Can Be a Good Thing.” In it, Ovadal compares homosexuality to bestiality. “Almost no one would condone a law which would force landlords to rent to those who engage in bestiality or a statute which would require employers to hire drug addicts.” He continues with over-the-top claims comparing gay people with Jeffrey Dahmer.
In “Rape, Murder and Homosexuality,” Ovadal compares “sodomites” to cannibals. He credits the conqueror/oppressor Cortez (referring to him as an “explorer”) with writing that “the blood-encrusted Aztec priests who spent their days brutally murdering human sacrifices to the Aztec gods were sodomites who found time to engage in a few other pursuits such as cannibalism.” He asks, “Why on the average do homosexuals tend toward violence so much more than the rest of mankind?”
Ovadal doesn’t limit his protests to gay people. His targets include abortion, the Catholic Church, and nudists. On the recent death of the Pope, Ovadal wrote, “That the pope and his church are evil is an understatement.”
Undaunted by ineffectual protests, the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center will continue with the present show through May. The show highlights three Milwaukee-specific panels of the AIDS quilt and art by Steve Slaske, Maureen Kane, Ross Johnston and Jef Raasch in diverse media exploring loss, remembrance, compassion, passion and life.
A Pride Art show will open on PrideFest eve, Friday, June 10, and will showcase the work of Christine Taylor, photography; Joe Simon, acrylic paintings; Ross Johnston, three-dimensional tiered constructions; and Greg Jacobson, multi-media painted images.
Also, in June, RSVP Productions brings “Twilight of the Golds” to the stage, and in August, Uncommon Theatre presents “Naked Boys Singing.”
In addition to art shows, the Gay Arts Center is the location of Monday night yoga classes, the “check-in” location for the LGBT Center’s Rainbow Tour of Homes on June 18 in the Walker’s Point neighborhood, and the host of various other events of interest to the queer community. The Gay Arts Center is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sura Faraj is a writer, organizer, activist, poet and flag dancer. She calls Riverwest home and headquarters for action.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Sura Faraj at sfaraj@queerlifenews.com
