National Coming Out Day - October 5-12
This week's activities are co-sponsored by YSUnity (YSU’s gay-straight
alliance), Mahoning Valley Pride Center, Youngstown PFLAG (Parents,
Friends & Families of Lesbians and Gays), Utopia Video Night Club,
Campus Recreation and Student Programming and the First Unitarian
Universalist Church. Please see schedule for specific activities,
sponsors and locations.

For Immediate Release

Community Groups Observe the 10 Year Anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s Murder

October 5, 2008, Youngstown, OH―A collaborative of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgender activists and allies will observe the 10 year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder with a candlelight vigil on Sunday, October 12. The public is invited to attend the vigil, which will begin on the steps of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown at 6 p.m.

The vigil will include the reading of a letter from Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother. Robert Dennick Joki, director and performer from the Oakland Center for Arts, will perform a musical tribute, and award-winning local author of One For Sorrow, Christopher Barzak, will perform a dramatic reading. Reverend Martha Munson of the First Unitarian Universalist Church will open the observance, and well-known local peace activist and retired Presbyterian Minister, Reverend Jim Ray, will lead the closing meditation.

Ten years ago, MatthewShepard, a University of Wyoming student, was savagely beaten, pistol- whipped, and left to die tied to a deer fence on a rural road near Laramie, Wyoming. The attack happened sometime in the late hours of October 6 or the early hours of October 7, 1998. He died from severe head injuries on October 12, 1998. Shepard’s assailants were quickly identified, and they immediately put forth a “gay panic” defense, claiming that Shepard’s sexual identity was the motive for their attack on him. The brutality and rage behind the murder of Matthew Shepard sparked a national debate about Hate Crimes Legislation that continues to this day.

Following the vigil, attendees are invited to meet for fellowship and to reflect on what Shepard has come to symbolize for the GLBT equality movement at a dessert pot luck in the church’s Channing Hall.

This event is co-sponsored by YSUnity (YSU’s gay-straight alliance), Mahoning Valley Pride Center, Youngstown PFLAG (Parents, Friends & Families of Lesbians and Gays), Utopia Video Night Club, and the First Unitarian Universalist Church. 

For more information, check out our website www.mvprideweek.com or contact Brian Wells at bpwells@ysu.edu or at 330-941-2308. 

For Immediate Release

Religious Leaders Discuss Sexuality and Scripture

October 5, 2008, Youngstown Ohio―Is the Bible an excuse to hate? This is the question posed by the award-winning documentary, For the Bible Tells Me So. The film will be shown on Wednesday October 8 as a part of National Coming Out Week. The viewings of the film are scheduled at 12-3 p.m. in YSU’s Kilcawley Center, Presidential Suites and at 6-9 p.m. at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Youngstown. Each viewing will be followed by a Faith and LGBT Identity discussion moderated by Donna Maree, a priest from the Christ Episcopal Church.

Discussion panelists include local religious leaders Jim Schimmel and Jeremiah Williamson, of the Disciples of Christ and Episcopal churches, respectively, as well as Dr. “Tess” Tessier, Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at YSU.

For the Bible Tells Me So explores the lives of five American Christian families. According to forthebibletellsmeso.org:

Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American families―including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson ―we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, For the Bible Tells Me So offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.

The documentary was awarded the Kathleen Bryan Edwards award for Human Rights and the HBO, the Seattle Film Festival, and the Outfest Audience Awards in 2007. It was nominated for a Sundance Grand Jury Prize in the same year.

This event is co-sponsored by YSUnity (YSU’s gay-straight alliance), Mahoning Valley Pride Center, Youngstown PFLAG (Parents, Friends & Families of Lesbians and Gays), Utopia Video Night Club, and the First Unitarian Universalist Church. 

For more information, check out our website at www.mvprideweek.com or contact Brian Wells at bpwells@ysu.edu or at 330-941-2308. 

Top of page

Lift Assistive is a UsableNet product. Lift Assistive Main Page.