Andrew | Bowen | Brenner | Craig | Cresap | Deihl | Dobbs | Durgadas | Dykstra | Ehrig | Gibson | Hunt | Hutchins | Kaldera | Klopovic | Kolodny | MaryMoon | Marts | Nellhaus | Ocho | Pasta | Renee | Rosefire | Rosenthol | Canyon Sam | Schranz | Soriano | Starhawk | Threatt | Tobin | Udis-Kessler
Gary 'Beau' Bowen, is a Native American of mixed Creek Indian and Scotch-Irish descent. He is a traditional dancer, a bisexual transsexual man, and founder and Coordinator-in-chief of the American Boyz organization for female to male transgender people (ftm) and their significant others, friends, families, and allies (SOFFAS).
Ellen Terris Brenner was born in 1956 in New York City, the granddaughter of four Eastern European Jewish socialists. She earned a BA in Psychology and Social Relations from Harvard/Radcliffe in 1979, and an MDiv from Boston University School of Theology in 1989. Ordained a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1990, she served as a parish minister until she chose to resign in 1995. Ellen currently lives, plays, and writes in Seattle, Washington; her essays and short fiction have appeared in on-line and small-press venues, and she is at work on a novel.
See Ellen's essay, "Home" in Intertext Magazine.
Susan Halcomb Craig is an out bisexual pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.,) serving a "More Light" congregation [which may call, ordain, install qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual persons to church office] on the University of Southern California campus. She is an activist for justice causes and is writing her thesis for a Doctor of Ministry degree in bisexuality and spirituality.
NOTE: The following information was supplied by a visitor to this site, [email protected]. "More Light" is Presbyterian-speak for "inclusive." Churches declaring themselves to be "More Light" churches often make the declaration that they will ordain anyone called to one of the offices of the church (minister, elder, deacon)--and many of them have done so. HOWEVER, by doing so, the individual congregation and its session (governing body) is in violation of denominational policy, and is thus subject to the possibility of disciplinary action. Declaring itself to be a More Light church gives no exemption to the denomination's Book of Order, which states that "Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage of a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and sacrament." (G-6.0106b). Further information can be found at http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_pru4.htm. Also see http://mlp.org/ for background on the term "More Light."
Kelly M. Cresap, PhD, is a scholar, activist, and performance artist currently teaching drama and cultural studies at U. Tennessee-Knoxville. He has written for Seattle Gay News, Seattle Weekly, The Japan Times, Postmodern Culture, and the anthology The Queer Sixties. He leads the bisexual support group of Asheville, NC. His partner Michael has persuaded him, after years of abstinence, to try popcorn at the movies.
See Kelly's "Ride the Classics" and "Warhol and the Politics of Cultivated Postmodern Naivete".
Marcia Deihl has been a musician, writer and activist in the Cambridge area for twenty-five years. She played music in The New Harmony Sisterhood Band (1973-80) and the Oxymorons (1987-93). She co-edited All Our Lives: A Women's Songbook (Diana Press, 1976), co-wrote a chapter (with Robyn Ochs) in Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Beacon, 1992), and has contributed several music and theater reviews to Sojourner: A Women's Forum. Along with Robyn Ochs, she was a co-founder of the Boston Bisexual Women's Network (1983). Currently, she's a member of the Cambridge Lavender Alliance and a book reviewer for the Harvard Review.
Lynn Dobbs is a full-time social justice activist. He and his partner founded Partners for Peace and in that name they create opportunities for furthering personal and social transformation. He is on the board of directors of the Lambda Letters Project, the Peace Resource Center of San Diego and a volunteer with Project YANO (Youth and Non-military Opportunities). He is also an intern with the Human Awareness Institute.
Ganapati Shivananda Durgadas is a fifty-one year old mystic and fringe-culture aficionado. He has a Master's Degree in Psychology, concentrated in East/West psychotherapy and counseling. A former Substance Abuse Counselor, who is returning to community activism and organizing, he is a critic of the professional human services system for its continued virulent racism, sexism and classism.
Laurel Dykstra has lived in community most of her adult life. She is an itinerant biblical scholar and activist, currently living on the West Coast between the Tacoma, Vancouver and Victoria Catholic Worker Communities. Laurel has studied biology, feminism and theology and is currently working on some writing on Exodus, a feminist theological comic strip and the Campaign to Close the US Army School of the Americas. She supplements her lifestyle through the fine art of dumpster diving.
Some of Laurel's activities: http://www.peacenet.org/csn/199705/soapentagon.html
http://www.seattleu.edu/student/spec/10-14-99/news01.html
Greta Ehrig is an MFA student in Creative Writing at American University where she edits Folio literary journal and is a Lannan Fellow. She has served as an interim assistant editor for the Lambda Literary Foundation, where she was involved with editing Lambda Book Report and James White Review. She has published in numerous small journals, and her translations of Italian feminist poet Dacia Maraini are forthcoming in Delos.
Another work by Greta: Domestic Violence in Rural Centre County
Barbara Gibson is a retired college teacher and mental health counselor, now devoting full time to writing and learning. She will receive her D.Min degree from Matthew Fox's University of Creation Spirituality in the year 2000, which is also the year of her 70th birthday. Her dissertation consists of several short plays written for her faith community, which is an alternative, interfaith congregation in Olympia, Washington. She has two daughters, two grandchildren, and a great-grandson.
Mary E. Hunt is a Catholic feminist theologian. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland, a non-profit educational center. She is an adjunct professor of Women's Studies at Georgetown University. Mary writes and lectures widely on ethical issues based on her social activism.
Loraine Hutchins is a Washington, DC sex educator and sexual healer researching sacred sexual traditions in the U.S. today. She is co-editor of Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out, a book which helped catalyze the bisexual movement. She starred in Betty Dodson's popular first video -- Selfloving: Portrait of a Women's Sexuality Seminar, along with 9 other orgasming women. She has been a multi-issue activist and organizer for almost 30 years, co-founding AMBi-the Alliance of Multicultural Bisexuals, and BiNet USA: The National Bisexual Network in the early 90s. Most recently she founded EroSprit Sacred Sexualities Seminar series, a free, experiential public seminar series in Washington DC.
Visit Loraine's Homepage or read Loraine's essay: "Bisexuality: Politics and Community", Excerpt from the book Bisexuality: The Psychology and Politics of an Invisible Minority, edited by Beth Firestein, copyright 1996 by Sage Publications, Inc.
Raven Kaldera is a minister of the newly forming neo-pagan Hearthgrove Church, a parent, a writer, a farmer, a shaman, an intersex FTM activist, and a troublemaker. 'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.
Take a look at some of Raven's poetry.
Danny Klopovic lives in Melbourne, Australia with his partner of five years, D J Paris and their cat, Dylan. His passions are: his partner, his friends, theological studies, social justice, environmental and peace activism, and chatting on the Internet.
A signer of the Letter from Canon 1024 to Pope John Paul II concerning women's ordination.
Debra Kolodny has been an activist in faith and social justice movements for twenty years. She has been a National Coordinator for BiNet USA, a founder of several local bisexual groups, and a unionist, and is currently the facilitator of the National Religious Leadership Roundtable, a lay leader in her chavura, a writer, speaker, policy analyst, and educator. As a tai chi practicing Jew, as a bisexual feminist in an interfaith marriage with a man, as a professional consultant working to create labor management partnerships, Debra's life is a bridge between worlds.
To see another side of Deb, see Deb's Seder recipe
Pashta MaryMoon is a witch, priestess and founder of the Kairosean tradition of Wicca. She has been a practicing Quaker for 25 years, is a member of Subud (Indonesian spiritual practice) and a Wiccan lay minister in a metaphysical Christian church. She has an honours degree in World Religions and is a graduate of the lay division of Unity (church) School of Metaphysics. Pashta has been active in several social change movements and has worked as Visiting Clergy for Prisons for the Temple of the Lady and is active in inter-faith work. Pashta has been married twice, once to a man, once to a womyn, but is presently divorced and celibate by choice. She has two grown children and one grandson. She and her cat, Cerridwen, live in Victoria, B.C. Canada.
Sherry Marts is a Feminist Witch, ritualist, writer, healer, Reiki master, warrior woman and aspiring sex radical with more than ten year's study and experience in feminist Witchcraft, healing and ritual. She has facilitated workshops and taught classes in sacred sex,Wiccan ritual, energy healing, and a variety of topics related to Witchcraft and feminist spirituality. She is a Consecret in the Cella Training Program of the Women's Thealogical Institute of the Re-Formed Congregation of the Goddess -International. Her interests include exploring the Mystery of "You are Goddess" through deep friendship, fabulous sex, and rock climbing.
P. S. Nellhaus lives in Denver, Colorado, also known as the "Plain City of the Queens". While human objects of affection are subject to change, constant passions include cheesy horror films from the late 50s and early 60s, McDonald's cheeseburgers, and a fulfilling relationship with amazon.com. Email [email protected] for more information. Just don't expect a straight response.
Soror Ocho has been studying, practicing, teaching and writing on magick, mysticism and spirituality since 1977. As a former member of the Ordo Templis Orientis (O.T.O), or the Order of the Temple of the East, she studied under the tutelage of internationally renowned British author and occultist, Kenneth Grant. She has authored numerous books and articles on spirituality and is a practicing magickian and tantrica. She resides in the greater New York area where she continues to explore her spirituality, sexuality and the mysteries of the universe.
Diane Pasta is a member of Salmon Bay Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Seattle, Washington. She divides her time between being a middle school math teacher and studying, writing and speaking about faith. Her devotional writing emphasizes the practical integration of faith into busy lives, using queries to assist the reader in spiritual self-direction. Her family consists of a wife, a fifteen year old daughter, and four dogs.
Diane is involved with the Interfaith Voices of Peace and Justice and has also written
Thrifty and Rich: Quaker Paradox.
Robin Ren�e is a performing songwriter based in the Philadelphia area. A longtime activist, she currently organizes with BiZone (www.bizone.org) and BiNet USA (www.binetusa.org). Her poetry
has appeared in publications including The New York Quarterly, OUT/LOOK,
Northeast Corridor, and Inciting Desire. "In Progress," her forthcoming
full-length CD, is due to be released in June 2000.
You can visit Robin's Homepage,
(www.robinrenee.com).
Rosefire lives in a brick and stucco farmhouse in Michigan, with her husband, two children, and a dog. She is on the faculty of the University of Michigan, and has published and won awards for both her technical and research articles as well as for her poetry.
Gilly Rosenthol is a world wide web designer in Somerville, Massachusetts. She is active in Keshet, the Jewish GLBT activist group; Kolot, the Jewish GLBT speakers bureau; and is on the board of SpeakOut, the speakers bureau on sexual orientation and gender identity issues.
Here is Gilly's Homepage.
Canyon Sam, a writer, performance artist, and activist from San Francisco won acclaim across the U.S. and Canada for her first solo show, THE DISSIDENT, about her travels in China and Tibet, and her human rights work with Tibetan nuns. She has performed at the Walker Art Center, the Asia Society, the Solo Mio festival, Highways, and Women in View, Vancouver. Ms. Sam's fiction and nonfiction appears in the Shambhala Sun, the Seattle Review, and Lesbian Love Stories. Her forthcoming book is entitled One Hundred Voices of Tara: Spiritual Journey Among Tibetan Women.
Click here for or more information about Canyon Sam
And here, for information about "Capacity to Enter" as performance art:
Ann Schranz was raised Missouri Synod Lutheran in Wisconsin. She has degrees in journalism and business administration. Ann identifies as a polyamorous bisexual and is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Tampa, Florida. She is currently interested in explorations of the landscape of sexual desire as related to cultural and social evolution, in a transpersonal context.
Cheryl Soriano is a "wanna-be" writer, living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 1993 with a B.A.in Ethnic Studies. Pursuing her graduate school education is a dream she will make a reality before she leaves this earthly plane. She earns her "filthy lucre" by being a technical writer in the Silicon Valley, a job she still believes is too grown-up for her.
Here are links to Cheryl's Homepage and one of Cherl's poems, "Club Med for the Head."
Starhawk, author of The Spiral Dance, The Fifth Sacred Thing and Walking to Mercury is one of the foremost voices of the women's spirituality movement. She lives with her husband, stepchildren and Goddess children in San Francisco, where she works with the Reclaiming Collective.
For the authentic story of what Starhawk is doing these days, visit Starhawk's homepage.
A. Threatt is a candidate for the MFA in Creative Writing, fiction at the University of Maryland. She uses writing to heal and to transform images of self and of the communities of which she is a part. A 1998 Hurston/Wright Fiction Award winner, she is at work on her first novel.
Valerie Tobin is a bisexual activist and writer. She has been working, studying and advocating within the field of women's health for several years and expects to be for many more.
See Valerie's Equality Florida Rally Speech
Amanda Udis-Kessler is a writer, musician, sociologist and educator in the Boston area. Her essays on bisexuality, feminism, homophobia and religion have appeared in more than ten books and a number of journals. Amanda is an award-winning hymn writer and composer, is currently working on a doctoral dissertation on the sociology of privilege, and hopes to get to seminary at some point. Of the many blessings in her life, she is currently most grateful for the presence and love of her fabulous partner, Phoebe Lostroh.
Amanda has a band (Hunter Green) and writes for Open Hands & Whosoever, both publications on spirituality and acceptance. See below some of her other publications.
Aurora Rose Wolf is a mental health professional and spirit medium who lives on the East Coast. She keeps herself grounded by involving herself deeply in political activism for two different causes. Living on the edge of the forest, she makes time daily to seek out and appreciate the spirits of nature. She plans to devote herself to metaphysical writing in the future.