Peterson Toscano's A Musing

Towards the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected on the Black Civil Rights struggle, the successes, and the long road ahead. In his final book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, he wrote, Photo by Chris on Pexels "And so being a Negro in America is not a comfortable existence. It means being a part of the company of the bruised, the battered, the scarred, and the defeated. Being a Negro in America means trying to smile when you want to cry. It means trying to hold on to physical life amid psychological death. It means the pain of watching your children grow up with clouds of inferiority in their mental skies. It means having your legs cut off and then being condemned for being a cripple. It means seeing your mother and father spiritually murdered by the slings and arrows of daily exploitations, and then being hated for being an orphan. Being a Negro in America means listening to suburban politicians talk eloquently against open housing whi...

I f you like podcasts, you are in luck. Quaker podcasts and video channels have grown over the past few years. Here are links to some of them. Quakers Today podcast, a monthly short podcast that reveals what today's Quakers are thinking, feeling, and doing. It is a project of Friends Journal The show includes listeners' responses to monthly questions. Thee Quaker , A Weekly Quaker Podcast for Seekers, Quakers, and Everyone in Between The Seed Conversations for Radical Hope is a bi-monthly podcast out of Pendle Hill retreat center. This seasons theme is about Love and Power. Quake it Up is a YouTube channel out of England. Ollie explores contemporary and historical Quaker themes and regularly has guests who are Quaker scholars, public figures, and thought leaders. QuakerSpeak Videos a bi-weekly Quaker video project by Friends Journal.

Many of the ugly pages of American History have been obscured and forgotten. The society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice, which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes in the country that would be great, will lack the most indispensable element of greatness--Justice. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community The Season of Pendle Hill's podcast, The Seed Conversations for Radical Hope, is taking a deep dive into this book and the theme of love and justice.

 In my journey from the Evangelical world to the Quaker tradition, I’ve often found myself reflecting on the bridges—and the gaps—between these two ways of seeking God. Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Jasson Arevalo, an Evangelical Quaker from El Salvador, to dive into exactly that. Bridging Two Worlds As someone who grew up Evangelical and is now a Friend in the U.S., I’m used to a specific "flavor" of Quakerism that often leans toward silence and liberal theology. However, Jasson’s perspective reminds me that our tradition is a global tapestry. We explored the distinct ways Evangelical Quakers in Central America approach the Bible and the sacraments, often holding onto a fervor that feels both familiar and refreshingly different from the more programmed or unprogrammed meetings here in the States. My Personal Reflections The Power of Narrative: It was fascinating to see how the same Quaker roots can grow into such different expressions depending on the culture....

Every once in a while, the universe gives you a tug. Not a gentle tap on the shoulder—a full-on gravitational yank that pulls you out of whatever orbit you thought you were in. That’s what happened with the newest episode of Bubble & Squeak . I started out thinking I was doing a simple story about menstrual cups. You know, the kind of lighthearted “Peterson learns about a very normal thing embarrassingly late in life” tale. But once you follow a thread like that, it drags you into bigger questions: Who gets access to the products they need? How many girls are missing school because they can’t afford pads? Why is period poverty still a global crisis in 2025? So I followed the thread. It pulled me through Connecticut food pantries, a refugee camp in Kakuma, and across conversations with women who are out there doing the real work: Christine Garde Denning , Mary Maker , Fran Stoffer , and my cousin Mona—each in her own way shaping the world for women and girls in need. A...

What happens when we live in a state of fear? How do the media and political leaders exploit our reactions to fear to manipulate us, influence our decisions, and affect the way we act towards others?  According to research out of UCLA , fear and anxiety quickly alter our bodies, stirring up a host of reactions, including jittery and shaking feelings. Fear floods the body with adrenaline and sugar for energy, speeding the heart and narrowing the mind.  The fearful person plunges into the emergency state of fight, flight, or freeze. This animal instinct gives us the burst of energy we need.  In that state, we can’t think clearly—just react to protect ourselves and our loved ones. That same chemistry plays out in our politics today. I live in the USA, a land where fear dominates our lives. I hear both my conservative and liberal friends speaking the language of fear with all the suspicious, dehumanizing power fear brings with it. I listen to friends talk of their terror of I...

Last night I performed Transfigurations-Transgressing Gender in the Bible at Imago Dei Metropolitan Community Church in Glen Mills, PA (about 15 miles outside of Philly). I had a diverse audience of about 45 people -- college students, Quakers, straight, bi, trans and lesbian, young and old. I took my time with the piece maintaining a gentle meditative pace. For the ending when I reveal the identity of the narrator, I had instructed the light tech to dim the lights. Then as the closing music swelled, I asked her to raise the lights to their brigthest intensity. With the music playing, I exited. Always (up until last night) at this point the audience applauds, I wait 5 seconds then come out to take a bow. Last night I exited and then nothing. No one clapped. They sat quietly as the music played. I stood back stage puzzled, baffled. Now what do I do? Wait? Go out anyway? And I wondered for a moment, Did they hate it? Did I confuse them? Offend them? Bore them into a coma? After what ...

After a few weeks of barely leaving the house except for social reasons, I head out today by train to Philadelphia for the beginning of travel that will bring me to Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD and Vancouver, BC (that's in Canada). After that I am off to Nashville, TN, Denver, CO, Boulder, CO, Colorado Springs, CO and Seattle, WA. You can see my full schedule here . This weekend I will be in Glen Mills, PA at Imago Dei Metropolitan Community Church about 15 miles out of Philadelphia. Tonight (Fri) I will perform Queer 101—Now I Know My gAy,B,Cs , a play that looks at homophobia, identity and activism through the words and lives of lesbian and gay poets. I last performed this piece in April at Manchester Community College. In it I get to perform my FAVORITE scene of any of have written, the fantasy date between Chad and Federico Garcia Lorca. (Which you can see here .) Tomorrow (Sat) I will present Transfigurations—Transgressing Gender in the Bible . This play is probably the harde...

Since coming back out of the closet (ex-ex-gay) in April, Marvin Bloom, a devout Jew for Jesus, has been making the rounds at various podcasts. His gay-friendly rants have been heard on Spanking Bee Arthur , The Flatus Show and more than once on Joe G's Bored Beyond Belief . Currently you can hear Marvin on Episode 81 of Mila and Jayna's Trans-ponder . In fact, you will also get to hear me too since in his new segment, Moments with Marvin, he interviews me. In other news, I have a boyfriend, and he is not Marvin.

So much good stuff out there that has come to my inbox recently. Candace Chellew-Hodge, the creator of Whosoever.org , has a new book out, Bulletproof—A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay & Lesbian Christians . You can hear a public reading here . Check out what Desmond Tutu has to say about the book. Gay and lesbian Christians are constantly demoralized and told they are not children of God. In Bulletproof Faith , Chellew-Hodge reassures gays and lesbians that God loves them just as they were created and teaches them how to stand strong, with compassion and gentleness, against those who condemn them. -Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu Allyson Robinson gets quoted in a great piece that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post, Ruling Inspires New Hope for Transgender People . But for transgender women such as Robinson, the County Council's passage of the law was a key reason she chose to live in Montgomery when she moved to the area this year from Texas to take a job at the H...

I adore Bitch Magazine , which provides a feminist approach to pop culture. I've been a subscriber for the past two years and never fail to learn something each issue. Well written, funny, insightful and at times outrageous, Bitch provides an excellent resource for creatively exploring women's issues, gender and the media. In the current edition, Loud , they offer a bunch of great topics including an article about women in comedy, the untold story of the beauty secrets the cosmetic companies don't want you to know, and a piece about New Jersey 4 with the injustices faced by a group of young lesbians of color who responded to a hate crime against them and ended up incarcerated . Bitch serves a well needed purpose and speaks directly to the inconsistencies and injustices that women face. I received a call tonight from the Bitch offices. They need money to keep the magazine afloat. If you want to receive an excellent magazine and help out a worthy cause, visit the Bitch sit...

My religious trajectory began in the Roman Catholic Church and landed me in many of the Christian religious movements of the past 30 years. At age 17 I left Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Lake Huntington, NY with its tinny sounding organ and hymns sung in impossible keys through the noses of old ladies, and I began to attend Gospel Tabernacle , a fundamentalist Bible Church in Honesdale, PA. This church encouraged their youth to attend Word of Life Bible Institute and Bob Jones University (Also known as BJU). After I graduated from high school, I opted for what my pastor considered a liberal institution, Nyack College , a Christian and Missionary Alliance school. While there I attended an independent Evangelical church in nearby New Jersey. They talked about grace and provided gourmet coffee in the Fellowship Hall after service. Following a stint with the Evangelical mission HCJB in Quito, Ecuador, I moved to New York City where with hands raised and feet stomping I jumped...

Over at the FAQ page of Beyond Ex-Gay we have the question, What is an Ex-Gay Experience? with the answer: It can be as simple as gay guys trying their hand at football and lesbians sitting in on a Mary Kay Makeup makeover to something as serious and severe as electroshock therapy. The idea is to find change from unwanted same-sex desires and gender differences. In some cases the experience is religious-based, but not always. It can also be done within a group, in one-on-one sessions or solo. An ex-gay experience seeks to change desire, behavior and/or gender presentation. People have tried multiple methods including counseling (with a trained counselor or pastoral counseling with a minister) attendance in an ex-gay support group or a residential program dating (or marrying) someone of the opposite sex in hopes of experiencing change in desire dressing and acting according to the gender normative standards in one’s society reading books and narratives by people who say ...

Hello, my name is Vlad. I have been in this Homo No Mo Halfway House for 27 days. Here in Homo No Mo Halfway House we have five phases, we do 12 Steps and there are approximately 275 rules. First I tell you about the phases. When we move from phase to phase, this is called a “Phase Bump,” and technically only the staff is allowed to bump you. -Excerpt from Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House At the Love in Action residential program that I attended for two years the staff led participants through a game know as The Five Phases and The 12 Steps . Participants preoccupied themselves with moving up (and down) artificial gradations like a twisted version of Chutes and Ladders . In Phase One the staff forced participants to look at themselves in order to acknowledge they had a problem, in fact that we were a problem— sinful, addicted, and broken. In Phase Two the focus turned to God, the ultimate perfection and means of escape. Phase Three turned the spotlight on the family wh...

Christine Bakke works as a graphic designer. You can see her fine work at Beyond Ex-Gay and especially on the ex-gay survivor collage page . She recently updated my promo card which she originally designed in 2006. You will see that Homo No Mo is no more, well, at least the play is retired (but is available on DVD and will soon be performed live by another queer solo artist!) Instead I now offer a talk about the ex-gay movement: Homo No Mo?!? Orientation, Gender and the Ex-Gay Movement—A Lively Lecture with Performance. You can see my performance schedule here . Later this month I will perform three of my plays and lead a few workshops that will take me to Baltimore, MD, Washington, DC, Wethersfield, CT and Glen Mills, PA. Click on images for larger view. Christine, great work!

When I sleep, I have cinematic dreams. They can be sweeping epics, romantic comedies, sci-fi flicks or even sitcoms. Often I find them entertaining, rarely scary, occasionally erotic, and typically not helpful in understanding my inner world. This morning I awoke to a dream that must have been intended for someone else. In it a Cortney Cox looking character comforts a Jennifer Aniston looking character. I think there was a man involved in "Jennifer's" distress, but I lost this detail as "Cortney" crawled into the front seat of a car with "Jennifer." They were gently lit as it was nighttime. I mostly saw their faces in a warm glow. They leaned up against each other cheek to cheek. "Jennifer" wept softly as "Cortney" wiped away tears. And BAM! The next thing you know they are making out. I awoke and cursed filmmaker David Lynch . I know this has something to do with Mulholland Drive , his 2001 bizarre mystery thriller replete with go...

Chris Paige from TransFaith Online sent the following message this week. This week is National Suicide Prevention Week, with World Suicide Prevention Day landing on September 10. In honor of the occasion, TransFaith Online has launched new InterSections on Suicide and Depression . Please spread the word! The Transgender community faces incredible stigma and isolation. Transgender people, when faced with depression, are too often unsure where to turn for support. Fearing judgement from family, from friends, and from mental health providers, transgender people may not get the help that we need to manage depression. And untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide. Suicide is yet another area where research and statistics are scarce. Studies generally report a pre-transition suicide attempt rate of 20% or more, with MTFs relatively more likely to attempt suicide than FTMs. But some studies indicate that the rate of attempted suicide for transgender youth is higher than ...

It's been on the blogs all weekend, and now the Associated Press also reports that Sarah Palin, the Republican vice president nominee, attends a church that promotes ex-gay ministries, namely Focus on the Family's Love Won Out day-long conference that tries to convince parents and pastors that God can "transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality." What they don't mention is the kind of transformation that will take place. Those of us who are former consumers of Focus on the Family/Exodus/NARTH ex-gay theories and practices can attest to the transformations that we experienced as a result of our time in ex-gay programs. The vast majority of people who attempted to sublimate their sexuality did not find a cure, instead we experienced a curse that affected us psychologically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, developmentally, physically and relationally. In the article Ex-Gay Harm Let Me Count the Ways I highlight some of these and also offer tes...

I'm sitting on my front porch at my house. It's suddenly crazy humid and I'm living AC free this summer. I live on a one-way street and someone just zipped along driving in the wrong direction. Wait, she's getting out. She's walking towards me. Hold on... Okay, that was weird. She comes right up to me and introduces herself and starts chatting. I'm like, okay. She tells me all kinds of personal info about her child and the child's husband and then asks, "So are you going to give me a tour of the place?" I'm like, "Wait, What?" Turns out she is here to see the downstairs apartment (I live in an old Victorian house and the first floor is for rent). By the way, my landlord loves me because I am never home which saves him a ton of money since utilities are included in my rent. So yeah, feeling very much at home these days never wanting to leave again, well at least until next week. The fall schedule has really come together nicely with p...

Today I leave Seattle and spend a long day traveling home to Hartford. Because of Gustav, the conference I had hoped to attend in New Orleans got canceled. :-( The upside is I now get 10 uninterrupted days at home. This has not happened since March. I cannot begin to write about how special I found the Gender Odyssey Conference . Gender Odyssey is an international conference focused on the thoughtful exploration of gender. We strive to create an empowering environment where people of all genders can share their experiences and learn from the experiences of others. Through dialogue, peer-led presentations, and sharing skills and expertise, we work to create broader and evolving language, social support, and life pathways that support all gender identities. By doing so, we hope to strengthen ourselves and develop communities that celebrate all expressions of gender at any age. I met so m...