Peterson Toscano's A Musing

It's my international radio weekend! Although I am in Western Maryland right now taking part in Quaker gathering, I will also be on the radio in Canada and beyond. Tonight at 10:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time) I will be a once again be a guest on Vancouver's Queer FM CiTR 101.9fm where I will talk about my recent trip to Lambeth, my upcoming trip to Vancouver, Canada in October and whatever else Heather, the show's enthusiastic host, gets me to talk about. You can listen live here . Also, last week while at Lambeth Conference, George Arny of BBC World Service interviewed me for the Reporting Religion program . I talk at length about my ex-gay experiences, Beyond Ex-Gay, my faith journey and being a Quaker today. You can listen to the program here .

Dave Rattigan at Ex-Gay Watch has been blogging about a hate crime attack on one of his neighbors. He reports the sad news of Michael Causer's death and encourages people to visit the Facebook group set up about Michael, A gay teenager has died , just one week after he was brutally beaten in a homophobic attack . Eighteen-year-old Michael Causer of Whiston, near Liverpool, England, died in hospital on Saturday August 2 at 12.30pm. He had been attacked by other youths while walking with friends in nearby Huyton, some time before 11am on Friday July 25. It was a busy road and it was broad daylight. Emergency brain surgery the following day could not save him. Michael lived just a couple streets away from me. He had many friends and family around here. Many of them are now part of a Facebook group dedicated to his memory. Please drop by and read some of the beautiful messages of support. Join the group and offer your own support if you can.

Yesterday, my final full day at Lambeth, flew by quickly with lots of highlights. I returned to the Changing Attitude/Integrity Bible study where they continued to looked at John 9 . This time we considered how the man born blind grew to understand Jesus through sharing his experience with others. The night before I had dinner with a friend who is disabled and often uses a wheelchair. She and another friend, a wheelchair user, recently traveled from England to Ireland on a holiday. They took the journey with a personal assistant to help out along the way. On their return to Heathrow, the airline temporarily misplaced both their wheelchairs. They sat in airport issued equipment while attempting to sort things out with a Heathrow employee. My friend said that throughout the entire exchange the employee spoke rudely, but more shocking still, the Heathrow employee never once looked at my friend or the other person also sitting in a wheelchair. He dealt exclusively with the assistant as if...

Thanks to the expert driving skill of Auntie Doris I arrived safely at Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. Fortunately (or not) I have wi-fi in my dorm room on campus here at the University of Kent so I can blog some. On the way to Canterbury we listened to LBC Radio (a talk radio station for the greater London area) and the show hosted Jeni Barnett . She offer topic after topic in a frenetic random order, but the one issue that caught my ear had to do with English people trying to change their accents to sound more like the Queen. She asked for callers who had also tried to change their accents. I turned to Auntie, "Should I?" and with little more than a nod from her, I called. ( Joe Gee , that fabulous podcaster, will be simultaneously proud of me and appalled by me). I explained that in the US I get much better customer service when I speak with a posh British accent. This accent is a perceived by many in the US to carry class and sophistication (and it may possibly be a ...

Ah, I had a stellar week in/on Guernsey. I felt kissed by the warm sun everyday (and smacked in the butt by the icy waters). Perfect weather and a true break. I got to meet many family members of Auntie Doris . She originally hails from Guernsey and her extended family have overrun the island. One could not keep a secret in this place with a cousin, aunt or sibling popping up everywhere one goes. I learned so much about the WWII Nazi Occupation of the island. I learned much from our visit to the Occupation Museum , but I found that the letters and artifacts from the occupation that Auntie Doris' grandmother saved made the whole era come alive. So hard to imagine how this quiet tidy island filled up with Nazi troops, with homes and cars commandeered, signs in German everywhere and very little food or other rations. Auntie Doris introduced me to several family members at their homes over meals and at the beach. Each one belongs to one of the island's many churches (52 according t...

I announced yesterday that Christine Bakke will be interviewed live tomorrow (Sat) on Blogtalk Live at 8:00 PM EST. She will talk about the Beyond Ex-Gay and her own story in a program about the Ex-Gay Myth. On Sunday I will appear on BBC Radio Ulster in Northern Ireland on the Sunday Sequence Show with William Crawley . We taped the segment last week when I was in London and talked about The Re-Education of George W. Bush, living la vida ex-gay, Quakerism and other random topics. The program runs from 8:30 am- 10:15 am but I don't know in what portion I will appear. I think they also archive most programs. You can have a listen here .

I leave tomorrow night for London and will not have time to blog until sometime next week. Some updates: I performed Queer 101—Now I Know My gAy,B,C's at a high school outside of Boston today. The first session had about 350 students and the second session had at least 500. They listened deeply and asked excellent questions. Tomorrow morning I perform the same play at Manchester Community College. Beyond Ex-Gay will co-host two conferences in Barcelona at the end of May. I have some info up at our site , but it is in Catalan. I hope to have info in English soon. I will give a keynote address (in Castilian). I mean I can do dinner and directional Spanish, but this is going to be a stretch. I love a challenge. On May 5 Beyond Ex-Gay will be featured in LOGO TV's Be Real Program . (Tom D left me a snarkily sweet text message saying he saw me in the trailer for the program) They interviewed Christine and me as well as my dad, and ex-gay survivors John Holm and Scott Tucker. I thi...

Today I have witnessed and heard of extraordinary examples of people speaking out a message of sanity and hope. 1. Anthony Venn-Brown in Australia alerted me to a group of Christian ministers calling themselves 100Revs . They have decided to speak out during the sometimes raucous Mardi Gras festivities in their country, not to denounce the LGBT community like so many have done in the past, but rather to issue a public apology for the awful ways the Church has treated to LGBT people. In their official statement they say, As ministers of various churches and denominations we recognise that the churches we belong to, and the church in general, have not been places of welcome for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) people. Indeed the church has often been profoundly unloving toward the GLBT community. For these things we apologise, whatever the distinctive of our Christian position on human sexuality – to which we remain committed. We are deeply sorry and ask for the forgivene...

Too lazy to blog with actual words, so here are some photos from Wales (the ones with the water wheel), from Greenbelt (with James Alison under the red and white tent) and in the Cotswolds. The indoor Roman images are from the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, the external church photo with the church in the distance is from the parish church in Cirencester (its a big one) and the other church shots are from the Fairford Church (a rare one because it has original stain glass and an image of Mary that the Puritans didn't destroy.) The stone cat marks the grave of Tittles the Cat, Fairford Church cat that lived for nearly 17 years! If you REALLY want to know what any of the pictures are all about, just ask. Otherwise, just make it up for yourself. :-) Click on photo for larger image. Thanks to Trevor, James and James for being such lovely hostesses.

I was too wiped out to post anything last night. Actually happy wiped out. Good day that ended with friends at the Organic Beer Tent. I did miss the Hymn and Beers though. On the third day I didn't get to see as much, but I did hear two talks. Another by James Allison and one my Mark Yaconelli , which was particularly moving and helpful for me. It was about failure and loss and what you do when you feel at the end of yourself, broken. It actually reminded me of an important spiritual lesson I learned at one of the most desperate moments in my life when everything unraveled. It reminded me that sometimes the best comfort is no comfort at all, rather to allow myself to feel the pain, to sit in the loss and grieve it properly. My interview with Premiere Radio went well and was a lot of fun because author GP Taylor was also interviewed and their was a Catholic clergy member in the London studio. I hope I didn't sound too snippy, but after I related some of my ex-gay experience, th...

Ah, lovely day at Greenbelt. Although I remained uncharacteristically anxious about my show all day into the evening. (More about that in a moment). I first listened to James Alison give a talk about the New Testament Clobber passages (most often used to clobber lesbian, gays and bisexuals). Last Year James covered the Old Testament passages, and after hearing him speak, I declared on this blog that I want to have his Biblical love child. I still do. In his talk he discussed Romans 1 and expertly unraveled it. I left during the Q&A, but Trevor told me about a man who stood up and said something like, "All my life I have been condemned by that passage in my churches, but now you tell me it doesn't condemn me." And Trevor said you could see the light and freedom breaking over the man's face. You can read James Alison's thoughts on Romans 1 here . Next I just chilled a bit knowing I had to pace myself, especially in the hot sun. I did go to the Liquid Lunch wher...

After 24 hours of travel, I arrived safe and sound in Southern Wales. Here is how the trip went. Yesterday at noon I met Sarah, my booking agent, at noon for lunch (Vietnamese) then she dropped me off at the bus station in Hartford, Connecticut (aka where I live) I took the 2:00 PM Peter Pan bus to NYC. It was supposed to get in at 4:30 but with the traffic got in at 6 pm. Took the E subway to the Air Train in Queens, NY Took Air Train to JFK airport Hung out for 4.5 hours eating vegan junk food, writing e-mails and chatting on the phone. At 11:30 PM flew to London. Sat next to Gerry, a very cool New Yorker who works as a consultant to museums around the world. Arrived at Heathrow at 11:30 AM (today) Went through immigrations (actual conversation with immigration official--"You were just here in May. Why are you back again? Why were you here then? Why did stay for a week, leave then come back for another week." I told him that I am an artist. That sufficed. Took 1:15 bus to ...

For the third time this year I will be in the UK. Turning into a wonderful habit. I just booked the flights for a trip gets me to London on 17 August and back home on 3 September. I was initially hoping that I would spend more time in Europe, but September will be a month for me to do some quiet reflection and will also be a time for me to get together with family as it will mark one year since my mom passed away (who still feels very near to me daily). I am thrilled to be returning to Cardiff, Wales on 18 August where I will perform The Re-Education of George W. Bush which is sponsored by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement . I had a great time last year and met some super people. I will spend a little more time there this year. Then I get to see dear friends in Cheltenham at Greenbelt where in addition to the Bush piece, I will present Doin' Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House . I just found out that Matt Redman will be there this year. Nice. James Alison will return as w...

The New Statesman , a UK current affairs magazine asked me to write a short article on the topic of being gay--is it a choice or not? I said it is not a choice which they were pleased about because they found someone who said that it IS a choice (turns out they tapped Richard Cohen for the job). In my piece I draw on some of the science as well as my own experience as a gay man. Being gay myself, many folks consider me an expert on all things gay. Did Alexander the great have a male lover? What does the Bible say about homosexuality? For my bay window, should I use lace or chintz curtains? As a gay theatrical performance activist, the most common question I get is: “how old are you?” Such a rude question, but completely understandable because of my wild past including the 17-year quest to transform myself into a heterosexual with side trips to Zambia, England, and Ecuador plus a five year marriage. They look at my fresh, young face and wonder 'how did you do all that?' I expla...