Inside this issue:

Pride 1Tango Bravo 1

What’s Up with Book

Chat3 Another top ten list of gay books3 Thank yous 4

establish” groups. One

loud and outspoken fac-tion is set up as a shammuseum. It seems a godof some form or anothertold them that The Flint-stones actually happened.My favorite, an especiallywacky group, is critical of It takes pig-headed deter-mination and a lot of junkscience to perpetrate thefantasy that Christians of any variety are a perse-cuted minority in theUSA. The hue and cryare usually raised when

“turn or burn” fringe sects

are hindered in theirdrive to establish theirbrand of religion as thelaw of the land or theircoercive proselytizinggets obstructed or chal-lenged. Here in Ken-tucky we have no short-

age of “proselytize and

Tango BravoClamour Underbridge for August from

The Letter

The Kentuckiana PrideFestival was off and run-ning on June 20th, 2008with the annual PrideParade. ProgressivePathways Fellowshipparticipated in the pa-rade. It was our biggestand best year yet. Elevenpeople arrived to marchwith us. This picture wastaken by the folks at Rulethe City since we were allin the parade. After the parade we de-cided to look around atthe Friday Night Fest onthe Belvedere. Therewere performances byThe Confessional andJosh Zuckerman. I thinkthe favorite vendor of theevening was the Adopt aKitty group with the gi-ant pink cage.The day of the festivalwas hot and includedperformances by Voices,City of Refuge, MadCamp Cabaret, RobbieBartlett, Gregory Doug-las, Tracy Rice and EricHiman. DJ Mike & theDivas of Drag brought theevening to a close. According to the PrideFestival committee theestimated crowd for Fri-day was 2000. Saturday

there were 4500. That’s a

record and over 1000more folks than 2007.

Clamour & News from Underbridge

Pride Month 2008

Please note that:While Father Jim is co-pastor of ProgressivePathways Fellowship inLouisville his opinionsand any opinions andinformation found inClamour Underbridge or Clamour & News fromUnderbridge are thoseof Father Jim or other writers as they appear.They do not usually rep-resent the official policyof the church.

August 1, 2008

Progressive Pathways Fellowship in the 2008 Louisville GayPride Parade.

selected research at state universitiesin the Commonwealth. Funny how

none of their “expert staff” have qualifi-

cations or credentials in the fields theyare quick to loathe. They also tend not

to read the studies they don’t like nor

do their off-the-wall critiques make anappearance in anything resembling apeer reviewed journal or a professional

organization’s conference. Culture war-riors just don’t have time for all that.

When you are absolutely convincednothing worth knowing exists outsideyour religious dogma then your motiva-tion to know is a bit stunted. Hurtlinghead-long into the 19th century thesegroups are satisfied that the earth isflat, the sun circles us inside a crystaldome above the waters in the sky anddinosaurs walked the earth with ouruppity great-grandparents.What do determined groups of Know-Nothings and Flat Earthers do to winconverts to their junk science and con-

torted theology? First, it’s important to

pretend to be persecuted when bogus

“findings” or practices come to light.

Everybody pulls for the underdog. Sec-

ond, it’s important to quash relentlesslyany facts that undermine the “flatearth and Flintstones” mentality.Here’s where we meet Tango. Tangohas two dads. And she’s a penguin.

And Tango Makes Three

is a children’s

book by Justin Richardson and PeterParnell. It dares to report that two

male penguins in New York’s Central

Park Zoo hatched an egg and raised the

chick that emerged. That’s it. No“male bodied drag queens” or “leatherclad sexual predators” appear. A lav-ishly illustrated children’s book about

three penguins in the zoo is the mostchallenged book in the USA accordingto the American Library Association.This is the second year in a row that

Richardson and Parnell’s book has that

dubious honor. Tango has been theprey of bogus controversy in schoolsand public library branches from sea toshining sea. None of this is happening

because Tango’s story isn’t true. It’sbecause Tango’s story is natural. The

Flat Earthers and Know-

Nothings don’t

like those parts of nature that profanetheir junk science and upset their faux Victorian sensibilities.There really is no good reason to letthem get away with it. Christianity, inits various flavors and hues, is not be-ing persecuted in Kentucky or anyother state of the Union. Velociraptors

didn’t mow down anyone that looks

remotely like Barney Rubble at anytime in the past. Same sex play, at-tachment, bonding and the rearing of cute little off-spring is natural and con-spicuous in the animal kingdom. Let-ting the Flat Earthers and Know-Nothings prevail drags all of us backinto the bad old days of establishedreligions, coercive proselytizing and

snake oil chicanery. Don’t take my

word for it. Look it up.

Clamour Underbridge from The LetterPart two

Clamour & News from UnderbridgePage 2

Father Jim at the Pride Parade.

You are invited to any and all services of Progressive Pathways Fellowship.Our studio and education center is at208 1/2 Mellwood Arts andEntertainment Center1860 Mellwood AvenueLouisville, Kentucky 40206 Visit our website for more information,maps and directions.We meet on Sundays at 5:30 p.m for infor-mal worship and discussion.Book Chat meets on Tuesdays (beginning August 26) at 6:15 p.m.www.progressivepathways.org

We’ve been reading

The Beverly Malibu

by Katherine V. Forrest. Our last daywith Detective Kate Delafield and thewild and wacky inhabitants of the Bev-erly Malibu was July 30th.Beginning Wednesday August 6 at 6:15p.m. we take up

The Llangollen Ladies

by Mary Gordon.

Lady Eleanor Butler (1739-1829) and TheHonourable Sarah Ponsonby (1755-1831)

were two upper-class Anglo-Irishwomen whose relationship scandalisedand fascinated their contemporaries.The Ladies are interesting today as anexample of historical lesbianism orromantic friendship.

We’ll be reading

The Llangollen Ladies

on Wednesday August 6, August 13, August 20 and Tuesday August 26.In September there are two books beingconsidered. Both of them are biogra-phies of my favorite historical queen of England

—

Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings

by Amy Kelly andEle

anor of Aquitaine: A Life

by AllisonWeir.Have an opinion? Which would youprefer and do you have other sugges-tions for Book Chat?

What’s up with Book Chat?

Another top ten list of gay books from theClamour Underbridge Blog http://clamourunderbridge.typepad.com/clamour_underbridge/

Page 3Volume 1, Issue 2

A portrait of the Ladies of Llangol-len painted by Lady Leighton in1813.

I admit it freely. I've never read Shameless by Paul Burston. A visit to Mr. Burston's website, however, gives blurb and re-view information. It looks like an interesting read. I may pick it up.But that's not the subject at hand. Mr. Burston has come out with a top ten list of gay books. I just love top ten lists. Go tothe Guardian for the article but here are the relevant details.1.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

(1891)Jimmy says yawn. Wiki info. Have you ever actually read "Dorian Gray" and not just watched bad movies of the week? Ilove Uncle Oscar and he paid the price for the rest of us but he was ever so avant garde for the Victorians! Victorian literatureis a tough sell in the 21st century market.2.

Our Lady of the Flowers

by Jean Genet (1943)Maybe. He toned it down to get a publisher in the 40s. Wiki here. Another death by tuberculosis in a garret. Don't apart-ment buildings in France have second floor walk-ups?3.

City of Night

by John Rechy (1963). I've never heard of this one and it's not in The Gay and Lesbian Literary Companion(Malinowski) and the Wiki is pretty bare. He also wrote a vampire book with magic. Is he the inspiration for Dante's Coveand the Lair?4.

Tales of the City

by Armistead Maupin (1978). I have to say that I agree. Wiki here. "Tales" was new and exciting when Ileft Bugtussle and moved to the Not Actually a Big City But We Try Real Hard. Read it. If you're a gentleman of a certainage you have to read Maupin to figure out what you missed by staying in the Bible Belt.5.

Dancer From The Dance

by Andrew Holleran (1978). My reading group picked this one up a few months ago. We had agrand time trying to find "Gatsby" parallels and motifs because one of the lit profs told me they were there. Another guy book