The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

LGBTQ

On August 4th: Opportunity for a Second, First Dose, On-Campus Monkeypox Vaccination Clinic

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Responding to what was cited as “an overwhelming demand,” The LOFT LGBTQ+ Community Center in partnership with the Westchester County Department of Health announced that it will host a second, first-dose, on-campus Monkeypox Vaccination Clinic, on Thursday, August 4th, 2022.

To make an appointment for the August 4th Clinic at The LOFT, click here.

Getting to The LOFT: The LOFT LGBTQ+ Community Services Center, 252 Bryant Ave, White Plains, NY

The following is information received from the County’s Department of Health and The Loft:

“Appointments can be made from the hours of 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. for adults 18 years of age and up. Information on the second dose will be given to each vaccinated person after their first dose. The LOFT strongly encourages any and all members of the community who believe they are at risk to get vaccinated, immediately. The vaccination is free of charge.”

The LOFT announced its first monkeypox clinic for Thursday, July 28, and all appointments were filled within hours of the announcement being made. According to Jeffrey Guard, responding on behalf of The LOFT to the Inside Press, noted that 80 people were vaccinated at the first-dose clinic. “Roughly the same amount are expected to be offered at the second clinic,” said Guard.

“The LOFT in partnership with Westchester County clearly sees that there is an urgent demand for monkeypox vaccines which is why we are opening a second clinic for first-dose monkeypox vaccinations.  We are proud to partner with the County of Westchester and are truly grateful for their rapid, well-organized response to our community’s needs,” stated The Loft Executive Director, Judy Troilo, in a release about the clinic.

Additional info:

“The World Health Organization, The CDC, and the New York Department of Health have all emphasized the importance of having people who are at risk be vaccinated. Monkeypox can be transmitted through simple skin contact when someone’s skin rubs/brushes against an infected person’s skin. Infection can also occur by touching infected clothing.  Please note, that it can also be transmitted via genital contact but is not considered a sexually transmitted infection. Condoms, dental dams, PrEP, birth control, microbicide lubricants, and antibiotics typically used to treat STI’s will not protect a person from infection. To learn more about Monkeypox, click here.

If you are unsure whether you need the vaccine or have questions related to your health, please consult with your physician or medical practitioner.

To learn more about how the vaccine works, click here.”

 

The Joy and Possibilities of Unconditional Love

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By Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs

Rev. Dr. Jacobs with her partner Pat Youst
Rev. Dr. Jacobs with her partner Pat Yost

After the shooting in Orlando, I heard about how families were pained to learn, only through death, that their loved one was gay. I cannot imagine the pain that those families felt, realizing that their now deceased loved one didn’t trust them enough to tell them about their sexual orientation. To have to live a part of who you are in secret can be so painful, not only for the person but for those that surround them.

I know, because I spent the better part of my 20s and 30s not talking with my parents about my own sexual orientation. While I was already with the person I loved and planned to spend the rest of my life with, and who made me very happy, and while my parents welcomed her and treated her in a way that was loving, we never discussed the truth about our love and our life together.

When I finally got the courage to talk with my parents about it, they were accepting, but I think that a part of them was hurt that I didn’t trust their love for me enough to tell them 15 years earlier. Their acceptance of Pat and me didn’t change, but there was a shift, as my dad started introducing Pat as his “other daughter.”

My parents had dealt with many challenges I presented to them over my teen and adult life (I had also converted from Judaism to Christianity), and yet they continued to love me. They were both amazing role-models of love without conditions.

In the mid-1980’s, I started attending The Riverside Church in Manhattan. There I heard from The Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin that all people, no matter their race, class or sexual orientation, were welcome and that God didn’t judge people for who they are but rather for how they treat others. I found myself accepted for all of who I was! To know that God accepted me, despite my being gay, was more than I could ever have imagined! That was totally new to me and opened up a whole new world of people who accepted me for who I was, which had previously only been available to me in my work in the theater.

This acceptance helped me to eventually answer a call to serve God.

My parents and my church showed me their unconditional love and modeled how to love unconditionally. This enabled me to do the same with people who were dealing with HIV/AIDS, whose families, in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, were not unconditionally loving to them. That unconditional love also enabled me to go through seminary, learn about treating all people with love and respect and welcoming everyone–even those who thought I didn’t belong at their table–to my table. Working as a chaplain in a hospital forced me to confront my own racism, my own classism, and my own anger with people who did not want to accept me for me. ­­­­­­­

When I found myself looking to move from hospital chaplaincy to parish ministry, I knew I wanted and needed to be in a church that welcomed all people. Of course, they would have to welcome me as a same-gender-loving person, but more than that, they would have to welcome everyone–no matter their skin color, culture, or social status, whether or not they were otherly-abled or LGBTQ, or even what kind of God they felt drawn to worship. God led me that amazing place–First Congregational Church.

martha with kid
With one of her younger congregants, Eric Bilodeau

When the church decided to call me as their minister (in the United Church of Christ, each congregation calls its own minister), there was no discussion as to my sexual orientation or the fact that I was a woman. This church is living out its decision to be an “Open and Affirming Church”–one that welcomes all to our church. I could not be prouder or more humbled by this congregation I serve. We proudly say, “No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” And we mean it!

Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs is Senior Minister at First Congregational Church of Chappaqua.

NYC Pride: Proud, Loud and Record Crowds

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Article and Photos By Bobbi M. Bittker

If you have not attended NYC Pride, whatever you think it is, you’re wrong.

My day began on the Metro North with three queer teens and a newly minted 11 year-old festooned in flags, tutus, pride Converse and slogan t-shirts. We hit Fifth Avenue in time to procure a decent spot before the parade began.

Why Pride? The LGBTQ community experiences fears and oppression the hetero-normative community does not. We kiss our partners goodbye in public, think little about exposing our relationship and who we are at job interviews or when renting a home, walk into a business and expect to be served if we have greenbacks on hand and doubt our attire, or who holds our hand in public, will bring violence. But not so for those who need Pride.

Heterosexual, cisgender people are the majority. Never forced into a closet, never criminalized and never attacked for being straight or cisgender, we enjoy full rights and privileges with no effort. The LGBTQ community had to fight every step of the way for those same rights, still lacking many. How lovely to be able to ‘marry on Friday and get fired on Monday’ in more than half of the states due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Pride is satisfaction with qualities attributed to you. But it is also a group of lions forming a social unit. LGBTQ Pride is typically the former, but this year, it was the latter. After Orlando, the community displayed their fierce persona. Ferocious, but protective. There was no silencing them. There is no stopping them. You will not impede their progress. You will not stop them from dancing.

Soon after 49 queer people of color were killed at Pulse, a traditionally safe space, Pride transformed. How? Naturally, increased security. Fewer attendees due to fear? More people as backlash to hate? Parents of LGBT teens were unsure whether their kids should attend their first Pride this year. A friend asked if I was concerned about safety at Pride, and would we still go?

9/11 happened. We returned to the city. As a Jew, still targeted worldwide, we return to synagogue as fish in a barrel. Hours before the Orlando shooting, I left the Philly Trans Health Conference, where security was already tight because transgender people are at risk. I answered, if we don’t show up, who will? Why should anyone? We must.

Parading by, signs urging us to ‘keep dancing 4 orlando,’ ‘control guns, not love,’ ‘I see the world through rainbow colored glasses. check out my view!’ contrasted with 49 marchers dressed in shrouds, each marked with the name and photo of an Orlando massacre victim. There were moments of unbridled joy coupled with sober reality. A reflection of LGBTQ truth.

Shrouded participants bring uncharacteristic silence to spectators as they pass, each adorned in the name and photo of an Orlando Pulse nightclub victim. It was a poignant, somber moment on a day of celebration.
Shrouded participants bring uncharacteristic silence to spectators as they pass, each adorned in the name and photo of an Orlando Pulse nightclub victim. It was a poignant, somber moment on a day of celebration.

Participants ran the gamut from New York’s Finest and Bravest to Jewish, Quaker and Mormon groups. From ACT UP and Gays Against Guns to Senator Chuck Schumer and Democratic Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton. It was campy pop culture fun with the Orange is the New Black, RuPaul’s Drag Race, reality TV star and activist trans teen, Jazz Jennings, a Pride stormtrooper and the NBA float.

Intersectionality was King. Marchers wore ‘black queer trans lives matter’ t-shirts, senior disabled gays rolled by in wheelchairs, and inclusiveness was the key to the city. If you were marginalized elsewhere, NYC Pride took you in.

Drag queens glittered. Politicians smiled. Activists chanted. The crowd cheered for all. There was not a boo, nor a jeer to be heard, regardless of the politician, nation or religion represented. It was a slice of the American ideal. LGBTQ community, Pride is for you, and there is no greater welcome mat than 5th avenue.

Bring your children to Pride. Surrounded by young people, older folks, families, tourists, Pride crosses class, race, ethnic, nationality and, of course, gender lines. Explain that we accept, not tolerate, differences. No one is excluded. These are New York values.

We must strive for equality for all, every day. Pride is a reminder of what we have to work for. Pride is New York City on its best day.

Bobbi M. Bittker is a stay at home mom and attorney, on the Board of the Bedford Community Theatre, a Girl Scout troop leader and a vocal supporter of Israel, gun safety and LGBT, women’s and civil rights.

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