Reading Pride Celebration

Westboro Baptist Church is planning on protesting two events in Reading at Albright College:

•April 30th – Judy Shepard
•May 1st – Laramie Project

WBC will be there both evenings from 7:15 till 8 pm. The Albright students have asked Silent Witness to be there. They are planning a silent demonstration in support of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community that is everything I believe a demonstration should be. However, word has gotten out via Facebook, and hundreds of students from all over Pennsylvania and New Jersey have indicated they want to come and help support them. If you are familiar with Facebook, this is the link - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=74211733268. As of this writing there are 311 confirmed attendees and 423 maybe attending. If all of these students were going to participate, they would practically fill all the empty space on campus.

Needless to say, this presents a challenge for Silent Witness, the biggest of which is the need to provide an outlet for young people who want to respond to spiritual violence – and the likelihood that the only response they’ve been given/taught in our society is anger and rage.

If you are available one or both nights, please let me know! I would ask that you try to meet us in the visitor’s parking lot at Albright between 6:00 and 6:30 either night. On this map, the visitor’s lot is the star right by building “16” - http://www.albright.edu/about/campustour/map.html.

Alanna Berger
Silent Witness

A special community event is being planned for the week of April 26 to May 3, called Non-Violence Week. It will culminate in a march and block party at RACC. The idea is to bring together a diverse group of organizations and individuals from the city and surrounding suburbs who care about creating safer neighborhoods. Attached is an information sheet of the goals for the program. Any organization or faith institution can set up a table with materials during the block party (there will be a process to register but no fee), or people can simply come and enjoy the time together. Steward Warner of Holy Cross United Methodist is coordinating this effort with the involvement and support of many agencies, city government, and faith institutions.

· April 26 - 2 PM Kickoff and Press Conference at Reading High School

· April 26 - May 3 Events at various venues around the city and suburbs

· May 3 - 3 PM - March starting at RACC/RiverPlace

· May 3 - 4 PM - Block party (food, entertainment, displays) at RACC/RiverPlace

See http://www.readingpa.gov for more details.

Reading Pride Celebration is proud to announce that we have signed on as a co-organizer of the National Equality Rally to be held Sunday May 3, 2009 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It will cap a week of events presented by Equality Forum and will be preceded by the Sunday Out Festival on Market Street between 2nd and 5th Streets beginning at Noon and culminating with the Rally at 4:30 PM.

Over 100 organizations from across the United States have committed to march in this Historic Event. For more information on this important milestone in our march toward Equality, go to www.equalityforum.com

If you want to be a part of History and march with
Reading Pride Celebration please send an email to our committee president with your name and phone number.

Let's Make History Together !

posted by Reading Pride  # 4/21/2009

Don't forget, Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, the victim of a murder motivated by anti-gay hate, will offer a speech entitled: “The Legacy of Matthew Shepard: An End to Hate"

Thursday April 30, 2009
Time: 8 p.m.
Location: Albright College Chapel
http://www.albright.edu

Co-sponsored by AC2, GSA and WXAC

More than a story about the murder of gay college student Matthew Sheppard, "The Laramie Project" tells the story of the life of the town of Laramie after the murder in 1998. The New York Times remarks that the play comments on "...repeated variations by the citizens of Laramie on the statement ''It can't happen here,'' followed immediately by ''And yet it has.''"

Two local venues are bringing the Laramie project to Berks County.

The Albright College Domino Players will present The Laramie Project , May 1, 2, 7, 8and 9 at 8 p.m. in Wachovia Theatre. A special luncheon theatre will be presented on May 3, 2009, at 2:30 p.m.

Advance tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students. Day of production tickets are $10 for adults. Luncheon Theatre tickets are $22.

Those interested in purchasing tickets should contact the Albright College Box Office at 610-921-7547.
www.albright.edu/centerforthearts/DominoPlayers/


Genesius Theatre
153 North 10th Street
Reading, PA 19610
Phone: (610) 371-8151
www.genesiustheatre.org
genesiustheatre@verizon.net

April 17th, 18th, 24th, & 25th at 8pm
April 19th & 26th at 2pm
April 22nd at 7pm

Keith Haring had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of just the right energy: a radiant, joyful enthusiasm that he shared with unflagging vitality first on the streets of New York and then on the world stage.

Like Andy Warhol, whom he revered and later befriended, Haring was the visual artist as social phenomenon, connecting the gay scene to hip-hop, Madonna to museum culture, the democratic street to the rarefied art world. If his story is only marginal to the history of art, it looms large in the cultural history of our time, which Haring (who died of AIDS in 1990, at 31) saw far too little of.

“The Universe of Keith Haring,” a documentary by the filmmaker Christina Clausen, is a loving if routine primer on this bright young man from Kutztown, Pa., who moved to New York to study art and paint the town red. His legacy is resurrected through colorful archival footage and remembered by friends and admirers like the artists Kenny Scharf and Yoko Ono, the gallery owners Jeffrey Deitch and Tony Shafrazi and the choreographer Bill T. Jones.

Coming to the Goggle Theater May 1st to May 7th
Runtime: 90 min
http://www.centrepark.com/goggletheatre.html

Labels: film

We are writing to let you know of some exciting news that I know will affect the LGBT community and the City of Reading in a positive way. The City Council currently is considering a change to the existing human relations ordinance which would make it illegal to discriminate against gay ,lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the City of Reading in employment, public accommodations and housing. The city is currently in the process of drawing up an amendment to the Human Relation Commission’s non discrimination ordinance in the City of Reading that would add coverage for “sexual orientation and gender identity or expression toexisting law . As you may not know Reading is the only city in Pennsylvania of the15 that have non discrimination ordiances in place that does not include thesecatagories in its existing legislation.

Fourteen other municipalities have local ordinances that include “sexual orientation and gender identity or expression”. So we are calling on the members of the LGBT community and those who support this important change to the ordinance tocontact Mayor Tom Mc Mahon’s office at 610–655-6234 or email thomas.mcmahon@readingpa.org and also City Council’s office for Councilpresident Vaughn Spencer at 610-655-6204 or email council@readingpa.org to show your support. We need all the help we can to get this done. The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission under the Leadership of Stephen Glassman fully supports this changeand is actively involved in this effort.

Please contact Ernest Schlegel at 610-741-6528 610-741-6528 for more information.

All Souls Ecumenical Church is in the process of forming in the Reading Area. Welcoming and fully incluside, All Souls celebrates the diversity of all God's creation. The church offers the sacrement of marriage to same-sex couples. You can find out more information at http://www.allsoulsecumenical.org or by calling 610-621-1738.

Judy Shepard, mother of Matthew Shepard, the victim of a murder motivated by anti-gay hate, will offer a speech entitled: “The Legacy of Matthew Shepard: An End to Hate"

Thursday April 30, 2009
Time: 8 p.m.
Location: Albright College Chapel
http://www.albright.edu

Co-sponsored by AC2, GSA and WXAC

PA Diversity Network participates in the Freedom to Marry Day 2009 Courthouse Action in Lehigh County, PA with Metropolitan Community Church of the Lehigh Valley, Muhlenberg College's Gay-Straight Alliance and many other community members.