Pride Month is always a special time here at Witch House for me and Brother Christopher…and sweet Angelique loves it too. She is always telling the neighborhood cats, that come to visit her window, about her two daddies…and of course we celebrate Pride every day the whole year long…when you are LGBT, just existing is in itself a form of activism for love and acceptance in the world.
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Featured Tarot Deck for June 2024
We love this deck…there is a review for it on the Witch Joseph YouTube channel…if you haven’t already, go check it out there and be sure to Like, Subscribe and leave a comment.
Pride Tarot is a collaborative 78-card tarot deck inspired by Pridefest and the achievements of the LGBTQ+ movement. U.S. Games Systems created this deck to show its support for the LGBTQ+ community, and to showcase the creative talents of LGBTQ+ members and allies. Pride Tarot features 45 diverse artists from around the globe who share their poignant and powerful stories. Pride Tarot follows the structure of Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot, with some cards portraying real life heroes, role models and personal experiences. Included with the deck is a 192-page illustrated guidebook with card descriptions, artists bios, and instructions for a Parade Card Spread. The deck includes an extra Pride Flag Rainbow card, which can also be used for a six-card reading. U.S. Games Systems, Inc. has made a contribution to an organization working to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals.
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We like to take some time each year to reflect on the history of our movement(s) for LGBT Equality and full civil rights for all people…so we are highlighting a few moments and just a few people from the movement…who have inspired us and continue to inspire change all over the world.
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We honor the Activists and Changers who Make the World a Better Place
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was an African-American transgender women who was an LGBTQ rights activist and an outspoken advocate for trans people of color. Johnson was involved in the Stonewall uprising in 1969, though according to her own accounts she was not present when the riots began, and along with Sylvia Rivera, she later established the Street Transvestite (now Transgender) Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group committed to helping homeless transgender youth in New York City. She was tragically murdered on July 6, 1992 at the age of 46.
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Harvey Milk
In 1972, Milk moved from New York City to the Castro District of San Francisco amid a migration of gay and bisexual men. He took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his interests and unsuccessfully ran three times for political office. Milk's theatrical campaigns earned him increasing popularity, and in 1977 he won a seat as a city supervisor. His election was made possible by a key component of a shift in San Francisco politics.
Milk served almost eleven months in office, during which he sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supervisors passed the bill by a vote of 11-1 and was signed into law by Mayor Moscone. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, who was another city supervisor.
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Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He was a close associate and friend of Dr King…and Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement in 1941 to press for an end to discrimination in employment.
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Jim Obergefell
Born in Sandusky, Ohio, James (Jim) Obergefell did not plan to become a well-known gay activist, but when it came to the right to marry the love of his life, John Arthur, he did everything he could for their love to be legally recognized. Arthur and Obergefell lived a successful life together in Cincinnati and surrounded themselves with supportive family and friends.
After 20 years as a couple, their lives changed when John Arthur was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Obergefell took on the role of caregiver for Arthur and during this time the couple decided to do everything they could to be legally married. With the help of friends and family, the couple raised a total of $13,000 to hire a medical plane to transport them to the tarmac of the Baltimore-Washington airport. On that tarmac on July 11, 2015, John Arthur and Jim Obergefell legally married under Maryland law.
Shortly after their marriage ceremony, Obergefell and Arthur discovered that their marriage would not be recognized on John’s death certificate. Before John Arthur’s death, they sued the State of Ohio for not recognizing their Maryland marriage. Obergefell’s personal resolve was undeterred as the case wound its way through the federal court system up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Though his focus was keeping his husband comfortable in the last months of his life, after John Arthur’s death Obergefell’s energy shifted to supporting the legacy of their marriage and that of other marriages like theirs. On June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States made a decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case, which changed the legal recognition of same sex marriage and the lives of millions of LGBTQ Americans.
Obergefell’s work is not done, however. Since the decision, he has volunteered his time to bring awareness to the plethora of issues that challenge LGBTQ people in the wake of achieving marriage equality, both in Ohio and across the nation. He inspires audiences, authors articles, advocates at the Statehouse in Ohio and elsewhere, meets with legislators in Congress, and uses his voice to shine a spotlight on the patchwork of incomplete protections that LGBTQ people have under the law. He advocates and volunteers with LGBTQ rights groups like Equality Ohio, the Human Rights Campaign, SAGE (an organization focused on the rights of LGBTQ elders), GLSEN (an organization focused on improving the lives of LGBTQ youth in schools) and others.__________________________________________________________
Larry Kramer
Larry Kramer (born June 25, 1935) is an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for the 1969 film Women in Love (1969) and earned an Academy Award nomination for his work. Kramer introduced a controversial and confrontational style in his novel Faggots (1978), which earned mixed reviews and emphatic denunciations from elements within the gay community for Kramer's one-sided portrayal of shallow, promiscuous gay relationships in the 1970s.
Kramer witnessed the spread of the disease later known as Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) among his friends in 1980. He co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which has become the world's largest private organization assisting people living with AIDS. Kramer grew frustrated with bureaucratic paralysis and the apathy of gay men to the AIDS crisis, and wished to engage in further action than the social services GMHC provided. He expressed his frustration by writing a play titled The Normal Heart, produced at The Public Theater in New York City in 1985. His political activism continued with the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1987, an influential direct action protest organization with the aim of gaining more public action to fight the AIDS crisis. ACT UP has been widely credited with changing public health policy and the perception of people living with AIDS (PWAs), and with raising awareness of HIV and AIDS-related diseases.[1] Kramer has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Destiny of Me (1992), and he is a two-time recipient of the Obie Award.
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The Intersection of Magick, Witchcraft and Paganism for LGBT People
LGBT People have long been in Witch spaces in many cultures and many religions and spiritualities around the world…in all time periods in all places. Sometimes we have been celebrated and given central places…other times we have been persecuted and marginalized…even in the beginning of modern Wicca, Gerald Gardner held very homophobic beliefs, like most people of his time period…though Wicca has grown since then to be very tolerant and even inclusive in most places. All the more so with other forms of Witchcraft. Perhaps it’s because LGBT people often find themselves in liminal spaces to begin with…the in between places…it seems only natural that we would often think and work between the worlds.
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This year, we are celebrating Tu’er Shen, the LGBT Rabbit God of China.
There was a young man, in the Qing Dynasty, named Hu Tianbao, who fell in love with a good looking young imperial inspector. One day, the inspector caught Hu Tianbao peeping thru a hole at his naked body and had Hu Tianbao beaten to death. Upon arrival in the Afterlife, the King of the Underworld judged that the death of Hu Tianbao was an injustice because there is no crime or evil in Love…and had Hu Tianbao brought before Him where He deified Hu Tianbao as “Tu’er Shen”, the Rabbit God, patron of Love between men and in fact of Love between all LGBT people. (“Rabbit” has long been used as a slur for gay men in Chinese culture…queerly, there was also the association between Gay men and Rabbits in Ancient Rome.). LGBT People can pray to Tu’er Shen for Love and Blessings and can consider Him a powerful and loving ally and protector. After His death and deification, Tu’er Shen appeared to someone in the village and told them what had happened…and requested a Temple be built and called for the people to burn incense to Him. Since the first modern temple was opened in 2006 by Taoist priest, Lu Wei-ming in Yonghe City, Taiwan , the worship of Tu’er Shen has spread throughout the world among LGBT people who burn incense and make offerings to Him on home altars and in home shrines. Tu’er Shen likes Rice Wine, Moon Cakes, incense offerings…and paper charms and prayer cards.
I keep one of these above my daily devotional shrine…the reverse side has this prayer to Him:
“We pray to You, Tu’er Shen, Rabbit God of Gay People,
Please, grant us Your presence, Your Blessings and Your Grace,
Fill our homes and lives with Love and illumination,
Empower us to inspire and create Equality everywhere for Gay people…
And for the whole World.
Also, please grant (insert intention here)
And accept this offering of my love for You.
Amen.”
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Where did the Rainbow Flag come From?
(source-Wikipedia)
The original Rainbow flag was created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker (aka Busty Ross)…and initially, in addition to the 6 stripes, had a pink stripe (representing Sex) and a turquoise stripe (representing Magic)…but these were dropped in later versions for practical considerations.
In 1979, following the assassination of Harvey Milk, demand for the Flag increased…in the most popular version of the flag, shown above.
In 2018 the Flag was adapted and a new Progress flag was designed aiming at more inclusion…specifically of Transgender people and marginalized people of color.
The Intersex-inclusive redesign shown above is from 2021, and was designed by Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights, UK…and is intended to include representation for Intersex people.
In our community(s) there is always an ongoing movement to include and represent the wide diversity represented by our many members…and of course, as Witch Joseph always says, “There is a place for Everyone in the Circle.”
In the last few decades, numerous other flags have been created representing various parts of the LGBTQ+ community(s)…some of these are pictured below.
(Photo taken from Los Angelos County Department of Mental Health)
These are only a few of the many flags and identifiers used by various members of the LGBTQ+ community(s)…Every single one of us is a glorious cell in the body of the Divine Mother…and all Love is holy and good. We will never stop working until every person on Earth is free and equal in dignity and in rights and able to live in liberty as they choose and to express their authentic identities and are able to love who they love without fear and without stigma, violence and/or marginalization.
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We also wanted to share jus a few of the items in our Pride Collection
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Me and Brother Christopher (and of course the beautiful and perfect Angelique) wish you and yours the most wonderful celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride ever…we will keep working in the world to make sure that our goals become reality…and not just here, but everywhere. Love and Reason will prevail and we will keep on until they do.
Remember, you are loved and valued…and there is always a place for you in Her Circle xoxox.
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