At the end of a long day of reviewing grant proposals (God finds inventive ways to make me pay for my sins), a quick update to something I posted earlier today.
In my posting today about the latest installments in the story about Rev. Dr. George Rekers, I noted that Anderson Cooper would interview Jo-Vanni Roman, the young man whom Rekers hired for his European travels, on CNN soon.
And as an addendum, since one commenter has stated on threads at this blog that Joe Jervis of Joe.My.God has been "selfish, brutal, and inhuman" as well as abusive in "coming down heavily on this sweet and good young man [i.e., Jo-Vanni Roman]," I'd like to note a posting of Jervis today. Joe Jervis states that he's been in contact with Mr. Roman several times today (and it's hard to imagine that Jo-Vanni Roman would have given an interview to Joe Jervis if he himself agrees with the assessment of the commenter here).
Joe Jervis writes,
In the meantime, I've got Father Tony working in Fort Lauderdale to put together a support team for Jo-Vanni. As I'm sure you all realize, there may be some pretty nasty people out to get him in some way or another. We've got a connection to one of South Florida's sharpest LGBT legal minds, but want to also make sure he's getting good advice on handling the deluge of media inquiries. And of course, the kid just needs some good old social support. None of us can be 100% confident we're getting the full story here, but until we know otherwise, we need to close ranks behind this kid and block any attempts by the Christian right to hurt him. South Florida readers, I welcome your emailed suggestions.
I applaud Joe Jervis for taking these steps to help muster the support Jo-Vanni Roman will need as he courageously steps into the limelight through interviews with Jervis and Anderson Cooper. Dan Savage has also written to praise Jervis for what he's doing in support of Roman, and to encourage others to support Jo-Vanni Roman.
I don't quite get the need of some people in the gay community--or of some people who claim to support gay people and gay rights and theological critiques that move in the direction of support--to go on the attack in this divide-and-conquer way. I do understand, though, that there's such pain and, to be honest, downright dysfunction, among many gay men who remain within the clerical system that this pain and dysfunction sometimes twist and torture mind, heart, and soul, and produce strange, aberrant analyses of things like the abuse of minors by adults.
And I hope to maintain compassion for those who experience such twisting and torture even as I keep slogging forward on what seems to me to be the most promising path for healing within our community, which needs to face these questions far more honestly and sanely, and far less dysfunctionally, than we're accustomed to doing with our present clerical system. I intend to aim at compassion for these priests because I also know good, loving, sane gay priests who are anything but twisted and tortured--but who do experience pain because of the institutional homophobia of the Catholic church.
(I also think Joe Jervis and Michael Signorile deserve far better than to be called "bitchy gays" who are far less human and kindly than Dr. Rekers.)
