May 13, 2015
Issue 1581
WNBA stars wed at Phoenix resort
Well-known pastor urges Christians to stop driving LGBT teens out of the church OBSERVER STAFF
Glory Johnson (left) and Brittney Griner wed in Goodyear on May 8.
ATLANTA -- Pastor Andy Stanley of Atlanta's North Point Ministries, one of the biggest congregations in the U.S., recently voiced his support for LGBT youth and said fundamentalists need to stop driving these teens out of the church, according to Raw Story.
OBSERVER STAFF PHOENIX -- WNBA players Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson married last week at The Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort, just two weeks after
Inside Poll: More Americans ready for gay president than for a Tea Bagger or Christianist Page 4
Married gay Mormon responds to bishop’s excommunication threat: ‘Shame on you’ Pages 15
Lawsuit against all homos goes down quickly Page 4
‘Homosexual,’ ‘devil-worshiping’ hairstyles now banned in Iran Page 7
Ginsburg and Scalia -- opposite poles of what the Supreme Court should be about Page 3
People magazine said 75
Stanley's remarks were particularly notable because his father is an anti-gay Baptist pastor who once hired armed security guards on horseback to protect his church building from celebrants at Atlanta Pride.
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they were both arrested in a domestic violence episode at their home in Goodyear.
Antigone Books hosts author of ‘How to Grow Up: A Memoir’ TUCSON -- Author Michelle Tea, cofounder of the legendary Sister Spit all-female open mics, will share her amazing new memoir at Antigone Books Friday at 7 p.m. In “How to Grow Up: A Memoir,” Tea shares her awkward stumble toward the life of a bona fide grown-up: healthy, responsible, self-aware, stable. She writes about passion, about her fraught relationship with money, about breakups and the fertile ground between relationships, about roommates and rent, and about being superstitious. As an aspiring young writer in San Francisco, Tea toiled for minimum wage; she drank, smoked, snorted anything she got her hands on; she dated men and women, sometimes both at once. Meanwhile, she scrawled in notebooks and organized dive bar poetry readings, working to make her literary dreams real. Tea proves that the road less traveled may be a difficult one, but if you dust yourself off after every screw-up, you just might make it to adulthood. This event is free and open to the public at Antigone Books, 411 N. Fourth Ave. For more information visit antigonebooks.com.
"Jesus died for a world with which he didn't see eye-to-eye. If a bakery doesn't want to sell its products to a gay couple, it's their business — literally. But leave Jesus out of it." -- Pastor Andy Stanley
Megachurch Pastor Andy Stanley says it's time fundamentalists put spirituality ahead of their politics.
SAGA celebrates ‘Tipping Point’ OBSERVER STAFF TUCSON – The Southern Arizona Gender Alliance has a lot to be proud of this year, so the organization gathered Saturday night at Fluxx Studio and Gallery to share successes, snacks, and goals. The party honored the steps forward SAGA has taken in protecting its own viability and the services it offers the trans and gender expansive community. This past year has been a transformative one for the organization since the dissolution of its parent organization Wingspan. SAGA has bounced back with gusto, achieving its own non-profit status and a functioning and successful board. The organization took the party as an opportunity not only to look back but to look forward, by inviting attendees to give input on the direction SAGA should go and improvements that could be made. More photos on page 9.
Germans honor Chelsea Manning with hero's statue Following the brief display of an Edward Snowden statue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn last month, a new Snowden statue has popped up in Berlin. But this time, Snowden's statue is accompanied by statues of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning.
Story on Page 7