Contact: Catherine J. Kelly
Publicist for Dr. Robert Minor
(816) 769-4139 or ckelly@cjkinc.com
Scared
Straight Author to Lead July 28-August 3 Workshop
at New Mexico’s Ghost Ranch
“Getting Unstuck” Course
to Facilitate Progress in Gender and Sexual Orientation
Debate
Kansas City, MO, April 23, 2003. Take the breathtaking
scenery of Northern New Mexico captured by Georgia O’Keefe,
the unique opportunities of the Ghost Ranch Conference
Center in Abiquiu, and the nationally renowned depth
of teaching of the author of Scared Straight, and you
have the perfect setting for renewed progress on issues
of gender and sexual orientation.
Dr. Robert N. Minor, Professor of Religious Studies
at the University of Kansas and author of the book Scared
Straight: Why It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People
and Why It’s So Hard to Be Human (St. Louis: HumanityWorks!),
will teach “Getting Unstuck: Making Progress on
Sexual Orientation and Gender Issues” (T772) July
28-August 3 at Ghost Ranch education and retreat center
in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
“No matter how much has been said on the subject,
no matter how many books have been written, no matter
how long now this has been discussed, the first question
is: Why aren’t we beyond this issue? The second
question is, how can we make real progress in discussing
issues of gender and sexism, and issues of sexuality
and the acceptance of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual
and transgender people?” So asks Dr. Minor.
Minor wrote Scared Straight as a result of ten years
of workshops on homophobia and gender issues. Its purpose
is to get beyond and behind the “stuckness”
of the discussion, to examine: “what’s really
going on but not being said.” Within a month of
publication the book was named “Book of the Week”
by the premier men’s issues website: www.Menstuff.org.
In 2002 it was a finalist for both a Lambda Literary
Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award.
“Ghost Ranch is the perfect place to think, process,
and find one’s own comfortable place in this debate,”
Minor adds. “We’ll be working hard in the
mornings and centering our discussion around videos
in the evenings. The afternoons are for relaxing, hiking,
and reflecting. It’s an ideal setting for a vacation
that brings renewal and a re-creation.”
The Ghost Ranch catalogue description reads: “this
seminar will allow participants to explore personal
and social issues that keep them from being creatively
engaged. Why are we often polarized in debate, instead
of engaged in dialogue, on the issues of the acceptance
and affirmation of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual and
transgender people? Why is it that people having these
sexual orientations are ‘stuck’ as well?”
The seminar is open to people of all ages and sexual
orientations including senior high students, young adults,
pastors, counselors, to help facilitate dialogue in
religious and non-religious groups, in congregations,
campus ministries, senior high fellowships, and personal
lives. It’s intended for people at both beginning
and advanced levels of dealing with gender issues and
homophobia
.
For further information, including housing and registration
information, contact www.ghostranch.org
or (505) 685-4333. For information on the seminars and
writings of Dr. Minor and The Fairness Project, as well
as a press kit, go to www.fairnessproject.org.
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