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Queer Health Summit Takes Bi, Trans, and Intersex Inclusion Seriously
Passages
Passages
Farewell
Founding Music Mother Kay Gardner, 61.
Kay Gardner, one of the founding foremothers of the womenÍs music movement, died August 28 of a heart attack at her home in Bangor, Maine. She was 61.
Kay Gardner recorded the second overtly lesbian album, Lavender Jane Loves Women, playing flute with pianist Patches Attom and singer Alix Dobkin in 1972. Three years later, she released her first album of healing music Mooncircles. She was a regularly featured performer at the Michigan WomenÍs Music Festival, often participating in the opening and closing ceremonies as well as playing acoustic concerts and conducting workshops on music, healing, and spirituality.
Gardner had her first impact on Bangor in the 1970s when she unsuccessfully sued the Bangor symphony orchestra for sex discrimination in hiring when she was turned down for a job as conductor. The orchestra had circulated a questionnaire soliciting the membersÍ feelings about working with a female conductor. In the 1980s, Kay Gardner lived and composed at Sea Gnomes Home on Deer Isle on the coast of Maine. She moved to Bangor in the 1990s.
She was the first woman ordained as a Dianic high priestess by Z Budapest in 1975 and in 1998 was inducted into the Fellowship of Isis by its founder, Lady Olivia Robertson. Kay Gardner also founded the Temple of the Feminine Divine in Bangor.
She insisted that everyone could sing and write songs, and many of her workshops included song sharing by women who had never written songs before.
She composed over 50 musical works Ü ranging from chamber works (17, anywhere from two-and-a-half to 40 minutes long) to an oratorio, an opera, choral works and compositions for solo instruments and solo voice Ü recorded more than a dozen albums, and wrote numerous articles and a book.
According to one of her daughters, Kay had seen a doctor for a feeling of overwhelming fatigue. Returning from the appointment, she lay down on the couch for a rest, took a few breaths and then stopped breathing. There were no indications that she was in pain, the daughter wrote. Attempts to revive her made by family members and paramedics were unsuccessful.
She is survived by her two daughters, Julie and Jennifer, and her partner Colleen.
Gardner had participated in the opening and closing ceremonies of this yearÍs Michigan WomenÍs music festival, playing her flute and leading a procession. During the closing ceremony, a bright and long-lasting meteor streaked across the sky.
Links to articles, photos and bulletin board remembrances of Kay Gardner by friends, family, and colleagues can be found online at www.KayGardner.com
Mattachine Society and Radical Faeries Founder Harry Hay, 90.
Well-known gay rights activist Harry Hay passaed away on October 24th at the age of 90.
He is survived by his longtime partner, John Burnside.
Harry was diagnosed with inoperable cancerous tumors on September 10th. He had been in precarious health for a number of years. Thanks to a dedicated collection of gay men, Harry and John have received much support during their many challenges.
In 1950, Hay and four others formed one of the nation's first gay rights organizations, the Mattachine Society. The idea that homosexuals should organize for civil rights was formed at an election-year party in Los Angeles that was attended exclusively by gay men.
The organization was named for the Matachinos, court jesters of the Italian Renaissance who, behind their masks, were free to speak the truth. The Mattachine Society was the first to propose the idea of gay and lesbian people as an oppressed cultural minority.
In the 1960s Hay helped organize the first “gay pride” parade in Los Angeles, was chair of the L.A. Committee to Fight the Exclusion of Homosexuals from the Armed Forces and chair of the Southern California Gay Liberation Front. In the late '70s and early '80s Hay became increasingly concerned with spiritual issues and formed the Radical Faeries, a movement devoted to ecology, spiritual truth and “gay-centeredness.”
Memorial arrangements were incomplete at press time.
Civil Unions
Carter & Masterton
Heather Masterton, daughter of the late John and Elsie Masterton of Blueberry Hill in Goshen, and Mickey Carter, daughter of Donna and Winston Carter of Mapleton, Maine, were joined in Civil Union on August 24, 2002 at their home in Rochester.
Officiating at the ceremony were HeatherÍs sister Diane Mott, who is a Justice of the Peace, the Rev. Dr. William Daniels, and Justice of the Peace Java Hubbard, who certified the union.
Surrounded by a crowd of over 160 friends and family in a sea of umbrellas, the couple was blessed by love, raindrops, and a ritual of handfasting. Wonderful toasts were made by a number of dear friends, including Miss Lillian Marsh. Music was provided by a gathering of Vermont musicians, including MickeyÍs band mates in the Middlebury Community Wind Ensemble and the dance band ñRoustabout.î
Mickey, a professional theatre technician and percussionist, and Heather, a vocalist, computer consultant and trainer, are the operators of Clovis Point Internet Office Space. Both are actively engaged in supporting the arts and theatre in Rochester, and say, ñWe invite all our friends back again for our first anniversary Ü that will be the REALLY big party!î