Last year I visited Guilford College in Greensboro, NC and presented the first inklings of a talk around the odd question,
What is a Queer Response to Climate Change? As a gay guy, a person of faith from a Christian background now sporting Quaker bonnet and Friendly ways, I daily feel pulled in many different justice directions as my social media feed gets bloated with scores of vital worthy causes--LGBTQ Rights, immigration reform, the reform of the prison industrial complex,…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 5th mo. 5, 2014 at 8:26pm —
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As a Quaker, I have benefited from both Clearness Committees and a Support Committee as I experienced them at Hartford Friends Meeting where I was a member from 2001 until 2010. I cannot calculate the many ways these Quaker processes helped me to find clarity and stay on track over the past 10 years of solo performance activism.
Back in October 2002 I sat in my tiny apartment in Hartford, CT considering a play I had in mind which would reveal to the world the 17 years I spent…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 29, 2014 at 4:23am —
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Since finally coming out gay in my early 30′s (after 17 years of self-imposed
therapies to de-gay myself) I was never that keen on finding a partner. Sure I dated, and I met some great guys, but first off I knew I had a ton of gunk to work through. One cannot go to war against one’s sexuality and personality the way I did without needing serious recovery.
The Ex-Gay Movement with all the faulty oppressive teaching “ministers” and…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 25, 2011 at 10:30am —
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What a terrible generalization that would work so well on a bumper sticker. "Quakers. Not violent. Just passive aggressive." When I speak among Friends in Quaker venues or among folks who know little about the Religious Society of Friends, this joke (I'm a Quaker, I do not get violent--just passive aggressive) always gets a laugh.
With comic performances we comics most consistently employ two types of jokes.
1. The absurd "What if..."…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 19, 2011 at 12:00pm —
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Actually I do not know if Henry Kissinger in fact did have a boob job. It's more of an
unconfirmed rumor. But it is possible that Henry Kissinger had his boobs done--most likely breast reduction and possibly pec implants.
I guess it is inappropriate to write about the body modifications of a former secretary of state or to speculate about his breasts. Political figures…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 18, 2011 at 9:12pm —
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This is my final installment of my four part review (with excerpts) of Glen Retief’s The Jack Bank, A Memoir of a South African Childhood.
Part One: A Child Takes on his World
Part Two:…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 17, 2011 at 6:38pm —
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Sunbury, PA (photo credit John Schwenkler)
As the wind began to whip the still tightly closed tree buds and newly blossomed dandelions, my friend Quintin and I walked up Market Street in the idyllic (and rough around the edges) Pennsylvania farming town of Sunbury where we both…
Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 16, 2011 at 12:30pm —
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This is part three of a four part review of
Glen Retief‘s memoir,
The Jack Bank, A Memoir of a South African Childhood. (275 pages, St. Martin’s Press) Here are reviews (with gorgeous quotes!) Part One–
A child takes on his world and Part…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 10, 2011 at 3:00pm —
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Yesterday I wrote the first of a four part review of Glen Retief’s The Jack Bank, A Memoir of a South African Childhood, and shared an excerpt about the shadowy sense of privilege the author sensed as a child, but could not name.…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 7, 2011 at 9:13pm —
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Jazzed up on my performance enhancement drug of choice (Trung Nguyen Vietnamese coffee brewed in my Bialetti Italian stove top espresso maker) I begin a four-part review of Glen Retief's new book, The Jack Bank, A Memoir of a South African Childhood.
[Full Disclosure: I have slept with the author. In…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 4th mo. 6, 2011 at 12:41pm —
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Michael Eric Brown of
TransMentors International has raised the alarm about ugly, misinformed and offensives comments uttered on a radio program earlier this week.
On Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 Janet Snyder and Nicholas Picholas on Kiss 98.5 in Buffalo ran a story on Scott Moore "The 2nd Pregnant Man." Durning the story, both Janet and Nick responded in a transphobic, hateful and dismissive manner. Join us in condemning this…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 1st mo. 30, 2010 at 10:21am —
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Firstly a thousand pardons for my utter neglect of my blog. After taking a break over the holidays (and soaking up the Oaxaca sun) I moved to Selinsgrove, PA (Susquehanna University). Amazing how much energy and concentration goes into relocating. Besides all of the work to settle (unpack, set up an office space, make new friends, connect with friends I met over the past year here) I also took up in earnest once again to work on my memoir after a break during the fall tour. After two hours a…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 1st mo. 29, 2010 at 8:54am —
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Marvin Bloom, regularly contributes on
Trans-Ponder Podcast with his
Moments with Marvin segments and also appears in my play
Doin' Time the Homo No Mo Halfway House. Raised Jewish in Long Island, NY, Marvin is now a born-again Christian--A Jew for Jesus. In this video freaks out about Christmas and more importantly
Christians Gone Wild at…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 12th mo. 19, 2009 at 4:09pm —
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Today during worship at Hartford Friends Meeting, the story of the Good Samaritan came up and reverberated in subsequent messages. (At Quaker meetings anyone can share a message. We don't have a sermon or a pastor like they do in churches. Most messages are under five minutes) One of the key messages to emerge today was that in order to be a Good Samaritan, one often needs to see the humanity in people or as we say in Quaker circles "that of God…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 12th mo. 13, 2009 at 10:03pm —
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One of t the things I like about moving with the Quakers is the quality of questions we ask each other. We have a
long history of asking questions that cause of to reflect inwardly and outwardly.
For three decades (more?) queer Quakers have been meeting in North America under a variety of names that have changed as the group has changed and grown. Currently the
Friends for Lesbian, Gay,… Continue
Added by Peterson Toscano on 12th mo. 9, 2009 at 1:36pm —
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In an on-going series of
Jesus Loves You Twitter/Facebook status updates, I thought it was time to compile the most recent offerings. I average about five of these per week, and get plenty of suggestions from folks. In this most current batch I drew on hymns and praise songs for some of my inspiration. You will also find me playing with various warnings and disclaimers and hear…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 11th mo. 3, 2009 at 2:03am —
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About an hour ago I stepped out of the studios of WNPR, the Hartford local public radio stations, where I appeared on the
Where We Live program to talk about transgender Bible characters as they appear in my play
Transfigurations--Transgressing Gender in the Bible. Also on the show performance artist
Scott Turner… Continue
Added by Peterson Toscano on 9th mo. 11, 2009 at 11:26am —
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At the
Friends General Conference gathering (FGC) this summer and then again at the
New England Yearly Meeting of Friends (NEYM) I got lots of Quaker action! Sitting in silent worship for an hour at a time, some might think of it as Quaker inaction. Ah, but things happen and often Friends (as Quakers refer to each other) offer long and ponderous messages (some quite brilliant and revelatory others a bit obtuse or…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 8th mo. 26, 2009 at 2:02pm —
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According to the
St. Louis Friends website,
Also known as the Testimony of Truth, or Truth Testimony, the essence of the Testimony of Integrity is placing God at the center of one's life and refusing to place things other than God there—whether it be oneself, possessions, the… Continue
Added by Peterson Toscano on 8th mo. 23, 2009 at 4:00pm —
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A few months ago I posted a series of Twitter/Facebook/Blog status updates that I compiled into a blog post entitled
Jesus Loves You! But I've heard rumors... I figured that would be the end of it, but about two weeks later I got inspired again and began another round of
Jesus Loves You! updates. Since the first round, John Henson, the brilliant Welsh minister and author of…
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Added by Peterson Toscano on 8th mo. 20, 2009 at 10:30am —
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