Friday, June 4, 2010

Friday Feature: Our Spirit

I am very excited to tell you all about my friend and writing partner Robert's newly launched non-profit website, Our Spirit. Designed to be a resource for LGBTQ teens who might feel turned away by organized religion. Robert's message? "Love…that's the whole story."

Our Spirit's Mission:

Our Spirit believes that the true basis of life and religion is love and that all people deserve to be loved, including – especially! – youth who don’t fit the straight and narrow vision of sexuality. Our Spirit uses the broad reach of the internet and the intimacy of narrative film to help youth develop tools for self-acceptance.

Why?
Adolescence can be difficult enough without struggling with questions of sexual identity.
Organized religion is one of the last places where it’s acceptable to spread hate and homophobia.

The Our Spirit website will air movie shorts this summer, called The Romeo Files.
It has an amazing page, LGBTQ-Whatever, which is wonderful collection of resources, including lists of books and movies.
And, as if you needed more inspiration to click over and check it out, there is a whole page of Words That Help, including quotes like this:
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. – Rainer Maria Rilke, German poet


I would love it if you would visit Robert's wonderful website, and leave him a message there, and let him know what you think of his endeavor. I'm so excited for his non-profit launch!! I'm so excited that this resource for teens is up and running. And I'm excited to hear about what you think!


Woo-hoo, Robert!!


P.S. check out the results of the fun and furious WIBIJ game--Award Ceremony at 1PM!
And--I LOVE this book review by Tahereh--it makes me want to read the book NOW!

10 comments:

  1. How awesome!! Off to check it out!

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  2. fabulous post -- clicking over!

    (and thanks for the linkage!! :D)

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  3. Yes, great! I love the premise--I love the love. And I will check out all the linkages.

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  4. Brilliant work my friend!

    Love the whole concept and also loved Tahereh's book review.

    THANK YOU and Robert both!

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  5. I am not going to lie...I am so touched by this project. I cannot wait to spread the word and encourage others to share their story.

    Thanks, R.

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  6. Thanks for sharing the message and the links... Have a great weekend!

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  7. I checked out the website a couple days ago. Very cool stuff!!

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  8. This is so great! I love to see it when someone takes the time to create a resource for teens. It is a very crucial part of our up bringing and if they are shunned away for such silly reasons it's nice to know that someone around understands and took the time to open their arms!

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  9. Heather - Thank you for the shout out!

    We're still working a few kinks out of the site, but we're so excited it's up.

    Robert

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