Fr. Bernard J. Lynch



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Toby Johnson's books:

Toby's books are available as ebooks from smashwords.com, the Apple iBookstore, etc.


Finding Your Own True Myth - The Myth of the Great Secret III

FINDING YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III


Gay Spirituality

GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness


Gay Perspective


GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe


Secret Matter


SECRET MATTER, a sci-fi novel with wonderful "aliens" with an Afterword by Mark Jordan


Getting Life

GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE:  A Fantastical Gay Romance set in two different time periods


The Fourth Quill

THE FOURTH QUILL, a novel about attitudinal healing and the problem of evil




Two Spirits
TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with the Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams



charmed lives
CHARMED LIVES: Spinning Straw into Gold: GaySpirit in Storytelling, a collaboration with Steve Berman and some 30 other writers


Myth of the Great Secret


THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell



In Search of God


IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD: A Mystical Journey



Unpublished manuscripts


About ordering


Books on Gay Spirituality:

White Crane Gay Spirituality Series


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  Toby has done five podcasts with Harry Faddis for The Quest of Life

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  Articles and Excerpts:

Review of Samuel Avery's The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness


Funny Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco"


About Liberty Books, the Lesbian/Gay Bookstore for Austin, 1986-1996


The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate


A Bifurcation of Gay Spirituality


Why gay people should NOT Marry


The Scriptural Basis for Same Sex Marriage


Toby and Kip Get Married


Wedding Cake Liberation


Gay Marriage in Texas


What's ironic



Shame on the American People


The "highest form of love"


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Gay Consciousness


Why homosexuality is a sin


The cause of homosexuality


The origins of homophobia


Q&A about Jungian ideas in gay consciousness


What is homosexuality?


What is Gay Spirituality?


My three messages


What Jesus said about Gay Rights


Queering religion


Common Experiences Unique to Gay Men


Is there a "uniquely gay perspective"?


The purpose of homosexuality


Interview on the Nature of Homosexuality


What the Bible Says about Homosexuality


Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men



Varieties of Gay Spirituality


Waves of Gay Liberation Activity


The Gay Succession


Wouldn’t You Like to Be Uranian?


The Reincarnation of Edward Carpenter


Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality as Artistic Medium


Easton Mountain Retreat Center


Andrew Harvey & Spiritual Activism


The Mysticism of Andrew Harvey


The upsidedown book on MSNBC


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Enlightenment


"It's Always About You"



The myth of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara


Joseph Campbell's description of Avalokiteshvara


You're Not A Wave



Joseph Campbell Talks about Aging



What is Enlightenment?



What is reincarnation?



How many lifetimes in an ego?



Emptiness & Religious Ideas



Experiencing experiencing experiencing



Going into the Light



Meditations for a Funeral



Meditation Practice



The way to get to heaven



Buddha's father was right



What Anatman means



Advice to Travelers to India & Nepal



The Danda Nata & goddess Kalika



Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva



John Boswell was Immanuel Kant



Cutting edge realization



The Myth of the Wanderer



Change: Source of Suffering & of Bliss



World Navel



What the Vows Really Mean



Manifesting from the Subtle Realms



The Three-layer Cake & the Multiverse


The est Training and Personal Intention



Effective Dreaming in Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven


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Gay Spirituality


Curious Bodies


What Toby Johnson Believes


The Joseph Campbell Connection


The Mann Ranch (& Rich Gabrielson)


Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy


The Two Loves


The Nature of Religion


What's true about Religion


Being Gay is a Blessing


Drawing Long Straws


Freedom of Religion


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The Gay Agenda


Gay Saintliness


Gay Spiritual Functions



The subtle workings of the spirit in gay men's lives.


The Sinfulness of Homosexuality


Proposal for a study of gay nondualism


Priestly Sexuality


Having a Church to Leave


Harold Cole on Beauty


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Marian Doctrines: Immaculate Conception & Assumption


Not lashed to the prayer-post


Monastic or Chaste Homosexuality


Is It Time to Grow Up? Confronting the Aging Process


Notes on Licking  (July, 1984)


Redeem Orlando


Gay Consciousness changing the world by Shokti LoveStar


Alexander Renault interviews Toby Johnson



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Mystical Vision


"The Evolution of Gay Identity"


"St. John of the Cross & the Dark Night of the Soul."


Avalokiteshvara at the Baths


 Eckhart's Eye


Let Me Tell You a Secret


Religious Articulations of the Secret


The Collective Unconscious


Driving as Spiritual Practice


Meditation


Historicity as Myth


Pilgrimage


No Stealing


Next Step in Evolution


The New Myth


The Moulting of the Holy Ghost


Gaia is a Bodhisattva


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The Hero's Journey


The Hero's Journey as archetype -- GSV 2016


The  Gay Hero Journey (shortened)


You're On Your Own


Superheroes


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Seeing Differently


Teenage Prostitution and the Nature of Evil


Allah Hu: "God is present here"


 
Adam and Steve


The Life is in the Blood



Gay retirement and the "freelance monastery"


Seeing with Different Eyes


Facing the Edge: AIDS as an occasion for spiritual wisdom


What are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel?


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The Vision


The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside


A  Most Remarkable Synchronicity in Riverside


The Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis


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The Techniques Of The World Saviors

Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby


Part 2: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara


Part 3: Jesus and the Resurrection


Part 4: A Course in Miracles


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The Secret of the Clear Light


Understanding the Clear Light


Mobius Strip


Finding Your Tiger Face


How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated


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Joseph Campbell, the Hero's Journey, and the modern Gay Hero-- a five part presentation on YouTube


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About Alien Abduction


In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke


Karellen was a homosexual


The D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance


Intersections with the movie When We Rise


More about Gay Mental Health


Psych Tech Training


Toby at the California Institute


The Rainbow Flag


Ideas for gay mythic stories


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People


Kip and Toby, Activists


Toby's friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta.


Harry Hay, Founder of the gay movement


About Hay and The New Myth


About Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first man to really "come out"


About Michael Talbot, gay mystic


About Fr. Bernard Lynch


About Richard Baltzell


About Guy Mannheimer


About David Weyrauch


About Dennis Paddie


About Ask the Fire


About Arthur Evans


About Christopher Larkin


About Mark Thompson


About Sterling Houston


About Michael Stevens


The Alamo Business Council


Our friend Tom Nash


Second March on Washington


The Gay Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the "Statement of Spirituality"


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Book Reviews



Be Done on Earth by Howard E. Cook


Pay Me What I'm Worth by Souldancer


The Way Out by Christopher L  Nutter


The Gay Disciple by John Henson


Art That Dares by Kittredge Cherry


Coming Out, Coming Home by Kennth A. Burr


Extinguishing the Light by B. Alan Bourgeois


Over Coffee: A conversation For Gay Partnership & Conservative Faith by D.a. Thompson


Dark Knowledge by Kenneth Low


Janet Planet by Eleanor Lerman


The Kairos by Paul E. Hartman


Wrestling with Jesus by D.K.Maylor


Kali Rising by Rudolph Ballentine


The Missing Myth by Gilles Herrada


The Secret of the Second Coming by Howard E. Cook


The Scar Letters: A Novel by Richard Alther


The Future is Queer by Labonte & Schimel


Missing Mary by Charlene Spretnak


Gay Spirituality 101 by Joe Perez


Cut Hand: A Nineteeth Century Love Story on the American Frontier by Mark Wildyr


Radiomen by Eleanor Lerman


Nights at Rizzoli by Felice Picano


The Key to Unlocking the Closet Door by Chelsea Griffo


The Door of the Heart by Diana Finfrock Farrar


Occam’s Razor by David Duncan


Grace and Demion by Mel White


Gay Men and The New Way Forward by Raymond L. Rigoglioso


The Dimensional Stucture of Consciousness by Samuel Avery


The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love by Perry Brass


Love Together: Longtime Male Couples on Healthy Intimacy and Communication by Tim Clausen


War Between Materialism and Spiritual by Jean-Michel Bitar


The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal


Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal


The Invitation to Love by Darren Pierre


Brain, Consciousness, and God: A Lonerganian Integration by Daniel A Helminiak


A Walk with Four Spiritual Guides by Andrew Harvey


Can Christians Be Saved? by Stephenson & Rhodes


The Lost Secrets of the Ancient Mystery Schools by Stephenson & Rhodes


Keys to Spiritual Being: Energy Meditation and Synchronization Exercises by Adrian Ravarour


In Walt We Trust by John Marsh


Solomon's Tantric Song by Rollan McCleary


A Special Illumination by Rollan McCleary


Aelred's Sin by Lawrence Scott


Fruit Basket by Payam Ghassemlou


Internal Landscapes by John Ollom


Princes & Pumpkins by David Hatfield Sparks


Yes by Brad Boney


Blood of the Goddess by William Schindler


Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom by Jeffrey Kripal


Evolving Dharma by Jay Michaelson


Jesus in Salome's Lot by Brett W. Gillette


The Man Who Loved Birds by Fenton Johnson


The Vatican Murders by Lucien Gregoire


"Sex Camp" by Brian McNaught


Out & About with Brewer & Berg
Episode One: Searching for a New Mythology



The Soul Beneath the Skin by David Nimmons


Out on Holy Ground by Donald Boisvert


The Revotutionary Psychology of Gay-Centeredness by Mitch Walker


Out There by Perry Brass


The Crucifixion of Hyacinth by Geoff Puterbaugh


The Silence of Sodom by Mark D Jordan


It's Never About What It's About by Krandall Kraus and Paul Borja


ReCreations, edited by Catherine Lake


Gospel: A Novel by WIlton Barnhard


Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey by Fenton Johnson


Dating the Greek Gods
by Brad Gooch


Telling Truths in Church by Mark D. Jordan


The Substance of God by Perry Brass


The Tomcat Chronicles by Jack Nichols


10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives by Joe Kort


Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same Sex Love by Will Roscoe


The Third Appearance by Walter Starcke


The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann


Surviving and Thriving After a Life-Threatening Diagnosis by Bev Hall


Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods by Ronald Long

An Interview with Ron Long


Queering Creole Spiritual Traditons by Randy Conner & David Sparks

An Interview with Randy Conner


Pain, Sex and Time by Gerald Heard


Sex and the Sacred by Daniel Helminiak


Blessing Same-Sex Unions by Mark Jordan


Rising Up by Joe Perez


Soulfully Gay by Joe Perez


That Undeniable Longing by Mark Tedesco


Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman


Wisdom for the Soul by Larry Chang


MM4M a DVD by Bruce Grether


Double Cross by David Ranan


The Transcended Christian by Daniel Helminiak


Jesus in Love by Kittredge Cherry


In the Eye of the Storm by Gene Robinson


The Starry Dynamo by Sven Davisson


Life in Paradox by Fr Paul Murray


Spirituality for Our Global Community by Daniel Helminiak


Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society by Robert A. Minor


Coming Out: Irish Gay Experiences by Glen O'Brien


Queering Christ by Robert Goss


Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage


The Flesh of the Word by Richard A Rosato


Catland by David Garrett Izzo


Tantra for Gay Men by Bruce Anderson


Yoga & the Path of the Urban Mystic by Darren Main


Simple Grace by Malcolm Boyd


Seventy Times Seven by Salvatore Sapienza


What Does "Queer" Mean Anyway? by Chris Bartlett


Critique of Patriarchal Reasoning by Arthur Evans


Gift of the Soul by Dale Colclasure & David Jensen


Legend of the Raibow Warriors by Steven McFadden


The Liar's Prayer by Gregory Flood


Lovely are the Messengers by Daniel Plasman


The Human Core of Spirituality by Daniel Helminiak


3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke


Religion and the Human Sciences by Daniel Helminiak


Only the Good Parts by Daniel Curzon


Four Short Reviews of Books with a Message


Life Interrupted by Michael Parise


Confessions of a Murdered Pope by Lucien Gregoire


The Stargazer's Embassy by Eleanor Lerman


Conscious Living, Conscious Aging by Ron Pevny


Footprints Through the Desert by Joshua Kauffman


True Religion by J.L. Weinberg


The Mediterranean Universe by John Newmeyer


Everything is God by Jay Michaelson


Reflection by Dennis Merritt


Everywhere Home by Fenton Johnson


Hard Lesson by James Gaston


God vs Gay? by Jay Michaelson


The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path by Jay Michaelson


Roxie & Fred by Richard Alther


Not the Son He Expected by Tim Clausen


The 9 Realities of Stardust by Bruce P. Grether


The Afterlife Revolution by Anne & Whitley Strieber


AIDS Shaman: Queer Spirit Awakening by Shokti Lovestar


Facing the Truth of Your Life by Merle Yost


The Super Natural by Whitley Strieber & Jeffrey J Kripal


Secret Body by Jeffrey J Kripal


In Hitler's House by Jonathan Lane


Walking on Glory by Edward Swift


The Paradox of Porn by Don Shewey


Is Heaven for Real? by Lucien Gregoire


Enigma by Lloyd Meeker


Scissors, Paper, Rock by Fenton Johnson




Toby Johnson's Books on Gay Men's Spiritualities:




Gay
Perspective cover
Gay Perspective

Things Our [Homo]sexuality
Tells Us about the
Nature of God and
the Universe


Gay Perspective audiobook
Gay Perspective is available as an audiobook narrated by Matthew Whitfield. Click here







Gay
Spirituality cover
Gay Spirituality

Gay Identity and 
the Transformation of
Human Consciousness



gay-spirituality-audiobook
Gay Spirituality   is now available as an audiobook, beautifully narrated by John Sipple. Click here








charmed lives
Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling

edited by
Toby Johnson
& Steve Berman







secret matter
Secret Matter

Lammy Award Winner for Gay Science Fiction

updated







Getting Life
Getting Life in Perspective

A Fantastical Romance





Getting
Life in Perspective audiobook
Getting Life in Perspective is available as an audiobook narrated by Alex Beckham. Click here 






The Fourth Quill

The Fourth Quill

originally published as PLAGUE




johnson-the-fourth-quill-audiobook
The Fourth Quill is available as an audiobook, narrated by Jimmie Moreland. Click here






Two
Two Spirits: A Story of Life with the Navajo

with Walter L. Williams




Two Spirits
audiobookTwo Spirits  is available as an audiobook  narrated by Arthur Raymond. Click here






Finding Your Own True Myth - The Myth of the Great Secret III
Finding Your Own True Myth:
What I Learned from Joseph Campbell

The Myth of the Great Secret III








In
Search of God in the Sexual Underworld
In Search of God  in the Sexual Underworld










The Myth of the Great Secret II

The Myth of the Great Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell.

This was the second edition of this book.




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Toby Johnson's titles are available in other ebook formats from Smashwords.


Priest/Activist

Bernard LynchBernard J. Lynch is a Roman Catholic priest, now living in London. He has a long history of fighting for gay Catholics’ personal dignity and therefore for DIGNITY, the gay Catholic affiliates group.

Bernard was an AIDS educator and chaplain in New York City during the height of the health crisis.

Because of his positive and compassionate embrace of homosexuality and gay identity, he was wrongly accused of unethical behavior with a student and persectued by his Church.

a priest on trial
The story of that persecution is told in the book A Priest on Trial.





His website is http://www.frbernardlynch.com/



He is proudly married to Billy Desmond (since 1998).

Billy and Bernard

In 2017, Bernard & Billy married again in Ireland—now fully legal!
See story below



If It Wasnt Love
He is author If It Wasn't Love: Sex, Death and God. 

"All Religion is about the denial of God. This is a book about Life, Love, Sexuality, Death and God. It is a story of many people’s stories, but most of all it is my story. Here for the first time is a truth birthed from fear and oppression and redeemed by love. When I first started putting the book together, I had some scattered ideas as to how I would do this. Some of the scenes written in the early seventies and eighties were never intended to form part of a whole. They stood alone, as a lecture here or an article there. This is in fact true for most of the project in hand. It is my hope and indeed my belief that the book holds together as one man’s attempt to be honest with God. I hasten to add that in no way is this a holy book. The words erection and Resurrection, masturbation and Holy Mass all appear with equal authenticity, pain and celebration. It is no book for the pious or those seeking a quick fix."



Bernard sent out a beautiful Easter greeting in 2021 (during the time of the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic):

EASTER 2021

Unimagined Hope

People become what they are open to. Much of our troubles in society are produced by the unreadable and unpredictable convolutions of our own character. How little we know ourselves and what we do know is often not helpful. When things go right it is equally often beyond our control. It seems that there is something else at work, fate, God, life, destiny. But if we can keep hope, even in the face of despair, we can transform our sorrow into life and joy.

We may live in pain & sorrow, but if we keep hope we will never be useless. We can do for others what may not have been done for us. If we can learn to live with our pain, then we can know the pain and injustice of the world, and so briefly, but transcendentally we can release each other from pain. This is a great gift. Our honour, our experience, our intelligence tells us that freedom to hope, not happiness is the precious stone.

One cannot cling to happiness. Happiness will submit to no clinging. There is a truth in the theatre & a truth in life — they meet, but they are not the same, for life, God help us, is the truth. Life & love teach us that our passion for freedom is not necessarily friendly. It is arrogant, superbly contemptuous of all that is not itself, and as the very definition of passion implies the impulse to freedom, it has a mighty intimidating power. It contains a challenge. It contains unspeakable hope.

UNSPEAKABLE HOPE that is what Easter means to me. Have a Happy Easter.





Bernard Lynch has appeared in the news and been interviewed for TV, radio, and the Internet, in particular, a 3-part series made in 1987 by Great Britain's Channel 4 called AIDS: A Priest's Testament.


Matias Wilboa has put all Three Documentaries made by Channel 4 on YouTube.


AIDS: A Priest's Testament: http://ow.ly/Dnle7 on YouTube

This compelling documentary shot for Channel 4 in the summer of 1987 tells the story of Fr. Bernárd Lynch and his ministry to people with AIDS in New York. The Irish born priest and psychotherapist was closely involved with the LGBT community and founded the first pastoral outreach to people with AIDS in the city. He was subsequently drafted onto the Mayor of New York's Task Force on AIDS. His ministry and his commitment to civil rights for LGBT people led him into conflict with the Catholic Church authorities as well as bringing him into the most harrowing situations; preparing young people for their untimely deaths. The documentary profiles the man, his ministry and the pressures that brought him close to the edge of his physical and spiritual limits.  (Conor McAnally, Director.)


A Priest of Trial: http://ow.ly/DnkZr on YouTube

This documentary film was made in 1992 and charts the savage attempt to silence the ministry of Fr. Bernárd Lynch. An openly gay priest in the Roman Catholic Church, Fr. Lynch was given an ultimatum by the Vatican and falsely accused of paedophilia. The accuser, John Schaefer admitted at Trial in the Bronx Supreme Court, that he had been forced against his will to bring the charges.The judge, Justice Burton Roberts, not only dismissed the charges and berated the politically motivated prosecutors from the District Attorney's office, but dramatically and fiercely declared Lynch wholly innocent.This film -- with live footage from the Trial -- is a vital testimony to the lengths that some will go to silence truth, love and compassion, with lies, hate and the abuse of power. (Conor McAnally, Director.)

Soul Survivor: http://youtu.be/P8kG9kGQ8CE on YouTube

In 1986, Father Bernárd Lynch was immersed in the AIDS pandemic in New York City. During an interview about his ministry on World AIDS Day of that same year, in Ireland, he denied he was gay. This he later described as "the greatest sin I ever committed". This documentary made by Channel 4 in 1989 'to correct the lie', traces the personal struggle of this remarkable priest to come out at a time when homosexuality was still a criminal offence in Ireland. The truth cost him his job. He was never allowed licence to earn his living by the Catholic Church. With outstanding courage and dignity his father stands with him in the third of three personal profiles by Channell 4. (Conor McAnally, Director.)



Mr. Billy Desmond and Dr. Bernárd Lynch to Wed 27 January, 2017 in Clare
 
Bernard and Billy 2017

Mr. Billy Desmond, left, and Dr. Bernárd Lynch on a recent visit to New York
 

Mr. Billy M. Desmond and Dr. Bernárd J. Lynch will marry on Friday, 27 January at 3 PM at the Armada Hotel, Spanish Point—the first gay male wedding to be registered in County Clare. The Registrar is Ms. Theresa Quinn. Mr. Desmond, a psychotherapist and Dr. Lynch, a retired priest and psychotherapist, reside in London and Lehinch, County Clare, Ireland. They have been together for more than 20 years.
 
Their relationship was first blessed in a public ceremony in London in 1998 by their late friend, Fr. Dan Kelliher, OSCO, a Trappist monk from the monastery in Snowmass, Colorado at a time when same-sex marriages were not legally recognized. In 2007, they had a Civil Partnership in Camden Town Hall in London.
 
After the wedding ceremony, a presentation will be made of a proclamation from the Council of the City of New York honoring Dr. Lynch’s more than 40 years of service to and activism with the LGBT and AIDS communities. It is authored by the Council Member Daniel Dromm of Queens, NY and will be presented by Mr. Andy Humm, a former New York City Commissioner of Human Rights. A copy of the proclamation is pasted below and attached. Council Member Dromm’s message is online at https://youtu.be/bkyMl_Z1JEY
 
In lieu of gifts, the couple is requesting donations to an organisation they are establishing called Bronntanas to further the mental health and well-being of Irish LGBTQI people. More information at www.bronntanas.org 


THE COUNCIL

CITY OF NEW YORK

Proclamation
 
Whereas: Rev. Bernárd J. Lynch has been a tireless advocate for the rights of LGBT people for more than forty years as an out gay and proud Roman Catholic priest beginning with his work in Dignity/New York in the 1970s; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch founded in 1982 and sustained the first AIDS ministry in New York City with Dignity/New York, aiding thousands of people with AIDS in the darkest years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic by healing their spirits, reconciling them with their faiths and their families, guiding them through their deaths, and celebrating their tragically short lives as documented in the documentary films AIDS: A PRIEST’S TESTAMENT in 1986 and SOUL SURVIVOR in 1990; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch’s leadership in the AIDS crisis included service on Mayor Edward I. Koch’s Task Force on AIDS and was recognized by the AIDS National Interfaith Network with their Award for Outstanding Contributions to HIV/AIDS Ministries in 1990; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch, at great personal risk, publicly advocated for the rights of the LGBT community at a time when most religious voices were in opposition; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch publicly supported Mayor Edward I. Koch’s Executive Order 50 in 1984 compelling City contractors not to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation;
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch also publicly campaigned for and testified in favor of New York City’s lesbian and gay rights bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in jobs, housing and public accommodations, seeing it through to passage by the City Council in 1986; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch’s advocacy for LGBT rights brought down on him a false prosecution perpetrated by church and government officials opposed to his work—charges that he faced down in Bronx Supreme Court, winning total exoneration from Justice Burton Roberts as documented in the documentary film A PRIEST ON TRIAL in 1990; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch continued his ministries in London and Ireland and worldwide touching thousands with his books and television/radio appearances including the BBC’s premier interview show “Hardtalk” in 2013. He was amongst the first ever openly LGBT group invited to Arus an Uachtaráin (President's official residence) by President Mary Robinson in 1995.  He was the first priest of any denomination to march in London’s LGBT Pride Parade, co-founded a support group for gay priests, served as Chair of the Camden LGBT Forum, served as Co-Chair of the first London Irish LGBT Forum that led the first Irish LGBT group in London’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2014, and aided the “Take the Boat to Vote Campaign” to bring Irish nationals home to pass successfully the historic Irish referendum opening marriage to gay couples in 2015; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch has been honored with the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement’s award for “Longstanding Work and Witness” to LGBT people and people with HIV/AIDS in 2008, the Magnus Hirschfeld Award for outstanding service to the cause of Irish LGBT Freedom in 1986, with canonization by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and as one of the twenty most prominent people to come out of County Clare; and
 
WHEREAS: Father Lynch’s relationship with his husband Billy Desmond was publicly blessed in 1998 and he became the first serving Catholic priest in the world to have a civil partnership in 2006; now therefore
 
BE IT KNOWN: That I, Daniel Dromm, Council Member of the 25th District, am proud to honor minister, advocate and human rights champion
 
Father Bernárd J. Lynch

For his extraordinary service to the LGBT and AIDS communities of New York, London, and Ireland and for his courage in the face of tremendous adversity.
 
Signed this 27th day of January in the year Twenty Seventeen.
 

DANIEL DROMM
Council Member, 25th District
Queens




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Toby Johnson, PhD is author of nine books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of his teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and religious problems, four gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality and editor of a collection of "myths" of gay men's consciousness. 

Johnson's book GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in 2000.

His  GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our [Homo]sexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe was nominated for a Lammy in 2003. They remain in print.

FINDING YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III tells the story of Johnson's learning the real nature of religion and myth and discovering the spiritual qualities of gay male consciousness.

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