Let us never forget that we stand on the shoulders of giants. Frank Kameny's efforts to fight for Gay Rights throughout his long life means we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Yes, Gay is Good!
Watch my tribute video: Happy Pride!
Showing posts with label tom fulton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tom fulton. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2021
Monday, December 7, 2015
Getty Images: Same sex couples activists celebrate US Supreme Court decision
You know you’re part
of LGBT media history when Getty Images, the world’s largest repository of
pictures and broadcast roll media has you in their database. Tom, me and our
friend Phil Attey appear in the attached clip—note the caption! So proud to be
a “Flag waving LGBT rights” advocate!
This news clip (or
portions of it) were broadcast around the world to over 100 countries. Take
that LGBT haters!
Getty Images: Same
sex couples activists celebrate US Supreme Court decision
Credit: AFP Footage
Caption: Flag waving
LGBT rights advocates on the packed Supreme Court forecourt some in tears
cheered danced shouted USA USA and sang The Star Spangled Banner in celebration
of the high court’s decision to make same sex marriage legal throughout the US
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Let’s Talk Story - Be a Witness to Climate Change
By Robert Westover
On our way into work this morning my husband, Tom,
was reading an article in The Atlantic about Microsoft founder Bill Gate’s
perspective on climate change when Tom abruptly turned to me and said: I hear so much about the science of climate change but I
rarely hear people tell how it has affected them...on an individual level. I
want to hear about their personal experiences.
 |
| Tom enjoying New Zealand's great outdoors (Photo credit Robert Westover) |
Well, I got to work—immediately
(as in today). And here's the
start.
I’ve launched a
Facebook page called Witness to Climate Change https://www.facebook.com/witnesstoclimatechange/ to
capture in one location as many personal storied of how climate change has affected
You and Me—all of us on an individual level. This is how the story needs to be
told. This is how people learn. Anecdotes of this-is-what-happened-to-me have
guided humanity for millennia and I now feel this should be the focus of a
worldwide climate change awareness campaign I’m calling (like the Facebook handle) Witness to Climate
Change.
 |
| Shortly after meeting Prince Charles (Photo credit Robert Westover) |
I hope the Witness to Climate
Change grassroots awareness campaign is an answer so that many more will start “listening”.
Please go to the
new Witness to Climate Change Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/witnesstoclimatechange/ and share your own experiences of what you've seen, lived or how
you’ve been affected by climate change. I’ll choose stories to be promoted on
this blog and my Twitter site @MrClimateChange.
Let’s fight Climate
Change one story at a time!
Friday, October 2, 2015
An Open Letter to Pope Francis on Gay Marriage
“In the resurrection they neither marry nor are
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” – Christ Jesus
Dear Pope Francis:
As a baptized and loving Catholic I have worked to thread
my Catholic upbringing into daily living as I have sought to lead a life
with integrity, dignity, and personal success as a natural gay man created by
God as Gay. I have a wonderful loving
husband named Robert who, although not Catholic (I’m working on it), loves God
with such profundity that it was one of the reasons I married him.
My often difficult but blessed personal journey has
occurred while at the same time, throughout the advanced world we all have witnessed,
as part of each generation’s spiritual revelation, a deeper understanding of same-sex
attraction within the human race, as well as the animal kingdom. And are not animals in their simplistic innocent creatures of God? If same sex attraction was not natural,
why did God instill it in a small percentage of his lessor creation?
I, and others like me, seek to demonstrate that values
such as wholesome living, honor, love and fidelity can be lived while having a
spouse of the same-sex. Millions of us seek to live a life in Christ. As with all people, this walk is often a
challenge, but made unnecessarily difficult by unloving, uniformed, or less
spiritually developed forces which attack and demonize Gay people.
 |
| My Husband and me after the US Supreme ruled that our marriage, our devotion and love for each other, was equal to every other married couple in America. This picture was the lead photo on the Huffington Post's website and was picked up all over the world |
And, we as LGBT Catholics have an additional cross
put upon our shoulders by our own church. Many of us turn in despair to anti-spiritual fronts, often exemplified
by popular culture which often elevates and glorifies baser ways of living, which
many do know, through often tragic personal experience, leads to a spiritual dead end--yet even as this “front” has offered us refuge when the Church has turned against us!
Indeed, this is a challenge calling for great gifts
of discernment.
I too have a concern for the “family”, Pope Francis,
which I agree can be greatly healed by individuals committing to living lives
far more focused on self-less love, and service. Please pray to understand,
though, that physical expressions, depending upon body parts, DO NOT, Pope
Francis, change “fundamental relationships” that you expressed concern about in
the marriage covenant. Rather sexuality,
including Gay sexuality, is truly a mysterious wonder which according to God’s
plan, when property used, can lead to a deeper, richer life in every way.
With our natural sexuality intact we can develop
towards a deeper life in Christ. Many
things threaten all types of family life today, I agree: a culture which too often
degrades or ridicules wholesome values, rather than the transformational power
of love for another. Or others: worldwide economic pressures, self-centeredness,
declining discipline, delaying gratification, a changing socialization which
focuses on short-term versus long-term goals, and many many other
challenges.
This ostracized community of Gay people, especially middle-age elders, can actually offer tremendous insight into how to counter
these corrosive visions within the flock. Holy Father, you can seize this opportunity and actually help by understanding
and speaking compassionately about our rightful place within the body of
Christ!
You can speak forth that our dreams too reflect the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. had that men and women should be judged by the content of their character, and people who are LGBT should not in any way be discriminated within the public realm, and this must be clearly stated in federal law, and throughout the world.
Your Holiness you are actually in concert with
another fellow Catholic, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kennedy. Yes, in removing the splinter from the
Church’s eye, you may see symmetry, mathematical beauty. You reiterated the importance, above all, of
the richness and the beauty of family life, likewise through the movement of
the Holy Spirit, Justice Kennedy affirmed in his ruling regarding marriage
equality that no union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the
highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, and sacrifice, and FAMILY. In forming a marital union two people
(regardless of body parts which soon enough turn to dust) become something greater
than they once were.
You can speak forth that our dreams too reflect the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. had that men and women should be judged by the content of their character, and people who are LGBT should not in any way be discriminated within the public realm, and this must be clearly stated in federal law, and throughout the world.
Marriage embodies a love that may endure even beyond
death. It would misunderstand these men
and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage. We in the LGBT community respect it so much
that we want to be part of it, find fulfillment in it for themselves and proclaim its great value to others.
The loving and equal affirmation of LGBT people, Holy
Father, is human dignity. It is this generation’s spiritual revelation, that I
deeply pray every night that your will ultimately proclaim during your
Papacy.
I know in this life I will never meet with you, Holy Father, to sit down together and share in the spirit of Christ's Love, but in heaven when all is clearly seen, I pray we will see eye-to-eye as brothers of the faith in the most holy council of Our Lord.
I know in this life I will never meet with you, Holy Father, to sit down together and share in the spirit of Christ's Love, but in heaven when all is clearly seen, I pray we will see eye-to-eye as brothers of the faith in the most holy council of Our Lord.
I’d like to end this letter with another mention of
my husband. Holy Father you took the name of my most admired saint. Fifteen
years ago when I showed Robert, the film Brother Son, Sister Moon by Franco
Zeffirelli’s he cried. Two weeks before your ascendancy to the Throne of Saint
Peter, Robert told a friend, who had hardened their heart toward our one true and
Apostolic Church, they should watch the film because “Saint Francis of Assisi
was what being a Christian and Catholic means…”
With Great Love in Christ Our Savior,
Thomas Eugene Fulton,
Washington, DC
Washington, DC
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Our Marriage is Now Equal and The Whole World Knows It!
By Robert Hudson Westover
My husband and I knew something incredibly unusual for us was unfolding after the Marriage Equality ruling was handed down last Friday by the Supreme Court. We were there, outside the imposing white marble facade of America's most iconic building of Justice with the words carved in marble above it's giant bronze doors: Equal Justice Under Law.
The general consensus was that a ruling wasn't supposed to be handed down until Monday, June 29, or the high court's last day in session for the year. This is how the other landmark Gay Rights rulings had been handled in the past (see my previous blog post on the End of DOMA ruling in 2013).
But I had a premonition that it would happen on Friday and told Tom we needed to get to the Court in the morning, before 10 AM (the time that rulings for the day are handed down). Fortunately, we both work walking distance from the Supreme Court, so we rendezvoused at about 15 minutes before the rulings of the day would be announced.
 |
| Tom and I ten minutes before the Marriage Equality Ruling. |
Would I be right?
Our hearts beat rapidly in anticipation as we hoped and prayed that for the first time in our lives, the statement Equal Justice would be met out in its totality. Would this day bring us unfathomable joy by changing our lives forever and making our marriage, our love, truly equal under the law? Or would it be yet another half measure of dignity handed out to us like ravaged prisoners hoping for the full pardon that would someday open our cell doors and free us--forever--from the jail house of second class citizenship?
We knew this ruling was going to change the lives of millions...Tom and I just two of those millions.
And when that crowd shouted out LOVE HAS WON! we jumped for joy, broke into tears and just held each other.
 |
| A picture taken of US by CBS News moments after the ruling. |
It took 15 years to get Equal Justice in our marriage.
Many, many more years for many others.
Many, many more years for many others.
"What do you think of the swiftness of the change?" One reporter asked us. Tom replied "Swiftness? It's been over 50 years since WE started our fight for equality. It hasn't come fast enough... We love you Justice Kennedy!"
 |
| "Kiss your husband!" a reporter asked, so I did! |
And then many other reporters started asking us questions, taking our picture and filming us. This had happened the last time a great barrier of bigotry had fallen: DOMA. In fact, the reporters were asking lots of us, lots of questions. We were more than thrilled to respond. Maybe some young person, struggling under the weight of oppression might hear our story and be inspired to love themselves, feel sorry for their persecutors and look forward to a life in a community of kindred hearts.
But, to our amazement, that day, our ripple in the pond of outreach was beyond anything we could have imagined. We knew this when a text arrived from a friend we hadn't heard from in ages telling us to look at CBS New's Twitter page. There we were, in full embrace--our devotion and love--for all the world to see.
And the world did see, read and hear from us! On six continents!
And the world did see, read and hear from us! On six continents!
As the day unfolded, and into the night, the texts and Facebook messages kept coming: Saw you in the Huffington Post! One friend wrote from LA. Then the PBS News Hour reporter who had interview us texted to tell us we'd be featured at the top of the hour as the Network's lead story.
Three days later and we're still blown away. Think of how many millions of LGBTQ folks have seen that, "Yes, it does get better."
 |
| From the Huffington Post. |
But, sometimes, like what happened for us, the spotlight turns and there you are. As Christians we believe that God does work in mysterious ways. We don't always understand it, but all things can (and often do) work together for those who have faith. So many words and expressions are timeless and this quote from Psalms really says it for us--for what happened on that momentous day "This is the Lord's work and it is marvelous in our eyes..."
***
Below are links to some of the worldwide media coverage our voice received.
***
Below are links to some of the worldwide media coverage our voice received.
North
America:
Lead
story PBS News Hour
Yahoo
News
The
Huffington Post
CBS
News Twitter
International
Pick Up
South
America:
Africa:
Australia:
Asia:
Middle
East:
Europe:
http://www.newsjs.com/us/its-reason-to-live-here/Friday, June 26, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
The Last Knight of JFK’s Camelot has Died
A tribute to Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III
By
Robert Hudson Westover
I believe the course of history changed one summer
evening over steak and daiquiris at the Auchincloss family estate,
Merrywood, in northern Virginia. That was the night Hugh D. “Yusha” Auchincloss
III entertained, with his stepsister, a young Congressman from Massachusetts.
Despite some confusion by biographers and journalists, the dinner
party was Yusha’s idea (or so he told me). His stepsister, Jackie, was
attempting to win over the heart of a man she had met a few months prior but
was getting nowhere with him romantically.
His name was John F. Kennedy.
After that fateful dinner party
a match was made and shortly thereafter Jaqueline Bouvier would become Mrs. John
F. Kennedy and play a role in history that would put both her and her husband
in the pantheon of the unforgettable personages of recorded civilization.
 |
| Yusha Auchincloss (left) with Robert H. Westover Hammersmith Farm, Newport, RI 2013 |
Years later, at another dinner party, at yet another
Auchincloss estate, Hammersmith Farm, in Newport, Rhode Island, Yusha had this
to say about the couple he’d helped to match make, “First, Mr. President, I want to congratulate
you. You’ve been a very good president. I’m glad you had your wedding here in
Newport. I’m glad you’re celebrating your wedding anniversary here with Jackie.
But I have to remind you: if you hadn’t gotten engaged to Jackie, my
stepsister, neither one of you would have been in the White House. And I
wouldn’t have had a chance to stay in the White House. So I have to thank you
for that!”
What Yusha left out in his now famous toast was that
without him, JFK’s Camelot would possibly have never existed.
I call Yusha a knight of Camelot because he not only
facilitated that decisive evening at Merrywood, he also became an important adviser to the future President on Middle Eastern issues right up until JFK’s assassination.
But most importantly he was a man both JFK and
Jackie could confide in and never worry about a tell-all-book-deal. The First couple
was not mistaken in relying on this thoughtful, gentle man. He never betrayed
them. He never revealed to the press so many of their secrets. Because of this,
few know that Yusha spent many an hour at a sickly John Kennedy’s bedside
reading or watching TV with the future President. And, few know that it was Yusha who Jackie
considered her dearest friend until her dying day. “You know how much I love
you…” she wrote to him just before her death in 1994.
My relationship with Yusha developed in the twilight years of his life. His beloved aunt, a former Russian countess, Olga C. Morgan, was a dear friend of mine and someone I was so close to that I referred to her as my “honorary godmother”. Yusha and I would sit and listen to tapes that I had recorded of Olga, who had passed away in 1991(to read more about my relationship with Olga see previous blog postings below). We became instant “family” and he let me call him “uncle” because “a lot of people call me that…” he jovially commented in his charming wit that only those who knew him could understand.
 |
| My husband, Tom Fulton (left), chats with Uncle Yusha about middle east politics. The cane Yusha is holding was given to him by President John F. Kennedy on one of his visits to Hammersmith Farm in Newport, RI |
I will greatly miss my uncle Yusha and only regret I had not spent more time with him. He was the embodiment of a true Noble spirit. If the world were full of Yusha Auchincloss’ we’d have a much better place to live and, now without him, the world has one less living example of honesty and kindness.
The aspect of his passing I'm comforted by is knowing that he died peacefully at his beloved home on Hammersmith Farm—the home of his ancestors. “Behold the upright man, for the end of that man is peace.”
Monday, June 9, 2014
Robert and Tom in NYC and Newport, RI
On our recent visit to New York City we made a couple of patriotic stops along the way for both straight and Gay America! And while in Newport, Rhode Island, we stopped by Hammersmith Farm to say hello to Uncle Yusha. The weather was simply perfect and it was difficult to take a bad picture. Some of the shots in the video (click on link) came near "postcard" quality!
Check out the video at this link! Copy of NYC and Newport, RI
Enjoy!
Tom E. Fulton and Robert H. Westover
Thursday, April 10, 2014
JFK's Summer White House - A Visit to the Fountainhead of Camelot
Hammersmith Farm was JFK's Summer White House. Jackie O spent much of her childhood on the Auchincloss family estate and a young Jack Kennedy courted her there. Jack and Jackie had their wedding reception at Hammersmith Farm and the pictures they took that beautiful September day have become iconic symbols of an age of elegance and grace so unfamiliar now.
My honorary uncle, Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss, was Jackie O's older stepbrother and is the nephew of my Godmother, the Countess Olga C. Morgan. Although my relationship to the patriarch of the Auchincloss family is an honorary one, my family's history with the Countess goes back to the 1940s when, as a child, my father lived just down the street from Olga Morgan in Laguna Beach, California.
Robert Hudson Westover,Washington, DC
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Death of DOMA Day!
By Robert Hudson Westover
Added June 26, 2014 on the one year anniversary of Death of DOMA day:
One year ago today, the day the U.S. Supreme
Court struck down DOMA (or most of it). Tom and I were waiting outside the
white marble court house edifice with thousands of others. Two reporters
published some of what we had to say. Our quotes were picked up in media
outlets around the world that day.
- "Being openly gay in America has been a very huge challenge. You're still seeing discrimination and obstafication within the cultures of corporate America. You can see it's starting to change with young people... It's very different now for young people, how they interact with you. It's not really changed with folks who are our age.""It's very exciting, rewarding. It's been a long journey""Young people hopefully (won't face discrimination). It will be much more of a normative environment.""I remember... when my gayness was as bad as a bad perfume. This is all stuff that I've lived through.""I'm going to be able to be on my husband's health care plan in terms of health care benefits. That's huge.”- Tom Fulton, 55, Public Affairs, D.C.Posted by Margarita Noriega (Reuters) 6/26/2013 4:54:54 PM June 26, 2013 at 12:54 PM
- "We now have federal rights. I burst out into tears when this decision..." trails off, choked up"The United States is the most powerful nation on earth. The last time the most powerful nation in the world allowed gays to not be persecuted was Rome. Fifteen hundred years. Think about that. Fifteen hundred years of oppression... This is a dramatic change in the history of the world and it can't be understated.""We first got married in West Hollywood about 12 years ago. It was the only city in the entire country at the time that allowed gay marriage... We attempted to get married in Massachusetts... but they didn't have reciprocity so we couldn't get married because we lived in the District. So we went and got married in the District. That's our journey."
- Robert Westover, 49, Public Affairs, D.C., married to Fulton in 2001
The original posting from last year:
 |
| My Flag Waving Hero! |
What a difference 27 years makes!
 |
| Tom and me right after the ruling on DOMA |
But what about those four losers Jackass Justices?
I don't know where to begin, so I'll focus on the one Jackass Justice I have actually met. And by doing so would like to point out the cowardice and particular narrow mindedness of this man, The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts.
Two years ago Tom and I attended an intimate Christmas concert at the Dunbarton Church in Georgetown. The Chief Justice and his family sat directly in front of us in the small edifice.
During intermission Tom approached Mr. Roberts, and with the audacity of a man oppressed by men like Robert's his entire life said, "I really hope that when a case on Gay rights reaches your court that you won't vote against my rights as a equal citizen of this country..."
You could have heard a pin drop.
Unfortunately, but predictably, this misguided man of letters did exactly as expected and has now joined those on the wrong side of history--think Dred Scott, Mr. Roberts (et al).
 |
| Tom being interviewed by the world press after the death of DOMA!!! |
You are my hero!
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Oh Happy Day! This Man Gets Into The Spirit!
Recently, Tom and I went to Howard Theater's (in DC) Gospel Brunch with the Harlem Choir performing. Toward the end of the program, the famous Gospel group began to sing "Oh Happy Day" and invited all those who knew the words to sing with them on stage. Although he gets stage fright, Tom jumped at the change to sing what is one of his favorite spirituals.
He thought he was just going to sing along with the chorus.
To his (and my) surprise, the acclaimed performers asked him to center stage and handed him the mic!
Almost like a scene in a movie, Tom starts out slowly (and nervously). But he gets into it and wham, just as the lead singer reaches for the mic, Tom let's lose and gets the whole audience into it! It was such an incredible and spiritual moment.
My husband is a star--but I always knew it!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
EDGE Boston :: Gay News
This article is a few years old but it still has significance today. I mean it's about God and Gays...
http://tinyurl.com/35ewyb
EDGE Boston :: Gay News |
| Tom in the Cathedral of Madrid |
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