Greg Dempster addresses LGBT concerns of RSE critics
Greg Dempster
In his own words –
Yelm-area student Greg Dempster shares his views on the charges by critics of LGBT intolerance at RSE:
“My name is Greg Dempster,
and I am 54 years old. I have been a student at the Ramtha School for 23 years, and I have also lived as an out gay man all of my adult life. In my 20s, I worked as a grass roots activist in the gay civil rights movement. I was a member of the founding board of directors of one of the very first community-based GLBTQ social services non-profits in Southern California. I was responsible for developing and managing outreach/discussion groups for men, women, and gay teens. I also ran a phone hotline and liaised with local, county and state agencies specifically to help at-risk and homeless gay and lesbian teens. Along with my fellow board members, I lobbied the California state legislature in support of gay civil rights legislation.
If anybody should be offended by the things Ramtha says about gays and lesbians, it ought to be me.
Instead, I am deeply offended by the behavior of the local Republican Party, trying to paint Ramtha and JZ Knight as homophobic and anti-gay in the press. That’s a big fat lie! I was present at some of the presentations that appear on the video clips referred to in recent press releases. I can say that those video clips were heavily edited and cobbled together, and in the most amateurish way. In no way do they even vaguely represent what Ramtha says about gays or lesbians. More to the point, it defies belief that local Republican Party members would accept this material as legitimate when it is so obviously doctored, and under contention. Unless, of course, they were so desperate they’d lost all sense and reason, and just didn’t care if it was genuine or not. Why they have never bothered themselves to visit Ramtha’s School or attend an event to learn for themselves what goes on there, yet pass their judgments based on hearsay.
During my many years at JZ Knight’s school, Ramtha’s message has consistently been one of equality, freedom, respect and love for GLBTQ. Ramtha has spoken to me personally on many occasions, and each time he has showed the utmost respect, personal concern, and grave dignity for myself, in a way that I have hardly ever met with out in the world. Both Ramtha and JZ Knight publicly support the right of gays and lesbians to marry. What else need be said?
I can tell you what needs to be said. The Republican Party is no friend of GLBTQ, and never has been. They have worked tirelessly over the last century to deny gay and lesbian American citizens our civil rights, to oppress us socially, politically and economically. And they are still trying to do so. Now, the local chapter is using a trumped-up and false concern about gay civil rights and homophobia, in a cheap ploy to openly tell lies about the Ramtha School and JZ Knight. They don’t care about gay civil rights, and they don’t care one bit about homophobia and never did. Their only concern is to discredit JZ Knight so the Democratic Party will no longer accept her donations.
SHAME ON THEM!!
They have inspired distrust for Republicanism everywhere and have brought discredit on themselves and their party. Gays and lesbians are no longer a silent minority, and we will not allow ourselves to be used by conservative bigots in this way.”