Gay and Lesbian Studies

The Bible says about the Gay and Lesbians: Romans 1:18-32
1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, 1:19 because what can be known about God is plain to them; because God has made it plain to them. 1:20 For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So people are without excuse. 1:21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. 1:22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling a mortal human being and birds and four-footed animals and reptiles.1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 1:25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.1:26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 1:27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 1:28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 1:30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 1:31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 1:32. Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.



LAMBDA Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies
Funded by the

LAMBDA Educational Research Foundation
Recent Developments and Related Organization News
Long-range Planning Task Group
A volunteer Task Group is researching and mapping the constitution, organizational structure, and educational programming of the LAMBDA Educational Consortium, the parent body for the LAMBDA Educational Research Foundation, and the LAMBDA Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies.
A goal of Phase I of this project is to complete a feasibility study on the Institute entering into the virtual educational arena, i.e., the development, delivery, evaluation and web conferencing related to online courses. This event's time budget is 30 working days. The projected completion date is November 30, 1999.

Thus, when phase one of this project is completed, we will respond by email to requests for membership with our organization.

Rick Mozil
The LAMBDA Educational Consortium Posted: Thursday, November 4, 1999.

Involvement with LAMBDA
We acknowledge many requests for information concerning a way that people might contribute to developing LAMBDA's resources. I direct you to our home page, as ask that you read the section, "Recent Developments and Related Organization News." Here you will find where we require the most help.
We are a volunteer group of educationalists from mixed disciplines, and at this time do not receive financial compensation. The LAMBDA Educational Consortium is run on a shoe-string budget, and this aspect will change. But, it takes time and the continued contributions and efforts by many volunteers to continue our work to meet our organizational goals. One of our aims is to build this organization into a financially sound and reliant accredited virtual institute of learning.

Nevertheless, our past experience with similar requests, and correspondence on this topic leave us without an outcome, i.e., the person is generally looking for an immediate financial gain. I am not suggesting this may be the same for everybody. Yes, we do need and require assistance from academics, researchers, eductionalists, program developers. However, at this time, we cannot offer any financial compensation for their contributions of time and resources.

Fees for authored material offered for delivery either by long-distance learning or site learning, assuming registration quotas meet the events budget are negotiated with the author, publisher of pubished material, or with the author of non-published material before the program is marketed or delivered.

What we offer is an invitation to join an innovative educational team, to volunteer time and resources to help construct the blocks to support the organization's aim, but primarily, to assist us with meeting the vision of the LAMBDA Educational Consortium, including research projects that will soon be underway.

If you are or remain interested after reading this posting, please contact us by email. Then we will begin a dialogue. If you find what we offer is not what you are looking for, we thank you for your interest.

Rick Mozil
The LAMBDA Educational Consortium Posted: Saturday, November 6, 1999.



A HISTORICAL LOOK
The following is from an article published in the Perceptions magazine, out of Saskatoon, SK, February 1994, after we received our Certificate of Incorporation, January 10, 1994:
What Difference Should It Make?
Sexual orientation should not make any difference! Two people, with this value in mind, began in April 1993 formulating a plan of action. This resulted in the development of a new nonprofit organization based in Edmonton, called 'LAMBDA Educational Research Foundation'.

Over many cups of coffee, ideas were tossed around and discussed about what the primary purpose of the Foundation should be. Then it was decided to incorporate as a nonprofit society. With this decision the coffee mates moved on to brainstorming ideas until their heads ached. After several pain killers, we came up with a Mission Statement which reads "The Foundation promotes research into Gay and Lesbian issues and lifestyles for the purpose of public education."
From that moment, we began the long and strenuous search for people who shared this ideal. We were successful in finding people with different experiences and sexual orientations to join us in being Founders of LAMBDA.

LAMBDA was developed on the principle that sexual orientation does not matter. We were successful at gaining good representation of members no matter their sexual preference. Needless to say, the focus of the discussions was on aspects of research, education, and the person's views on Gay and Lesbian lifestyles and social issues.

The Founding members are professional educators, continually researching and developing materials for workshops, seminars, and discussions about Gay and Lesbian issues. For example, a series of workshops on Relationship Enhancement, Anti-Homophobia seminar for heterosexuals, and Life Skills Student sessions is being worked on, and will be available for registration in the near future. These sessions are being developed with the idea that public education can be a key element towards creating awareness and growth toward equality.

Our work is only beginning since we just received our Certificate of Incorporation, and more exciting ideas, developments, and activities are yet to come. We are excited about the response and support we have received to date! Therefore! we encourage and welcome folks that share a similar ideal, to drop us a line and/or follow the program of events calendar that will be published in Perceptions this year.


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OVERVIEW of the Foundation and the Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies
The LAMBDA Educational Research Foundation was established as a non-profit and autonomous organization in 1994.
The LAMBDA Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies was formed as a branch society in 1995 to administer to and carry out the research, education, and consulting components of the society. The LAMBDA organization is a locally based research and education centre for educators, scholars, specialists, students, and other interested persons concerned with gay and lesbian social issues, particularly, the multi-faceted issues of the homosexual culture and lifestyle, problems with stability and security, political and social changes.
The Foundation and Institute are governed by a six-member Board of Directors comprising members from various professional backgrounds, including adult education. A three-person Executive Committee oversees the day-to-day operations; it is chaired by the chief executive officer who along with the Vice Chair and Past Chair povide guidance and leadership to the governing Board. Five standing committees aid in developing and maintaining of professionalism, membership, education, research, resources, marketing and public relations, organization policy and administration.


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PURPOSE - MISSION
The LAMBDA organization promotes research into lesbian and gay issues and lifestyles for the purpose of public education. The fundamental educational and research purposes of the Foundation and its Institute are to provide:
research, instruction, oratorical, evaluation, resource methodologies, programs and materials;
marketing and delivery of programs and materials;
certification programs and materials;
speaker's bureau program and materials;
education in lesbian and gay issues as instructional and oratorical programs;
encouragement and assistance to persons seeking to improve their ability to be analytical and
critical thinkers, and effective communicators on lesbian and gay issues.


Philosophy
The fundamental ideology of the LAMBDA organization is, through the framework of its members and other administrative levels of the organization:
to actively foster an environment of nondiscrimination towards any individual regardless of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or ethnicity;
to foster social affirmation of the lesbian and gay community;
to refute traditionally popular myths, stereotypes, beliefs and misconceptions regarding lesbians and gays;
to remain nonaligned with any political group or religious organizations;
to work toward social equality through supporting endeavours which contribute to social equality and the dignity of the lesbian and gay community;
to advocate for social acceptance by seeking social change through educational and research processes;
to provide a visible contribution toward the unification and solidarity of the lesbian and gay community and its supporters through services offered by the Foundation and its Institute;
to provide a centre which will disseminate its philosophies and provide an environment for the nurturing and enhancement of the lesbian and gay community;
to engage in, support and pursue research using scientific research methodologies, into all aspects of the lesbian and gay experience in the areas of literature, sexuality, relationships, psychology and socioeconomic development.

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SERVICES
We have recategorized the organization's service areas since the development of the Institute.
The Foundation is responsible for governing the Institute; it will focus on funding, financial matters and other services.
The Institute will not be solely responsible for this area, but as an educational service provider, it would contribute toward the financial goals of the organization. The division of responsibilities allows the Foundation to focus on, administer to, and coordinate fundraising activities, membership drives and solicit contributions, and make donations to organizations whose mission statements promote education and research.
The Institute will concentrate on these services:

Adult, and pre-adult programs. Such programs include certificate and non-certificate courses which the Institute has built on program planning, curriculum development, delivery and evaluation models. As an educational consulting service provider, we offer program planning, curriculum development, delivery and evaluation for in-house programs. The long-term intention with some of our courses is to seek accreditation from the Department of Education, with credit transfers to post-secondary institutions.
Peer support training and certification programs.
Life skills training programs for partners, singles and families.
Instructional programs. These include workshops and seminars based on educational products developed by the Institute. As an educational consulting service provider, we offer development of instructional programs for in-house programs.
Consulting to educational institutions, helping professionals, helping agencies, nonprofit groups and charitable organizations.
Research and research projects. These include ongoing internal research, and in response to requests for service from outside groups and organizations.
Libraries and archives - resources for internal use and public access.
Speaker's Bureau. This would include guest presentations, lectures at and for local colleges and universities, secondary schools, health and community service organizations, public educational forums, and professional groups.
Oratorical programs. These include certificate courses designed for skill development in communication and public speaking. Upon completion, the graduate's name will be added to our accredited speaker's list. The Institute matches client's requests to a speaker's area of expertise before arranging a speaking engagement.
Parliamentary procedure programs. These include certificate courses, which we offer as a consulting service.
Board development programs. These include certificate courses, which we offer as a consulting service.
Groups for learning conversations, talk, research and projects with a specific focus and theme.
Literary and debating sessions. These include organized sessions based on themes, with education and skill development as the purpose. The Institute will offer certificate courses in debate and debating.
Academic services for secondary and post-secondary students. Network services will be directly accessible by members and non-members to help in academic development from a mentor/coach, or academic counselling perspective.
Referral services to educational institutions, community services, helping and other registered professionals. This network service is directly accessible by anyone who seeks names and types of services offered by community agencies, groups and counselling services.
An important note: As an educational consulting service provider, our services are not limited to the City of Edmonton or the greater Edmonton area. We possess network capabilities via the Internet that allow us to offer a full range of services which include e-mail, net serving, and distribution of research and educational materials. We also subscribe to organizations and groups with similar interests throughout the world that have file transfer protocol and newsnet services. We store educational and service information in dBASE files, which are part of our library and archive databanks.
OTHER INFORMATION SERVICES Our organization is an education consulting service provider. To aid our pursuit of information sharing, we are developing marketing strategies and advertising materials. These materials include brochures, course catalogues and the Foundation newsletter. The brochure and course catalogue are near completion. The newsletter is in an early stage of development.


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LIBRARY OF RESOURCES
LAMBDA has created many references available for you to copy to your own computer for easy reference and use. Please feel free to print out or copy and paste these files. Credit as to the source would be appreciated. Click on the file you want from the list (under development) below.
Coming Out
Homophobia


IGNORANCE --------> FEAR -----------> HATRED
|
V
"QUEER BASHING"


Human Rights and Homosexuality
PFLAG's Is Homosexuality a Sin?
What Difference Does It Make? (coming out, coming out model, homosexual culture, silent activism, etc.)
Words to Live By from Keith Charles O'Shea '95
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DISCUSSION NEWS GROUP
The Institute has established a news group for the purposes of discussion, research, information exchange and announcements. The Institute carries out research, educational program planning and delivery, and consulting on homosexual, bisexual and transgender social issues and lifestyles for public education. We invite interested persons to link with our news group, read the postings, contribute topics of an educational nature and to the discussions, and to the vitality of this discussion group. As well, we are responsible for the monitoring of the group, to ensure there that the information posted in the group is not in contravention to our Standards and Ethics policies.
The Newsgroup for Lambda Education dialogue is at alt.org.lambda.education. Ask your news server to add it to the list of groups it subscribes to, so you can join in on the exchange of ideas. Or if you prefer, E-mail your news administrator's or server administrator's E-mail address to us, and we will contact them.
Or you can try our test link: Lambda Newsgroup


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CALL FOR RESOURCES
The LAMBDA Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies is calling for resources to help the development of its library and research DBASE. We invite donations and submissions of papers; theses, reports, term papers, works of literature; including nonfiction, research, statistics, studies, journals, magazines, newspapers, reviews, reference works, archive and unpublished materials on any aspect of homosexuality. These areas are inclusive of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual groups in the humanities and social sciences. It is our policy that copyrights, authorship and recognition of the sources of our materials are acknowledged and disclosed according to our Code of Ethics and Standards, which in part, are based on the American Psychological Association Publication Standards (APA Standards). Please E-mail the LAMBDA Organization if you or your organization is interested in contributing materials.


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COURSES and Programs PLANNED
The LAMBDA Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies intends to offer the following educational courses and programs as soon as possible. Ask (through e-mail to Lambda) to be put on the mailing list for our course catalogue (when it becomes available) which will have more details about the courses, including costs, location, dates and times of delivery, profiles on instructors, and how to register.
PERSONAL GROWTH, SELF-CONCEPT, IDENTITY

What Difference Should It Make? [a three part series]
Communicating with Teens
Don't Fear Failure
My Bias About Homosexuality
Life Skills for Homosexual Persons
Religion and Homosexuality
RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

Relationship Building for Singles, Couples and Families
Seven Things You Can Do Today
Communicating with Teens
Planning Your Holy Union [Wedding]
Living in a Mixed Orientation Marriage [homosexual or bisexual wed to heterosexual]
ORGANIZATIONAL AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Productive Meetings
Board Development for non-profit organizations
Parliamentary Procedure
Fear of Public Speaking
Communicating with Impact [a public speaking course]
Communication and Problem-Solving
Communicating with Teens
The InterNet, Research Methodologies and Tools on subjects of Homosexuality
Preparing A Newsletter
HELP WANTED: These are the courses and programs we seek help in developing. These are not necessarily the final titles of any course, but they give an idea of what we are seeking. If you are interested in working with the Lambda team on developing one of these topics or submitting a URL for linking to a topic, please e-mail us at Lambda.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AND EDUCATION

Dealing with Sexuality
Peer Support Counselling and Certification
Homophobia
Warding Off Gay and Lesbian Bashing
Myths and Misconceptions of Homosexuality
Culture, and Cultural Bias and Differences of the Homosexual Community
Sexual Orientation: Preference or Biological Makeup?
If Homosexuality is an Unnatural Act, then Why Does It Happen?
Gay and Lesbian Characteristics
Dealing with Why Your Partner Left You for a Homosexual Person [for Heterosexuals]
Gay Activisim
RELATIONSHIP SKILLS

Living Together
Partnership Roles: are they gender specific?
Relationships and Co-dependency
Bereavement: The Loss of a Partner, Family Member
Homosexual Families
PERSONAL GROWTH, SELF-CONCEPT, IDENTITY

Living Right, a Guide to Living a Healthier Lifestyle
Homosexuality and Aging
Homosexuality and Adolescence
Homosexuality and the Five Step Affirmation Model
Homosexuality and History
Homosexuality and Literature
Homosexuality and the Arts
Homosexuality and the Social Scenes
Homosexuality and Social Diseases
Homosexuality and Education
Homosexuality and Adult Education
Homosexuality and Discrimination
Homosexuality and Promiscuity
Homosexuality and the 21st. Century
Homosexuality and Parenting
Homosexuality and Communication
Homosexualtiy and Abuse
Homosexuality and Authorship
Understanding Hetrosexuality
Understanding Homosexuality
Understanding Bisexuality
Wills and Estate Planning
Celebrating Homosexuality
Revealing Yourself [Disclosure of Sexual Orientation]
SPECIAL ISSUES AND TOPICS

Women's Issues in the Homosexual Community
Lesbians & Aids/Women & Aids
Careers in Non-Traditional Jobs
Women as Entrepreneurs
Role Models and Mentors
Dealing with being female: why do so many lesbians adopt a masculine demeanour?
Native Homosexual Issues
Disabled Homosexual Issues
Gender Differences

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CODE OF ETHICS
The Foundation and its Institute adhere to a professional code of ethics. All educational and research approaches are conducted in an ethical and scientific manner which meets the standards set by the Standards and Ethics Committee of the organization.
Each person/group requesting services from the Foundation and its Institute receives the highest standard of service. The organization recruits qualified staff and volunteers, encourages and supports their ongoing training and educational goals, and ensures that all those providing services are aware of and understand the Foundation's mission statement, philosophy and code of ethics.

This organization is fully and publicly accountable for its services, programs and fiscal operations.
You are invited to read our Code of Ethics.


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FEE-FOR-SERVICE
We have registered the parent organization and its branch society as a not-for-profit society. This does not waive our responsibility to generate a cash flow to meet our objectives. We have begun developing a fee scale for programs and some service areas. Referral services, some archive and academic services, groups, literary and debating sessions, and possibly libraries will be fee exempt. We will tailor the fee scale to all income brackets. It is not our intention to create a financial barrier to education, but to aid in the development of education and increased awareness.
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MEMBERSHIP
Members will receive a membership package including a free subscription to the Foundation's newsletter and a course calendar. Referral services are free and courses and programs are offered to members at a reduced cost throughout the year.
The libraries and archive resources and other services offered by this organization are available to members. As the Foundation and its Institute grow, so will the services and benefits to members.

Membership Fees
Individual or family - $10.00
Subscription membership (for institutions and organizations) - $50.00

We welcome and appreciate donations. Charitable status is in the works. Once we receive our status number, we will begin issuing tax-deductible receipts for educational and non-educational fees and donations.

Membership Policy

Membership Fees:
Membership is separated into two categories: Individual and Subscription.
Individual memberships include the Life, Honorary, Private and Individual classifications as defined in the Bylaws.
Subscription memberships include the Corporate and Institutional classifications.

The annual Individual membership fee for the LAMBDA organization (the Foundation and its Institute) is ten dollars ($10.00) Canadian.
The annual Subscription membership fee is fifty dollars ($50.00) Canadian. These memberships have no voting privileges, but will receive all Society literature. When a Subscription membership is purchased, the President or Executive Director of that Institution or Organization will automatically receive an Individual membership.

Special consideration is given to the economically disadvantaged. Those individuals may volunteer ten (10) hours or more to the Society in lieu of money.

The membership year expires twelve (12) months after the date of granting the membership.

Membership Privileges:
Members are encouraged to be involved in all aspects of membership as long as their membership is in good standing with the Society.
All members will receive a bi-monthly newsletter highlighting social issues affecting homosexual persons, the activities of the LAMBDA Organization including notices of upcoming events and courses.
All members may attend regular Board meetings and the Annual General meeting.
Training courses and programs is offered to members at a reduced price.
The libraries and archive resources and other services offered by the LAMBDA Organization are available to members.

Recognition of Contributions to the LAMBDA organization:
The three (3) categories for recognizing individuals and organizations which support the Society through either financial and/or volunteer work are:
Bronze: for financial donations between $60 and $150 dollars Canadian over one membership year and/or 10-30 hours of volunteer service.
Silver: for financial donations between $151 and $300 dollars Canadian over one membership year and/or 31-60 hours of volunteer service.
Gold: for financial donations over $300 dollars Canadian over one membership year and/or over 61 hours of volunteer service.


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HOW TO CONTACT THE ORGANIZATION
The LAMBDA organization [LAMBDA Educational Research Foundation, a society incorporated in 1994 and LAMBDA Institute of Gay and Lesbian Studies, a branch society] is a Canadian-based educational consulting service provider focusing on gay and lesbian social issues.
We welcome inquiries about our organization and its services.


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TO CONTACT US, please send an e-mail, or
Postal mail to: 10925 - 69th Ave. NW Edmonton AB CA T6H 2E4, or

Fax: (780) 988-2112.


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Links to Community Resources and Supporting Organizations
Canadian Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Resource Directory
OUTreach a University of Alberta GLBT organization

Queer Academy at UofA

Sexual Orientation Resource List by UofA

Queer Resources Directory from the USA

Women's Studies Database, Diversity/Sexual Orientation - University of Maryland

Diversity Conferences of Alberta resources and conference info

Orlando Books and Edmonton readings