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Author Reading: Tyler Bieber, Against the Current
The following description was submitted by the event organizer.
BOLD is thrilled to host a reading with Tyler Bieber, author of Against the Current: Father Tom Oddo and the New American Catholic.
From local author Tyler Bieber comes a new biography of a forgotten leader in the fight for gay rights: Against the Current: Father Tom Oddo and the New American Catholic is a retrospective of an incredible life. At this reading, Bieber will recount the life, death, and legacy of Father Tom — a co-founder of DignityUSA and later the seventeenth President of the University of Portland — whose work to change church attitudes toward LGBTQ+ parishioners continues to ripple through the ages. Bieber will touch on momentous events (and surprising guest stars) in Tom’s life and discuss his legacy, still felt today.
Against the Current is the largely unknown story of a local academic leader who also became a national figure in the fight for gay rights in the years following Stonewall (but before the ascendance of Harvey Milk and ACT UP). Father Tom’s efforts as a cofounder of DignityUSA saw a war of words and attrition against the customs of the Catholic Church, and his work has, in the words of his contemporaries, rippled through the years to produce the modern blessings of gay couples and a renewed commitment by the Vatican to include LGBTQ+ faithful in more areas and functions of the church.
TYLER BIEBER is a queer higher education professional based in Portland, OR. He has held roles at Clark College, National University of Natural Medicine, Linfield University School of Nursing, and Oregon School of Massage. He is currently the Assistant Registrar at Willamette University’s Pacific Northwest College of Art.