Religion is gay.

As many of you know, I grew up in church. I pretty much accepted the entire Foursquare Church doctrine blindly because I trusted my adult leaders. As I grew older, I was faced with situations that would challenge my blind faith. One such situation was that my neighbors, who were lesbians invited me to their wedding. I was faced with the decision of attendance. "Did attending their wedding support their lifestyle?" I thought to myself. Well, I am proud to report that I have done a complete turn around. Hell yeah it supports their lifestyle, because nothing is wrong with their lifestyle. I am so sad and regretful that I treated gay people with such judgment and inferiority. I was watching the movie Milk a few weeks ago, and in the movie, a boy called Harvey Milk on the phone and told him he wanted to commit suicide because he couldn't handle the shame of homosexuality. Harvey pleaded with him and said (paraphrase) "There is nothing wrong with you. Nothing. You shouldn't have to feel like you are sick, or crazy. There is NOTHING wrong with you." And that hit me so hard. Often times people in the church treat homosexuals as if there is something wrong with them. As if gay people are sick or mental. And then they congratulate themselves for "including" such sick and crazy folk. When in reality, if they were really 'included' they wouldn't be regarded as sick and crazy. I read this article today, that discussed church and homosexuality. I found it interesting and it gave me hope. Here is a highlight:

"Christ is the one that transforms our exclusion into inclusion, not with the righteous and conceited, but with the broken and meek. Everyone is welcome – Jew, Muslim, atheist, homosexual. Everyone. In Christ there is no inequality and no changing legislation. Each person is met where they are and embraced with unconditional love."

I appreciated the bridging of Christianity to meet homosexuality. However, I did disagree with the rhetoric that legislation will do no good.

"We have discovered, much to our surprise, that legislation will not, because it cannot, eradicate the deep sense of injustice that so many face. In fact, legislation can often further blind and hinder us from making the necessary inner journey we all have to take to bring about greater social equality."

Which basically sounds like the author is saying that we shouldn't overturn bans on gay marriage or be concerned with equal rights because it's not going to help anyway. The title of this article was: "Sex, Gay Rights and the Cross:
Legislation for equal rights won't eradicate the suffering of homosexual men and women." And while I agree that it won't eradicate the suffering (will anything really eradicate it?), I think that it would mean so much for homosexual people, AND straight people and allys if quality equal rights legislation was imposed, and it would do a world of wonder for enhancing the position of homosexual people in our society. While I think it is important to bridge the gap between Christianity and homosexuality, saying that that is ALL that needs to be done is completely missing the mark.

Love and Electricity,
Shelby Leanne