[GN] Sacred Spaces
Tom Keske
Should gay activists use a tactic such as disrupting church services?
That question could be taken in a couple ways, one being:
What would be the practical consequences for our movement if we
used such a tactic?
More likely, the sense in which it is intended is:
Do we have the "right" to use such a tactic?
What exactly do we mean by having the "right"? Is it a majority
rule issue, settled by popular vote? Is there a system of logic
and values so universal that all people are obligated to subscribe
to it? Is it a truth carved by God on a stone tablet, and we must
go in search for that tablet?
Aha, here it tablet from God that we are looking for, right in the
very churches whose sacred space we are contemplating to violate:
"A man who lieth with a man as with a woman is an abomination
in the eyes of God, and surely he should be put to death."
Oops, wait, that can't be it. Wrong Tablet of Absolute Truth.
Gay people more than nearly anyone should be keenly aware how
such nonsense can masquerade for thousands of years as God's
inspired truth. This lesson should motivate us to become
free-thinkers who question even further, as to the most basic
assumptions concerning what morality and ethics really mean.
It is a dubious proposition that a God so magical as to part
the Red Sea for Moses would be so limited in ability as to
fail to inspire our hearts directly with truths that we needed.
It is dubious proposition that a God so wonderful would give
Moses a set of prescriptions so ugly and bloodthirsty. It is
dubious to suppose that a sky above that rains down us with
random tornados and landslides would also hand down to us
at all any prescriptions for our good behavior.
This is preaching most to a choir of heretics, because most
gay people don't buy the religious clap-trap. However, there
is a great deal of mythology and superstition still affecting
the perceptions of most gays, in the form of quasi-religious
notions. Most of the time, we fail to recognize how the
religions that we disown are nonetheless continuing to influence
our thinking.
An example is the notion that "We will win because we have Truth
and Justice on our side." That is usually a superstitious notion of
a purposeful universe, having little basis in rationality. There is
little reason to assume that the course of events is naturally
predisposed to favor either Truth or Justice.
Once that you shed the baggage of superstition, you would never
even ask a question such as "Do we have the 'right'?"
There is not really such a thing as a "right", nor is there such
a thing as something "sacred" or something "evil". At least, not
in the sense that most people typically use these words.
There is no measuring stick for moral truth beyond individual
human opinion. There are no stone tablets, no prescriptions
from above.
There is little compelling about majority opinion, from an
individual perspective, unless you happen to care about majority
opinion. It would have been of little value to tell a black
South African that apartheid were OK, if the numbers had been
reversed, and whites were the majority.
All moral and ethical beliefs are analogous to an opinion about
whether modern art is "good art" or "bad art". The only things
that are true about the art itself, independent of the observer,
are the canvas, the paint, the wavelengths of the colors, etc.
Whether it is "good" or "bad" says nothing about the art itself,
but only about the reactions of the particular observer.
In deciding a question such as "Do we have the right?", we should
realize nothing is good or bad in itself- feeling that it is so
makes it so.
That does not mean that we "have" to tolerate any given opinion,
such as if someone wanted to bulldoze all churches. We are free
to feel whatever we may feel about someone else's opinion.
We will probably be a bit wiser, though, if we can at least keep
in mind that there are no stone tablets to make an ultimate
arbitration.
Tom Keske
Boston, Mass.
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Richard
spaces. And I really don't want to drag it up again.
But as the guy who made the initial post with the question, I do want
you to know that I believe I meant your first meaning and not your
second meaning of the question to which you replied so eloquently.
Tom Keske wrote:
>
> SACRED SPACES
>
> Should gay activists use a tactic such as disrupting church services?
> That question could be taken in a couple ways, one being:
>
> What would be the practical consequences for our movement if we
> used such a tactic?
>
> More likely, the sense in which it is intended is:
>
> Do we have the "right" to use such a tactic?
**********
Ezekiel J. Krahlin
<<
Gay people more than nearly anyone should be keenly aware how
such nonsense can masquerade for thousands of years as God's
inspired truth. This lesson should motivate us to become
free-thinkers who question even further, as to the most basic
assumptions concerning what morality and ethics really mean.
>>
In unshackling myself from religious dogma and heterocentric absolutism, I
came to realize that all major religions have also become a shield to defend
the persecution of non-heteros (LGBT-etc. people). And in letting my free-
thinking mind ramble towards new conclusions, I realized that we gays can
create our own type of religion and/or ethnic morality...one that places our
well-being and protection at the top, along with the preservation and
expansion of our own distinctly non-hetero (even anti-hetero) culture.
And I believe one way to accomplish this, is by creating and disseminating
NEW MYTHS dedicated to the spirit of Gay Liberation. What people like,
they will share with others, and eventually, some of these myths will become
embedded in our common gay culture. And that is part of what I'm about, and
why I come up with tales such as "The Spirit of Gay Pride"...and why I built a
web page full of inspiring tales, which I call "The Final Testament - Bible for
Gays Only".
So thanks, Tom, for cutting out all the dogmatic assumptions so that what
remains is simply a relativistic value system which places gays at the
bottom of the heap. Let's turn this around!
---
Lavender-Velvet Revolution
http://surf.to/gaybible
Wolf : Big Bad, The
> SACRED SPACES
>
> Should gay activists use a tactic such as disrupting church services?
> That question could be taken in a couple ways, one being:
>
> What would be the practical consequences for our movement if we
> used such a tactic?
>
> More likely, the sense in which it is intended is:
>
> Do we have the "right" to use such a tactic?
Y'know maybe I'm just biased right now from spending my ninth weekend in a row
having to try to patch my partner up after his fundamentalist Christian family
rips him to shreds yet again for being what he is and loving who he loves -
but - to me these people are just looking for a reason to come after us with
deadly force and if we attempted to disrupt their church services to try to
inform them or comment at all on their hatred - we'd see gays getting shot all
over this country with the excuse that we've revealed ourselves at last as
creatures of demonic origination bent on crushing "the faithful". We'd have
people citing that tablet about putting gay people to death because "we didn't
obey the Lord's decree and look what happened, they came after us in our
churches." They would, in short, see it as an act of war.
There are a lot of other places to fight bigotry and hatred in this
country, other than fundamentalist churches. The only way we're going to get
the Christians to entertain the notion that the homophobic content of the
Bible is based largely on a cultural relevance that was true thousands of
years ago and irrelevant to the world today is to not offend the majority of
them and ally ourselves with the Christians who are able to view us in a more
modern context. As it is we've made great strides in that direction with the
majority of the Protestant denominations, and if we work against homophobia in
the culture at large, we've got a much better chance of getting the
fundamentalists to reveal themselves as the frothy-mouthed zealot
hatemongering freaks that they are.
If you're a small army and you go around poking a super-power with a stick,
eventually you're going down. I'd advocate Guerilla style warfare, but when
you do that with something this incendiary, you're putting everyone who is
culturally identified as a member of your group whom you can't hide or protect
at huge risk. I don't think any of us want to escalate the body count in a
war that we can't win by direct assault. I've met fundamentalists at close
range. Trust me when I tell you that most of them would not hesitate for a
second to send their bright and shining sons and daughters after us with pipe
bombs and assault rifles to defend "the faith" against the attacking heathens.
Their overall attitude is already one in which it's been deemed "ok" to kill
gays because God says what we are is anathema. This attitude is one of the
reasons why I'm not down with the "separatists" who want to get an all gay
island homeland and say to hell with the world. Yeah, get us all in one place
so that we can be the victims of a nice "nuclear accident" or some other
surgical strike to rid the world of us.
As it is, sometimes I wonder how deep Dubbya's hatred of Californians
goes...and whether something "bad" is going to happen to San Francisco, with
an epicenter in the Castro district.
If you want to make a zealot stronger, make him a martyr. That goes double for
a religious movement like fundamentalist Christianity.
Kai
Those big shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more
salted peanuts consumed than caviar. - Mickey Spillane
--
Wolf : Big Bad, The
>
> And I believe one way to accomplish this, is by creating and disseminating
> NEW MYTHS dedicated to the spirit of Gay Liberation. What people like,
> they will share with others, and eventually, some of these myths will become
> embedded in our common gay culture. And that is part of what I'm about, and
> why I come up with tales such as "The Spirit of Gay Pride"...and why I built a
> web page full of inspiring tales, which I call "The Final Testament - Bible for
> Gays Only".
>
> So thanks, Tom, for cutting out all the dogmatic assumptions so that what
> remains is simply a relativistic value system which places gays at the
> bottom of the heap. Let's turn this around!
We weren't always at the bottom of the heap. I'm finding more and more mythological
systems and tales that deal with GLBT deities, heroes etc. that have been neatly
"edited" for heterosexual consumption. I learned about Achilles in high school, but
it wasn't until recently that I learned about his long term, intense, love
relationship with Patroklos. I always suspected that Dionysius looked like "one of
ours" but I couldn't find any reference of it until I studied much more deeply.
What we need to do is reclaim our OLD myths and the respect that we once had in
human society in addition to creating new ones.
I've been involved with neo-paganism for years, and I've met many lesbians who
have a strong spiritual connection and community based around reverence for the
Great Goddess and lesbian/bisexual deities like Artemis/Diana, Ishtar and Selene. I
have yet to see much among my brothers of this sort of thing. I know of a few
closed circles of gay males, and have run into a few members of the Radical
Faeries, but otherwise gay men are an missing presence at most pagan gatherings.
The larger pagan community is hetero-centric and has it's fair share of homophobes,
so they generally don't want us (once they figure out what we are). I don't see any
smaller communities stepping up to fill that void.
I see what the followers of the Goddess have and I'm envious that we don't have
the same space, the same masculine circles and rituals. It's getting so bad in some
places (by way of the absence of men) that the God has been entirely abandoned in
favor of the Great Goddess. That alarms me, both because I don't want to see male
energy given short shrift in the name of new "equality" and because it means that
many spiritual gay men are having nowhere to go and no one to go there with. To me
that's a formula for despair.
We need a new path, both with new heroes and old, and where we can be spiritual
however we choose to be, as we are, with others who are like us and accept us.
Kai
--
Those big shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more
salted peanuts consumed than caviar. - Mickey Spillane
--
**********
Ezekiel J. Krahlin
<fao...@earthlink.net> wrote:
<<
Y'know maybe I'm just biased right now from spending my ninth weekend in a
row having to try to patch my partner up after his fundamentalist Christian
family rips him to shreds yet again
>>
I would never continue associating with any person or people who persists in
regarding me as a pariah. This is a poor way to form friendships and create
a wholesome life for yourself. So if you continue in such associations year
after year, you must then assume *some of the responsibility in cultivating
nihilistic relationships.
I have *nothing to do with homophobes on a personal level...and this means
excluding my parents and extended family. Why would I seek to keep
relations mended among bigots, unless I myself lacked a decent sense of
self-worth? And why should I fall prey to the dogma that family is sacred, and
therefore an exception to all this?
<<
to me these people are just looking for a reason to come after us with
deadly force and if we attempted to disrupt their church services to try to
inform them or comment at all on their hatred - we'd see gays getting shot all
over this country
>>
No. This is going to happen regardless. At worst, such gay dissent amidst
homophobic churches would bring things to a head somewhat quicker. The
horror of such violent backlash by Fundamentalists will force the hand of our
society to rapidly put an end to sanctioned homophobia. Without such
retaliatory efforts, we are liable to suffer years more of prolonged
oppression, misery, terrorism, and second-class status.
These bigots are counting on us to remain our stereotypically spineless
selves, that they may carry out a successful jihad against our people, and
gain the self-serving glory that is their blood-lust craving. (Remember how
African-Americans were, until the 60s, regarded as meek and subservient,
nothing to fear? Another stereotype blown out of the water.)
Homophobes are *cowards at heart, and will back off at any *real threat to
their own lives and safety. But as long as the government drags its feet on
the issue of gay equality, these Christo-bigots will continue to lord their
terrorism over us, and get away with it. But I assure you: homophobes
respect one thing, and one thing alone: pain, or the real threat of pain.
But if gov't doesn't threaten them with the pain of imprisonment, then we must
find our own way.
Bashing back is the last thing they want, and expect.
<<
with the excuse that we've revealed ourselves at last as
creatures of demonic origination bent on crushing "the faithful".
>>
Well of course, that will be their trump card; no surprise there. In fact, they've
already played it. But we can out-trump any card they may still have: by
breaking out of our stereotypical molds, and surprising them with *force of
will and aggressive dissent.
<<
They would, in short, see it as an act of war.
>>
Alright by me. They are already living out an Armageddon from their own
Biblical fantasies, and already scapegoating us as the ultimate evil to
conquer. To them, this is already a war, and we are the Devil incarnate. What
*you need to do is recognize what is going on here--that WE ARE ALREADY
AT WAR--and, if we unite soon enough, we can kick some heavy shit and
beat them at their own game...before things could ever get so far as to
become a blood-soaked revolution. But if we continue to cower, and hope
that these ugly monsters will just go away...I assure you we'll then be
subjected to horrors equal to, and perhaps surpassing, what the Nazis did to
Jews, gays, and other minorities in the 1930s-40s.
<<
There are a lot of other places to fight bigotry and hatred in this
country, other than fundamentalist churches.
>>
But these fundie churches are the major *source of this bigotry. You suggest
we nibble at their heels by indirect tactics...which IMO would be so
ineffectual as to be suicidal to our own cause for justice. Look where it's
gotten us so far: barely nowhere.
<<
The only way we're going to get the Christians to entertain the notion that the
homophobic content of the Bible is based largely on a cultural relevance
that was true thousands of years ago and irrelevant to the world today is to
not offend the majority of them
>>
I strongly disagree, Big Bad. These are mostly illiterate and semi-literate
people who will *never be appealed by reason and facts. They are an evil
force that must be reckoned with, in the same way we reckon with dangerous
fanatics: create ZERO TOLERANCE laws against their homophobic
sanctions...just as Holland and most other western societies already have.
But in the USA, there is no apparant desire by our government to protect us
in this way...or in any other way for that matter...thus making our own gov't the
enemy, too.
<<
As it is we've made great strides in that direction with the majority of the
Protestant denominations,
>>
Great strides? I see nothing but little, mincing steps...with the final outcome to
be a splitting of these Protestant groups amid much hostility...into two
camps: pro-homosexual and anti-homosexual. This is but the beginning of a
similar split across every other aspect of our society, and indeed, of every
society in the world. We are on the cusp of a major worldwide revolution that
will revolve on this single issue alone (homosexuality).
These lukewarn Christian groups are dallying at the gate too long, and are
unlikely to *ever condemn those churches which villify our gay citizens. We
cannot *count on them to come to our rescue; they are more "friendly fire"
than "friendly"! We must foment aggressive tactics of dissent to wake up
society, and coerce the more liberal churches (and liberals in general) to
take a strong stand on our behalf. Otherwise, they will (continue to) look the
other way, as our population continues to exist in constant terror, and
become decimated by a most horrid trend of anti-gay bigotry.
<<
and if we work against homophobia in the culture at large,
>>
That is such a vague statement, as to be pointless. We have been working
against homophobia in the culture "at large", for well over 40 years now...and
in the last 20, have been drastically slipping backwards. Your suggestion to
continue in such a milquetoast fashion, without ever directly confronting the
real sources of our enemies...will only allow homophobes to take up what
little ground of relative freedom we now know, here in San Francisco, and in
the several other pockets of liberal cities.
IMO, working against homophobia in the culture "at large", is to make a big
stink via aggressive dissent, *within those churches and other institutions, so
that the media cannot hide our voices, nor can local governments suppress
our demands for the equality guaranteed us by our very own Constitution...
and the Supreme Court be damned.
<<
we've got a much better chance of getting the fundamentalists to reveal
themselves as the frothy-mouthed zealot hatemongering freaks that they are.
>>
No, this will not happen at all, if we act so indirectly and non-aggressively.
This will only help conceal the true evil that these bigots manifest. But once
we attack them in their self-declared "sacred spaces", will the public *really
come to know the extent of their sick, twisted, malicious minds. To find the
real ugliness in a person, you peel back the layers until no more facades
remain. Then, they are just screaming, shrieking harpies...who, yes, I agree,
could prove to be even more dangerous...yet the outcome is much more
likely to result in social outrage against these monsters.
Did not the Jews attempt to educate and reason with the Nazis, based on
their pacifist philosophy of many centuries?
<<
If you're a small army and you go around poking a super-power with a stick,
eventually you're going down.
>>
Not at all necessarily so. I know of no people that bravely fought for their
rights, that were *not a minority within a much larger population that was
antithetic to their cause. Almost always, the victories of an oppressed
people is the story of brave David's victory over the monster Goliath.
<<
I'd advocate Guerilla style warfare, but when you do that with something this
incendiary, you're putting everyone who is culturally identified as a member
of your group whom you can't hide or protect at huge risk.
>>
Who's talking about guerilla warfare? I'm speaking of intelligent, organized,
and aggressive tactics of dissent in order to shock the status quo out of its
stupor regarding the Religous Reich. We gay people are the wall between
these monsters, and the rest of the U.S. population. If they don't rise up to
our defense, we will surely be decimated...but once they're done with us,
everyone else will go the same way, too. We are the bellwether to a great
evil...and it is upon our shoulders, and no one else's, to do whatever we can,
to resist this dark force.
<<
Trust me when I tell you that most of them would not hesitate for a second to
send their bright and shining sons and daughters after us with pipe bombs
and assault rifles to defend "the faith" against the attacking heathens.
>>
But this is exactly what is going to happen, and very soon, as long as these
bigots believe they can get away with it. I also believe they are very likely to
disseminate some plague-virus into gay areas of our cities...and all this
without our ever acting out in mass dissent. We are already the Ultimate
Enemy in their out-of-control fantasies, and they are sure to proceed with
their righteous jihad against us...as long as one of "them" is our President.
<<
Their overall attitude is already one in which it's been deemed "ok" to kill
gays because God says what we are is anathema.
>>
This is all relatively new: their brazen, outspoken hatred of gay people. This
is part of the process of years of sweeping the gay issue under the carpet,
that now results in such terrible bigotry. They have declared war on us...it is
TOO LATE to use kid gloves in any form whatsoever. We are at war, and
must take up our cause under that realization...and develop aggressive
maneuvers to outsmart them, and best them at their games.
<<
This attitude is one of the reasons why I'm not down with the "separatists"
who want to get an all gay island homeland and say to hell with the world.
Yeah, get us all in one place so that we can be the victims of a nice "nuclear
accident" or some other surgical strike to rid the world of us.
>>
A ridiculous, nihilistic fantasy that only reflects your stereotype images of
what it means to be gay. Flush this out of your brain, and learn more gay
pride, and less gay paranoia. Cease these heterocentric notions of
inevitable gay tragedies.
<<
As it is, sometimes I wonder how deep Dubbya's hatred of Californians
goes...and whether something "bad" is going to happen to San Francisco,
with an epicenter in the Castro district.
>>
And this is where I live (smack dab in The Castro, since 1983). And boy,
don't I know what you are talking about! I am PROUD to stand up before
these idiots, in the heart of the heart of Gay Mecca.
<<
If you want to make a zealot stronger, make him a martyr. That goes double
for a religious movement like fundamentalist Christianity.
>>
Are you saying that all our courageous martyrs have not made our own gay
community stronger? Are you saying that *they're martyrs are somehow more
inspiring and charismatic than our own? Are you saying that *our martyrs
have died for nothing, but theirs have died for something?
Your priorities are a mess; and you have but little time to correct them. Good
luck! See you on the battlefield, if you make it through basic training.
---
Lavender-Velvet Revolution
http://surf.to/gaybible
**********
Ezekiel J. Krahlin
<fao...@earthlink.net> wrote:
<<
We weren't always at the bottom of the heap. I'm finding more and more
mythological systems and tales that deal with GLBT deities, heroes etc. that
have been neatly "edited" for heterosexual consumption.
>>
Oh, I certainly agree with you whole-heartedly, Kai. I believe there is SO
MUCH gay history that has been eradicated or revised to appease
heterocentric dogma...that we've barely scratched the surface. I also believe
there will be a renaissance of ancient cultures that will UNCOVER so many
homosexual tales and accounts, that have been stuffed away on dusty
shelves, or shared only among a small elite circle. In fact, I know of one
social anthropologist in South Africa, who is gathering evidence that present-
day and past archeologists have tampered with artifacts in order to cover up
evidence of homosexual bonding and celebration. He travels throughout
Africa, exploring many ancient sites, including some caverns where
prehistoric sketching of homosexual acts have been rubbed out and/or
altered by modern researchers.
<<
What we need to do is reclaim our OLD myths and the respect that we once
had in human society in addition to creating new ones.
>>
Excellent; I support you entirely in this suggestion.
<<
I've been involved with neo-paganism for years, and I've met many lesbians
who have a strong spiritual connection and community based around
reverence for the Great Goddess and lesbian/bisexual deities like
Artemis/Diana, Ishtar and Selene. I have yet to see much among my brothers
of this sort of thing.
>>
Well, then you can appreciate my poem dedicated to Artemis:
---begin poem:
PRAYER TO ARTEMIS
(c) 1998 by Ezekiel Krahlin
Oh Artemis, Brave Artemis, Goddess of
The Sacred Hunt, and Savior of Apollo
(For whom Your life was sacrificed
With others soon to follow)!
Perseus had wrought a silver belt made
From Medusa's Snake, for You to wear
Around Your waist to grant complete
protection
From blow or slash of club or sword,
or any other weapon.
In Armageddon You did fight battle after
battle:
Chaste, courageous in Your might,
Standing strong within the light...
Unstained, unslain, unharmed, and
undefeated.
Yet the final skirmish had not been
played
When Apollo lay wounded, dying, flayed,
Blood streaming from His valiant chest--
For the Beast of Lies had done his best
To doom the God of Healing to dark,
eternal rest!
Unswerving in Your heart with courage
like no other,
You gird the silver belt around Your
dearest brother.
Upon that act You were suddenly flung
Beneath the hooves of Satan's steed,
And died...unnoticed, unshrouded,
unsung.
Apollo rose to conquer all,
In this, the last, and greatest,
war.
To honor You, a sister true, each eve He
prays and faces west,
The direction in which You died.
Tears do grace His handsome face as He
looks up to the sky:
Your blood now stains the sunset with
virgin red-rose hues,
Spilled across the battlefield of deep
azures and crystal blues!
---finis
<<
otherwise gay men are an missing presence at most pagan gatherings.
>>
That is because the pagan communities are largely heterocentric (as you
also mention)...although most are in denial about this, and pretend to
embrace gay people as equal to hets. I have presented this case last year,
in some pagan newsgroups...and for the most part, experienced much
arrogance and heterosexism. A few, however, did admit of hetero style
bigotry amid many pagan groups.
<<
I see what the followers of the Goddess have and I'm envious that we don't
have the same space, the same masculine circles and rituals.
>>
I agree. And that is why I am attempting to create such a space, through my
developing gay philosophy/mythology and self-realization.
<<
We need a new path, both with new heroes and old, and where we can be
spiritual however we choose to be, as we are, with others who are like us
and accept us.
>>
Yep. And since there does not seem to be anything available out there, then
it is up to us who are aware of this dire need, to help build our gay myths,
and uncover past myths/legends/tales hitherto buried in dusty, dark corners.
Have you visited my website yet? There--under section "Poems, Tales,
Letters & Essays"--I have many original tales, poems, essays, which I think
will delight and inspire you. All gay stories like: "Brian And The Werewolf",
"How I Acquired The Cloak Of Invisibility, And The First Thing I Did With It",
"Jesus On The Okra Winfree Show", "The Mask of Horus," and "The Little
Angel Who Wouldn't Fly".
You will see better, how I am building, in my own small way, new mythology
for our Hellenic Family.
---
Pennsylvania-Dutch Gay Jesus says:
"Throw the hetero over the fence some hay!"
D Stephen Heersink
One of them is how we as GLBT interact with the world in which we find
ourselves. It is often not a world of our own making, but much of it
is at odds with whom we are, what it is we do, and what it is of
genuine interest and concern for us. The significance of these
manifold issues is just how should we interact with the world in which
we find ourselves.
Some advocate isolation, withdrawing from homophobes and other
malcontents and living in our own private sphere of comfort. Often
this means nothing more than being around our own kind only. To me,
this seems to be the equivalent of living in the closet, living
shadowy existences where we feel comfortable to be out and about amid
our own kind, but reticent, if not withdrawn, from all others.
Some advocate confrontation, being in the face of others,
showing them who we think we are, and letting them know what it is we
want. After this initial impulse, however, it's not altogether clear
what our stratagem is. Are we trying to win over the approval of
others, negotiate with others concerning our freedoms and liberties,
trying to educate others over their preconceived, and often erroneous,
misconceptions? Or else, are we saying by word and action, "Fuck you,"
I don't care what you think, and I am here to tell you I don't care.
Some advocate one-on-one introductions, that the best way to
overcome the beast of homophobia is to meet face to face what it is
that provokes so much anxiety and fear. These are generally people who
are not "activists" in the general sense, but men and women who engage
others on a one-to-one basis, believing that confronting a non-hostile
gay or lesbian person will help those who have discomfort find a
comfort level.
For myself, I find that honey succeeds where vinegar does not.
That's not to say in-your-face activism has no place; surely, many of
us are indebted to ACT-UP's contentious and bellicose activities that
made AIDS awareness also a personal concern. There are other such
occasions, such as the Dan White riots, where all people who felt
betrayed by the legal system vented their anger in a free-for-all
destruction of everything that represented that system, including
breaking into City Hall, burning police cars, and generally trashing
the symbols of a government and legal system that failed.
But these circumstances are the exception, not the rule. Most
of our encounters with the non-gay world is one of estrangement, where
gay rights are often trounced, and where empathy and understanding are
outsiders, not welcome in the homes of the "enemy." But I think it
needs to be admitted at the onset that we may not succeed in changing
the opinions of others; indeed, we may fail. But the things that seem
to be shaping changes are programs like Grace and Will, gay couples
who attend church services and participate in outreach, gay men and
lesbians who don't conceal their sexual identity from others in the
workplace, but also don't give a "fuck-you" attitude to those who are
less than receptive.
There are many Christians, for example, that find the
prohibitions against homosexuality untenable for reasons that Andrew
Sullivan and many gay and gay-sympathetic theologians argue. If there
is any place in America and elsewhere that can help us, it is the very
religious institutions that have done the most to berate and denigrate
us. I suppose the reason most people give for not giving homosexual a
place at the table is a verse from Leviticus (in the Bible). I doubt
there is a singular, more pervasive and malevolent reason to be
anti-gay than because "the Bible says so." Well, the Bible says many
things that not all Christians accept at face value -- polygamy being
one of them, divorce another, and both have a deeper meaning and
significance in Christian theology than the one verse in Leviticus
that Bible-thumpers use to marginalize gays.
Andrew Sullivan in his speech to Stanford University spent
considerable time on the "religious" reasons why gays are having a
difficult time being accepted by the population as a whole, and why
those very same reasons are unsustainable. In the honey vs. vinegar
dichotomy, it seems to me that civil engagement with the enemy on OUR
terms using THEIR criteria will have more of an impact than outright
confrontation. If ninety percent of the people who disapprove of
homosexuality cite the Bible as their reason, doesn't it make the most
sense to show them that their "standard" isn't consistent, and nor are
they, in applying the standard? Isn't reasoned discussion, rather than
in-your-face confrontation, more likely to succeed in the arena of
where we want recognition and acceptance as to equality and dignity?
On my last excursion on this subject, I was reminded by the
sacrilege done at Saint Patrick's Cathedral (NYC) one year by an
in-your-face activist. I hesitate only momentarily to be reminded that
such a sacrilege would do more to harm my perception of the person or
persons -- and their cause, than anything the Bible says. Even today,
when Catholics try to discuss the matter rationally, it's all too
common that homophobes invoke the memory of that sacrilegious incident
and the arguments that ensue fall on deaf ears. We cannot win friends
and influence people if we desecrate the very things they hallow. The
issue becomes the desecration, not the subject we want to prevail
with.
The retort has been, Well, they have done the same to us. Is
our own retort to appeal to the lowest common denominator -- you did
it to us, we'll do it to you -- really going to advance our aims and
goals? I daresay not. Being crass, rude, inhospitable, indignant, and
arrogant, among other unpleasantness, is hardly an environment
conducive to achieving our objectives, which is equality with
heterosexuals on every level. We may not be able to persuade non-gays
that being gay is agreeable, but surely if our voice is clear that it
isn't just love, but equal protection and equal rights under our
Constitution that we seek, we must take the high road and make our
arguments (not demands) from a reasoned, enlightened perspective. To
reduce ourselves to the level of the Rev. Phelps will get us and
others nowhere.
Our methods must not betray our objectives. Stooping to the
lowest common denominator will not raise the level of understanding
and enlightenment one iota. We will prevail, not because we can be
equally crass and repugnant, but because we have the right arguments
on our side. And those arguments are not that everyone stop hating us
and love us, but that everyone stop denying us the same rights they
have, simply because of our mating habits. We want laws changed, even
if we cannot change stoney hearts. We want the right to marry, the
same tax advantages, the rights to raise children, the rights to do as
we please in the privacy of our bedrooms, etc. These are political
objectives that must be fought in the political arena, not stones to
be hurled at religious institutions of intolerance. But if we are to
get our political rights, we must be able with clarity to dismiss
their religious prejudices which they bring to the political arena. We
must persuade people that it is the Constitution, not the Bible, that
is our ultimate guide and governor. But to get to the Constitution, we
must speak to the Bible's own inconsistencies and to those literal
inerrantists own inconsistencies in applying biblical injunctions.
We must use reason as our primary tool; to stoop to
sacrilegious behavior not only harms our reputations as being
reasonable, civil individuals, but clouds any hope of rising above the
lowest common denominator with the Rev. Phelps of this world.
___________________
D. Stephen Heersink
The Ecumenical Communion
http://home.att.net/~dshsfca/EcuComm.html