Love is an Orientation
Photo Credit: Michelle from Maladjusted Media
As it was happening we were living in the moment. We had no idea this picture was even being taken. A woman who I didn’t know came up to me a few minutes later and said, “Hey, I got some cool pictures of what just happened. Let me send them to you!” I just thought this was going to be an amazing memory that a few of us shared about what love means to us at The Marin Foundation.
Amazing what the internet does. Since this picture was first posted on my blog it has been viewed almost 30 MILLION times! Didn’t see that one coming… You can read the backstory of the picture here.
In June 2012 this picture was listed by BuzzFeed as the #1 Picture That Will Restore Faith in Humanity … the single greatest distinction The Marin Foundation’s work can be labeled as – Restoring faith in humanity.
And now…
The uber popular image sharing site Imgur, most notably associated with Reddit, named our picture #7 on the list of Best Images of 2012 – right behind Olympian McKayla Maroney’s famous “Not Impressed” photo (which by the way, I’m obsessed with the hilarious McKayla Is Not Impressed memes).
The folks at Imgur reached out to me to ask for a few sentences about the picture. Here’s what I wrote:
The idea for the apology came from a gay employee of my organization, The Marin Foundation. He knew how much shame he had to endure in many church circles, and also how much it meant for him to have people sincerely apologize to him. So we gathered a group of straight and LGBT Christians and went to the Parade. We had no idea what would happen, or that this picture was even being taken. And today this picture means so much because it stands for something bigger than any of us–it stands for actually living a faith worth living and loving how Jesus commanded us. As author Chris Heuertz says, “Everything in moderation except love.”
On a side note, in the description of the picture the editors at Imgur called The Marin Foundation a “Christian LGBT advocacy group” making steps for “equality.” The mission of The Marin Foundation is to build bridges between both the LGBT community and conservatives, which isn’t necessarily described in the spirit of the labels written. But in my understanding of the editors’ statements, I very much agree that The Marin Foundation does tirelessly advocate for the equality of all people as loved children of God – a message that too many who proclaim Jesus have not not lived into when it comes to our LGBT brothers and sisters.
As always, Much love.
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