Rainbow Love in the Sun

It was the summer of 1999; I had just flown from London on a one-way ticket to San Francisco, having been accepted as an ordination candidate for ministry with the Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA.  Prior to commencing a final two year stint at the seminary, I got to ‘acclimate’ to California by staying at a parish in Oakland.  I had a blast: sight-seeing around the culturally eclectic and stunningly beautiful bay area; being wined and dined by many of the pastor’s friends; and by simply savoring the invigorating energy of this part of the world.

Then one morning, a couple of weeks prior to my relocating to the seminary, the pastor (very crestfallen and distraught) shared with me how one of his parishioners, a young gay man, had just ended his life – and he left a suicide note for the pastor!  A long letter filled with deep sadness, anguish, loneliness, and utter despair.  This young man felt painfully excluded from his church – not the parish he attended – but the institutional / hierarchical Church that called the shots . . and considered his ‘way of life’ as an openly gay man in a committed relationship, to be incompatible with an authentic profession of the Catholic faith.

Most notably he took deep offense at his gender orientation being referred to as an “objective disorder” . . . “ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil” – and that any sexual activity between a gay couple was “contrary to the natural law”, was closed to “the gift of life” and did not “proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.” (Chastity and Homosexuality – Catechism of the Catholic Church – article 6)

OMG! I was not unfamiliar with the tenets of the Church’s stance on homosexuality; but this was a grim and heartbreaking reminder of what it professed and how ‘isolated’ many of the gay community felt because of it.  And there was me (a liberal-thinking man) on the fast-track to ordination – too right I had doubts!

What heartens me: Many developments.  We no longer live – for the most part – in a Draconian age where one’s sexual orientation is criminalized and stigmatized; the institutional Church is now beginning to take a more pastorally sensitive, informed and enlightened stance on LGBT rights, albeit with some way to go!;

President Obama’s new LGBT nondiscrimination rule (announced July 21, 2014) which protects LGBT employees from discrimination based on gender identity; and most especially the LGBT pride movement that has grown worldwide – along with many new LGBT youth support organizations, particularly in the U.K.  But don’t we all pray for the day when the above list will be unnecessary and obsolete?

Not a moral quagmire: When you consider that every person at his/her core angelic essence is a perfect fusion of feminine and masculine energies, then the compelling need to re-integrate and harmonize these ‘two halves’ of ourselves is our (all of humanity’s) deepest spiritual and moral quest.  Therefore, rather than seeking to discriminate against, stigmatize, dehumanize, or demonize anyone because of their gender identity, a more enlightened human community would respectfully look to those among us who – in many regards – exemplify what it means to live a truly human, truly loving, and truly integrated sexuality.

Until our next yarn: Get to know yourself a little better – then share that beautiful, integrated goodness with a world that dearly needs it.  Be free to express who you truly are!

Peace – G

Cover Photo: Pixabay