Three people sharing their stories. These are all worth reading in full.
While as a society we are moving toward greater inclusion and equality for all people, the tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible. There continue to be far too many incidences of bullying of young people, as well as discrimination and violence against people of all ages, based on their sexual orientation, and I believe there is value in making clear where I stand.
The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.
I have always been very open and honest about this part of my life with my friends, my family, and my colleagues. In a perfect world, I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business, but I do think there is value in standing up and being counted. I’m not an activist, but I am a human being and I don’t give that up by being a journalist.
I want them to know that I deeply love Jesus, fully human and fully divine and I believe the way he lived, with whom he created community and the words he spoke are as important as the death he died and his ultimate triumph over death. None of this is negated by the fact that I also happen to love a woman and that my love might look a lot more like their own than they think. With all of a love’s ups and downs I still love it when her eyes meet mine from across a crowded room. I still I love it when she puts her arm around me in church. But unlike theirs, I am sad and tired of the reality that she is often unwilling to kiss me goodbye on our own front doorstep, just in case it’s not safe. It’s love and I am so thankful that God has given me the capacity and challenge to love in this way in this time and place.
I’m sorry. I feel absolutely terrible about this. But I don’t want to do dialogue anymore. I don’t want to journey together or live life with you or work out some difficult answers. I’m tired of having to pray that God will soften my heart so that I can tolerate your bigotry more easily. Because every time I do any of those things at church, I end up getting hurt. And then when I say anything about it, it’s like, “Oh, we disagree, you just have to accept we disagree.” which is code for, “We know we’re hurting you, but there’s nothing we’re willing to do about it, so you’ll just have to put up with us.” Meanwhile, I’m trying not to cry my eyes out when I’m alone because I feel like I have no church I can go to like a normal person while everyone else is like, “Whoa, we’re on a cool journey together.” I’m not your fucking sherpa you can dump your veiled homophobia on while you feel good about yourself for attempting to climb up LGBT Mountain in some kind of fantastic journey. There’s a point in time where I have to say, no, I will not subject myself to this anymore. I mean … that point has to exist, doesn’t it?
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