I'm Glad It Was Written...

Once in a while you come across something that, as a writer, you'd wish you'd written yourself. You wish it not out of envy so much as it reflects exactly what you feel. I discovered a blog today written by Arthur Silber called Once Upon A Time. In today's post he has an essay called, "We Are Not Freaks" discussing how it feels to be gay or lesbian in our society.

I agree with Mr. Silber. Unless you are gay, you cannot fathom what it feels like to be gay in our culture, not fully. Inadvertently, many who are sympathetic participate in the same "freak" show mentality that is the debate over gay civil-rights. He hit the nail on the head exactly. I am not an object that you can put on display and say, "Here's a gay man, who calls himself married. What should we do about this and how should it be discussed?" I'm a real person, with feelings and a real stake in the debate that rages on.

While society debates whether I, as a gay man, should have certain civil rights or not, meanwhile I don't have any. While Christianists harp on and on about what they believe and their moral principles, I have to live daily with the fact that if my partner were rushed to hospital, I may not be able to see him. Christianists feel that their religion is being trampled on. I don't see how my existence and my ability to have the same rights and responsibilities they have can prevent them from the practice of their particular brand of worship. They can still believe what they believe, attend the church they attend and spout the same hateful bigotry that passes for loving scripture. They can hate me all they want, but why do they get a say on how I live my life and what rights I have? What makes their religious beliefs more important than mine? My church believes that any couple relationship is a sacred and private matter between that couple. To say they cannot legally be a couple is based on gender violates my church's beliefs. So why is a Christianist church's beliefs more important than mine. Why do they have a bigger voice in public policy than mine?

Once any person's real civil rights have been trampled on, then all of us in our society suffer. ALL of us suffer. The current presidential campaign by former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, who happens to be Mormon, is a fascinating example of this. Mr. Romney thinks that because he has proved himself to be the true social conservative Republican candidate he is a shoo in for winning the presidency. Because his current stance on same-sex marriage and abortion issues coincide so closely with evangelical Christians, Mr. Romney thinks he will automatically garner their support. Unfortunately for former Governor Romney, most evangelical Christians view the Mormon church as an evil cult. Evil cults are tolerated about as much, and in some cases less so, than gays or lesbians. He is learning fast, if he hasn't learned already, that projecting your own narrow points of view based on religion onto a democratic society makes for a sticky mess.

So, let's say someday, evangelical Christianity becomes the church of state for the USA, then what? Well, laws could be passed to imprison not only gays, lesbians and women who have abortions, but practicing Mormons, Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and many other groups not falling under approved evangelical guidelines. We also get into the problem of which brand of evangelical Christianity is the right one. Many of these groups believe that dancing and listening to popular music is okay under certain guidelines while other believe it is incredibly evil in any form. Many believe that images and symbols of Christ are not to be tolerated as it violates the 4th of Moses' ten commandment. Look at what his commandment says: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. So what happens to those Christians who have the sympol on their cars? Do they get imprisoned too?

While I was traveling this summer I visited the House of Terror in Budapest, Hungary. This is a holocaust museum that is housed in the actual building that Nazis and later communists used for torturing and murdering those who were deemed dissidents and undesirables. One startling thing I learned is that those who began this governmental office of terror and interrogation were themselves tortured and murdered under the very program they created. The communists took over and began using the same horrible procedures on their Nazi forbears.

Starting down the path of discrimination only leads to more discrimination. You never know which person will be the one in power or the one discriminated against. All I can say is stop it!! Me living my life does not hurt yours in any way. Enacting restrictions on gay and lesbian people or any other minority will never make them go away. It hasn't done it in all the thousands of years of history of the human family.

Thank you Mr. Silber for your essay. I hope many read it and get a small glimpse of how I feel. We are not freaks.