Following my recent “coming out” to my sisters, the U.S. elections have led me to self-reflection. I feel that some kind of “spiritual growth” will come from recent events – but I’m not sure how to discuss this yet.
Scattered thoughts swirl through me: Fear, determination, self-peace.
Some weeks ago I told my 70- and 65-year-old Republican Christian sisters that I didn’t understand why people would discourage gays (or anyone!) from forming “committed relationships.”
Now I’ve heard or read (was it in an interview with Edmund White?) that “people” (well, certain Christians, at least) simply feel uncomfortable using the word “marriage” for gay unions (Why?).
That’s fine – but Unitarians (and at least some Pagans) want to call it “marriage”. Why should the U.S. government forbid it?
It occurs to me to tell my sisters how I “came out” as Pagan, poly and bisexual during a Re-Evaluation Counseling (“Co-Counseling”) conference, back around 1983.
As I stood in the center of a meeting room with about ten other gays, bi’s and lesbians, I asked, nearly in tears: “Why do they hate us so much?” Perhaps my sisters can explain why. For twenty years, I have failed to find the answer.
I do know something else, however.
In Virginia in 1983, my wife and I knew no other Pagans and no other polys. We knew a few GLBT people – only because we belonged to a Unitarian congregation. What I know is that I am much more at peace with myself now (in California) than I ever was in 1980s Virginia. Here I can be honest about who I am and feel accepted – even appreciated – even valued.
There are fundamentalists from various religions here in California, of course. They probably feel just as threatened and offended by polys and Pagans and GLBTs as their co-religionists elsewhere. But I feel safer here. I don’t feel that the California government encourages or fears the fundamentalists.
Dear People-Of-Whatever-Religion: I have no desire to offend you. I have no intention to threaten you. I am just trying to follow the calling of my own soul.
(Whatever “soul” would mean to a Unitarian-Pagan, raised as a Protestant Christian; who has been influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Shinto, Shamanism, Judaism, and Islam; and who has been at one point an atheist; and still is largely an agnostic).