20150706.005 ANOTHER MARRIAGE EQUALITY POST ...

20150706.005 ANOTHER MARRIAGE EQUALITY POST ...

Yes! I confess!  This is another post about marriage equality, the SCOTUS ruling, and the hateful bigots who are crying foul. If you don’t want to read such stuff, stop here. Go get an ice cold drink. Eat a snickers.  Do anything but continue on! There will now be a short pause so you can stop reading ... {PAUSE} ... There! Now that those people have left the rest of you can sit back and listen to my rant ... or whatever one might call it.

Being a gay Christian minister, I have felt bombarded from all sides of this issue.  There are those who scream how the gays are going to start attacking them, suing them, and the like because the gays feel the law is behind them. And I am sure there are those who listen to that side and get egged on in their attitudes of hatred and vindication toward the LGBTQ community. Then there are those who see this as a monumental achievement and the LGBTQ community can now sit back and rest for finally getting this authorized in the country. And thirdly there are those who see this ruling as a step towards a much larger goal of acceptance and welcoming within society.  As for me, I sit firmly in the third camp. YES! It is a great step, but it is only one step of a million yet to go. WHY?  Because people can still be fired from work because they are gay in many states. For that matter, people can be evicted, denied service, all with the undertone of being or appearing gay. But, is this really any different from what people of color have had to face in our country since the 1950's? No, it isn’t. And so, it is going to be a long, long road that we must walk until we get to that point of full acceptance in society. For that matter, people of color are still struggling as are women! (We still don’t have an equal pay law for women in the work place!)

So, now comes the time in my little rant to ask, “how can we change?” or “how can we make the change that is needed in society?”  I dare say, I don’t have an answer. I just know we need to keep plugging along and working for some kind of change. I am sure that “my kind” will always feel, in one way or another, as if we are societal fringe.  And I’m not sure that feeling will ever change in my lifetime. I still live in fear that I will be found out by a group of conservative zealots and I will be “gay bashed.” I still wonder what will happen if the church I attend finds out that I am gay. (There are a few people who know and accept me, but what would happened if the church as a whole found out?) I still question if it is even possible for my friends to treat me normal or what being treated normal really means! I must confess I didn’t realize in my younger years that as a middle aged man I would be facing gay-angst, but I am. As always, I welcome your comments to these words either below or on my FACEBOOK page. Blessings always! - D Larson