My Flag for Pride - 2007
Gay Pride Week (or day or parade or month or lifetime- take your pick) is coming - officially in NYC it it is June 23rd - Saturday - to June 30th - Saturday. It is the same in Second Life. But this month Pride is celebrated at various times- as many local communities don't want to compete with huge Pride events in major locales.
This year in SL Pride will see the openning of an exhibit of art photography - a notecard about the exhibit will be posted to the blog the week of the opening. There will be parades and parties and all sorts of events - but - what does it all mean? What is it exactly that we are proud of - why Gay Pride - and not Gay Day or Gay Party or Gay Liberation - why Pride?
An interesting question. It demands that we look at what it is that has always defined the homosexual experience and what it means to be gay - here and everywhere really - in a society which is dominated by straight people - naturally - a large percentage of whom either hate gay people and homosexuality outright or "tolerate" homosexuality as an aberation. But to see homosexuality as an equal and valid sexuality - as a natural part of life and society - as a normal part of the spectrum of all animal existence - this is rare - and not the "norm".
Yes - that's right - there is still considerable hate. Pride exists to combat the effects of the hate, effects which gay people in most of the world experience - and suffer.
So let's list some truths -
There are 1 billion Muslims in the world and there are 1 billion Christians. At least - approximately. Both religions teach that homosexuality it is a sin. "Hate the Sin - Love the Sinner" is the Christian doctrine regarding homosexuality - a person who is homosexual is allowed to be loved and tolerated - the "sin" of practicing homosexuality is not. And that is among the more liberal Christians - some would purge the sin by fire.
Muslim teaching is essentially the same. The bottom line- Gay people are "sick", "sinners", "agents of the devil", "misguided", "criminals" or just plain bad.
Jewish law teaches also that homosexuality is a crime, a crime against God. And throughout the world homosexuality has been and in many places still is defined as a "crime against nature". An oxymoron if there ever was one - how can something which happens naturally be a "crime against nature?"
This year in SL Pride will see the openning of an exhibit of art photography - a notecard about the exhibit will be posted to the blog the week of the opening. There will be parades and parties and all sorts of events - but - what does it all mean? What is it exactly that we are proud of - why Gay Pride - and not Gay Day or Gay Party or Gay Liberation - why Pride?
An interesting question. It demands that we look at what it is that has always defined the homosexual experience and what it means to be gay - here and everywhere really - in a society which is dominated by straight people - naturally - a large percentage of whom either hate gay people and homosexuality outright or "tolerate" homosexuality as an aberation. But to see homosexuality as an equal and valid sexuality - as a natural part of life and society - as a normal part of the spectrum of all animal existence - this is rare - and not the "norm".
Yes - that's right - there is still considerable hate. Pride exists to combat the effects of the hate, effects which gay people in most of the world experience - and suffer.
So let's list some truths -
There are 1 billion Muslims in the world and there are 1 billion Christians. At least - approximately. Both religions teach that homosexuality it is a sin. "Hate the Sin - Love the Sinner" is the Christian doctrine regarding homosexuality - a person who is homosexual is allowed to be loved and tolerated - the "sin" of practicing homosexuality is not. And that is among the more liberal Christians - some would purge the sin by fire.
Muslim teaching is essentially the same. The bottom line- Gay people are "sick", "sinners", "agents of the devil", "misguided", "criminals" or just plain bad.
Jewish law teaches also that homosexuality is a crime, a crime against God. And throughout the world homosexuality has been and in many places still is defined as a "crime against nature". An oxymoron if there ever was one - how can something which happens naturally be a "crime against nature?"
So when it is all put together - we have "Crimes against Nature" - despite the Supreme Court's ruling that specific laws which single out homosexuals are unconstitutionally unjust.
So - what do we know about Gay Pride? We know this - that it is needed to combat "Gay Self Loathing" - the common inheritance of all Gay Men and Women in the Western World and much of the rest of the world.
And how do we express this pride? All too often with excess - to be sure - but also with loving and caring and feeling for each other.
Gay men and women share a bond - and when we come together to experience that bond - we become part of a community of transition - from bondage placed upon us by the hatred of those around us - or just disdain - or just being "fish out of water" - from that bondage to a freedom that comes only by joining with brothers and sisters and saying - as Martin Luther King said so long ago
"Free at last - Free at last - Great God Almighty we are Free at Last."
Should it not be just as true for homosexuals who have been told they are less than human than it is for any other group despised and rejected and made less than those around them? No - it should not.
Listen - America - and Listen - Religion - and Listen - World. It is Time -
Let My People Go!
Go to Pride - march in a parade - join PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) - if you are gay - march with your brothers and sisters - and if you are not gay - march with fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers and friends.
If you are silent - you contribute to the suffering of my brothers and sisters. Make a Loud Noise - rant and rave to Heaven - Join the march and join the call -
Let My People Go!!
So - what do we know about Gay Pride? We know this - that it is needed to combat "Gay Self Loathing" - the common inheritance of all Gay Men and Women in the Western World and much of the rest of the world.
And how do we express this pride? All too often with excess - to be sure - but also with loving and caring and feeling for each other.
Gay men and women share a bond - and when we come together to experience that bond - we become part of a community of transition - from bondage placed upon us by the hatred of those around us - or just disdain - or just being "fish out of water" - from that bondage to a freedom that comes only by joining with brothers and sisters and saying - as Martin Luther King said so long ago
"Free at last - Free at last - Great God Almighty we are Free at Last."
Should it not be just as true for homosexuals who have been told they are less than human than it is for any other group despised and rejected and made less than those around them? No - it should not.
Listen - America - and Listen - Religion - and Listen - World. It is Time -
Let My People Go!
Go to Pride - march in a parade - join PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) - if you are gay - march with your brothers and sisters - and if you are not gay - march with fathers and mothers and sisters and brothers and friends.
If you are silent - you contribute to the suffering of my brothers and sisters. Make a Loud Noise - rant and rave to Heaven - Join the march and join the call -
Let My People Go!!
2 comments:
Couldn't agree more with you on the whole ridiculous 'Crime against Nature' thing. But I'm afraid even if every single gay person in the world stood up and said/did something, things wouldn't change.
We know we are the same as everyone else. We are human beings, who love, feel and think. But as long as we define ourselves by our sexuality, that difference is going to be more obvious than any similarities. I think we have to stop defining each other as 'gay' and 'straight' and just say 'people'.
But - hey - if there was no fear/hate directed towards gays, we wouldn't get to dress up and have a big party every year, would we? :)
I really dun understand what is the fear here. I love all my gay friends in RL and there's nothing fearful about them. Am not sure if there's a Gay Pride day in Singapore. But there is, I'll walk with my friends in it. Everyone should be allowed to love freely. Everyone. Regardless of who you are.
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