Tag Archives: Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

Erotic Pride Before God (Psalm 134)

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Come and bless Adonai,
                                all you who serve Our God,
                                ministering by night in God’s house!
                Lift up your hands in the sanctuary,
                                and bless Adonai!
                May you be blessed from Zion
                                by the One who made heaven and earth!
Psalm 134
 
During Pride month I ponder the place of queer people in the congregation of God worshipers. In the face of traditional and ongoing discrimination by religious bodies I can scarcely believe that this invitation to come and bless and to be blessed is for me. If I come will the door be open? If I bless will hearts be receptive? As one who is among those cast out and silenced, how shall I respond to this invitation?
There is an intrinsic fear among the various spiritual expressions toward queer folk. It is the fear that tans-les-bi-gay-intersex-asexuals transgress the purity of the congregation. We who seek out forbidden pleasure are polluted by our sexual “proclivities.” Our impure presence reflects upon others casting our “shame” beyond ourselves and onto all we associate with. As those in ancient times, we are made to feel that we should shout “Unclean! Unclean!” giving time for the clean to flee unscathed.

People like us are rarely granted entrance to the assembly of the Sacred. Our presence may contaminate and make profane that which is holy. Often we find the door to the divine barred.
-continue reading at The Bible in Drag
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An Introduction to the Theology of Gay Pride

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June is Gay Pride Month.

Gay Pride is, simply, being proud of being gay, being proud of who God created you to be, recognizing the gift of human diversity, and that one’s sexual orientation is inherent, not “learned.”

June came to be recognized as Pride Month because the Stonewall uprising (“Stonewall riots”) took place in June 1969.

Some Christians who for various reasons do not like “Gay Pride” will often point to the use of the word “pride,” and say that pride is a sin.

Pride is, of course, a sin. But sinful pride is not what is referred to by “Gay Pride.”

Sinful pride is the desire to be more important or attractive than others, not recognizing the good work of others, and loving oneself excessively. Dante, when speaking of the “7 Deadly sins,” says of the sin of pride that it is “love of self perverted to hatred and contempt for one’s neighbor.”

If we consider pride (superbia) as vice, its corresponding virtue is humility (humilitas).

Gay Pride, then, is not sinful pride. This sort of pride is the antonym of shame, not humility. Shame has been used for centuries to control and oppress gay people. Therefore “Gay Pride” is liberation from that oppression, and not the vice of superbia.

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

Pax et bonum

–Faith in the 21st century

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Pentagon to celebrate gay pride for US troops

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US military saluted for supporting gay servicemen just months after repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy

The US military will salute gay troops by holding its first ever pride event, just months after repealing the notorious ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy.

Details of the celebrations are still being ironed out, but the Pentagon’s announcement to mark gay pride month in June has been seen by activists as a sign of how rapidly the Defence Department is changing, reported the Associated Press.

‘I don’t think it’s just moving along smoothly, I think it’s accelerating faster than we even thought the military would as far as progress goes,’ said Air Force 1st Lt. Josh Seefried.

–Gay Star News

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Queer film fest to be part of Pride Month celebrations

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CHENNAI: Recently, transgender activist Anil Sadanandan, also known as Mariya, was murdered in Kerala. Fellow activists say it was a hate crime. Two years ago, trans-woman Sowmiya from Chennai committed suicide. Unable to complete her education, she had turned to sex work and begging to eke out a living and was dependent on alcohol.

Short documentaries on the lives of Sowmiya and Mariya will be screened at Colors of Sexuality: Chennai Queer Film Festival 2012 to be held from June 1 to 17. The festival is part of the Pride Month celebrations to be organised by Chennai Rainbow Coalition, a collective of groups that work for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community.

“Films help us take our concerns to a wider audience,” said Kalki Subramaniam, founder, Sahodari Foundation, which works for the transgender community, at a press meet on Friday. “I had spent time with Sowmiya and Mariya and had video footage of them. So I thought of making films on their lives.”

 

-full report at Times of India

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