Come and bless Adonai,
Related articles
- An Introduction to the Theology of Gay Pride (queerchurchnews.wordpress.com)
- Film fest kicks off gay pride month (thehindu.com)
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
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.
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