Today is National Coming Out Day. Last year, I wrote about gay rights as relational rights. This year, I’d like to talk about how gay rights are religious rights.
Gay rights, yes, are civil rights, and are amply justified in the Constitution under “equal protection,” not to mention “pursuit of happiness.” But we tend to bury the fact that religious liberty is also at stake.
The entire notion that there’s something wrong with being gay, something unacceptable, is a religious one. It’s based in the Bible or the Koran or some other bookish thingy. So why should those who do not follow those books be bound by their laws?
There is lots of room for gay people, and indeed for gay marriage, in most Pagan religions. As a Wiccan Priestess, I would be happy to perform a handfasting (marriage) ceremony for a gay couple. But while I can perform such a ceremony for a straight couple and have it legally recognized, the same-sex handfasting cannot be recognized. Since they are equal in the eyes of my religion, isn’t that State interference with religion?
You’ll see them say it. You’ll see them say marriage is “sacred.” If it’s sacred, it belongs to religion and religion alone; keep the State out of it. If it’s not sacred, if it’s civil, then everyone should have an equal shot at it.
I sang in a gay handfasting at Brushwood.
And so funny… I had no idea this was today, but ONE HOUR AGO I was thinking about a gay themed blog I’ve been meaning to write (what makes a gay icon?), and that I should do it today.
If I have time. Stay tuned.
Well said!
Thank you for writing this.
Roberta wrote: what makes a gay icon?
Ask your sister.
Evn, Roberta is a gay icon too. But the enduring question of why is more elusive.
The “why” is actually pretty cut and dry.
You have to be female, on account of all gay men are, on some level, Goddess worshippers, whether they realize it or not (she’s not the Divine Miss M for nothing).
And if gay men worship you, that makes straight men a little afraid of you. If you meet those two criteria, and you can attract at least a moderate amount of media attention, ipso facto, you’re a gay icon.
Oh yeah, and at some point, a drag queen has to imitate you. That’s the real deal-sealer.
Well, now here we’ve gone full circle, because Roberta thinks (and I agree) that a gay icon is virtually defined by the drag impersonators. And the question is, how do these impersonatees get chosen? I think you’re onto something when you say that straight men tend to fear us, but again, what is the quality?
Roberta undoubtedly understands it better than I.
Very well said! Not certain what makes someone a gay icon, but I think it has been said that you know you are gay when you are friends with women that other people either are terrified of or despise. 😉
Sorry, I just checked back for the first time. And I just blogged about how I’m too tired to blog about the gay icon thing. And really, I still haven’t worked out the ‘why’, simply the ‘what’. I’m hoping that as I write it some ‘why’ will come out of it.
But Deb is correct, gay icon-ism culminates in the drag impersonators (so it’s easy to work out the ‘who’) and she knows also that I want to be a gay icon when I grow up– okay yes I already am one but I want to be a famous one and that will be demonstrated by said drag impersonators. Although I also kinda cringe at the thought!