Saturday, May 19, 2007

Healing from religious bigotry

I've done a lot of thinking about why it is that people embrace hatred rather than love. Jerry Falwell died this week, and lots of hatred found it's way into the online comments. I didn't agree with his stance on homosexuality, but he has to answer for his attitude. I think what he said was hurtful not only to the GLBT community, but to blacks, women and any one that wasn't of his belief systen. The hatred I see from our community is just as concerning as the hatred and rejection that came from Falwell's pulpit.

Next month is the Beyond ex-gay converence in Irvine. I hope that we can create a place for healing to happen for those people wounded by the religious bigotry that comes from people who say they speak for God. I don't think healing is possible without the grace of God and His love filling our hearts. I pray that I am an adaquate spokesperson and example of that love.

Friday, May 4, 2007

A Christian Lesbian Journey

Well, that's the name of my newly released book. It tells the story of my leaving ex-gay ministry and finding love with a beautiful Christian woman. We should have ridden off n a white horse and lived happily ever after. But we didn't. We struggled to be ourselves, to find a church family who would love and accept us as a couple...and then, Des Got breast cancer. Our lives were changed, but we grew stronger in our faith, and battled the disease together. On Valentines Day 2005, she lost the battle and went to heaven to wait for me. (And see a few other people too.)
The story doesn't end. She told me to write our story, speak out for the gay community..and be true to who I am. So, I told our story in the documentary, www.godandgaysthemovie.com and started writing a book. I have begun the process of mending the broken truths protrayed by Exodus ministries, and those within Christian churches and want us to change our sexual orientation to make them comfortable, and us acceptable!

Just one of the reasons I won't do that is the following story.
My sister, Arlene, works in an office. She shared my book with her supervisor. They had worked together for years, and Arlene never knew her boss had a gay sister. Now they can talk about more than the weather. Her boss wanted to email me and since she had seen a quilt in the book that my current partner, Becky, had made for Des on her 50th Birthday...she asked if we could make just a quilt piece with a heart on it, for her sister. She wanted to send my book, and the quilt piece to her as a reminder that she was special. Becky had a quilt wall hanging that she had started over two years ago, in just the right colors, of a heart for rememberance for Des. She never finished it before the memorial service, and just put it away. When Arlene's boss asked us to do one, we pulled it out and I finished it, and sent it along to a lesbian sister in Colorado who needs to know that her journey is now connected to ours through my sister that stood up and said, "I have a gay sister, and here is her story". Des's heart of love still lives, and our story will go out and touch lives that we don't even know, and some we do.

So...this is another page on my journey.
Darlene