Hiya folks! Been a while, eh? I have to admit that I have been…distracted…of late. Sometimes, the passing of my father last December has crept into my mind in ways that I even now find astonishing. I have also been stressed by the thesis and by just the everyday struggles of making ends meet.
NEWAZ, it is the weekend of Thanksgiving, 2009. What am I thankful for? I am thankful for the wonderful friends and allies who support me. I am thankful for a family who loves me—even the ones who do not know me fully. I am thankful for the man on whom I currently have a crush—a decent, Christian, gay man, whose sagacity and good heart in a time of contumacious vacuity, if not downright malevolence, inspire me. I am thankful for my baby sister, who has been a staunch ally since I came out to her last year.
…and now, my eldest sister, to whom I came out just yesterday.
She knew. She’d known for some time, and she had wondered how I might be made “comfortable” enough to come out to the family. I think she thinks that I may be “just gay,” but she knew, nonetheless. She also figured that my friend Trey was more than just my friend. My sister volunteered to be my advocate should I decide to come out to the “crazy Baptist sister” or to my mother. Now, the “crazy Baptist” sister has brought my mother almost to tears due to my involvement with HRC. Social justice is apparently not a Christian value in her vapid estimation, whether I be only an ally or a “queer.”
Now, I am taking a liking to the term “queer,” partially because “crazy Baptist sister” uses it like some holy sword in her everyday speech. I, like others, reclaim the term. I rob it of the power that gits like the sister I yet love accord it. I revel in the fluidity that it encompasses and enumerates (Did I mention that I also have a celebrity crush on Ian Harvie? Meow!). I am bi. I am queer. Got a problem with it? I don’t care, because, yes, in the long run in that case, you are value-less.
I recently met Mel White, the founder of SoulForce, in part because of the man whom my heart and soul fancy even more so than the flesh ever could. You should read his stuff; it’s very good and shows that the so-called “Christian” arguments against gayness are blarney.
Blessed be us all! :D
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