Methinks Thou Doth Protest Too Much
Sunday was Philly Pride Day. I know. There will always be the group who doesn’t understand why such a thing must exist. Homosexuals don’t want to be treated differently but then we go and have a parade. There is no heterosexual Pride Day. (such an obvious quip should be added here...but I'll refrain) To which I say, okay, I get that….but a parade doesn’t have to prove a point…it’s a celebration. No different then, say, St. Patricks Day. Why do the Irish need a day to be Irish? They don’t, they are celebrating. (And we all know it’s just a reason to drink and that's cool.)
Christians get the Macy’s Day Parade for Christmas. And while it may now be called the Holiday Parade and Barry Manilow might ramble through on a float, there’s still not a lot of representation for Jewish people….and Santa Claus is still the highlight.
There was also an African festival across town on Sunday…fine by me. Whoop it up. The only reason a parade ever bothers me is because it effs up traffic that I may be in. Unless the Pride Parade comes marching through your living room, you don’t even have to acknowledge it.
I will admit, however, that Pride is probably the only day you can really feel safe expressing affection for that special someone in almost any part of the city….or at least along the parade route….and in the neighborhood surrounding the festival. Any other time, you’re sort of restricted to “gay areas”.Then there were the protestors....
The protestors intrigued and infuriated me. I simply don’t understand them. They weren’t there in the spirit of Christianity…they were only there to judge and hate. I’ve always considered myself a Christian. I had a great church that I attended faithfully and loved it. I went because I wanted to go. I was even in the Bible study group for women. When I was coming to terms with who I really am, who I’ve always been, I was also discovering how the people at this church felt about homosexuality….and I felt judged. I questioned God’s love over and over again. I stopped going to church. I feel weird there now.
I once talked to a friend who was in a ministry with her husband. This was a friend from high school…I’ve known her over 20 years. I posed the question of how it could be a sin to be homosexual if this was how God created me. She said He didn’t create me this way. Oh really? Then she went into some explanation about the sins of those who came before me and how they created this hole in my spiritual something-or-other where sin creeped in. Huh?
I let this friend have her say and listened to her opinion. We lost touch when she told me in a letter that I should question the therapist I was seeing at the time. The reason? Because she certainly couldn’t be giving me the right advice if she allowed me to accept this perversion of mine. She actually used the word perversion. That stopped that. I received a letter later asking if she said something wrong. No, it was the hole in your head where your brain seeped out and left you narrow-minded.
The protesters did not speak of love. They did not speak of “hate the sin, love the sinner”. They spoke of eternal damnation. They waved placards declaring, “Homosexuals are not born that way, it is a self-corrupting choice.” Self-corrupting choice?! Yes, I left a great marriage and a wonderful man just to have some fun and indulge in a little corruption. I went through hell for several years, destroying everything I had built in my life, explaining to family and friends, coming to terms with the friends who turned their backs on me and spoke of my perversion, because I’m going through a phase.
What I fail to comprehend about the Bible-toting protestors, citing chapter and verse to me, is how they missed Matthew 7:1-5; “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” I mean, c’mon….it’s in one of the gospels, the Big Four, the Cliff Notes of the Bible. How’d ya’ manage to miss that one?!
This is between me and the big guy. So dear protester, while I appreciate your interest and admire your enthusiasm, I don’t need your color commentary along the way.
(cue the Constitutional purists who will now tell me that the protestors have the right to assemble...and the freedom of speech blah blah blah. I know. And I have the right to tell them to shut their pie holes.)
Freedom rocks.
"Man is that 'Freedom Rock'?"
"Yeah, man!"
"Well, turn it up, man!" (and now I can't stop laughing)
