Recent Musings:
Hard to believe.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Some of you know that I'm doing an internship at a college near the university I attend; I'm a therapist for other college students. This has been a great experience for me and my confidence is growing ever so slowly. I'm so glad I'm there.
The college is an all women's college and this week is National Coming Out Week. Last night they hosted an event where people could come and talk about their experiences with their sexuality. I decided to go first because I have very very little experience with the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender population and secondly because this is something I will be helping my clients work through for themselves.
Now, I know a lot of people have strong reactions, especially Christian people, when they hear anything about homosexuality and I am not here to ruffle anyone's feathers. However, as I listened to these 19, 20, 21 year olds' experiences and persecutions because of their choice of sexuality, I was quite disturbed. One woman described as a senior in high school going out with her female date who was physically assaulted by a 6'2" 200 pound man while being called a dike. Another woman, at 14, was told she could not go to church with her grandparents because she was lesbian but went regardless, every week, and sat outside on the church steps, proclaiming herself. (Mind you, she had kissed the pastor's daughter but we all know what P.K's are like! And the pastor's daughter was still in the church). Another woman wanted to go to a dance club with her friend (not girlfriend) and had to push through protesters to get through the door and entered shaking and scared for her life.
No one, NO ONE, deserves this kind of persecution. I have no choice from my past that elicited this kind of hate and blatant disgust. I'm sure some Christians may be thinking, "well, they're gay; it's wrong; they deserve it." I am not giving my stance on this issue for personal reasons, but I will say that if you do consider homosexuality to be wrong, how many of your "wrongs" have you been persecuted so violently for?! None, and I can answer that quite confidently. If you have been persecuted (which I certainly hope you haven't), do you think you deserved that amount of anger and hate? Apparently there's also a website called godhatesfags.com. Unbelievable. Fabulous exposure for the love of Christ, no?
Why am I writing this? Simply because these are people. PEOPLE. Not monsters, not children of Satan, not marriage-wreckers but PEOPLE with hearts and feelings and dreams and hopes and fears. And these people have a strength that I have not had to possess simply to exist. It does not matter whether I agree with these people's choices or not; what matters is that I love them as Christ loves me - regardless.