Bishop Durrell's monthly reflections for OutClique Magazine

COMING OUT AND GOING FORWARD https://www.outclique.com/coming-out-and-going-forward/ WHAT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IS AND ISN'T https://www.outclique.com/what-religious-freedom-is-and-isnt/ THE EXPERTS SAY THAT WE'RE OKAY https://www.outclique.com/the-experts-say-that-were-okay/ HOLY QUEER OCTOBER https://www.outclique.com/holy-queer-october/ FOR THE LGBTQ SAINTS https://www.outclique.com/for-the-lgbtq-saints/ SACRED MEMORIES https://www.outclique.com/sacred-memories/ IT'S OKAY IF WE NEED MORE CHRISTMAS https://www.outclique.com/its-okay-if-we-need-more-christmas/ LOVE MONTH https://www.outclique.com/love-month/ BECOMING OUR LGBTQ BEST https://www.outclique.com/becoming-our-lgbtq-best/ THE TREES OF APRIL: A SYMBOL OF FAITH, RENEWAL, AND RESILIENCE ACROSS TRADITIONS https://www.outclique.com/the-trees-of-april-a-symbol-of-faith-renewal-and-resilience-across-traditions/

Christmas Can be an Affirmation of LGBTQ People

 Christmas should, or at least can be, a special time for LGBTQ+ people. Consider this…think about the story itself…

In Luke’s Gospel, Mary becomes pregnant but not by the man to whom she is betrothed. The heroine of our story is the subject of scandal. Her promised husband has not fathered her child and he can leave her for this and if he does, she will be ruined. Condemned. Treated as an outcast. Destined to a life of poverty and scorn.

Now, we don’t know who the father is, but the writer of the tale would have us imagine that mary has been impregnated by the Breath of God (as a Greek philosopher had been in another myth). So, Mary hasn’t copulated with a man, but with a gender neutral spirit (or, if we take the Hebrew word for spirit, she has copulated with a feminine spirit). That means Jesus would not have a Y chromosome. Male in appearance, but not male by chromosomes. The Jesus of Christmas is intersex and conceived in what can be called a queer way.

And when this intersex child of a scandal ridden teen mom is born, angels sing about it. God loves the outcast, the marginalized, the queer. God sends choirs to serenade their birth.

We don’t have to take the story literally; it would be remarkable if we did, but we can take it seriously and see that in our sacred literature people who today would be part of our LGBTQ+ community are affirmed and celebrated, even considered to be chosen by God, even called child of God. That makes the Xmas Story our story, and we can celebrate that no matter who does or doesn’t want to celebrate with us. 

We will get through a second dystopian Trump era - but we must stick together and love one another through it.

Nov. 5 - bundle of Nerves.
Nov. 6 - Shock. Depression. Anger. Incredulousness. Anxiety. Grief.
Nov. 7 - I was starting to regain perspective and letting myself feel determined again.


These were my thoughts on social media November 7:

Okay, I've had a couple of days to pray, marinate, ponder, wallow in denial, then in self-pity, then in fuming rage...you know, cope. Now I'm in a better place (but I reserve the right to come apart at the seems on any given day from now until Nov 2028).

So here's my sane moment: 45/47/34 aka Felonious McPredator von Perfidy will unleash unfettered Dickery & Fuckery & Shittery & Ass-Hattery & Buffoonery & Stankery (so many eries). We will be aghast. Then we will be furious that we were even the slightest surprised. Then we will be demoralized that we live in a country where he is both not incarcerated and is somehow, by anyone at all, admired. But, this is the reprise of this number. We know how it goes. We survived the original production of Orange Turd: the Musical. We'll somehow manage to get through the Revival. 

We are again "the resistance." We will have to use every tool at our disposal: law, hope, collective compassion, righteous indignation, love of neighbor, love of self, love of liberty, forensic skill, creativity, resilience, imagination, snark, humor, camp, spirituality, music, film, theatre, comedy, history, pride, storytelling, self-care...to protect ourselves and one another. We'll grow stronger in the process. We'll love more fiercely. After every fall we will get back up, middle finger at the ready. We'll be okay because we have one another. 

Yes, there will be ugliness, but it will not diminish or demolish our beauty. Our Queer and Trans and Subversive and 2 Spirit and Nonbinary and Ally and Ase and Intersex and Questioning and Pan and Poly and Leather and Drag and Bisexual and Interfaith and Agnostic and Humanist and Pagan and Atheist and Progressive Christian and New Thought and Jewish and Muslim and Buddhist and Hindu and Sikh and Baha'i and Tattooed and Pierced and Camp and Body Positive and Sex Positive and Weed smoking and Feminist and Womanist and Democratic Socialist and Poetic and Artistic and Science Trusting and Peace-seeking Woke and Ever Woker selves will prove indomitable, invincible, and indefatigable. 

It won't be easy, but we will be mighty and we'll survive and ultimately prevail. Don't give up. We faced Sodomy Laws, we faced opposition to marriage equality, we faced AIDS, we faced religious bullying, we faced unenlightened families and cruel neighbors...if nothing else, we know how to survive. 

Rest when you need to. Fret when you must. But then, get back in the fight. We are going to prove to be absolutely legendary in the next few years. My favorite table grace is: "God bless the food and the revolution." I'll be praying that daily for quite a while. Alright girls (I say that in the most gender non-specific way): It's time to slay (in the gay way that isn't lethal, but still, you for real don't want to be the recipient of Queer slayage).
--dw
#slay #ResistFascism #resistproject2025 #wegotthis #StrongerTogether #resistance #keephopealive #lovewins #lgbtqiaplus #lgbtqpride #staywokefolks

Don't Blame LGBTQ - We Voted Against Cruelty & Injustice in Huge Numbers

 "LGBT voters, a larger share of the electorate than ever, shift away from Trump Vice President Kamala Harris led President-elect Donald Trump 86% to 12% among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters, according to the NBC News Exit Poll Desk."

Bless my tribe.

"Harris’ performance among LGBT voters was stronger than that of any Democratic candidate in the last five presidential elections."

That for real makes me proud.

LGBTQ voters doubled since 2008.

Litany of Pride and Healing

For Sunshine Cathedral and spiritual communities that refuse to put conditions and limits on divine love,

Welcoming Grace - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For an informed, compassionate, and responsible electorate,

Spirit of Cooperation - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who have died from homophobic or transphobic violence, and those who mourn, and those who fear they could be next,

Spirit of Indomitable Hope - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those whose governments and religious traditions condemn them, sometimes to literal death, and who experience hell on earth as well as threats of perdition beyond,

Spirit of Compassion - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who died from AIDS, and those who live with HIV but dare not take their health for granted,

Spirit of Life - HEAR OUR PRAYER

 

For those who know the joy of LGBTQ+ pride, and for those whose hearts cry out, “maybe next year,”

God of the Eternal Now - HEAR OUR PRAYER.

 

Queer Saints in heaven and earth, pray for us, pray with us.

 

AMEN.

--Litany prayed at Sunshine Cathedral on June 30, 2024

GOD’S MIRACLE, NOT GOD’S MISTAKE

GOD’S MIRACLE, NOT GOD’S MISTAKE

A Durrell Discourse

For years now at Sunshine Cathedral, we have said (repeatedly, often, from pulpit and in print, in lessons and in liturgy), “You are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake.”

After years of using this phrase as a sacred mantra at Sunshine Cathedral, I recently am noticing it popping up on social media. At first, I felt a bit proprietary, as if no other person might have ever thought to string those words together in that order. But then I remembered Ecclesiastes’ wise counsel, “there is nothing new under the sun.” I might have heard it or something similar years before I thought the phrase a product of my own genius. And whether it was me, Zig Ziglar, Mary Baker Eddy or Krishna himself who coined the phrase, what matters is that it is true. I now want everyone saying it, and acting as if the phrase fell from heaven (as perhaps it did).

In my theology, God is really all there is. One Source, One Power, One Presence, One Substance...God is all and in all. That doesn’t mean that we always remember our divinity or that our every act or word is godly, but when we get caught in our dramas and fictions, that doesn’t change the reality that our essence is divine, and what is really Real is what we call God, and what is real about us must be part of God. So, we aren’t mistakes, we are God expressing.

The message of the Incarnation, for me, isn’t that God became human once, but that God expresses in, through, and as all that is, including you and me. Jesus, then, is my reminder that when we are most human, we express divine love.

If I’m part of God, then I am a miracle. If God is love and I am part of God, then my love is God’s love in action. I am, you are, we are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake: That isn’t a slogan to own, but a truth to share. If you see Sunshine folk posting it, feel free to share. It’s a message that needs to be universally embraced.

No matter where you heard it first, I hope you hear it now - you are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake. I especially want my Queer siblings to embrace this truth. We are the Rainbow people of a Rainbow God. Our lives and our love are miracles, never a mistake. Spread the word!

(Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Senior Minister, Sunshine Cathedral)

GOD LOVES YOU, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

GOD LOVES YOU, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

A Durrell Discourse

I’m seeing a lot of “God loves you” talk in these early days of Pride Month. Good! But I am aware that such sentiments may be a bit hollow for those who doubt or who have rejected “God.” Of course, divinity need not be limited to an Olympian humanoid figure...God may be a power rather than a person, a presence, the source of all energy which makes up all that is, even a symbol to represent all that is good and beautiful.

I’m in the God business and have dedicated my life to the God-experience, and yet, the God of my understanding is not a person in a great beyond, but rather, the very life that I know as my life, the heartbeat of the world I see, the substance of worlds that I can scarcely imagine. God isn’t something apart from me, but Something I am a part of...forever.

Ultimate Reality is too big (even “big” is too small a way to describe It) for us in our physical state to comprehend, so we are left with the god of our understanding (our various understandings). In a sermon once, Rev. Shelley Hamilton said, “God is the search for God.” I can’t know exactly what she meant, but that phrase has stuck with me for almost 30 years, and how I understand it is that we experience God according to our consciousness (awareness, understanding, life-view). God (Life, Eternity, Reality, Existence) is bigger than anything I imagine, but I experience It as I imagine It.

Rev. David Alexander once said it this way on a podcast, “God is our relationship to the ‘Thing Itself.’” Again, Ultimate Reality, the “Ground of Being” (#Tillich) is known as we experience It, and our experience will be shaped by what we believe about It (and a belief is just a well rehearsed opinion, a crystallized thought). I believe it was Ernest Holmes who said God is personal to the degree that we personalize God...another way of saying, “god is the search for god” or “god is our relationship to the thing itself.”

My non-theistic theology (or more accurately, my monistic theology, or perhaps, Panentheistic theology) means that, for me, God is not loving but is Love itself, not good, but Goodness (All that is good is an expression of God), not powerful, but all Power, not a being, but the Source of being.

If God for you is a loving parent figure on a high mountain - then, let me join with the others who are saying, “God loves you!”

But if God (life, hope, joy, meaning, beauty, the animating spark of existence) is an experience that can’t be fully explained, a presence rather than a person, a Wholeness that includes you or high Ideal that you hold, then let me say it this way: God is Love and it exists in and is expressed through the love you share.

Don’t let religious vocabularies which are limited at best keep you from the euphoria of feeling good enough, empowered, joyful, and vibrant.

God loves you, OR, God is love and dwells richly in and shows up as your love. Either way...Happy Pride!

—Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

Sunshine Cathedral

Jesus might have been...

Does the idea of gay Jesus, married Jesus, Black Jesus, Brown Jesus, Jewish Jesus (this one’s not really up for debate), seditious Jesus, revolutionary Jesus, bi-Jesus, gender fluid Jesus, doubting Jesus, poor Jesus, homeless Jesus, illiterate Jesus, victimized Jesus, ethno-centric Jesus who might have grown past that, feminist Jesus, taboo smashing Jesus, generous to a fault Jesus, justice seeking/justice demanding Jesus, Jesus who never even heard of the Trinity, day laborer Jesus, philosopher Jesus, run of the mill healer/exorcist Jesus, mystic Jesus, kind of funny Jesus, storyteller Jesus, Jesus so buried in myth as to be practically unknown/unknowable...bother you? 

If so, why? What about the Jesus others have encountered, considered, wrestled with, played with, prayed with, journeyed with that threatens your experience? 

Is it possible Jesus was more than or other than what you’ve heard, believed, or so far experienced? And what if the others are completely wrong and you are completely right? Does that delegitimize their journey? Does that deny their right to explore and discover for themselves? 

We can discuss why our Jesus experiences differ. But if you come at me with insults and rage, not only will I probably be done from that moment, but I will also wonder why your experience of Jesus was so fragile that you couldn’t imagine that other experiences might also be possible.

I'm Interested in Jesus' Love Life BECAUSE I Love Jesus

I love Jesus (not in the imaginary friend way of my childhood, but I love searching for him in history and I love how I come to life when I make certain discoveries...my christology is rooted in a 1st century flesh and blood revolutionary more than in a cosmic Olympian type figure). 

Because I love Jesus I am very interested in his revolutionary, anti-imperial politics, in his work as a healer/exorcist/lay philosopher, in his risk taking, in his intimate/personal connection with the God of his understanding, in his insistence on flouting cultural taboos, in his willingness to rethink and dialogue with interpretations of his inherited scriptures and traditions, in people coming to believe he might be the messiah (and his possibly coming to agree with them), with people’s continued experience of him (or his memory or his values) beyond his execution, and I am interested in his personal relationships...
his closeness to a beloved disciple, his friendship with Peter, his place in a chosen family in Bethany, his interesting relationship with a woman from Magdala, his repeated encounters with a mysterious young man in Mark’s gospel, what it meant for him to look at him “and love him”, what it might mean for him to be called “son of David” (whose love for Jonathan was notorious)...

Because I love Jesus I love exploring his life, his intimacies, his sexuality. Like his ancestor David, he might have been bisexual, or he may have been gay, or he may have been straight, or he might have flowed up and down the continuum. 

Because I love Jesus, I want to know more about him. Just as those who love me must love the Queer me (because that’s the me there is), to love Jesus is to try to know him, and the him there is to know might be gay or bi...its definitely Queer (regardless of the attractions he felt). 

My soteriology is about “wholeness”...and since Jesus is part of the way that I found my path to wholeness (which includes my sexuality), I want to know the whole Jesus (as much as is possible with the years and myths that lie between us) which includes his sexuality. I don’t care if he was celibate or not, that’s none of my business, but he had human feelings and connections and covenants, and those do matter to me a great deal.

Biblical Traditional Marriage? As if...

I grow weary of preachers defending discrimination against LGBTQ people. One right wing evangelist who enjoys some notoriety (mostly because of a famous relative) posted on social media today that businesses have a right to refuse service to LGBTQ people if they claim their discrimination is based on their belief in “biblical traditional marriage.” That of course spurred literally thousands to chime in to call same-gender love and attraction sinful and to cheer those who refuse to serve gay customers. I, as you will see below, disagreed.

“Biblical traditional marriage? Would that include Abraham selling Sarah to a king’s harem, or him taking Hagar as a lover? Would that include David’s 8 or so wives (and love affair with Jonathan)? Would that include Solomon’s thousand spouses?  Would that include Adam and Eve who never had a wedding ceremony (who would have conducted it?). Would it include Cain and Abel and their wives (where did they come from?). Would it include Lot’s daughters who were engaged when he offered them to a rape gang? Does biblical marriage include Lot who not only offered his daughters to a rape gang but then had incest with them in a cave? And does traditional biblical marriage mean not serving single parents? Does it mean not serving remarried divorcees? Using “biblical” marriage as an excuse to discriminate against gays is mendacious and disingenuous. You’re entitled to your prejudices, but stop blaming them on God.” (dw)

Stop Using “Sodom” Like It’s a Thing

So, SCOTUS is hearing the Colorado Wedding Cake case, where a baker claims to have the right to not bake for gay couples wanting a wedding cake. As long as a baker views someone as naughty or a couple’s love as illegitimate and claims that homophobia is Jesus mandated (which is false, btw), he/she/they should be able to refuse gay people’s cake orders. Obviously, such blatant discrimination is wrong, and hopefully, SCOTUS will make that clear. 

Still, the No Cakes For Homos position has its defenders. Someone on Social Media today in defense of the “Let them eat anything else” view posted, “An entire city was burned to the ground for sexual sin.” I don’t know how cake or religious or civil ceremonies equates to sexual sin, or how not baking a cake will somehow body block to people wanting to do the horizontal mambo. Also, the doomed city wasn’t named in the “sexual sin” post (nor was the date of the supposed occurrence nor the source of the info), but I’m in the religion biz and recognized the Sodom (& Gomorrah) reference from Genesis 19 (a storyin the Jewish and Christian bibles) instantly. When ignorance is employed to defend and promote hate, I often have to offer a counter narrative. It probably does little good, but silence will surely reduce me to drooling in a fetal position somewhere, so for my own sanity, I say something. 

Here was my response:

“Surely you aren’t throwing up the Sodom myth (poor Gomorrah, they never get much mention) as your argument for allowing businesses to discriminate? Sodom’s ‘sin’ wasn’t non-discriminatory bakeries. It was cruelty, inhospitality, and indifference to the marginalized...the Religious Right is more guilty of those sins than most! The attempted gang rape of ‘angels’ (which was foiled by the way, and PS...rape is always bad and is not the same as mutually shared attraction, affection, or even consensual bump and grind) didn’t occur until after Sodom was judged to be unworthy, and it would have been spared if any decent people could be found...it wasn’t destroyed because wedding cakes could be purchased by anyone, but because NO ONE was kind or generous or welcoming (again, starting to get close the Fundies). And, mutual attraction, love, or committed relationships are never mentioned in the story, so ‘gay’ isn’t the issue. Furthermore, the hero of the story is Lot, who at the end of the story sleeps with not one but BOTH of his daughters (after offering them to the rape gang that tried to attack the angels...even Abraham who was willing to kill his own child was a better father!). So, really, no sane person would ever use that terrible story to condemn love or mutual attraction. No, there has never been a city destroyed because of sexual ‘sin’...and even if one had been, that would have NOTHING do with a legal case about commercial discrimination.”

So, you know, stop it. Stop using Sodom likes its a thing. It’s certainly not a moral argument that justifies dehumanizing same-gender loving people. 

Happy Brthday MCC

Oct. 6, 1968: a young, gay, defrocked, Pentecostal minister (Troy D. Perry) held a worship service in his living room. 12 people showed up (a powerful symbol). The coffee table became the communion table/altar. An album of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir provided the service music (adding a bit of camp and irony to the momentous occasion). Gay and straight, male and female, Christian and Jew were some of the labels of the people in the room. More than 9 months before Stonewall, this worship experience meant to welcome and affirm and celebrate LGBTQ people (known by various terms over the years) occurred and launched an ecumenical, body positive, sex positive, LGBTQ affirming, joyous, justice seeking, ridiculously optimistic, evangelical (and sometimes charismatic), Eucharistic, over time theologically progressive (which only makes sense as it began by challenging old assumptions) religious movement known as Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC).

MCC is not the powerhouse it once was, but it’s still around, and many churches are now welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ folk and their allies and loved ones.  But before they got there, MCC was doing the work. 

MCC’s early, provocative, and courageous witness led the way for mainstream churches to become more accepting and appreciative of the Queer children of God. MCC was also a leader in the inclusive language movement and was way ahead of most churches in compassionately responding to the AIDS crisis. 

Whatever becomes of MCC, the world will always be better because Troy Perry started a movement that said the LGBTQ members of the human family were part of the divine diversity of creation and were fully embraced and loved by God, and that movement helped change hearts and minds and bring hope and healing to countless lives. 

Many of us in ministry today are in ministry because of MCC. When we didn’t have other options, MCC was an option. MCC blessed our unions, performed our funerals, visited us in hospitals, debated the fundamentalists, spoke to city councils and state legislatures, and prepared and ordained us for ministry. In time, for a variety of reasons, some of us left MCC for other communities, some of us embraced dual or even triple affiliations, remaining in MCC but not exclusively. But wherever we ended up, we know MCC gave us our start, and for that, let us always be grateful. 

49 years ago, a prophet was raised up, and he spoke the word of God’s all-inclusive and unconditional love, and the Church and the world would never be the same again. God bless you Troy Perry!

Will & Grace as Good Medicine in the Time of Trump

If what W&G was meant to do was recapture a bygone moment, then it was not quite successful. If it was meant to help a generation reconnect with old icons, it came closer to the mark. But, if it was meant to provide a catharsis in a devastating, depressing, dystopian moment in American history, then it may prove to be the most important television offering of the Fall. 

When a group is hurting, feels powerless, and is routinely dehumanized, an age old coping mechanism is to fight back with fantasy, with camp, with humor, and with burlesque. If we can laugh at pain, we can endure it. If we can wink at hopelessness, we can resurrect hope. If we can imagine the Beast being defeated, we can transcend some of our fear of the Beast (the monster, the ghosts, the demons, the little green folk with ray guns, etc.). 

Transgender folk in military targeted? Mention Caitlin Jenner in charades.

DOJ suggests gay folk are not protected by civil rights laws? Jacks makes out with a Secret Service agent.

45 cozies up to the homophobic religious right? Grace leaves a Make America Gay Again hat in the Oval. 

The struggle will be long and arduous; a little laughter and self affirmation will help us endure it...and will also remind us what the struggle is for and why we cannot give up.

Comedy reboot = B minus.

Social Commentary = A minus.

Much needed healing catharsis = A PLUS.

Thank you Will & Grace (& Karen and Jack)!

How I Came to Believe in God

A question was asked on Facebook: "To my friends who claim a faith, how did you come to believe in a deity?"

Of course, many people answered, and as you would expect, the answers varied greatly. Here was my reply:
"Raised in a religious home and culture, a supreme being seemed an a priori fact. That same religion condemned me for my same-gender loving orientation and it's god which condemned me for being gay was apparently unable or unwilling to zap me straight. That led to deep questioning and searching...so for me, it wasn't about coming to believe that there was a deity, but trying to summon the courage to decide if possibly there wasn't one. In my search I came to believe that God is the search for God...the search for meaning, the ways we try to mine the depths of ultimate reality, is what we mean by 'god.' It may or may not be self-aware, but the questions are energizing even if they can't be answered. And anyway, it's become easy for me to accept that all that is makes up a whole, and the whole must be greater than the sum of its parts. To call it 'god' and explore ways to be nurtured and empowered by it is the religious quest, and so, I remain a religious person with more questions than answers but a 'faith' (trust) that we don't need the answers to be alright. We're all on a path and we will all reach whatever there is to reach." (dw)

I am what I am...which is a lot

I am Queer. I am on the gender continuum (two spirit). I am an Anglican Universalist Humanist New Thought Christian Pluralist. I am by both accident of birth and full participation an American citizen. I am fully human (this will be news to certain kinds of religious extremists and politicos). I am a person who benefits from unearned white privilege who is trying to dismantle racism (society's and my own). I am a person who has lived with HIV for decades. I am married and there are two Y chromosomes in my marriage. For some reason, TODAY, I felt the need to be crystal clear about all of that.

The Christian Fundamentalists' Lie About the President's Faith

To the Right Wingers who are using the Orlando tragedy to say Pres. Obama is a secret Muslim and a Terrorist organization sympathizer (and who seem to believe that one equals the other), I am frankly exhausted with your willful ignorance and chosen hatefulness. If you have emerged from your cave ever in the last few years you know perfectly well that...
1. The President was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago
2. The President, while in office, has visited (and even "preached" at) Christian congregations.
3. The Obamas, having the entire District of Columbia and surrounding suburbs to choose from, chose to send their daughters to a Quaker school.
4. His Christian bona fides not withstanding, we have freedom of religion in this country; so, if he were Muslim it would be completely okay. "Christian" is not a requirement for POTUS.
5. The overwhelming majority of Muslim Americans are peace-loving patriots who are as impacted and devastated by terrorism as anyone else.
6. It was Obama who eliminated Bin Laden (HELLO???!!!!).
7. It is our current president who has authorized on-going military strikes against terrorist groups in the Middle East.

So, please, for the sake of all things decent and sane, STOP using "Muslim" as an insult or as a word meant to stir fear, STOP intentionally lying about the president's faith (and if he ever decides to convert to Islam, just congratulate him and move on with your sad little lives), and STOP trying to connect him to terrorism when he has combatted it more effectively than any president to date (we can take issue with drone strikes and undeclared wars that don't have congressional approval, but we can't say he's not taking a fight to the terrorists ferfucksake!).

Just stop lying. Just stop hating. And while you're at it, stop pretending to be outraged that 103 people who come from a community that you have demonized and dehumanized and damned and insulted and vilified and rejected were hurt or killed. You've gleefully threatened them with hell since day one; now that 103 of them have gone through it, don't pretend that you are suddenly filled with compassion for them (and if you really are, then do the healing thing and offer an apology for the hate speech you've supported that leads to such violence).

That's all.

Bigotry in the Name of Religion is Still Bigotry and It Has Consquences

The killer in Orlando was apparently outraged by seeing two men kiss in Miami, and his reaction was to kill 49 people in Orlando. Obviously he was mentally ill, and he may have been influenced by extremist ideology, but Heterosexism/homophobia was his primary motivation. Two people expressing affection angered him to the point of committing mass murder. Religious leaders and politicians whose rhetoric continuously dehumanize and demonize same-gender loving people are giving unstable people tacit permission to commit violence. Hate speech, even when disguised as a stump speech or a sermon, fuels the fire of violence. Enough blood has been spilled. I will not "agree to disagree" when it comes to the sacred value of LBGT people. Your opinion is not equal to someone's life. We must insist the bigots own their hatred and its consequences and stop blaming it on "God."

Not the 1st Night Club Massacre

43 years ago this month a bar that doubled as a church in New Orleans was attacked. It was an act of arson that killed many people. It is devastating that history has repeated itself, that another gay bar In the South has been attacked leading to multiple deaths. Some will use this incident to stoke the flames of homophobia or islamaphobia or to launch a defense of military grade weapons for civilians. But I hope most people will appeal to "the better angels of [their] nature" and not fall into that trap. Let's mourn the losses, and reject the hate, and start to build a better world where all people are valued.

Gay Bar/Holy Ground

Gay Bar/Holy Ground
Durrell Watkins

The first time a man kissed me was in the only gay bar in the small town where I lived. Years of fun, community, and romance would soon after take place in another gay bar in another small town in the Quachita mountains. Visits to other gay bars in the Ozarks and in Northern Louisiana followed. Later, I discover a whole network of gay bars in Dallas and Fort Worth. Eventually I would find my way to gay watering holes in New Orleans, San Francisco, Chicago, Tulsa, Little Rock, Houston, Austin, and of course, New York. Even in middle age, there are some gay bars that I frequent in Fort Lauderdale.
Dance clubs, cabarets, drag bars, leather bars, S&M (stand and model) bars, bar and grills...it's where my people gathered. I made friends. I felt at home. I even found my "calling" in a Country & Western bar in Dallas. I picked up a brochure about a "gay church" and my life and future was forever changed.
Gay bars were oases, safe havens, sanctuaries for people of my age cohort and older. One might call them "holy ground." We were welcome, affirmed, and celebrated to the sacred beat of "thumpa-thumpa" when other places only sought to dehumanize us. Gay bars helped us feel sexy, vibrant, worthwhile. Gay bars raised money for AIDS and other charities. Gay bars were wonderful worlds unto themselves.
In such a sacred shrine, 50 people lost their lives last night In Orlando, FL. 53 continue to fight for theirs. A sacrilege has been committed. Not only has human dignity been assaulted, but a safe place for LBGTQQIA folk has been desecrated. I hope the Queer community of Orlando will reclaim their sacred space and reconsecrate it with courage, hope, resilience, and determination. I hope that temple of queer community will serve forever as a landmark to LBGTQQIA people, and I hope the lives lost there will be remembered and that glasses will be raised in that place to honor them.
Fallen comrades, rest in peace.

It’s About Power and Privilege, NOT Safety

It’s About Power and Privilege, NOT Safety

By Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins

My father was a public school teacher in the South in the early days of desegregation. Arguments against desegregating the schools included the need to protect “women and children.” Racists perpetuated unsubstantiated fears that racially mixed classrooms and playgrounds would result in “women and children” being harmed. There were no data used to support the notion that diversity increased danger, but facts never deter the fear mongers.

In my coming out days, gay teachers could be fired, gay people in the military could be expelled, gay people in schools, parks, or bar parking lots could be assaulted (often with very little help from law enforcement). Gays were preached against in pulpits, denied jobs and housing, cut off from their families, and forbidden access to youth organizations, and all because they somehow were seen as threatening. I once read in my hometown paper an editorial that said gay people “infested” public restrooms like roaches. To protect the children, we were told, we had to dehumanize, demonize, and ostracize gay and lesbian people. “Sodomy laws” criminalized our very expression of affection in multiple states, and marriage equality was a fantasy that almost no one actually entertained. Gays were a danger, the anti-gay narrative insisted, and for the safety of our families we had to treat same-gender loving people badly.

Now that gay characters are featured on television dramas and comedies, marriage equality is a reality, gay athletes and journalists often “come out”, and many faith communities embrace (and even celebrate) same-gender loving people, the idea of tormenting gay people in the name of public safety seems archaic, foolish, and even cruel. But homophobia is still with us, rest assured.

Now, the infamous “bathroom bills” are in the news. Once again, a community is targeted, vilified, demonized, and excoriated. Again, women and children in particular are being “protected” by dehumanizing an entire group of people, namely, transgender people. The targets change over time, but the tactics of hate and division remain sadly the same.

And again, there are no data to suggest that accommodating transgender people gives cover to dangerous predators. However, by demonizing and targeting transgender people, these “bathroom bills” are making transgender people less safe in their own communities. If we can see “the Other” as something less than human, then cruelty toward “the Other” will certainly follow.  It always does.

The unfounded arguments that minorities are more dangerous or more prone to anti-social behavior aren’t new; they are time tested weapons of bigotry used to dehumanize people in order to create hysteria that protects the privilege and power of the majority for a while longer. It’s time we see through the mendacity of such arguments (and legislation), and demand fair and equal treatment for all people, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or physical ability. Letting people use the bathroom won’t pose any extra danger to our communities, but teaching generation after generation to hate, will.