This has been a busy week, first there was an wonderful Interfaith gathering to celebrate human dignity and LGBTQA+ Pride, the SCOTUS ruling legalizing Marriage Equality, Cincinnati Pride, my Birthday, a New Age Full Moon celebration, and PayDay, wait, what was that about SCOTUS?
That’s right! The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in 5-4 decision that the 14th Amendment grants equal marriage rights to all unrelated couples seeking legal matrimony. Of course the Religious Right, which includes mostly fundamentalist Christians, Jews, and Muslims bemoaned the resolution declaring that it would lead to the end of the world, but there have been many Christians, Muslims and Jews who have celebrated this decision as embodying the highest ideals of their respective traditions, namely Inclusive Love, Empowering of the Oppressed and Marginalized, and Rational Thought. As a mystic myself(not to mention a trans-lesbian) I happily celebrate this decision as one tiny, but much needed, step toward achieving greater equality and freedom. Woooooo!!!!
The night before the SCOTUS ruling came down my partner and I attended an Interfaith gathering in honor of LGBTQA+ Pride week. The gathering was hosted at a local Episcopalian cathedral and consisted mostly of members of different faith traditions sharing thoughts on the Divine and the relationship of LGBTQ believers, devotees, and practitioners to each other and our unique yet similar definitions of the Creator/Source of Life. I personally really enjoyed the words shared by the representatives of Reform Judaism and the transgender Episcopalian Nun! That was an exciting experience, especially since the media so often highlights the voices of the exclusionary christians. And it was really great to participate in prayers, thoughts, good vibrations and energy all directed towards the acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQA people and have that be followed up by the SCOTUS decision the next day.
Saturday the 27th was the Cinci Pride Festival, my first pride event. I enjoyed myself, but honestly I was let down. We were unable to attend the Parade and the Festival was mostly vendors with a few things of interest scattered about. There were some drag performances and a commitment ceremony!!!! Which my partner and I participated in, I have the ring to prove it! 🙂 There were headlining pop performances, but since it was chilly and intermittently rainy we left, came back to the house and watched like 3-4 episodes of The Fosters. (Which is a great show.)
Anyway, then came the 29th which is my Birthday!! I’m now old!! Okay not really, I’m just 23 and no longer of desirable age for anyone. ever. Kidding! I’m prettier than ever, I dyed my hair black and I think you are gorgeous!
So on my birthday my partner and I drove to Louisville for a cookout with my family. Now I was initially very upset about this trip as I had been hoping to take my newly 13yr old sister shopping as a late birthday present for her, unfortunately there were some complications on their end and it never happened. I was also very trepidatious about how my family was going to act around me, were they going to respect my name and pronoun change? In the end it ended up being mostly unfounded fear, they did really well and I got to spend time with my sister talking about shows and fashion and just generally being happy to hang out. My dad was obviously made uncomfortable when my younger brother used the wrong pronoun and then corrected himself.
And sadly I did confirm that my dad really did call the Girl Scouts “Homosexual Terrorists” in a conversation about how “their morals have changed”, so much for my hope that the report was exaggerated. :/
On the first of July, the first of two Full Moon this month, my partner and I attended a Full Moon Peace Jam Drum and Flow, an amazing meeting of hearts and love gathered to celebrate the wonderful creation which is our home. I was reminded of some aspects of Christian ritual that unfortunately in the Christian circle I used to belong to were used in manipulative ways, but here were condemnation free and entirely about embracing Love! We danced for almost 2 1/2 hours straight, laughing and loving and staring curiously at the protesters with their “Jesus died for your Sins” signs. That marks the third time I’ve been at an event that was protested (the Interfaith service, Pride festival, and now this.)
So a lot of rejoicing and celebration this week, which is good for our souls in times where angry hatefilled individuals and groups are still burning black churches and attacking LGBTQ folks. We need to remember that in the midst of the hate, Love Wins.
Have a great day all, and remember
Create, Don’t Kill.