Let There Be Peace

In a recent conversation with a concerned church member, an interesting question was posed: “If you could change anything with regard to how faith-based organizations handle the gay rights movement, what would it be?”

I didn’t skip a beat … “I would sit down with as many leaders as I possibly could and explain to them that there is a difference between the state-based protections and rights we are fighting for and the faith-based institution they are struggling to protect … and in the end, one is not a threat to the other.”

Not to mention a reminder that the United States of America is not a theocracy, and contrary to popular belief our founding father were not Christian, and our country was not founded on Christian ideals.

We live in a country that allows for both a freedom of religious expression, and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender men & women, the queer community, along with our allies, are fighting for full FEDERAL equality, and as tax-paying, hard-working citizens, there is no reason why we shouldn’t be able to enjoy it. Take our nation’s LGBT Soldiers, currently forced to serve in silence.

Same-sex couples in the military are losing out on a plethera of benefits including:

• Separation pay
• Increased housing and subsistence allowance due to being able to claim their partners as dependents.
• GI Bill benefits that could help pay for college
• Healthcare benefits

Several military leaders speak of the military’s need to continue operations as effectively and efficiently as possible, citing the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as a threat to the military’s “good moral fiber.”

I’d like to challenge those comments by asking how any military can claim it’s operating at it’s highest level of potential when thousands of Soldiers are being cheated and denied millions of dollars in benefits? In addition, how can an environment of fear and exclusion ever produce the most effective results?

Also, let’s examine our public school system. Often, anti-gay opponents cling to archaic ideas of how public education should be administrated.

However, I’d like to point out that as the media becomes more and more inclusive of positive, healthy LGBT-themed television shows and movies, it will become increasingly difficult to ignore and/or conveniently delete the contributions of the LBGT community to our country’s development.

In short, “we’re here, we’re queer, get used to it.”

Whether or not my wife and I are allowed to marry has no bearing on the success, failure, or perceived sanctity of anyone else’s marriage, gay or straight. To suggest that it does is like saying that an individual’s decision to not marry or have children is a threat to the continuation of humanity … with a planet that is clearly showing the stresses of overpopulation, I seriously doubt many would actually stand behind that claim.

There can be harmony between religious conservatives and the LGBT community, but in order for that harmony to be achieved, education and dialog must prevail, and fear must be pushed aside.