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ON RAINBOWS AND THE RIGHT TO LOVE

A Sermon by the Rev. Susan Manker-Seale
October 5, 2003

After hearing all those absurd questions about proper behavior as based on Leviticus, I probably shouldn’t do this.  On the other hand, a lot of discretion needs to be applied if you’re going to gather wisdom from a holy text, and I think we’re up to it.  So, in a moment, I’m going to read a passage from Genesis that is relevant to today’s context, not in the negative way of Leviticus 18:22, but in a positive way.

First, though, I want to set the scene.  When I was growing up, I didn’t read much of the Bible.  I did get many of the Bible stories, including Noah, and also learned about the mythology of other religions, and I loved to read the Greek myths and those of the Navajo.  In the Navajo mythology, there is a god that bends over the horizon and forms a rainbow.  I thought that it was only in these so-called mythologies that natural images were given divine meanings.

The first time I heard that there was a rainbow image in the Bible, I was astounded.  And that was the first time I realized that not only were there Greek and Navajo myths, but there were also Jewish and Christian myths.  It truly was a revelation for me to see the Jewish and Christian religions on the same scale as so-called “mythologies.”

In Genesis 9:6, God says to Noah, “for God made man in his own image.”  Considering what we know about translations, let’s put it back to what might be a more original wording:  “for God made humans in her or his own image.”

Then Genesis goes on in 9:12-16:

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:  I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”

Well, that’s great that we don’t have to worry about everyone being destroyed all at once by drowning, although God doesn’t seem to have mentioned giant meteorites, and we KNOW that several of those have wiped out almost all life on earth at least a couple times.  Yes, we do need to use some discretion sifting our way through our own mythology, and I am sure god doesn’t mind a few laughs, either at Him/Her/It or at Dr. Laura!  We are, after all, made in God’s image, and that does not mean solely in outer appearance.

It also means in how we laugh, and how we love.

Atheists notwithstanding.  Speaking metaphorically, universally, we are created, evolved, birthed, flowered as divine and holy aspects of the Earth and the Spirit of Life, in image, in temperament, in love.

That is the hope and the covenant, and one reason the rainbow has come to be a symbol of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.  In spite of what many religious leaders are teaching today, as well as public figures like Dr. Laura, loving another person of any gender is not a sin.  In fact, Jesus said to love one another, if you need any more Christian confirmation. 

It was only 14 years ago that the General Assembly of the UUA voted to initiate the Welcoming Congregation Program, quoting our first principle, which our children are exploring this month in Religious Education:  “We… covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”  As a congregation, we spent a year and a half on that program, and voted in 1999 (?) to be a Welcoming Congregation.  We received a poster which states that we are welcoming to Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual persons.  When we put the poster up on the wall (it’s back there), one of the teenagers said, “What about Transgender?  Can I write that in?”  I said, “Go get a pen!”

Now, there is The Welcoming Congregation Handbook, second edition, 1999, which includes Transgenders and spends much more time on Bisexuals than the first edition.  In the introduction to the second edition, Keith Kron, Director of the UUA Office of Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Concerns, writes that in the past decade “oppression has become more sophisticated.  For example, it used to be that gay and lesbian people were seen as being child molesters and were dangerous to children.  Now it is said that children need two parents of different genders to be healthy and that having openly gay or lesbian teachers is confusing to children and they are not ready for this.” 

Maybe oppression is more sophisticated in adult society, but in the High Schools and on Elementary school playgrounds, the oppression is blatant and crude.  Children and youth are constantly exposed to gay-bashing, with the most popular derogatory taunt being “How gay!”  Many of the teachers, as a matter of course, ignore this behavior, subtlety supporting it in the eyes of children and youth exploring their own sexuality and possibly wondering why loving a person of the same gender is evil and to be put down.

Fortunately, there are a few organizations that support LGBT concerns, one of which is the Gay-Straight Alliance in the High Schools.  I think I’ve told some of you this story, but when my son Ben joined the Alliance as a freshman, he and another person were responsible for putting up a poster to invite students to the meetings.  They wrote something like “Come to the Gay-Straight Alliance” and took it to the principal to be approved.  The principal said they couldn’t put it up because it had the word “Gay” in it.  Duh!  I guess the principal had also heard the derogatory comment “How gay!” and HE knew it was a bad word.  Ben and his friend decided to put it up anyway, but they would write it “G. A. Y.” and in tiny letters under “G,” “Great,” and under “A,” “American,” and under “Y,” “Youth.”  “Great American Youth.”  Good for them.  The poster stayed up for quite a while, I heard.

Another resource our youth have is called “Eon,” the youth program of Wingspan.  Housed down on 6^th street near 4^th avenue, in some rundown-looking buildings with a rainbow painted across the front, Eon and Wingspan are safe places people can go for support.  There was a two page spread in the Tucson Citizen Calendar a month ago which featured pictures of the youth who attend Eon and quoted some of them.  My daughter Kat is pictured, saying “This is a wonderful program.  You can be yourself here and let your guard down.”  I hadn’t realized how much of a guard she had taken on.

When I asked her about it, she said that it was painful to hear gay-bashing comments before she identified as lesbian, but after she did, every single derogatory comment wore her away and hurt her soul.  She needed more than just the Gay-Straight Alliance at school, but also the gathering of LGBT youth at Eon, where she could feel empowered and supported and be active with the organization in finding ways to fight oppression in our city.

The Wingspan fundraising dinner last month served almost nine hundred people, and there were so many politicians that I realized it was the “in” thing to do in our city today!  If you are a politician and you weren’t at the Wingspan dinner, woe to your candidacy!  I heard that Tucson isn’t such a bad place to be if you’re LGBT, and with Pima County’s record of providing domestic partner benefits since 1997, we have somewhat of a good track record.  At the Out-ober-fest next weekend at Reid Park, they are expecting up to 10,000 people to attend, a record event in the country.

This Thursday is the five-year anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s murder.  Not much has improved in our society, though.  Kat got an email the other day from the Director of the Wingspan Anti-Violence Project, forwarded by the Youth coordinator of Eon, Casey Condit.  They wrote to warn the kids attending the Eon Saturday night dance and other events that a gay man had been lured from a bar here in Tucson and physically assaulted by a group of men.  They listed safety rules, such as “Trust your Gut,” “Ask for your date’s first name and phone number… and let other people know that you are leaving together,” and “mix your own drinks.”  They want people to report it if they are attacked, since having a record is the only way they can keep officials from denying “the amount of violence perpetrated against our community.”

When we walked Kat to the Eon dance a couple weeks ago, there was a group of Christians protesting on the corner of 6^th and 4^th, just down from Wingspan.  “Oh, they’re always there,” Kat told us, “protesting the Eon dance, but the staff usually go to talk with them whenever they’re there.”  My gut twisted in fear to witness this free expression of hate in our community, and the threat to my daughter’s and others’ safety.

There is a war going on in our own society against LGBT persons.  As the divine and holy aspects of the Earth and the Spirit of Life, as brothers and sisters in love, as basic, decent human beings, what can we promise each other in memory of the rainbow covenant of hope and divine affirmation?  Think about it for a moment. 

The first thing that comes to my mind is to no longer ignore the gay-bashing comments so prevalent among our children and youth, even among our friends and parents.  Don’t keep the peace at the expense of prejudice.  We also can support our youth by not assuming their sexual orientation, by verbally and confidently letting them know we support them whomever they love, for as Alice Walker put it very well:

Love is not concerned
With whom you pray
Or where you slept
The night you ran away
From home.

Love is concerned
That the beating of your heart
Should kill no one.

Let us confront authorities such as school principals who ought to know better; let us support organizations like Wingspan; let us get out there and vote for equal rights and safe relations; and let us know, and everyone know, how cool it is to be an advocate for our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community.  Let us be the rainbow promised and the covenant fulfilled.

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northwest Tucson