As a child I was taught to believe in myself, in family and in God. To a confused adolescent struggling with his sexuality, that was easier said than done. Being the victim of constant and severe bullying due to my perceived sexuality, I developed a strong aversion to organized religion.
After all, every religious voice I heard in my youth - whether it was from the pulpit or in the news - told me that I was evil and that there was something wrong with me.
My heart said otherwise. As I later learned, so did God.
After feeling uncomfortable with my Methodist upbringing, I searched for meaning in a Christian organization called Young Life. We met once a week during my high school years and I thought that I had found a way to love God and have friends that accepted me at the same time.
But I wasn’t honest with them. Perhaps if I had told them that I was gay they would have accepted me, but I doubt it. The rhetoric was clear: if you weren’t heterosexual, you weren’t welcome.
So I hid my truth until it became impossible to hide anymore. Love is an amazing thing. When I met my husband Gary, I finally accepted that there wasn’t anything wrong with me all along. As a matter of fact, God wanted me to be happy and to accept love into my life.
What an awesome realization that was. For once I could simply be… No more pretenses or fear…
I was able to love myself, and in doing so, I found a path to back to my own spirituality, which had been dormant and rejected for so long.
That rejection was the terrible result of certain organized religions’ misunderstanding of gay people. And not just the exclusion that gay people often feel toward religion, but the rejection that their family members fell as well.
It cannot be easy for a mother or father who loves their child and their church to be torn every Sunday by sermons or homilies railing against the inherent value of his or her own family member.
We experienced this unfortunate dichotomy with my husband’s parent’s Catholic Church in Pennsylvania when they announced their support for an anti-marriage amendment to the state’s constitution. Gary’s mom and dad have always loved and respected my relationship with their son, but the conflict was there, and it was painful.
The good news for Gary and me was that we found a congregation that honored our family. Our first visit to The Fourth Universalist Society, a Unitarian Universalist congregation on the Upper West Side of Manhattan was remarkable. Our minister, Rosemary, said a prayer of thanks for the Connecticut Supreme Court’s recent decision to stand up for marriage equality.
Gary and I looked at each other and cried: we had never before been in a church that prayed for our equality.
We were home.
As a parent, I realize the value of community, which is taught so beautifully in many churches. Gary’s parents’ Catholic Church - their stance on marriage aside - is a prime example of just how successful community outreach can be. Gary grew up with a deep sense of pride in community and he will pass that knowledge and appreciation onto our son, Nicholas.
Our own church has many community outreach programs, including outreach to homeless gay youth, an often-overlooked population that needs community more than anyone I can imagine.
Whatever God means to you, however you define or choose not to define it, having a sense of spirit in your life, I believe, is essential.
I know that when I was without it, I was truly lost. When I found it again, my life took on a richer meaning that I hope and pray my husband and I will successfully be able to pass on to Nicholas.
As for those who do not understand my family, or perhaps have heard from their own religious leaders that my family is somehow threatening to their peaceful way of life, I hope that they will learn something from our story.
As my husband Gary says, people are far more similar than we are different. I believe that more and more every day.
We have since baptized Nicholas at The Fourth Universalist Society in the presence of a couple hundred friends and family.
What a beautiful moment it was when Rosemary touched a rose in purified water that had been collected from each and every church member, then touched the rose to Nicholas’ eyes for the things he would see, his lips for the words he would speak and his hands for the deeds he would do.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house and in that moment, Gary, Nicholas and I learned what my mother and father tried to teach me when I was a child: believe in yourself, in your family and in God.
If you can do that, you can do anything.
SIC: CNN Belief