After struggling for hours for words to set up this video, I decided to let spoken word artist Stacey Davis (who is a lesbian) speak for herself. Please listen to Stacey as she responds to religious based homophobia in her own way. This is one of the most powerful performances that I have seen.
*Some explicit language*
The message God gave me must go forth
It us an incredible and bold message.
Enjoyed this video…well said!! Would love to hear more
Powerful? Yes. Will the accusers hear it? No. The enemy is not merely homophobia, it is the fundamentalism that enables and embraces the homophobia. Religiously driven homophobia will never disappear so long as believers fail to recognize that faith is a metaphor. ONLY a metaphor. When I left the church I did not just leave the miserable people who taught me to hate myself for being gay. I also left the miserable people who taught me to hate myself for being human. “It’s not a sin to own a pair of lungs, but it is a sin to use them.”
Original sin, heaven, hell. What kind of fucked up beliefs are those? They are the tools of the abuser to keep the victim in fear, self-loathing and in line. If it isn’t being gay they’ll send you to hell for, then it is for the crime of refusing to conflate faith with fact, metaphor with reality. For the crime of not believing the unbelievable.
Yeah, yeah, sure, NALT as Dan Savage says. Christians are Not All Like That. And I understand the political necessity of having Christian allies, liberal and conservative alike. But I also want to be VERY clear about this: a Christian who claims to be “gay-friendly” (and that includes gay Christians) is not automatically my friend. If homophobia is the b*****d child, then fundamentalism is its immoral parent.
Until fundamentalism is addressed and we find a way as a culture to transcend it there will always be homophobia – and if not homophobia then some other equally fucked up way for believers to oppress the perceived “other.”
The accusers may never hear the message, but the accused shall hear the message and we must speak up and out!!!
I think you miss my point, perhaps I did not articulate it clearly enough: if we LGBT participate in fundamentalism, then we are participating in our own oppression. Worse, we are participating in the denigration of any journey that is non-Christian. We are the accused, if we are fundamentalist also.
Otherwise “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” is just so much b******t.
clarification: we ARE the ACCUSERS is what I meant to say…
I agree with you. There are many LGBT Christians and allies who perpetuate the oppression by holding on to fundamentalism. Yet, one step at a time. I really would love the masses to embrace this young ladies message. We often say, why don’t black lgbt people speak up regarding religious based hate? Well here is a voice doing what many do not do. I have been frustrated as an straight ally. I have often asked, “Who will speak up?”. Here she is.
I do understand what you are saying.