Although many have tried to show me the door out of the church, I never, in my first years with my partner, pondered leaving. Like Andrew Sullivan, I think that “the issue of eros is trivial in the face of consecration, prayer, and meditation.” I thought less and less about “being gay,” per se, and continued the practice of my faith. In my work life and my home life I strove to be more loving and that itself was struggle enough. During this time the local diocese saw fit to recognize my professional work with an award at their annual prolife banquet. With some dismay, I dutifully accepted the award and shook the hand of the bishop, who is, in many respects, Archbishop Chaput’s twin, and pondered the irony of it all.
—An anonymous lesbian mom explaining, in light of recent events, why she and her partner send their two adopted boys to Catholic school, in this fantastic essay
the crustybastard
Short answer: masochism.
tinkerbell
@the crustybastard: Absolutely.
ChicagoJimmy
Was there an explanation there that I missed or does this woman simply enjoy being part of an organization that doesn’t think she has the moral capacity to raise children? I continue to fail to understand why people want to belong to organizations that don’t want them. Why is this person trying desperately to fit into the hetero-normative culture without trying to change the culture?
Why do people continue to see the church, in whatever form, as on a higher moral plain than the rest of us when it obviously isn’t?
Mike in Asheville, nee "in Brooklyn"
@No. 3 ChicagoJimmy
Well said.
As much effort as the LGBT community has to go working on equality — our sexual identity does not diminish any moral standing — within America’s overall society, we have nearly as much work within the LGBT community. This lesbian couple is another example of a self-loathing attitude: “we are better than nothing” (that is, per anonymous very lengthy essay, a lesbian couple is better than no parents at all) is a shitty attitude. Better than NOTHING. Well fuck that; we are “just as good as” every other loving, giving, caring human with our love, our giving and our caring.
Certainly there are tough battles against wingnut bigots who, at least, are identifiable such as NOM/Maggot Gallagher and Focus on the Family, et al. Unfortunately, there are just as difficult battles getting such well educated, broad experienced, open gays/lesbians, such as anonymous, to look at themselves as morally upstanding.
For those truly interested in understanding our challenges, I highly recommend reading the entire essay Queerty has linked above. Anonymous goes to great length explaining her history of her life, and yet, amazingly judges herself as a “less-than” deserving a of “less-than” second-class citizen status.
Eric
Because like those who are against her, she picks and chooses what part of the religion she believes, and which parts she won’t believe.
jeffree
The catholic church still considers gay men & lesbian women “disordered” and some of its spokespeople blame gay men for the thousands of sexual abuse cases against children. How and why would any parent –str8 or gay or lesbian– let their child be educated by the perpetrators or enablers of sexual violence against kids ??
Mighty twisty logic going on there!