A series of articles by Robert Buchanan, D.Min., on gay prejudice and
Christianity in order to challenge the church and help provide for the
spiritual needs of sexual minorities
Please bookmark this page and come back.
|
A series of articles by Robert Buchanan, D.Min., on gay prejudice and
Christianity in order to challenge the church and help provide for the
spiritual needs of sexual minorities
Please bookmark this page and come back.
|
|
|
What Is He Thinking?
Have you heard
about the guy who is dressing up in a Ninja suit and running around New York
City? Apparently he hangs out in Prospect Park, a place that is known for gay
cruising, and assaults gays. He has used both a wooden club and a sharp
cutting instrument in the attacks. The New York Hate Crimes unit is
investigating and the Mayor has offered a ten thousand-dollar reward. This,
while folks in West Virginia mourn a murdered gay man, and the list of hate
crimes against those perceived to be gay grows exponentially longer. When I
hear of another hateful attack, I ask myself, "What is he thinking?"
I really can't
know what the man is thinking, but I can make some good educated guesses. It
could be that he is a homophobe. He has a fear of being gay. Someone may
have looked longingly at him in a shower room at the gym, and he wanted to
respond in kind. Maybe he got an erection the first time he saw other guys
walking around the locker room naked. It could be that he has always had the
urge to be with another man sexually. In this case, he is afraid of being
queer, so he wants to prove to himself that he isn't by beating up on other
queers. But this may not be what he is thinking at all.
He could be
thinking that people think he is gay when he really isn't. I'm not sure why
butch heterosexuals have such a problem with this, but they seem to have this
great fear that someone might think they are queer when they haven't ever
really wanted to play with a guy. Perhaps he couldn't perform with a girl
once and she told him he must be queer. Maybe he has a small waist and skinny
wrists. Perhaps even his voice is a little higher than the other guys on the
block. In other words, he could have some ignorant stereotypical trait that
just makes him go crazy and want to beat up gay guys.
Still another
thought the man may have is the idea that gays are evil and need to be kept
under control. His prejudice being so strong that he wants to take the matter
into his own hands and show those queers who is boss. He just could think
that gay people will bring about the fall of western society as he knows it.
If only we had that much power.
The really sad
thing about what the gay bashing Ninja is thinking is that he is not the only
one. Often messages in our society teach men that they can't be different, or
do different things. Instead, everybody has to be the same. Nothing could
be further from the truth, but there are a lot of people in bondage to the lie
that they have to be the same. Heterosexism and gay bashing aren't new, but
it is on the rise. Hopefully, we will have enough courage to be who we are,
and interact in the hetero world enough, so that the next group of people
raised in this society will know it is ok to be queer because not everybody is
the same.
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Robert Buchanan is a minister of the Ecumenical Catholic Church and a psychotherapist who lives with his partner of many years in Durham North Carolina. He is the author of Love, Honor & Respect: How to Confront Homosexual Bias in Christian Culture and serves as director of the Institute for Inclusive Christianity. a training program for ministers and clergy who do not discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or because of financial, familial or social status. Additional resources for inclusive Christians can be found at our Resources page.
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