Sodom and Gomorrah

The fundamentalist preachers are almost self-immolating with rage at the SCOTUS ruling that marriage is legal for everybody in all 50 states.  One common rant is "They have turned this country into Sodom and Gomorrah!" Well, folks, here is a picture of Sodom and Gomorrah, or as I like to call it, my wife and I with our marriage license. This is what their terrifying stories really look like: a couple of happy old ladies and a piece of paper -- a very dear and wonderful piece of paper that was won by the blood, sweat and tears of many who went before us. That little bit of metal you see in the lower corner of the picture is my wife's walker. She has Parkinson's and severe arthritis and can barely walk. We're a real threat. Watch out!

We were already married by our rabbi several years ago, but that wedding was not recognized by the state. The preachers are also yelling a lot about people disrespecting their religion, but are not at all concerned that ours was disrespected. Ho hum. The usual argle-bargle of children who didn't get their selfish way. The rest of us, the adults in the family, both straight and gay, are happy as can be for everybody.  The whole country is lit up in rainbow colors. As one of our granddaughters said, "The whole world is excited!"

I can't begin to tell you how beautiful people were to us yesterday. We didn't know what we'd walk into when we went to get the license. This is the south. Some people have very fixed ideas about what can constitute a family. To our delight and amazement, everyone involved -- from the beaming with happiness for us security people in the parking lot who helped us find the handicap-accesible way in, and even walked with us, and found us a better parking place closer to the door,  to the employees in the county clerk's office, who could not possibly have been more welcoming or helpful or genuinely happy for us -- everybody, was as kind and helpful and wonderful to us as could possibly be. I would never in my wildest dreams have expected it. This southern city knows how to be a welcoming place.

All the couples applying for a license when we were there were older and had clearly been together a long time. Some of them appeared to be very frail. Some were using walkers. If this is Sodom and Gomorrah, it's a very slow-moving version of it. I was so happy to see these couples had survived, as we had, to see this day. Another Shehekianu moment. I forgot to say that prayer yesterday when our friend Micah married us! Thank you for sustaining us and letting us live to see this day!

I don't for the life of me see how Sodom and Gomorrah connect with loving couples who have been together in a committed monogamous relationship wanting to get married. If people really wanted that kind of wild sexual licentiousness, they would certainly not be getting married! Some of the people getting marriage licenses had been together and waiting for this moment for 30 or more years. I wonder what kind of marriages those preachers must have to make that connection? Some of the stories they make up about who we are and what they think our lives are like are so outrageous, I can't even imagine anyone coming up with those ideas outside an extremely kinky porn film.   Maybe their own lives are so dull, they have to make up bizarre fantasies about the lives of others to spice things up.

Anyhow, blessed be, we're married! Now I'll shut up about it.

Love Wins

When I saw this image, I cried. What's even better, the actual White House was lit up last night in rainbow colors. Painted with light. Glorious, the rainbow, the sign that the storm is over and we can make landfall safely. 

And yet, the religious right is predictably screaming that their rights have been trampled, that Christianity has been trashed and will lose so much, that gay people are such a tiny minority, their rights should not even be acknowledged. "They have made this country a Sodom and Gomorrah" one woman cried. Quite clearly, she is no biblical scholar, because scripture points out in very clear language that Sodom's sin was mistreating the poor. Ezekiel 16:49 -- "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy."  So far as I can see, if anyone is turning this country into Sodom, it's the Republican congress, which has conspicuously fattened itself while slashing money from programs to help the poor like there is no tomorrow.  

Another thing they are ignoring (or maybe unaware of): many if not most gay people are their brother and sister Christians. Christianity is the largest religion in the country, and gay people are notoriously religious. Monasteries and Convents are full of gay people. Some (if not most ) of our favorite saints were gay. Have you read the poetry of St. John of the Cross? Seriously? A majority of the Catholic priesthood is gay. How many fundamentalist preachers are exposed as or have come out as gay? It's commonplace. The louder they preach against it, the more likely they are to eventually admit it's themselves they're yelling about. Gay people aren't out to destroy their own primary religion. Take a breath, folks. They're your brothers and sisters in the church, not your enemies.

Some legislators are trying to make it illegal for a gay person to force an anti-gay clergy person to perform a wedding for them. Now seriously, people! A wedding is a joyous thing, a time of great celebration and love -- the forming of a new family, a time of blessing! Why would anyone want a hostile person to officiate at, or attend or have any part in their joyous simcha? The odds of that happening are zero. About the same as gay guys wanting to serve pizza at their wedding... I would rather wrestle an alligator in my underwear than have a hostile fundamentalist preacher do my wedding. Such a nutty idea, it gives you some idea of how deranged these people have made themselves over this. Of course, it is a huge temper tantrum for not getting their way. If we had lost that case, I would be the one having the tantrum. 

So in spite of cries of disaster from the right, there won't be a disaster. The US just joined the world community that has already recognized same gender weddings, like Argentina, Ireland, the UK, Uruguay, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Iceland, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, and the list goes on. Love is winning all over the world. People are people and love is love. 

And the world is richer for it.