MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

A Different Take on the "Gay Spirituality" Movement

The following essay will be published as part of my first book, a spiritual memoir and collection of my writings tentatively called Queer Eye of Spirit: Reflections on Homosexuality and Other Sacred Things.

One of the finest and most influential definitions of "gay spirituality" is that of Christian de la Huerta's Coming Out Spiritually: The Next Step (Putnam, 1999). According to this writer, gay spirituality is a radical response to the current state of spiritual evolution of humanity. To understand gay spirituality, he argues, it is important to understand the evolution of religion.

De la Huerta argues that there was a golden age "before patriarchal times" began several thousand years ago, where gay and sexually ambiguous people were often spiritual leaders. Back then, he says, "we were the shamans, the healers, the visionaries, the mediators, the peacekeepers, the 'people who walk between the worlds,' the keepers of beauty."

In this earlier era, gays were honored as the Two-Spirit people of Native American tribes, the Gatekeepers of tribes in Africa and India, and the priests of goddess-worshipping tribes in ancient Europe and the Middle East. The bottom line: we were honored, respected, and revered for our unique spirit.

Gay with God

An article by freelance writer Dara Colwell discusses the spirituality movement within the gay community:

The gay community is coming out of the closet again – spiritually. "The movement is in its infancy, but it's just starting to gel," says Steve Kammon, editor of Circuitnoize.com, a website devoted to circuit parties. Kammon attended the first ever gay spiritual summit, held in upstate New York in May – an event that serves as testament to the community's burgeoning shift from cruising to consecration. "New connections are being forged. We're trying to make way for a kind of communal energy that supports and uplifts," he says.

The summit, held at the Garrison Institute, a retreat center overlooking the Hudson River, drew 130 gay leaders from disparate spiritual and religious paths. What attracted them was what they see as a broader spiritual movement and the queer community's emerging part within it. "Gay people have a significant role to play," says Christian de la Huerta, author of Coming Out Spiritually, which addresses the gay community's spiritual heritage. "We're trying to reconnect to One-ness and all the superficial externals, like what's between your legs, are meaningless."

Read full article here.

New Soulfully Gay

A new edition of Soulfully Gay is now available: "Going into the Light." The topic is near death experiences and gays/lesbians.

Re-Reading Virtually Normal

Note: These remarks are intended for an audience familiar with integral philosophy such as that embodied by the work of philosopher Ken Wilber. Readers seeking more information about integral political theory are recommended to begin reading Ken Wilber’s A Theory of Everything. For a brief introduction of the SDi integral model including the use of colors as used in this article, see SDi.

Re-Reading Andrew Sullivan’s Virtually Normal, Nine Years Later

I once had a college professor (David Tracy at The University of Chicago) who said that there were several books that he re-reads every ten years. Why? Not to find out if the arguments in the book have changed. But to see how much he’s changed. Well, it’s not quite been ten years yet since the publication of Andrew Sullivan’s Virtually Normal... the nine-year anniversary is in September... yet I had the impulse today to take a fresh look at this enormously influential and classic work. Perhaps, I thought, I could see how much I have changed in nine years.

A rant against misguided, extreme queer activism

I have no sympathy whatsoever with the words attributed in a press report to Soren Andersson, the president of a gay activist group in Sweden. Andersson believes that the right of an individual not to get his or her feelings hurt trumps religious freedom. This is an extremist view that makes me shudder.

A report in The Salt Lake Union Tribune says:

A Swedish court has sentenced a pastor belonging to the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, Ake Green, to a month in prison, under a law against incitement, after he was found guilty of having offended homosexuals in a 2003 sermon. Green had described homosexuality as "abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society." Soren Andersson, the president of the Swedish federation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights (RFSL), said on hearing Green's jail sentence that religious freedom could never be used as a reason to offend people.

Gay Mystics Take the Direct Route to God

A new edition of Soulfully Gay explores mysticism from a gay perspective. See "Gay Mystics Take the Direct Route to God." Here's how the piece begins:

First there comes a belief in spiritual realities. Beyond belief, there is faith. When all faith is spent, the mystics say, then there may come a direct experience of the divine.

There have been mystics in virtually every religion and even among those with no religion. The dictionary defines mysticism as "the reported experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality." Mystics report that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality is the deepest core of spirituality.

Gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians have been among the mystics who have reported a union with ultimate reality. Andrew Harvey and Jim Marion are two contemporary gay men whose lives bear witness to encounters with ineffable mysteries.

Read more...

So now do I HAVE TO get married?

I'm all for equal marriage rights -- I guess. Although my partner and I have no urge to get married. Our love legitimates our relationship all by itself, thank you, and we've taken the necessary legal steps (will, pwer of attorney, etc.) to protect one another.

Maybe more to the point, though, I wonder how all the focus on marrige impacts single queer folk. Has the right to marry become an obligation to marry? Is singleness only temporary, or somehow flawed? I think our community would benefit from more conversation around the topic. For starters, here's an article I wrote on the subject.