MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog

Understanding Where We Come From, but not Losing Ourselves

I don’t know how many of you have been following all the to-do about a researcher in Oregon investigating the physiological aspects of sheep sexuality, but I have been. In the first reports to come out of Dr. Roselli’s research, I was among the many queers who were very frightened about prospects of research into hormonal “cures” of homosexuality. Now, as Dr. Roselli tries to distance himself and his research from these notions, I remain worried and skeptical.

 

While I have avoided posting on this subject because I feel there is not enough solid information available, I was reminded of Dr. Roselli’s work and investigations into the causes of homosexuality by an interview I read today on Salon titled God and Gorillas. This interview is just one example of scientific investigation into the origin of religion. I find both the investigation into the causes of homosexuality and the evolutionary origins of religion to be similarly worrying on a gut level, even though I support them on an intellectual level.

 

Like many queers, I feel threatened by research into the specific causes of homosexuality because I worry that if a gene, hormone, hormone balance, etc., were found that directly caused homosexuality, some might be tempted to develop a “cure” for homosexuality (or alternatively, mothers might be tempted to abort babies simply to avoid having a gay child).  While those of us who are out and proud and our allies recognize that such a “cure” is nonsense, it would likely appeal very strongly to those struggling with their sexuality, parents of those struggling, and homophobic policy makers and lobbyists.

The difference

By Huw Richardson

A Deacon once asked me if I thought I was "different" from him because of my self-identified gayness. I promptly and without hesitation replied, "I don't know."

According to Orthodox Christian teaching, the temptations we suffer as coming from the evil one - from outside - the... um, what? the possibility of those temptations is entirely internal. I'm not going to be tempted by the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. It's just not going to work. Most of the time I don't even see an issue regarding scantily clad women. My friends do have to point it out: and I say "AH, right, I can see where that might cause a problem." The subtext being "if I were wired that way."

So... am I different?

Gays, Germans, people of faith, and other identity soup

By John G.

Here in Berlin, one of the free rags for queers, Siegessäule, recently ran three short portraits of queers and spirituality. For a link to the text, only available in German, click here. Just for a brief overview, the three portraits covered three different faith traditions from two different perspectives. The first is by a queer bear who visits two Buddhist meditation groups, and the second and third are profiles of religious converts, one from Catholicism to Islam and one from atheism to Christianity.

I found the three pieces to be very interesting because they not only span three religious traditions, but also three different ways of incorporating queer and religious identities into one’s life: two different forms of integration and one form of separation. It is this incorporation of identities that I want to focus on in this post.

In the queer bear’s exploration of Buddhism, he often finds that he is unconsciously cruising his fellow meditators. The gay Muslim who is profiled largely separates these two aspects of his life. And the gay Christian lesbian tries to find a worship community that accepts her and her partner as members. Ultimately, I find integration more compelling than separation, and while I am not going to fault anyone’s religious beliefs or sexual identity, I think that its important for queers of faith and spiritual queers to address how our spiritual/religious and sexual/gender identities intersect (or don’t).