A Queer Pilgrim

  Christian and I are in the middle of preparing everything for our upcoming wedding in July 2022. We met with the wedding coordinator at the venue where the wedding is being held, and found that we are ahead of the curve in terms of preparation. This was not surprising to me, since Christian is especially on top of these things in planning. I tend to run a little later in preparations. In other words, I some times wait to do certain things at the last minute. The only thing that I keep watching out for are the parts of this country who are threatening to challenge the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) ruling, Obergefell v. Hodges, which made same sex marriage the "law of the land" in 2015.  Herein lies the problem: this was a decision of SCOTUS, and not federal legislation. In other words, court cases can be "revisited," even if there is "precedent," in which case the decision is "settled law."  On the website, advocate.com, reporter Alex Cooper ...

When I was growing up as a young boy in Maplewood, NJ, alone with going to elementary school and going to church, the other ritual of life was watching "Superman" on the black-and-white television set in our home, with George Reeves as Superman. Reeves was television's Superman from 1952-58.  I was enamored with Reeves as "Superman," especially the power to fly. I was so impressed by this power I thought I would try it out from time to time as a young child. For example, I opened up the bedroom window on the second floor of my parents' home in Maplewood, NJ, a towel as my cape, and climbed up a chair and had one leg out the window when my mom caught the towel and her son before my second leg was out the window. I also tried to jump from the apex of the detached garage of the same house with umbrella in hand, ala "Mary Poppins," jumped, and simply hurt my shins when hitting mother earth.  Superman was a role model for me. I was smitten. Since those ...

Happy National Coming Out Day! Every Oct. 11th is National Coming Out Day. And my Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts are filled with stories, anecdotes, and incredible narratives of brave, courageous, graceful, grateful, happy, joyous, settled, people in the LGBTQIA+ community. I can't come out with a single, linear narrative today, but pieces of coming out and being out that make up a collage or quilt of stories.  * I was asked by a friend lately what I would've done differently as both my friend and I are in the twilight years of our careers as Ministers of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). I immediately said, "Come out as a gay man earlier." But what I would've lost had I come out earlier are my now grown children, whom I love and adore. But, yes, I would've come out earlier, and spared me, and others around me, the pain they experienced as I lived into my truth. * I came out when I was 40 years-old to the world around me, s...

At Columbia Theological Seminary (CTS), my friend, the Rev. Katie Ricks, recently posted a note on Facebook for the campus' LGBTQIA+ group that wanted to honor and "hold space for our queer CTS ancestors (students and staff) who came before us." I would want to add the name of Matthew Shepard, even though he was not a student at CTS.  I would add his name because 23 years ago, on this night, on Oct. 6, 1998, Matthew was beaten up by two angry, hate-filled, perhaps themselves closeted gay, young men in Laramie, Wyoming, and left to die on a desolated roadway outside of Laramie. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, two young men who Matthew met in a bar in Laramie, were later charged and found guilty of first degree murder, guilty of killing Matthew. They beat him up and strung him up on a fence outside of the city proper, he was found the next day, almost dead.  Matthew would die on Oct. 12, 1998. He was 21 years-old. That was 23 years ago. If he had lived, he would be 44...