Letter to the Editor : All faith traditions should support LGBT community
‘My mom still loves her queer kid’ was just one of the many messages of love, hope and dignity written in chalk on the sidewalks in front of Hendricks Chapel last Wednesday night to celebrate Coming Out Month at Syracuse University. Amy Podeszek’s Oct. 6 article in The Daily Orange captured many other similar, important sentiments. The fact that these words of expression by and in alliance with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students were written in close proximity to the center of spiritual and ethical support at SU should not be lost on the university community.
Students of faith and secular students should celebrate, encourage and grow this welcoming spirit that declares this campus a place where students’ sexual identities and spiritual yearnings will both be affirmed. Unfortunately, too many places not only lack such affirmation, they rebel against it. And spiritual violence can sometimes give way to physical violence.
In late September, Jerry Pittman Jr. went to Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland, Tenn., with his boyfriend. Pittman’s father is the pastor. What should have been an occasion for celebrating love in faith actually turned violent. The pastor blocked their entrance and deacons physically attacked them in the parking lot while verbally hurling anti-gay slurs.
Such actions should be antithetical to people of faith. This example may seem extreme, but careless actions and cheap shots that go unexamined in houses of worship and in everyday life lay the groundwork for the demonization that makes this story possible. To students who claim any degree of religious identity, don’t write off religion when you see stories like this one. Transform it. Get involved. Emboldened by faith, start conversations with the places and people in your tradition that demean LGBT folks, intentionally or not, wherever you find them. Act with integrity for the dignity of all people.
I am given heart by the creativity and conviction of the amazing students on this campus. Some of my WRT 105 students, writing about religious-based LGBT discrimination earlier this semester, championed this line from Lady Gaga’s album ‘Born This Way’ — ‘It doesn’t matter if you love him or capital H-I-M.’ Amen.
T J Geiger
Doctoral candidate in composition and cultural rhetoric
Published on October 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm
