"Why do you have to talk about it?"

I had a friend ask why gay people always need to talk about their lives. Now, this was not asked in anger, just out of curiosity. He said that with all of the changes that are occurring in the world, being gay should not be something that is problematic.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if that were true?

I would love to tell Larry that the world is changing and that we now have the same freedoms that the heterosexual population take for granted. But then I hear about something like stuff going on in Uganda and realize that the world has not come nearly as far as we would hope.

What really saddens me is that I have not heard much, if anything, about this on the news here in the US. We don't want to talk about it or don't want to be reminded of the ugliness that surrounds the whole Gay-hate movement.

I rejoice that the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, has the courage to speak out against this atrocity and is willing to name our culpability in the whole mess.

Finally, we note that much of the current climate of fear, rejection, and antagonism toward gay and lesbian persons in African nations has been stirred by members and former members of our own Church. We note further that attempts to export the culture wars of North America to another context represent the very worst of colonial behavior. We deeply lament this reality, and repent of any way in which we have participated in this sin.

We call on all Episcopalians to seek their own conversion toward an ability to see the image of God in the face of every neighbor, of whatever race, gender, sexual orientation, theological position, or creed. God has created us in myriad diversity, and no one sort or condition of human being can fully reflect the divine. Only the whole human race begins to be an adequate mirror of the divine.

Why is this so quiet in America?  How can the fundimentalists suppost this?