My own Church - Quakers is currently considering whether to extend its offering of civil partnerships for Gays and Lesbians to marriage. I am firmly committed to this form of equality which may rove to big a step for Quakers in Britain this month. Watch this space.
In praise of Charlie Chaplin*
How can I deny that I am Gay
When homophobic bullying is increasing in British schools
When the Anglican Communion world wide
Can’t accept Bishop Gene Robinson
As a holy man of God?
How can I deny that I am Gay
When Gays and Lesbians are still persecuted
And sometimes killed world wide
And can legally marry is so few states
God Bless Canada!
How can I deny that I am Gay
When I love so many Gay and Lesbian people?
And when many of the musicians and artists that inspire me
Are out - like Neil, Rufus, Stephen, Elton and Noel?
How can I deny that I am Gay
When I wept all the way through
The religious ceremony that celebrated
The civil partnership of Sean and Alistair
How can I deny that I am Gay
When misguided souls
In religion
And medicine
Still try and cure Gay people
How can I deny that I am Gay
When many of my close friends came out at university
And I couldn’t stop loving them
How can I deny that I am Gay
When my own church
Famous for its civil rights record
Still can’t yet offer
True equality to gays and Lesbians
I can’t deny that I am Gay
Until we stop treating people on the basis of their sexuality, race or colour
And instead treat them on the basis of their character.
* The comedian Charlie Chaplin was accused of being Jewish by the Nazis in the 1930s. His response was not to confirm or deny that he was Jewish so as not to ‘play directly into the hands of anti-Semites’
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