The Winds of Change

by Hypatia X

A large percentage of the queer community has found a place in the Christian community. However, many Lesbigays find it a welcome relief to belong to faiths which do not base morality on how adherents express love. In pagan and neopagan circles, the diversity of loving relationships and the diversity of spiritual beliefs are causes for celebration. The world itself is seen as a place where diversity is not only natural, but essential to the survival of life. The constitution of the United States protects the civil and religious rights all citizens. Yet, queers and pagans have found that instead of receiving support for their right to live and worship according to their beliefs, they are under attack.

For the past quarter or a century Lesbigays across the nation have been demanding their rights be respected as full and equal citizens. In response, right-wing, radical, pseudo-Christians have neatly wrapped their preprogramed theological package in the American flag and labeled efforts to protect Lesbigays from discrimination as ``special rights.'' As members of non-Christian religions also step forward to take their rightful place in American society, they too are met with charges of being ``evil'' or ``sinful.'' Parents in either case often must fight for the right to raise their children in courts that are openly hostile to their claims. Jobs, homes, families, and lives are at stake as these pseudo-Christians use their influence in the Republican Party as a vehicle to establish a religious theocracy in the United States.

Queer pagans are especially vulnerable to attacks by those who use the name ``family values'' to mask the messages of hate they teach, but we are not alone. All those who are different from the radical right are at risk. When people can ignore the fact that their own faith teaches that Jesus Christ refused to set up a civil government on Earth in order to twist their own beliefs into political organizations, how much more damage can we expect them to do to the constitutional liberties provided to citizens?

Right wing radicals in such political organizations as Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition are actively working to block the winds of change that are blowing through communities all across the United States. They see their beliefs as the proverbial immovable object. We at Rainbow Wind fully intend to introduce these hatemongers to the irresistible force that founded this nation. Ideas of freedom and equality cannot be defeated by hate and repression. We will not win today or tomorrow, but little by little the wind will wear away the stone. We will flow over, under, and around the objects in our path until legalized hate and illegal attacks on our civil liberties are nothing but dust being swept away by our force.

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Page Last Modified: 10-16-2005.