In leadership, I always made a point to bring to the attention of my staff, co-workers and leadership above me the art of the teachable moment. Teachable moments sometimes get lost when emotions are high and eventually are forgotten until the same negativity or problem returns. Teachable moments are so important to me. They create the stepping stones to bettering yourself, your situation and living life to the fullest as a queer person.
I cannot stress enough how important education is. When I say this, people often think of college first. But education comes in many forms, such as reading books (including mine and other queer authors), taking a single community college class on queer issues, talking with other queer people (especially straight people engaging with queer individuals), liking and subscribing to online positive queer influencers, and most importantly, thinking for yourself.
Don’t just accept what you’re told. This applies to family, friends, religious leaders, politicians, or anyone who gives off a vibe that something doesn’t feel right about what they’re sharing. If it feels wrong or seems to promote hate, then learn more! In other words, research and form your own opinions.
This is an example of my self-education steps on whether or not God hates queer people and the Bible in general:
1. I heard negative messaging throughout my youth.
2. It didn’t feel right and encouraged hate.
3. I learned in a college class that humans interpret the Bible to fit political ideologies, not from God Himself. You have to consider the era in which it was written. After all, the Bible condones slavery.
4. I went online, read books, and learned that this was true. During the reign of Emperor Constantine (306-337 AD) of the Roman Empire, he interpreted the Bible as condemning homosexuality, influenced by the Christian movement, and that was that. Before this, homosexuality was mainly accepted in society. This interpretation continues today. Why? Politicians past and present use queer phobia (as well as race) to pit the majority against minorities to maintain power.
5. I learned that there are many interpretations of the stories in the Bible. And, they are just interpretations, not universal law. Such as:
6. The story of Jonathan and David is a narrative about male-to-male love, and yes, it is positively depicted in the Bible.
7. The story about Sodom & Gomorrah is not about homophobia. It is about sexual violence (sexual immorality), which was very common in biblical times during conflicts.
8. What I gathered from my research was that God disapproves of sexual immorality, including things like sexual violence and any acts that harm others. God encourages love.
Use whatever methods work for you to educate yourself. Become a critical thinker. Question and explore. You will live a much happier queer life this way.
In both of my Across the Bridge books, I write about the importance of learning about our queer history in order to develop a sense of pride and move away from thoughts of self-harm. For young people, I recommend starting with two very important events here in America. Compton’s Cafeteria Riots (San Francisco) and the Stonewall Riots (New York City). These two events paved the way to what we know today as the LGBTQIA+ Rights Movement.
When researching these two events, I ask you to notice that it was the transgender community that led the way. Our transgender family members fought for all of us. We in the 2020s now need to fight for them. We owe a lot to our trans family members. Now we need to support them during this dark period in America. As long as there are misleading and unbridled religious factions (cults) in existence, there will be hate directed towards us.
These two events are a great way to start.
