Hi, folks— ever find yourself "educating" pagans who aren't queer friendly? What do you say?
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SF Bay Area
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I say that the Goddess teaches us that diversity is essential to survival. natural systems that do not support bio-diversity are failed systems. the same rules apply to human social systems - as above so below.
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thats one of the reasons the camp was set up... people were fed up with the homophobia and the "educating".
queer spirit/queer magic/ queer paganism needs to be all inclusive so we can explore potentials... like wind says "diversity is essential" but its also paramount that pagans wake up... do they stand as conformists or do the stand up and make a difference? any discrimination is against what paganism to me is all about.!
still least we forget paganism is a broad... shall we say 'church'...
as self identification is what i work on, im more of the mind to get on with my own shit and try and include them... b4 you know it their as queers as a three bob note, if you pardon the vernacular!:))) -
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I haven't ever been in that position, Kerrick. I'm kind of surprised at the question actually. "Homophobia in Paganism" sounds like a complete contradiction to me. It's part of the reason I left "the church." I assumed, wrongly I guess, that pagans in general do accept homosexual/bisexual/transgender community.
What prompted this question? -
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I'm doing research in explicitly queer-friendly religious communities about how people communicate with people who share their faiths, but not their LGBT-inclusiveness. Like queer-positive Christian churches whose members find themselves having to explain to homophobic or just unaware Christians why it is that LGBT people should be welcome, and more than welcome, in church, or gay Muslim groups who are working for equality in Islamic communities.
I have encountered homophobia among some few of my fellow pagans. I see it most often among people who are dedicated to the polarity of Goddess and God as the foundation of all reality and can't see variations on that as natural, or in traditions that are attempting to reconstruct very old forms of worship, which have often been occluded by monotheism. I'm glad that you haven't encountered it. -
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yup thats the nub of it, a paganism based on gender polarities as a basis for what is 'natural' as opposed to queer 'against nature" this springs from really spurious notions of child birth and traditional communities. i find it self limiting as gender defined diety is restricted, to say the least! pagans with this attitude are doing so as members of our wider society, clinging to its oppressive constructs. so you find heirarchy, patriarchy and all that other rubbish constantly reinforced.
i also find that it's pagans who tow the line ie. follow a docrine that tend towards homophobia. those who tend to be more self-defined are less likely (but clealy not always) i think thats an important distinction since other established religions follow dictat and book. pagans USUALLY do no not, they create their religion around themsleves.
whenever im in a regular pagan crowd i find im over whelmed by all this. its so blatent! those who are positive about queers are in the minority, many just dont get it i.e. that there could be an alternative. most though are just hung up in thier mother earth father sun mentality.
however its also about how you approach pagansim. i never really read a single book on it, before i started to define myself as one.. but look whats out there!? there is so much heterocentric/straight stuff! who writes all this? you are fed a line whether you know it or not.
im not even venturing in to new age shop nightmare and what thats all about? ive always been concerned about the comodification of paganism, all this buying and selling is just as much the construct of our society that maintains and supports the hietarchies and phobias that permiate paganism.
im massivley suprised that anyone dosnt encounter it!
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Unsu...
in many cultures LGBTIQ have held a role within the sacred communities. from Summeria to Greece, from Mexico to Brazil to Native America, Africa... in fact, through study of early and indigenous culture, you'll likely find "gays" and "lesbians" not only accepted but held sacred.
megabyzoi's for example, or the nadle. I trhink thefigure is something like 98% of pre-corrupted (by religious or European colonization) indigenous cultures accepted what we call gays and lesbians.
It's interesting also how a marginalized belief system / way of life would cultivate others who would then seek to outcast, condemn and further marginalize their own. Propagating the spiritual poison that they themselves have been victims of.
There is still a long road to walk in the diverse pagan community.
Scott
"White Oak"
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In my experience, it has been very rare. Especially in the last decade, progressively. Paganism is in most part, made up of converts, and allot of us come into these new religions with allot of baggage. Old prejudices, fears, misunderstandings, they don't just go away because we have decided to call ourselves Pagan now. It takes years of soul searching and hard work to cleanse our selves of untruths. Not everyone who comes to Paganism is willing to do this difficult work, so they don't realy grow. I hear stories of some people who subscribe to the notion that anything that isn't in the shallow image of the Goddess & God dynamic is unnatural, and therefore incompatible with Paganism. I would suggest that these particular Pagans do a little homework into the natural world before they make such assumptions. There are over 500 recorded species of animals that have documented homosexual members. (were not talking about confused animals here, I mean they ignore the opposite sex, for the same sex every time!) In some animal species homosexuality is the norm! Dolphins, Mountain Rams, and Benobos (a type of chimpanzee) just to name a few off my head. Point being, Homosexuality is entirely a part of natures diversity.
Aside from that, they seem to have the misunderstanding that the Goddess & God are a literal Man and Woman. They are the physical representation, of the sentient, masculine and feminine energies that make up the whole of existence. The Goddess is not just in Women, She is in all men as well, and the same for the God and women. If two men, or two Women love each other, it is still a union of Goddess and God. (They are united within every galaxy, and every grain of sand!) This has been the viewpoint (or something close to it) of most of the pagans I have met since about the late 90's. So don't worry, there are probably more Gay Republicans, than homophobic Pagans out there, and that's not a number I'm too worried about, you? ; ) -
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...And not even counting all the animals that reproduce asexually!
I have found in my ventures into non-queer paganism that, while they might not be homophobic, they certainly have a problem getting their head round anything beyond men and women, or gay and straight. At one meeting I was at, I was talking to someone about the queer sceene and queer politics, and they asked if I was gay, to which I said "no, but I'm not straight either". They said, "so you're bisexual". I had already been taling abou this stuff, and I explained (at some length) how I don't view gender as binary and so the term "bisexual" means very little to me. After I'd finished, they said, "yeah, but you're bisexual really though, aren't you?", at which point I thought "who gave you the right to decide how I should identify?" and went to talk to someone else. I guess this attitude isn't limited to pagans though, pagans come from all walks of life after all. One would also assume that pagans would have more liberal politics and be interested in green issues, but I've found that's often not the case.
Wombat xx
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