How to Be a Pioneer
July 24 is Pioneer Day. How can we gay & lesbian Mormons be pioneers?
posted by Affirmation at 09:14
19 July 2006
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3 Comments:
Well as we're taught in Primary, "...You do have to have great courage, faith to conquer fear and work with might for a cause that's right to be a pioneer!"
Whenever I'm in church, I realize how far we (LGBT folks) have to go in order to become recognized as normal people. I'm not sure it will happen anytime soon. However, when any of us speaks up in church, identifies ourselves as being gay and we're already a known quantity by others (regarded as faithful, kind, loving, normal, etc.), it places a healthy doubt into the heads of those who would assume we're all perverts, deviates, and so on.
Being a pioneer in this sense means we have to address bigotry square in the face. We have to believe with our whole hearts that we're as good as anyone else in the church. And we need to stop apologizing for our existence.
None of us chose to be gay. None of can unchoose it. Sure, we can alter our lives to align with church teachings, but that doesn't change us from gay to straight. In fact, it only complicates our lives and the lives of those we love.
Being a pioneer means being truthful about who we are - and the more we are truthful, the easier it will be for others.
Let's forge a path based on truth instead of fearing life.
Did the early Mormon pioneers think of themselves as pioneers? For that matter the early Utah settlers, as there were just as many non Mormon as Mormon. Modern day Mormon culture recognizes their pioneer past, but modern Utah non Mormon's don't nearly as much. How our time will be viewed in the future is a difficult question.
Although there have always been GLBT people, Stonewall is the first piece of history I think of when I thing of the gay movement. I don't identify with the drag queens of New York's 1960s, but do recognize their important contribution.
Did Mormon pioneers experience fear, shame, rejection? Polygamists went to jail, unable to care for their families, failed settling missions, rejection of values from the country (twin relics of barbarism of 1856); Certainly some were. Mormon pioneers survived, and yes, made the desert blossom like the rose. If we are to be called gay pioneers, we will experience the same emotions and experiences. Professor Fox in American Heritage addressed the issue of what is included/acceptable in society and what is not. His point of that lecture was the ever increasing circle of tolerance; Women, Italians, Germans, Africans, Latinos, and yes - gays will be accepted. Today we have gay politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, entertainers, and even LDS missionaries.
As the gay community is not so tightly bound by one ideology as the early Mormons were, I doubt we will be called "pioneers". Will we make a contribution to society, help increase the circle of tolerance and understanding? That's a question for the individual. I think I do every day, or at least try.
When you consider how progressive, yes progressive, early church life was: suffrage, education, a new society; It's a nice legacy to have been given to build upon.
I am who I am. That's what God told Moses to be His name. Moses told the people that the name of God was I am.
Here I say unto you, I am who I am. I am not God, nor I intent to be one (just for now), but I am his son and I am your brother.
We all are pioneers in something or another, and about being normal... we are as normal to our society as the pioneers in 1840 were normal for their society. They were persecuted and killed for being different, and so are we.
I don't care if in 100 years time our descendants will think of us as pioneers...as long as we see ourselves as normal people.
Who said that being gay/lesboan/bisexual/transsexual is not normal? Religion? Well, who said that being religiosu is normal? We say.
So we decide what is normal and what is abnormal.
Do you want to be pioneer? Do something today that no one has ever done before and that epople in the future will remember. Then, you will become a pioneer.
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