The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Prose - 103. Mark Thomson "Second-Class..."

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Second-Class

[The records from the first Conference on Gay Spirituality held in Berkeley, California, in 1986 reveal some broad-minded truths. We also become reminded how self-chosen terms of identity matter over outsider-imposed labels intended to subjugate through isolation, self-hatred, sex-shaming, othering, etc.]

A Poet said:

“A Gay person cannot live a life unexamined.”

A Shaman said:

“There’s something about being Gay people that goes beyond orientation. All throughout history we’ve been very different from heterosexual people. I believe there is something about Gay people that is profoundly religious.”

A Lesbian Psychic said:

“Being Gay is about being in the world in a different way. Androgyny permits all things.”

A Buddhist Priest said:

“We stress that Gay people are different, and that if we deny this, we become second-class, non-gay people – that is, h*m*s*x**ls.”

—Mark Thomson,

1987

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