Happy Pride weekend! Homosexuality is a profoundly beautiful expression of what it means to be human. What an incredible gift to anyone who experiences this joy, and to those of us who cherish who you are and how you enrich us. You have nothing to be ashamed of, and everything to be proud of. You were born this way, a part of the perfect order of nature. Any religion that told you to be ashamed of your humanity lied to you. We know from science that homosexuality is an invaluable and natural part of most animal species, including humans. What a joy it is to live in our time, in the generation that gay marriage was legalized. This will be the first generation of kids who stand the chance of not being brutalized in school and church, not feeling suicidal or self-hatred for growing up gay in the United States. Let’s remember that this basic right, the right to be gay (human), was denied to Americans by religion until just a few years ago. The reason homosexual rights (human rights) are denied in the US is mainly religious people and their religiously-based votes. We are not a theocracy; freedom of church and state is a basic and foundational right of the Constitution – the First Amendment! Our country was founded in large part because people were fleeing religious wars in Europe, which they were commanded to fight by religiously-ruled governments. We still live heavily under the impact of attempts by religion to legislate outdated or destructive religious ideologies. Religion has no right to legislate the free expression of human sexuality in our nation. Let’s fight for our Constitution, our humanity, and our pride.
