My good friend, Don Charles, just wrote his final posts, "My Final Book of Testimony--Parts 1 and 2"; "Their Worm Never Dies," on his great blog, Christ, The Gay Martyr, that I strongly urge you to read.
His posts are not only eminently readable, but are essential reading for all LGBT people and allies who are truly desirous of attaining equal rights, and equally essential for LGBT people to fully realize and affirm their very creation to be in accordance with God's will.
Part of Don Charles' post that deals with Transgender status reads as follows, and is just a mere excerpt that will hopefully whet your appetite to read his final posts on Christ, The Gay Martyr in their entirety:
I believe that transgender status is a unique and separate gender. I do not believe in the concept of gender confusion! I do not believe female biology is necessary in order for female identity to be legitimate, or vice-versa. I have never and will never believe that people are born into "the wrong body". I believe, as ancient cultures did, that there are people in this world who share blended gender status with God. I thought about writing this piece for a very long time, and I prayed for the right words. This is what I believe our Mother/Father in Heaven wanted me to say: Transgender consciousness today is where Gay consciousness was in the 1950s; the consensus is that transfolk are sick and need medical treatment. So long as the pathologizing of transgender bodies continues, transgender people will never have society's respect. I remember watching a segment of "In The Life", public television's monthly LGBT newsmagazine, and recoiling from a theatre piece in which pitiable transsexual women bemoaned not having vaginas. Seldom have I ever seen anything so retrograde! Just as is the case with Lesbians, Gay men and bisexual folk, there's an urgent need for transsexual consciousness-raising! It is God's will that male and female sometimes exist within the same body; the various problems transfolk suffer have everything, and I do mean everything, to do with denial of that fact. If the world ever lets go of that denial, the lives of transsexual men and women will improve remarkably.
The following is Don Charles' email that I received that beautifully summarizes the goal and mission of Christ, The Gay Martyr:
All too often, Gay blogs are vehicles for gossip, sarcasm, frivolity, rude humor, radical posturing and pornographic content. Posting is done too hastily, and the messages lack substance. Just as often, evidence of a blogmaster’s raging ego is so strong, it practically slaps you upside the head! I've got an ego, too, but with CTGM, I tried not to be the center of attention. I wanted give God the glory and give important issues the priority. I believed in putting the maximum amount of careful thought into what I posted, even if weeks went by between updates; and if I slapped anybody, I did so to wake them up out of a complacent stupor, and never for provocation’s sake alone. I wanted to improve the brand, and with God’s help, I think I was successful.
Founded in March of 2006, Christ, The Gay Martyr was a Christian blog that affirmed LGBT identiy, disseminated the true teachings of Jesus Christ, exposed ignorance, challenged retrograde thinking and behavior, and told many inconvenient truths. It contains 194 thought-provoking essays, along with eight pages of "Testimony" that serve as a Table of Contents. The blog's last pieces of original content have just been posted. Blogmaster Don Charles "Stuffed Animal" closes out his online ministry in bang-up fashion with "Their Worm Never Dies" a scathing indictment of mainstream Catholicism. Come and see what made Christ, The Gay Martyr one of the most controversial Gay blogs ever.
Is it sinful to be Lesbian or Gay? No, it isn't a sin. Nor is it a choice, a sickness, or an abomination. It's a miracle! It's God's divne illusion of same-gender attraction. Men and women with androgynous souls. Eunuchs and virgins by birth. Evidence of the Lord's unfathomable power, and a symbol of His Holy Covenant with humankind. Don't fear it . . . Don't hate it . . . rejoice in it! Hallelujah! And please remember . . . nothing that the Lord has made is Queer!!!
Please read Don Charles' last posts on his blog, and bookmark his new blog entitled, Ignorance is Plentiful, that is geared to confronting the betrayal of self-styled Gay "activists," who might as well be paid off by the oppressor to continuously affirm the hateful stereotypes that view Gay people as being merely frivolous, entertainment-oriented, sexually obsessed, hedonistic, and promiscuous animals.
5 comments:
Jerry,
Thank you for the kind words. You make my blog sound far more important than it ever was! Your blog has more followers, and will likely be much more influential than mine when all is said and done.
However, I think we both have done important work when it comes to calling out insincere, misguided or deliberately harmful Gay activism. There are so many examples of it, you're spoiled for choice! As you know, just the other day British activist Peter Tachell gave a robust defense of anti-Gay Bible bigotry and the "right" to disseminate it in public. He said he would even go to court in defense of it! If this is the kind of "leadership" we must count on, then the equality movement is doomed!
The ludicrous idea that, in order to avoid infighting, Gay activists must never criticize each other is widely held. It must be thoroughly discredited! It's in large part the reason why this movement includes people who OPPOSE marriage equality and open military service, SUPPORT church exemptions from discrimination laws, and ADVOCATE public sex! Not to mention hundreds upon hundreds of ignorant folk who use sexual slurs as if they were going out of style.
A Molotov cocktail lit from inside your fortress and allowed to explode is ten times more deadly than one thrown at you from outside! When I look across the country and the world, and see some of the things that are done and said on behalf of Gay Rights, I see so many Molotov cocktails, it's terrifying.
And on the subject of things we're not doing, what about this William Donohue creature, the Catholic church's latest enforcer of Papal idolatry? For the past week, Donohue has been all over the media, repeating and repeating the lie that Gay men rape little boys by nature. Can you imagine the degree of uproar if he said something similar about Black people, or Latinos, or Jews?
I've seen nothing but scattered ripples of disapproval in the Gay blogosphere. There was far more outrage after Prop 8's passage, but this vicious Vatican slander is more damaging than Prop 8 will ever be! Vituperative statements from religious institutions are the very foundation of anti-Gay public policy, and they also have a negative impact on individual lives. They're ultimately why parents toss their Gay children out in the streets to fend for themselves as hustlers and hookers.
Why don't we have the common sense to stand up on our shaky hind legs, bear our fangs, shake our collective fist in the face of the Catholic church and say: "Bastards! This will no longer be tolerated"? I'm listening for a response from the Gay advocacy organizations. I don't hear anything! Do you?
Dear Don Charles: Although I disagree that my blog is more influential than is yours, we are in agreement on every other point you raise.
You ask: "Why don't we have the common sense to stand up on our shaky hind legs, bear our fangs, shake our collective fist in the face of the Catholic church and say: "Bastards! This will no longer be tolerated"? I'm listening for a response from the Gay advocacy organizations. I don't hear anything! Do you?"
No I don't!
I see an amalgam of disparate self-interests; the desire for 15 minutes of "fame" by many who characterize themselves as "activists"; the confusion of "Gay" with "Hedonism"; the edgy and self-aggrandizing rhetoric that lacks substance; the reveling in sexual outlaw status that partakes of the false consciousness of the use of epithets felt to be "liberating" and "empowering," and a whole host of tactics that are seemingly designed to sabotage the cause of equal rights that are fought by people who truly desire equal rights.
The Molotov Cocktail lit from inside the fortress is a perfect metaphor for much, if not most, of what passes for "activism." That, coupled with the pathetic fawning over political access by the HRC, for example, if allowed to continue, will doom the equal rights movement for the foreseeable future.
Why homophobic churches are given a pass during this struggle, unfortunately not shared by most in the Gay blogosphere from my point of view, is a mystery to me! Similarly, why homophobic churches are not picketed and even taken to court for helping facilitate the suicides, assaults, and murders of LGBT people is also a mystery to me.
I truly believe that our funds and energies must be given to fight homophobic churches and others in our courts; there is a very much needed tactic to continuously peacefully picket homophobic churches.
And, of course, as long as LGBT people persist in calling themselves by derogatory names, showing the world their self-loathing and shame by so doing (despite rhetoric to the contrary), they will immeasurably help continue to consign LGBT people to the netherworld of second-class status in which all too many "activists" seem content to reside.
Best wishes, Jerry.
Jerry,
In your blog, you have consistently slammed home the point that Bible bigotry is the true enemy of our equality movement, and that it must be vigorously discredited in order for our movement to be successful. For that reason alone, your blog will be more influential than mine.
Thanks Don Charles, but you have also done your share of slamming Bible bigots, and the tragic truth is that so many LGBT people have tragically, though understandably, turned their back on both the Bible and on Christianity.
So many don't see the liberating power of Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible, and that is due to the ignorant and/or the haters who claim to be "Christians" who have defamed Christianity every bit as much as they have defamed LGBT people.
They are mere thugs, of course, and your voice as much as mine has called them out for the purpose of showing all who would see how these thugs bear false witness against both LGBT people and against Christianity as well.
Best wishes, Jerry.
DonCharles, I'll miss your blog bu I bookmarked your new one. One reason I enjoyed your blog is that it talks about issues that sadly evn the GLBT community won't even discuss.
I discoveed my transgender identity in 2005. I read about the Stonewall Rebellion and the many groups that are suppose to represent us are a far cry from those early pioneers. Sometimes this week I will post a blog about LGBT media.
DonCharles, thee were two things I said I would never do. One is g back in the closet, te other was claim names that were used to demean us. I will speak out about this if confronted.
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