The Christian Closet
Background: I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard lately as I did reading this piece in The Stranger called "Ted Haggard’s Crystal Cathedral: A Visit to the Gayest Place on Earth." But it also made me reflect on my experience with GLBT folk in the United Church. When I walked into our neighbourhood United Church on a Sunday morning I assumed that the place had lots of gay and lesbian members of the congregation. The place seemed full of men and women who I’d take to be queer. However, as months passed I found out I was all wrong. All of the men I thought were gay turned out to be married to women, in some cases to the very women I’d assumed were dykes. I felt like I was in some sort of land beyond the looking glass where nothing was as it seemed. Later I came to discover a deep well of homophobia in my neighbourhood church and after a year of slogging through meetings of our church’s marriage policy committee, my family left the congregation after a 28-4 vote by the church board against same sex marriage. This despite the fact that the United Church at the national level is a staunch supporter of same sex marriage. Being raised a good Catholic–leaving the church for the usual teen reasons plus hatred for its gender and sexual orientation politics– I assumed that the national governing body could have its way with individual local churches but I was wrong. I learned just why there are so many Protestant denominations! So we’ve moved on to an affirming congregation where the issue is done and settled, gay and lesbian weddings are common, and the church has a float in gay pride. But I still wonder about the people I met at my old church and had assumed were my partners in this struggle. I am sure there is some sociological research out there about religion and the closet and the connection between the two. Ted Haggard brought all this to mind again.
