Last weekend I had a lively discussion with a friend about Pagans she has met who don’t condone or accept the LGBT community, especially as it is intermingled with Paganism. She has met some of this ilk (I have not) and described how they do not condone non-straight sexuality when it is expressed in Paganism, and how this type also has a limited view of what should be expressed as Paganism, and other expressions are wrong.
I gave her the impression I was surprised to hear this, but it was not surprise, but shock. I knew intellectually that this type exists (since all types of everything exist,) but this was the first I had heard of actual encounters with such thinking.
We followers of Earth-based spirituality are persecuted and ridiculed enough with us doing it to ourselves. Think of how Christine O’Donnell (who has no business holding public office, but that is another story) was openly ridiculed when an old clip of her surfaced where she stated she dabbled in witchcraft. It tanked whatever chances she had in her Senatorial race, and was it because she was the wrong picture to put on the pagan community? No, it was because any inference that one is a practicing pagan is social suicide in most parts of the United States.
We pagans need to be accepting of each other, and open to the great cosmos that is all of us. There is no “right” or “wrong” way to be a pagan.
Those who think otherwise are suffering from cognitive dissonance.
This is an issue that strikes particularly close for me: I didn't just know one of these guys, but I worked with him ritually BEFORE I knew that he was activity homo- and transphobic. This guy considered himself to be a pagan elder, too... and has a whole group here in Australia who are just like him.
ReplyDeleteA lot of Wiccans I have known are strong gender essentialists. They tell me that being trans is 'unnatural' - as if nature always worked in strong lines. This is also true in conservative branches of the Western Occult Traditions. Essentialism abounds. Its a real shame, too.
As an astrologer and Hermetic magician, I am always reminding everyone about why there is the classical trine of Sun, Moon, AND androgynous/multisexed Mercury!
Isn't it strange that we Pagans have been the victims of bias for centuries, but some of us still condemn others for being different. Thank you so much for your comment. It is for people like you that I keep posting. Blessings,
ReplyDeleteRob