LGBT, a Global Consciousness

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Not so long ago, someone  expressed genuine concern that I will go to hell for being gay and rejecting a ‘decent’ way of life.

The way I see it, we make our own hell here on earth if we so choose. As for any heaven…who knows?

As for LGBT men and women rejecting a decent way of life? Who says so? For a start, people who know no better.

If bigotry - in all its ugly shapes  and forms - is not weighing heavily not on the world's conscience, it damn well should be.

LGBT, A GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Some say there is no room for LGBT

men and women in a place some have chosen  

to call Heaven since no God would condone

the carnality enjoyed by the world’s gay men

and women. (Holy Books, manuals of spirituality,

inspiring judgement on homosexuality…?)

So who are they who rage against LGBT

neighbours brazenly ‘betraying’ a natural gender

to which we are born, love to pit humankind

against its own on the grounds of this culture,

that religion, claiming to fly with doves yet siding

with hawks? Blameless, just human…?

Voices, raging on against an LGBT ethos,

suggesting we can but rely on political correctness

to win the day (no hiding place for hypocrites);

raised voices proclaiming gay men and women

cannot be forgiven their awful ‘sinning’ in the face

of this convention, that culture or religion

Let them speak who claim to know how God

will have His way with men and women who are gay;

no matter who, all humankind deserves a voice

since each of us, gay folks too, blessed with choice

as to what we do, where we go, and how we interpret

Holy Books on peace and love

Too many voices competing with each other

to be heard, obeyed, believed honest, fair and good,

coining the rhetoric of this culture, that religion,

paying a piper to play the tune we all love to hear

who choose to be led by the nose through passages

of time, its corridors of power

Yet, body-mind-spirit offers its human host
no finer wisdom than access to the greater freedom

to be as it would be (not as others might see)

lending conscience and heart a rare peace and love

for an affinity with nature, discovering in its seasons,

a bitter-sweet raison d’être

Copyright R. N. Taber 2015; 2018

A Mind of One's Own

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

In a multicultural society, I have inevitably met gay men and women who feel they cannot be openly gay because the culture in which they remain entrenched is intrinsically homophobic. At the same time, I have also met many who have, in all conscience, acknowledged to themselves and the world that they are gay and remain determined to be true to their nature, often without turning their backs on their socio-cultural-religious history even where family and/or peers see being gay as a betrayal of all they have been taught to hold dear, and gay people outcasts.

To the less tolerant I can but ask, should we not cherish those we profess to love above all else, give peace and love a chance…?

Whatever, the old saying that all roads lead to Rome is misleading in so far as it is up to each and everyone of us which paths we take in life and where that path takes us, whatever or colour, creed, sex or sexuality.  We are individuals and need to find a way to shrug off would-be manipulative forces, invariably practised by those who  mean well and think they know what is best for us, but haven't a clue, not least because they are directing us in a direction they would take, failing to appreciate that we are all different and, yes, have minds of our own. 

The greater human tragedy is that where we are (too) often judged and misjudged simply for being ourselves, divisions become chasms everyone yearns to cross but (too) many people have no idea how. Sexuality is but one catalyst for chasms of course. Bridges are there for anyone to cross  if they so chooses; it is just a question of love, and putting it first instead of letting it come a poor second to ego and its associated preconceptions, most if not all of which are inclined to wreck rather than build (let alone cross) any bridges.

 A MIND OF ONE’S OWN  

Pausing at a bar, watching

lots of gay people having (such) fun,

long to join in, but cannot see

any way to confessing that I am gay,

leaving my gloomy closet

Walking away in the rain,

at a frantic pace, no place to go

where I can relax, feel free

to really be myself, no invisible person

on a cold closet shelf

Soaking wet, don’t give a damn,

nature lashing out for the coward

I am, the gamut I’ll not chance,

to run, demanding I reclaim mind, body,

and spirit for my own 

How can I let people down,

betray expectations of me inscribed

on tablets of stone from birth

to death if only because that’s the way

it has always been…?

Not simple at all, a complex

web of political history and culture,

bottling up human nature

for select distribution, claiming a cure-all

and calling it religion

Yes, I am gay, but not sick

or some sinner needing to repent,

and why should any God

have us deny any part of a whole they say

He created, who revile us?

Returning to the bar, watching

lots of gay people having such fun,

and join them, determined

to get a life (no matter what) not die alone

in a cold, gloomy closet

Copyright R. N. Taber 2015