A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Altar

LGBTQ

I

IT IS ODD how certain national or international events that do not immediately have relevance to us individually, actually do have total relevance, and change our lives and our perceptions in ways that could not have been envisaged even a short time back.

II

I was still in practice when this country enacted civil partnership and it was regarded as the most significant development in the history of sexuality.

People talked about it falling short of marriage and that it was therefore discriminating against gay people.

Part of me saw that argument, the other part took the view that we should be thankful for what we’ve achieved; let’s not rock the boat and endanger capsize in the form of a reversal of public opinion, then the subsequent repeal of the law, which was certainly already happening in some American states.

III

The community carried on and people continued to lobby for full equality.

As elements of the church, regardless of denomination, came out in opposition, like many others, narrow-mindedness made me dig my heels.

Why shouldn’t we be allowed the same rights and privileges as heterosexual people?

At this point, I was pulled up by one bod who countered, ‘no Ian, you mean normal people’, implying of course that normality can never be ascribed to abnormality, taking it a step further, that I and my friends were, by simple definition, abnormal.

IV

And then the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013  came into force at midnight on March 13, 2014 and I was pleased. Actually, I was delighted!

But it was not until the next morning that the true significance of that new law hit home!

V

Sitting in the lounge I pondered …

Hang on. Ten years from now, even less, children will be aware that there are married couples of the same sex as well as of the opposite sex. It will not even be a matter of debate. It will be the accepted norm.

It means that any argument, religious or secular, that homosexuality is wrong or evil will be ascribed to the history books as reactionary burblings of people in their path to enlightenment.

It will be seen in just the same light as we now observe the century that made Galileo retract his discovery that the earth and all the planets revolved around the sun, rather than all, revolving around the earth.

A century later, most men acknowledged the error of their ways in so mistreating Galileo.

And hey, think on even more.

I don’t even have to tell people my sexuality anymore.

I don’t have to tell people I’m now out of the closet. Instead, my sexuality is of NO consequence.

I no longer have to feel guilty.

I no longer have to feel that I am the dirty-minded member of the family, that suspicious single uncle, that guy who has friends but whose girlfriends, and later, lady-friends all seem to be just good friends and nothing else.

Sitting in the lounge I pondered …

VI

What a sense of release as the significance of this dawned on me, as bright as the setting sun across from the New Brighton lighthouse on the other side of the Mersey. The river is moving relentlessly, unstoppable, out to the Estuary past the lighthouse, and beyond into the irish Sea.

In one fell swoop, Parliament has neatly sidestepped every religion on earth and brought common sense to bear.

In one fell swoop, every street preacher shouting into the wind about ‘abomination’, is sinking his own ship, as reality takes centre stage and people just walk on by, no longer apparently blissfully unaware of their immediate and inevitable path to hell and eternal damnation, but instead very aware of life, and life in abundance.

VII

How good to then revisit Scripture and see what the writing really states.

How good to imagine an Intelligent Being’s quiet observation…

Who says I have written this? 

Who says this word proclaims my thoughts? 

Who says that this has been written by the influence and direction of My Holy Spirit? 

How can it be that I can be quoted on this, on that and on the other, when too often this writing has Me in complete contradiction with Myself.

Could it be that this writing is rather the writings of men, albeit eloquent, who have sought to represent themselves as My representative, My Voice?

VIII

There is so much work to do of course because we are faced with an international community that is not as accepting as the people in these islands. By no means is the matter settled even here.

Northern Ireland has decided against adopting this legislation and has no plans to introduce legislation to allow for same sex marriage, but then muddy the waters as only the irish can do by pronouncing that they do accept that where two people of the same sex are legally married elsewhere then, in Northern Ireland, the couple will be regarded as in civil partnership.

But this is progress, nonetheless.

IX

The presence of same sex marriage now begs the question, and here I know I will anger man, but say it I will…

Has the GLBTQ movement become just another highly political movement that is ever more strident in its extremes and demands? Is it, as it is presently constituted, fit for purpose?

Or should the starting point now be that we do not need to single ourselves out as a community that is prevented from enjoying everything that all people have a right to expect and enjoy for themselves?

There is still a very great deal of work to be done and so I don't know the full answer to this question. But I do know, that the institution of same sex marriage has now brought me fully into line with everyone else in the community. I do not have to cover up my sexuality. Like everyone relse, I don’t even have to talk about it. Indeed, to do so would confuse the millennial generation, and future generations.

X

Yes, a funny thing did indeed happen on the way to the altar!

And it is good and acceptable.

And, dare I say for the religionists, it is equally good and acceptable in the Eyes of the Creator of the Universe.

Suddenly, sexuality is brought properly into focus.

A friend observed a couple of weeks ago that, for him, sexuality is the spirit and sensuality is the soul.

That got me thinking. And suddenly, sexuality became crystal clear, at least for me, as I penned the next sentence and which I've now incorporated into the poem 'Evening Wrecked on Wales' 

my spirit is my sexuality - sensuality is my soul 
The Spirit gives birth to my spirit
which in turn gives birth to my soul
nd which therefore puts sexuality
at the very epicentre
of the Universe
and therefore
of everything we know

It was one of those defining moments when all the gears and wheels beautifully synchronised, and everything in the Universe came together as one.

Now let us move forward and evolve with the times. We are in step with the Universe.

What a sense of release as the significance of this dawned on me, as bright as the setting sun across from the New Brighton lighthouse on the other side of the Mersey. The river is moving relentlessly, unstoppable, out to the Estuary past the lighthouse, and beyond into the irish Sea.

Image Courtesy from my private Private Collection and to whom all rights thereto are reserved and to the Artist and to the Photographer 

30 December 2020
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© 2022 Ian Bradley Marshall