Seeking the Republican presidential nomination, in this corner--Michele Bachmann

It both saddened and surprised me to read in the NY Times this morning Michele Bachmann, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was quoted as saying to a Christian television network about a same-sex marriage ban she proposed that “In our public schools, whether they want to or not, they’ll be forced to start teaching that same-sex marriage is equal, that it is normal and that children should try it.” Wow, what world does this woman live in? Mrs. Bachmann has likened homosexuality to “personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.” When her husband, who runs Bachmann and Associates, a Christian counseling center was asked if the center practices reparative therapy (gay-to-straight counseling which goal is heterosexual relations and marriage or lifelong sexual celibacy), he said “We don’t have an agenda of trying to change someone.” Methinks they do have quite an agenda. In an interview on a Christian radio show last year, Dr. Bachmann said young people must be discouraged from acting on homosexual feelings, just as “barbarians need to be educated.” I agree that “barbarians need to be educated” but I believe I differ with Dr. Bachmann on just who the barbarians are.

If two heterosexual men or women were stranded on a desert island for the rest of their lives, nothing either could do or say could make the other change their sexual orientation. Even if they were to have sex with one another out of boredom or lack of other choices, that still would not and could not change their heterosexual orientation any more than acknowledging that a certain percentage of the world (myself included) finds love, relationship, and sex within the same sex. That acknowledgment does not make it suddenly the “in” thing to try homosexuality out as a lark. I’m astonished that, in the year of 2011, in educated circles--fundamentally Christian people believe that gay people proselytize to convert heterosexual people to become homosexual people. It's impossible to change a person's sexual identity. If a teenager tries out homosexuality, it is generally because he or she has some interest in trying it out, or some curiosity about it. Those heterosexually inclined teenagers will likely not even experiment since they are not drawn to it, and not curious about it. And even if a curious teen tries it out, if that’s not the teen’s orientation, the teen will remain heterosexual.

Back in the sixties, when I was growing up, it saddens me to say that African American people sat in the back of the city bus. They had their own bathrooms, their own water fountains, and sometimes were relegated to stay at only certain hotels. Even great artists like Peggy Lee, who encountered prejudice against her players, had the backbone to not stay at hotels where her band was not welcome. Famous African American classical singers encountered similar prejudice because they were talented African American performers in a white society. It is sad and ludicrous that, then, we Christian people could open our hearts to everything but the color of another person’s skin. Happily, they fought for their civil rights, which they richly deserved, and won them. It was the right thing to do, and now African American people are both a fully-integrated and cherished part of the fabric of America (which is, ironically, a country of immigrants).

And now lgbt people fight for their civil rights. I personally do not care if history books ever teach that same-sex marriage is equal—only that it exists to legally protect the rights of two people of the same sex who happen to fall in love with one another, and desire to spend their lives together. I personally do not care if history books ever teach that same-sex marriage is normal, whatever that means. I think history books tend to document rather than make moral and ethical assessments of historical events. But history should teach that same-sex marriage became an option, with no malice implied. And neither history nor its teachers will ever encourage that “children should try it,” any more than they’ll encourage them to try plagues, famines or natural disasters.

I know that most fundamental, conservative Christians might think I live my life in sin—and there’s precious little I can do about that in my lifetime. But the same God who created and loves them just as they are created and loves me just as I am.