Two-Spirited – LGBTQ2
TWO SPIRITED, TRANSGENDER |
The homophobia that exists today inside and outside tribal communities finds its source in a variety of reasons: Christianity and the hell and damnation associated with so-called deviant behaviour, is led ironically enough by the Catholic Church, who have much to atone for in this regard. The ongoing revelations of priestly pedophilia is all over the news. Oscar’s Best Picture of the year was on the very subject of priestly deviance. It seems to me that before firing cannon shots at others, ones own Vatican house should be in order and held to the highest standard. Also, the automatic correlation between pedophilia and homosexuality is misplaced and completely wrong. Moreover, refusing to understand tribal cultural history, and choosing to believe negative information not based in truthful fact often leads to the outright marginalization of people who do not deserve such derision and contempt. Accepting another`s biases and fears, not making independent informed decisions results in misguided and often deliberate misunderstandings. Is this not how wars are started, by the miscreant actions of a few perpetrated on the many. As well, when good people stand by and let it happen, with the tired phrase, “I don’t want to get involved”, then, in this case, homophobia is the inevitable result. Finally, the truth about First Nations two-spirited history cannot and must not be rewritten in order to satisfy the narrow biases and comfort levels of the ill-informed. It is in the DNA of First Nations people to accept and celebrate all members in our world. DO IT! Time grows short for us to be each other`s throats. Everyone is needed. |
UPDATE – BRITISH NEWSPAPER – THE TELEGRAPH, JULY 29, 2013 In a broad-ranging 80-minute conversation with journalists on the plane bringing him back from a week-long visit to Brazil, Pope Frances defended gays from discrimination, but also referred to the Catholic Church’s universal Catechism, which says that while homosexual orientation is not sinful, homosexual acts are. “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?” the pope said. “The Catechism of the Catholic Church says they should not be marginalized because of their orientation but that they must be integrated into society,” he said, speaking in Italian. The Telegraph’s Damian Thompson says that the Pope’s comments are “very significant.” (Note: In other words gay is okay but no sex) “They don’t change Catholic teaching but they do alter the atmosphere very much. It seems that there will be no longer a witch-hunt to stop celibate gay men from entering seminaries, which had been the situation. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH & ITS ART Ironically both Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci were quite open about expressing their preference for young men. Leonardo, used to surround himself with handsome hunks that he used as models in some of his greatest works, including John the Baptist. Ironic given they created some of the most famous religious art in the Vatican. Jonathon Jones, Art Blog, The Guardian, London “Is there no escape from this issue? Remembering that some art historians deny the so-called “calumny” that Caravaggio and his clerical patrons were gay, perhaps the Pope might visit the Roman church of San Luigi dei Francesi to look on this master’s paintings of St Matthew. But the demons of desire cannot be suppressed. The naked male flesh in Caravaggio’s paintings tells its own story. By the time Caravaggio came to Rome in the 1590s, Leonardo and Michaelangelo – not to mention the aptly named Italian painter Il Sodoma – had already blazed a gay trail through the art of the Holy City. Caravaggio made art dangerous and exciting again by taking that homosexual impulse to new extremes.” |