What the Easter Holiday Tells Us about Being Gay
By Andy Heath
I have found that in the Christian religion, Easter is almost as widely celebrated and important as Christmas. In fact, if you ask purist Christians, they will tell you Easter is more important. They will say that the fact that Jesus allegedly rose from the dead is more important than the mere fact that he was born. And I suppose there is a lot of merit to that.
There is also a lot of merit to comparing Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection to our own, those of gays and lesbians. Let's start with the crucifixion. Jesus was nailed onto a wooden cross after being flogged nearly to death and was left hanging in the air to die. At some point during this awful ordeal, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Sound familiar? Have you ever asked God why he has forsaken you in the midst of the pain and suffering associated with being gay? I have. I have asked how such a loving, merciful God could take away what I considered the precious gift of getting married and having children. Instead, I felt God had given me a life of scorn and ridicule, a life that no one else would celebrate. I would go to family members' weddings and realize that my family would never come together to celebrate a union that I entered into. I would never have children of my own, perhaps even at all. I would be ridiculed by friends and family and even strangers. I would have sexual relationships that were odious to God. And yes, I thought to myself - Why has God forsaken me?
After Jesus died, Christian myth tells us that he descended into Hell for three days to continue paying the price for mortals' sins. I can also relate to this. After I died the death or a straight person, I realized that I found myself in a state of Hell. I simply did not realize that this Hell was of my own creation. I suffered there for a long time; no one could comfort me or help me out of this state of Hell until I realized that all I had to do was get up and walk out.
After those three days, Jesus rose from the dead on the first Easter Sunday and left his tomb. He had angels waiting to assist him and God had given him a new body. After all that suffering, Jesus had finally come out of Hell to claim his glory and sit at the right hand of God. In a way it's a beautiful story.
I remember coming out of that Hell myself. I remember what it was like when I finally accepted myself for who I am and not for what others expected me to be. And yes, it is still a challenge. I still hurt and bleed from rejection. I still fear for my physical safety sometimes. But just as Jesus had found his own courage to descend into Hell and come out better, so do gays and lesbians that find the courage to go through the pain of metamorphosis and accept themselves.
I am not, by any means, a fan of Christianity. But I can honestly say that the Easter story says a great deal to me about my sexuality and about the little good that gays and lesbians can take away from the Christian religion.
