Sunday, June 11, 2006; Posted: 10:42 p.m. PDT
Being religious and homosexual is not inconsistent, a Christian told a panel discussion sponsored by Outlet Wednesday.
“[Homosexuality] exists throughout all of God’s creation,” said Michael Ellard, an openly gay pastor. “It’s trying to deny that that’s not natural,” he said.
Ellard discussed sexual orientation, the press, God and adversity in Conference Rooms A and B as part of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer panel.
Transgender panelist and Christian Pamela Reed said that recent studies show that a person’s sexual orientation is determined in the womb.
“God made us this way,” she said. “Are we natural or not?” She said her penis was a “deformity” and having a sex change was just like having surgery to repair a cleft lip, the most common birth defect in the United States.
Ellard said that those who use the Bible to justify homophobia were taking the verses out of context. “They’re being highly selective in a way they’re using the Bible,” he said.
He cited bible verses that forbid men from contacting women on their period.
Ellard said that the conflict between churchgoers and gay people was a product of a press looking for conflict.
“There is that battle that is sometimes fomented in the press, where it’s the people of God versus the queers,” he said.
“[The press] think that conflict sells papers and it will get you to watch the nightly news.”
He said that many religious institutions, including his own Metropolitan Community Church, see it as part of their mission to fight for gay rights.
One transgender panelist said she had been raised extremely religiously. “I was even an altar boy. Now, I’m an altered boy,” said Lannie Rose, author of “How to Change Your Sex: A Light-hearted Look at the Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Do.”
She said that despite being taught that what she was doing was wrong, she cross-dressed. “I became your average heterosexual cross-dresser,” Rose said.
Later, she realized that she needed a sex change to become a woman. “There was a total shock,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it could be true.
Reed shared Rose’s experience with Christianity. She said she talked to a priest while she was still a man, who said she was committing a “mortal sin” by dressing in women’s clothes.
“If I continued to do it, I was going to hell,” Reed said.
The priest told her that if she got married the cross-dressing would go away, she said. Reed said that several months after marrying, she started to cross dress again.
After coming clean to her family and getting a sex change, her wife and two sons stopped talking to her, she said. Reed said her oldest son still does not talk to her.
Nonetheless, “the hardest thing I had to go through was to accept myself,” Reed said.
The panelists said they were not trying to convert the audience to homosexuality.
“We’re not here to pound information into your heads, we’re here to tell you who we are,” said panelist Rhonda Mitchell, who has a gay son.
She said her son told her, “no one in their right mind would choose this as a lifestyle.” The panelists encouraged everyone to be open-minded.
“Nature doesn’t work in extremes or absolutes,” said Jessica Friedmann, a bisexual panelist.
Mitchell said that everyone should “unconditionally” love his or her children because anyone could have a gay son or daughter. “Unconditionally is the key word,” she said.
Outlet is a De Anza College club that “strives to create an inclusive, comfortable and safe environment for students, staff and guests” of all sexual orientations, according to their description on the Inter-Club Council’s website.
