Thanking the Gods

A lot of people are thanking their deities of choice for the Supreme Court decision on DOMA, otherwise known as the Defense of Marriage Act.  In case you don’t know, it’s about treating gay marriage as a second class sort of marriage, and about the federal government making laws about things that state governments should control. 

Personally I am deeply happy about the decision to overturn it.  I am pro LGBT in every way.  I don’t talk about that sort of thing a lot here, but I have begun to think that it is important that I speak up about myself from a place of strength.  My father is transgender, and I love Joanna very much.  After a lot of soul searching in my early twenties I realized that I was bisexual.  So I live in a place that’s even weirder than the happy Facebook images of cute gay and lesbian couples exhorting us to let them live in peace and happiness together. 

This stuff is deeply important to me.

My instinct is to pray in thanks and give offerings to my Gods.  To say to them, “Thank you for aiding us in our time of need.  Thank you for watching out for me and for all of us who need you.”

But then I think about those who opposed DOMA.  I think of the Christians who pray to their God.  They see themselves as righteous.  Upholding the order of the book to which they cling.  They pray too.  For the opposite of what I pray for, at least in this case. 

How does that work?

Is there some cosmic chart where we tally who gets the most prayers and those people win?  Maybe Yahweh and Odin have it out in the celestial equivalent of horseshoes.   Who says who wins and who loses?

I pray in thanksgiving while they pray in sorrow.  Each worldview sees the sacred in such totally different ways and it makes me despair even in my joy.  Where can we hope to find balance? Maybe the answer is that we can’t. 

So today I pray in thanks. I do.  But I also pray for understanding and to find a way to live in peace, and for a world where people don’t hate me and mine because we are being honest and living our lives as who we really are.

I call out to the gods of the Outsiders.

I call to those gods who are different.

I call to the gods of the outcast and to the gods of the border.

I call to those who live on the edge of chaos.

Bless us who are different.

Bless us who must live in fear.

Bless us with the strength to lift our voices.

To speak our stories.

Let us come to a place where there is understanding

So we may walk out of the darkness and into the light and warmth of community.

Let those who would revile us come to understand us.

So be it.