There are activists whose work becomes their lives. Then there are those whose lives become their activism.
Paige Schilt, media director for the locally based and nationally focused Soulforce (the folks behind the recent The American Family Outing) and Katy Koonce, an Austin therapist specializing in LGBT and especially T issues, fell in love and wanted to make a family. And they have. They bought a house. They had a kid. And this week, they got married. They know firsthand the hurdles faced by those wishing for the same simple American dream. Congratulations, Paige & Katy & Waylon!
Click through Paige’s blog post at Bilerico.com to read her account of getting hitched in the OC by Pastor Jay Bakker.
We’ve gone ahead and quoted a most salient excerpt after the fold.
FROM PAIGE’S BLOG POST
Over the past six weeks, The American Family Outing has met with staff and families at six of the most influential mega-churches in the United States. (Our little wedding party was in the OC for a meeting with the staff of Saddleback Church.) These encounters have been sometimes warm and surprising, sometimes tense and even heart-breaking. But one of the recurring threads of our conversations with many of the churches has been the idea that gay and lesbian people are “welcome” as long as they commit to celibacy.
Yesterday, as I looked at my (lawfully wedded) wife and thought of all of the joys and tribulations we’ve faced together – from the birth of our son to Katy’s heart attack, from changing diapers to changing careers – my heart ached for all of the LGBT people in those congregations, who are told that they must not only abjure sexual expression (an amazing part of human experience), but also live without the intimacy, support, and companionship of a partner.
It’s a narrow and dehumanizing kind of love that says, “You’re welcome here if you can give up what the rest of us cherish and take for granted everyday.”
Amen, sister, amen. The cast and crew of The Gay Place wish your sweet little family and all the families out there trying to make it happen, the broadest, the most humanizing kind of love that says, “You are welcome here. You are simply welcome here.”
This article appears in June 20 • 2008.