You Can't Love God and Be Transgender & Gay

I just got an email from someone, an old friend of mine who had heard about my "struggle with my true identity and the one that the devil is trying to give me."

I shit you not, that's what she said to me.

Now, it's been a few years since I went to seminary school, but I do remember attending and more than that I remember being at the top of my class...getting higher grades than this "friend" of mine, so I do know a thing or two about the Bible and the Torah.

I was raised in a home that practiced both Christianity and Judaism. I pretty much grew up referring to myself as a Messianic Jew, which means that I studied the Torah, celebrated Chanukah (Hanukkah for you Gentiles-LOL), celebrated the different Jewish holidays, and believed that Jesus is the son of God, sent down to the Earth to die for the sins of the world to give us access back to the Father (YHVH). I speak a little bit of Hebrew, can say some Hebrew prayers, listened to Christian music...

I was one confused, but extremely devout...something.


When I got older, one of the things that I always, always, always struggled with was the amount of judging and condemning that went on in the two different religions: Christianity and Judaism. These were the two religions that weren't supposed to be judging people. The God that they served (YHVH) was a God of forgiveness, second-chances, acceptance and most importantly LOVE. Like seriously, as I grew up I wondered how the God I served, and the God that my biologicals served could be so glaringly different.

My God said to "bless those who curse you and spitefully use you." Their God said "I will curse those who curse you." My God said "Love your neighbor as yourself." Their God said "Vengeance is Mine saith the Lord."

My God said "Judge NOT lest ye be judged." Their God said "And all liars, prostitutes, gamblers, those who practiced witchcraft, deceivers, adulterers, those who burned in lust, murderers, thieves, blasphemers...all burned in the lake of fire for all eternity."

And yes I know that all of these verses are in the Bible...I studied it...thoroughly and I began to notice how some things contradicted with other things. It was almost as if God changed his mind about some things and said "Okay, this wasn't as bad as I thought," and then on others said "OH! Wait! Nope, changed my mind, you see this? THIS is going to send you to hell...forever." Being a seminary student attending school to become a pastor and having been raised in the home that I was I accepted a lot of what I'd been told without question...for the most part.

However, when I'd get alone I'd study different words and realize that the truth of the Scriptures had been completely lost in translation.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Well this is a verse of Scripture that the biologicals used to say to me and the other kids so that we would have a healthy "fear" of God. I grew up thinking that if I screwed up, God was going to strike me with a lightning bolt. Upon further study I found out that that "fear" was actually "awe".

Yeah, makes that verse of Scripture take on a whole new meaning huh?

And the verse of Scripture "Spare the rod, spoil the child," that my parents used to justify whipping us with a belt or a switch when we'd misbehaved (really all of the adults in my family used it-even the ones who didn't believe in God), has also been wildly mistranslated. The "rod" that's being referred to in that Scripture is not an instrument of discipline, it's the Torah. Yes, the roll of Scriptures, or book of Scriptures, known as the Torah, is referred to as "the rod." So in essence that verse of Scripture is "If you don't teach your child the Torah, they will grow up disrespectful, spoiled and rebellious."

So I said all of this to this "friend" of mine. Pointed out to her that there was no way she could use any Scripture to justify her statements to me, that Romans 1:26-27 had been wildly mistranslated, that there were 6 times as many Scriptures, cautions, and chastisements in the Bible for "religious, saved, Christian heterosexuals" as there were for "heathenistic homosexuals" and that she should really study her Bible a whole lot more than she did when we were in seminary school if she was going to tell me that my lifestyle "choice" was wrong.

Then I pointed out to her that there's not one verse of Scripture in the Bible that speaks about transgenders.

Not one.

I don't think I'll be hearing back from her. Especially since at the end of my reply I told her that she'd broken more "laws" of the Bible and had committed more acts of sin by emailing me, than I have by living my truth and loving my man.

So while she told me that I can't "love God and be transgender and gay," I'm very happy to tell you that that's not true. YHVH (God, Jesus, the whole gang) and I are good friends. I love Him and He loves me and I am an OUT AND PROUD, transgender male homosexual who knows for a fact that I'll get into Heaven.

Thank you very much.


-Vicktor Aleksandr B

*My name is Vicktor and I approve this blog post*

A Straight Pride Parade?

Seriously, I just had someone send me an invitation for a straight pride parade....

WTF?

I'm going to be honest and admit that I didn't even read the email, it was just so silly to me that I didn't even read it.  I'm not saying that straights shouldn't be proud of the fact that they're straight (Um, hello?  I'm straight...ish.  I mean, I'd be gay for Jennifer Aniston IN A HEARTBEAT and I think two guys together is unbelievably HOT-which is where the "ish" comes from), but I think that people are missing the point of the gay pride parade.  It's about more than couples and individuals showing that they're gay, it's showing support for people to love and live as they want without the religious convictions or ideals of others being forced upon them.  It's about expressing pride in yourself in an era that still wants gays, bisexuals and transgenders to stay in the closet hiding, unless of course they're performing on stage, well then...it's okay.

I liken the gay pride parade to the Civil Rights Movement that blacks and those that supported them, took decades ago during the 1950s and 1960s.  It's a shout, a proclamation of "We're here!  We will love who we want!  We're not going away!  You can't make us!  Give us our rights, our freedoms!  Stop your hatred, your intolerance, your bashing and your soul-killing rhetoric!"  I always smile warmly whenever I hear of a gay pride parade and I've marched in a few, or rather, like this year, rolled in a few with my wheelchair, because it reminds me that we all have the responsibility to fight for equality, regardless of if we agree with it or not.  I remember when I did a paper in college (Bethune Cookman) about the fact that there were some people who fought in the Civil War who didn't believe that blacks were equal with whites as others did, but they didn't believe in slavery (they believed in equality, but didn't agree with the the totality of the fight) and there were those who marched for Civil Rights who didn't believe that blacks had the capacity to learn like whites did, that we would never be as smart as them (Suck my 182 IQ score on that one!  Marilyn Savant scored a 228), but that we still had the right to learn and live as equally as they did.

That's the way I see the gay pride parade, it's a parade that celebrates love and equality for EVERYONE.

So a straight pride parade?  How is that out of the ordinary at all?  Why would that even be needed?  No one is trying to prevent straight couples from being able to marry (although some of them should be...I mean...really), no one is telling straight couples that they weren't born straight or that they're abominations and God doesn't love them because of who they choose to love (which is a bunch of malarky! Do people just not READ the Bible or something?), so why would they need a parade to march in?

It angered me a little when I saw it and I promptly wrote back this person (who is now deleted and blocked from my email address) and told them that they didn't have to approve of who I chose to call friend and who I chose to fight for, but they had to respect my wishes on not sending my anything that I found offensive (this wasn't their first time-I was called a f** hag by this person and told that I'd be chained with the rest of them and burned in hell-probably should have blocked her then).  So maybe someone else, who is a little more understanding can explain to me the whole straight pride parade thing, because I'm just not getting it.