LGTBQQIAA hierarchy

      When I read this I think about hierarchies. I know that I have definite opinions.  What I decided to do as an mental exercise, was to try and come up with a list of people, races, nationalities, faiths and so on that I might have better or worse feelings towards. I know that I am supposed to treat everyone the same without consideration. The fact remains that I am quite capable of making judgments about others.

     Can I place Donald Trump under the last person and then under a rock that the last person is standing on? Not very nice.  Whatever your basis of consideration is, religion, morals, race, sexuality or whatever, we have opinions and justifications even if they are bigoted opinions and justifications.

       As Pride month winds down here in the States, I was thinking about the letters of LGBT.

The LGBT community is a very diverse community that represents a variety of sexual and gender identities.  The acronym stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Another common acronym is LGTBQQIAA, which adds queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and ally. How do we feel about each other within that spectrum? Have we created a hierarchy? Do we feel some are worse or better than others?

       For a year or so, we had an LGBTQ spirituality group at a Franciscan Monastery on the Island here.  It wasn't well attended but it was diverse. From older teens, to monks, to married men and women and on into much older people. Some were even straights and 'allies'. It was a wonderful group and we discussed a lot and discovered much. We do make assumptions about people. One young man spoke about his falling in love with a soul. He had already realized that for himself, that person could be male or female or perhaps someone else entirely.  He looked at labels as being far less important than who the person is, their spirit. It seemed like a great deal of wisdom for such a young lad. I was in awe of this person who described himself as simply "fabulous".  That kind of realization gives me great hope not only for the LGTBQQIAA community but for the entire world.

       Our job is self realization and actualization, a human fully alive and engaged in life. It is not judging others, not thinking of a hierarchy in which we are higher than someone else. 

I hope we can love without thinking if someone deserves that love. 

The answer is everyone deserves love.

Matthew 20:25-28

But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’