I'll be speaking tomorrow at a Gay Rights rally downtown in response to the presence of a certain well-known hate-monger here in town. Below is the text of the speech. I wanted to focus on an un-angry call for unity and freedom to counter the invective and hatred that his entourage will likely dredge up. As always, my themes can't help but be global. I'm a globe-head.

Address to 2004 Asheville, N.C. Gay Rights Rally
Rev. Theodore “Jay” Joslin

WE STAND HERE TODAY, under this beautiful sky, enfolded in the comfort of verdant mountains bursting with new life, as a testament to the power of unity. It is through this coming together, with love as our beacon, that we shall endure and prosper over those who claim righteousness through hatred and bigotry. We stand to be counted as those who will not be divided by polarizing rhetoric or the politics of fear. We stand together in joy to proclaim that neither individuals, nor governments can assert a monopoly over morality and faith. For too long religion has been used as a weapon against us; now we stand to reclaim our human rights and among them, the inherent right to practice and interpret morality and faith on our terms. We ask that right not be hindered, but lauded by a nation renewed by a quest for freedom for all people. Boldly, may we seek the same protection for those who would oppress us; in our vigor to continue our struggle toward equality, we must not forgo the fairness we seek for ourselves.

As we gather here to advocate for fairness and justice, may we understand that our struggle is not exclusively limited to the right to marry, the right to freedom from discrimination, or the right to be protected by the law. Our struggle, in order to be effective, must be locked arm in arm in solidarity will all like struggles for human rights; as we advance toward equality, we must not forget to march for women’s justice, to march for racial justice, to march for economic justice, to march for democracy, to march for the Earth. These movements are all linked by the universal birthright to grow, to evolve, to live free from fear of the unjust, and to live in harmony and accord with all those with whom we share our brief time on this delicate sphere as we dance around the sun.

Our movement must also bring to awareness the fact that ours is not some new fangled fancy quest for special treatment. Indeed, that we are standing here speaks to the bravery of those who’ve made the way for us to trailblaze into the future. We must not forget them; we need to hearken to old traditions and forgotten histories in order to see ourselves in context. As the missionaries swept into the new world hundreds of years ago, the first fronts against our identities in America were opened as native cultures fell to the gun and the cross, using a distorted and hijacked interpretation of Christianity. The First Nations celebrated and affirmed our ancestors place in the tribe; they lived, worked, married in freedom, often with spiritual sanction as medicine men and women, healers, and walkers-between-the-worlds. They were the berdache, the winkte, the nadleehe, the mexoga, the hemaneh. The point is that Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and the Transgendered were preceded on the continent by those who were not exiled or ridiculed for their sexuality, but included and welcomed. Today, as we stand in the heart of the former Tsalagi Nation, no matter what family history moves through our blood, we stand for inclusiveness and welcoming again, and I do it the name of those who lived free before me.

And that’s just America; on every continent on this glistening Earth, our traditions lived on in many ways in countless cultures, and to this day in Africa, Polynesia, Siberia, India and many other regions, native peoples persist in maintaining their cultures and our place within them despite the onslaught of judgementalism and mental insularity that is broadcasted daily from our western civilization-in-peril. Our duty to posterity is to change the message our civilization-in-peril broadcasts, starting right here, right now, in big and little ways.

To achieve this end, there is no better advice than the old saying “be the change you wish to see in the world.” If you want a world of love and tolerance, be it, do it, night now. Do not allow your voice to be drowned out by hatred and vulgarity, but persevere in your song, no matter how awkward. Surely, as you be that change you wish to see, you will silently inspire others to take up the cause and be free from the yoke of conformity to a defeatist message of hopelessness and the distractions of banal minutiae that would attempt to lull society into passive acquiesce to a world gone mad. Be the change, and take back the message. Smile boldly in the face of those who would pronounce invective, and reply with the most revolutionary, the most powerful tool we as humans have inherited; love. Love’s power, like a swollen, raging spring river, can transform the face of the land simply by its nature. Stone gives way to steadfast love, just as rain gives way to the light, and hangs a rainbow in the sky as a promise of change and renewal. Love is why we’re standing today in unity, and love ultimately will win us through.

There is an old song; “We are an old people, we are a new people, we are the same people, deeper than before.” It applies to all of us, gay or straight. We are an old people in that our identity has been validated by cultures and spiritual faiths across the globe, for thousands of years. We are a new people in that the challenges we face daily are unrivaled in history, and we must dare to invent new ways to trek toward freedom. We are the same people because time has not erased our kind; we love the way we do in the same ways that our ancestors loved, our orientations are not some quirk of fate but biologically, sociologically and spiritually justified, though we need no excuse to be who we are.

We are deeper than before because we as a species continue to grow and evolve, we become further enmeshed in the mysteries of existence and the ardor of the cosmos. Freedom means more to us now than ever before, and little by little, as our work moves fear to give way to love, may we use it wisely. As we stand today for human rights, may we use the freedom won by our efforts justly, and in love’s holy name, never allow it to be denied again.

Thank you.