Statement Read at the 1997 Global Summit of the United Religions Initiative

By Christian de la Huerta: First of all, let me be very clear in stating that I am aware that the most important priority of this conference is—and should be—the creation of a United Religions working together towards world peace. That is why I'm here.  However, there is another reason I'm here, and I would not be true to myself if I didn't take this time to address an issue which I feel needs to be acknowledged in this conversation.

Just a couple of days ago, I was told a story about the Buenos Aires Regional Conference which preceded this Global Summit. In one of the small group processes striving to design the mission and values of a United Religions charter, a discussion ensued about tolerance—about who should or should not be included in a United Religions. As the participants came back together for the large group reports, the elected speaker, a minister from the Metropolitan Community Church in Buenos Aires, reported that his group had reached consensus that no one should be excluded because of their faith, their ethnicity, their national origin, their gender, their age, their political beliefs, etc. In fact, there was only one area where they had been unable to reach agreement—and that was sexual orientation. He then handed the microphone to another representative from their group, who stood up and said that his religion did not allow him to entertain that possibility, but that in discussing it, his mind had been expanded and now had new material to consider.

I think that's great, even hopeful, but from my perspective, it's just not good enough. I am here as an unofficial ambassador from a tribe of people belonging to every culture and faith in the world — people who share a love for others of the same sex —those who in the West call ourselves, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or simply, queer. There isn't another group of people in this world which has been, and continues to be, as universally maligned, as universally repudiated, as universally excluded, as universally condemned, as universally excommunicated, and yes, even eliminated by some of the religions of the world.

The ironic, and tragic, thing is that before patriarchal times, back when women and the Divine Feminine were honored, before we entered this present period of our history several thousand years ago when, somehow, we got this mistaken idea that there was only one name for the Creator, one way to speak with and worship the Divine — and that we were entitled to use violence and military power to impose our beliefs on the rest of the world, that we were entitled to kill each other in the name of God —before these times gay and sexually ambiguous people were often spiritual leaders. We were the shamans, the healers, the visionaries, the mediators, the peacekeepers, the "people who walk between the worlds," the keepers of beauty. The berdache or Two-Spirit people of the Native American tribes — the wintke of the Lakota, the nadle of the Navaho, the minquga of the Omaha, the hwame of the Mohave — as well as the isangoma of the Zulu and the "gatekeepers" of the Dagora in Africa, the hijras in India, the galli priests of the goddess Cybele in ancient Europe and the Middle East, and many others, were honored, respected, and even revered for the spiritual roles they fulfilled.

I am here today to remember the tens of thousands and probably millions of women loving women and men loving men who have been killed throughout history because of who they were. I come here, though, not from a place of victimization, but rather, one of empowerment. I am here to announce to you, as representatives of the world's cultures and religions, that we are reclaiming our natural, our sacred, our archetypal, and yes, our God-given role of spiritual leadership.

Today at lunch a group of us will sit together in the dining room. We would like to invite anyone—regardless of faith, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, or sexual orientation—to share a meal with us.

About Christian de la Huerta

Christian de la Huerta is the author of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed Coming Out Spiritually. Chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best religion books of 1999, the book was also nominated for a Lambda Award. Christian's writing has appeared in OUT, The Advocate, Hero, Genre, and other publications.

In 1995 he founded Q-Spirit, a strategic organization catalyzing the necessary conditions for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people to fully reclaim their spiritual roles of service, leadership and community enrichment in the world.

Graduating with honors from Tulane University, de la Huerta holds a degree in psychology. He has been a speaker, seminar leader and retreat facilitator for the past fifteen years.

Website: www.qspirit.org
  www.revolutionarywisdom.us

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"The ironic, and tragic, thing is that before patriarchal times ... gay and sexually ambiguous people were often spiritual leaders."

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