A constructive dialogue begins in Africa about homosexuality & Christianity

Check out this encouraging development below.  I think it is important for LGBT people to engage with others and talk about their sexual orientation, lives, and experiences so others will understand them better and, eventually, let go of their prejudices.  This is not to say that I believe that we need to justify or defend our God-given sexuality to anyone (for me, the sacredness of our sexuality is a given).  Rather, Harvey Milk got it right when he said the more we come out and talk about being gay in personal terms, the greater acceptance we will gain from our families and society.  Even in Africa.

Beginning a dialogue in Africa with open-minded people of faith is an important step in our movement for equality on that continent.  Like Bishop Senyonjo of Uganda, they may become important allies.

By Karen Torjensen, Margo L. Goldsmith Professor of Women’s Studies in Religion, Claremont:

The night I landed in Botswana there was a dinner party. Such good luck! A lively, warm gathering of Africans from Zimbabwe, Togo, Kenya, Zambia and Botswana -- university professors of theology, Pentecostal pastors, and NGO workers dealing with HIV and AIDS. Good conversation, great Botswana beef and South African wine... 

...The differences of views on homosexuality were great between the Africans around the table. The tone was intense and thoughtful, but what surprised me was that the conversation was continually peppered with laughter. I've been in these conversations at home and they have been tense, polarized and polarizing. That didn't happen. 

The position that many took was that they were in process; they were struggling with the question. Because they shared their own processing rather than their positions the conversation did not become a debate, there was more space. What I was witnessing was how a community works. First a volunteer facilitator asked speakers to speak from their own experience, from their heart, and second, everyone around the table was called on to express their views. The end was not a resolution of the question but a process of listening and speaking that kept the community together and kept the process open. All kinds of learning was happening around the table and some of it my own.

Full article from Huffington Post