43
J U S . u l ’ aprii 21.2000
Second Annual
GenderQueer:
Northwest Transgender & Intersex
i/
Unnatural causes
Meditation on the dearth of Christlike compassion that
leads Roman Catholic officials to cover up the deaths of
priests with AIDS
picture of a lifetime spent exploring the world
ne morning several weeks ago, 1 received
and all it’s joys and challenges together.
two things in the mail. One was a clip
I can’t help but compare this picture to the
ping from The Kansas City Star, an article
images
in my head of priests dying, alone and
about the frighteningly high death rate
frightened, among strangers because their supe
from AIDS among Roman Catholic priests and
riors sent them away to hide their shame. I
how the church leadership has for years been
want to believe that someone was there to hold
covering up any links between HiV infection
their hands, to tell them that they were loved.
and their clergy. The other was a letter from
1 want to believe they died knowing that their
my friend Dr. June Steffensen Hagen.
lives meant something. But I don’t think they
June was one of my English professors in
did. 1 think that, in the end, they were
college. At a school rampant
I I
betrayed in the crudest way.
with muddle-headed fundamen
One of the things June taught me was that
talist
Christian
teaching,
she
was
I I
God— in whatever form you embrace him—
a breath of fresh air, a fiercely
______ I
y
.
loves joy. It saddens me that the Catholic
intelligent, liberal Episcopalian
priests who came to worship God with joy were
determined to get her students to
met instead with betrayal and fear in the hour
think for themselves instead of
when they most needed love. I am also angered
believing everything they were
enough
to want to comfort myself with disbe
told.
lief in a God who would let this happen, just as
Knowing June changed my
I did back in college.
life. Not only did she introduce
But once again June won’t let me do that.
me to writers and ideas I’d never
I’ve put the picture of her and Jim on the wall
encountered, she was the first
person to let me know
that being gay is OK.
She was also the first
person I ever met who
I think genuinely
loved God. Having
grown up with a lot of
people who feared
God, or used him as a
weapon, it was some
thing of a shock to
BY
find someone who
MICHAEL
thought of God as her
THOMAS
friend. Determined as
I was because of my
FORD
past experiences to
believe the whole God thing was a
lot of nonsense, June made me
rethink that position.
June’s husband, Jim, is a retired
Episcopal priest. Her letter is filled
with news about their lives: their
recent trips to Ecuador and Mexico,
the literature class June is teaching,
her and Jim’s involvement in the
New York Choral Society, the activ
ities of their two children. These are
the pieces of a full and happy life.
They’re the things that I think of
when I think of June.
And then I think of those priests
dying from AIDS. According to the
Star article, many of them were sent
to hospices outside their parishes to
die, alone and far from their friends and fami
above my desk, right beside the picture of the
lies so that no one would know what was
stone circle and phallic rock monument my
killing them. In almost all cases, the cause of
Radical Faerie brother, Ron, painstakingly built
death was listed as “natural causes,” and the
on his Maine, sheep farm. When I look at these
occupation written on the death certificate was pictures, I am reminded that even the fear of
anything but priest. In the end, these servants
an institution as large and imposing as the
of the church were reduced to lies, their years
Catholic Church is nothing compared to the
of duty to God wiped out with the stroke of a
power of one or two people who truly under
pen to protect the image of the institution to
stand what it is to live with joy and make a dif
which they had devoted their lives.
ference in the world. And I am reminded, too,
Tucked into June’s letter is a photograph of
that God comes in many forms, and that the
her and Jim, taken on one of their trips. June’s
God those priests were looking for really does
hair is grayer and Jim’s is more absent, but the
exist somewhere, waiting for them.
smiles on their faces still reflect all the love
I hope they’ve found him.
and joy 1 remember. The most wonderful thing
about it, though, is how much they look like a
■ M ichael T homas F ord is the Lambda Liter
couple. Jim has his arm around June, and she’s
ary Award-wmnmg author of Alec Baldwin
leaning into him in a way that radiates famil
Doesn’t Love Me and That’s Mr. Faggot to You.
iarity and friendship. Looking at them, 1 see a
He welcomes e-mail at Shopiltee@aol.com.
O
May 18-21,2000
The Evergreen
ergreen State College
Olympia, WA
\
C //A .
For more info:
GenderQueer: NWTIFF Planning Committee
d o Evergreen Queer Alliance
The Evergreen State College - CAB 314
Olympia , WA 98505
Ph. (360) 866-6000 ext 6544
genderqueerfilmfest@hotmail. com
http-J/EvergreenQueers.tripod.com/FilmFest2000.html
Sung in English with text projected above the stage
May 13 , 15, 17, 19, 20
Portland Civic Auditorium • 7:30 pm sharp!
FOR TICKETS CALL
(503)241-1802 or (503) 790-ARTS
Tickets from $25
outlets: G.I. Joe's, Meier & Frank, Lamb’s Thriftway, PCPA,
Portland Opera, and other independent locations
www.ticketmaster.com/oregon • www.portlandopera.org
G roups o f 10 or M ore SAVE up to 20% • Call 241-1407
US. T rust
mrnrl
H \ H ) (f n jf r m
Onrm
A D elta A irlin e s
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