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The Gender Spectrum
When I use the term “gender spectrum,” you might think in terms of masculinity on one end and femininity on the other. We hear men being prompted to “get in touch with your feminine side.” (For some reason, women never seem to be exhorted to “get in touch with your masculine side.” Huh.) But I don’t think that’s the way it works. In Genesis 1, we are told that “God created them male and female” (Gen. 1:27). I think, rather, that there is one spectrum of masculinity and another spectrum of femininity. I also think that God is the one who chooses where on the spectrum babies are born, according…
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Mommy Blogger Outs Her 5-Year Old Son
Last week, a mommy blogger caused a firestorm with her blog post “My Son is Gay” about how her 5-year-old dressed up for Halloween as Daphne from Scooby Doo. Her little boy had had second thoughts about wearing the costume, afraid that people would make fun of him, but she pushed him to wear it to his preschool. “Who would make fun of a child in a costume on Halloween?” she wrote. Well, lots of people. And she was angry. “If you think that me allowing my son to be a female character for Halloween is somehow going to ‘make’ him gay then you are an idiot. Firstly, what a…
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Ellen and Her “Wife”
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Challenging Oprah
Recently Oprah interviewed Ted Haggard and his wife Gayle. You may remember that Ted, a charismatic pastor of the megachurch he built and head of the National Association of Evangelicals, was outed in 2006 for same-sex immorality. Ted has come a long way in terms of facing his fleshly “inner demons,” but I thought he still skirted around a number of issues. (See former pro-gay spokesman Joe Dallas’ excellent blog on what he wished Ted would have said.) What broke my heart, though, was how Oprah continued to come back to her mantra: “That is who you are!” She SO wanted Ted to own a gay identity, and kept bringing…
