This is a picture of my friends and I at the Pride Parade in Charlotte. You may be familiar with Sara Cunningham and the movement she started for moms who love gay children. Sara is an ordained minister and Founder of “Free Mom Hugs,” which is a non-profit community devoted to show love to children no matter their sexual preference.
My friend Kelley has a gay son that she loves dearly and unconditionally, and this cause is close to her heart. At the time of our local Parade, Kelley’s son was traveling halfway across the world. She asked me to come to the parade with her so she could love him long-distance by offering her mom hugs to others. I said “Yes. And I’m bringing more moms.”
With our society polarized by politics, race-itics, sex-itics, and everything in-between, some days it seems easier to stay away from other humans who don’t see things the same way we do. I’d like to take this opportunity to say that for true love to reign, WE NEED TO STOP THAT. We can still be together and shine our little lights into each other and be at peace simply because : How you behave is not a qualification for whether I will spend time with you. The choices I make should not be a determining factor for whether you will hang out with me. There was a full-on PROSTITUTE following Jesus and TWELVE men around everywhere they went, for crying’ out loud. And Jesus himself talked about how she “Wouldn’t stop kissing him…” (Look it up -Luke 7:45). I think we’re past concern for how things “appear.”
So, to the parade we went. We hugged. There was even a girl who asked me for a hug and then a photo together because I look like her mom.
Look, if you want people to listen to what you have to say, you have to let them out of the closet. You can’t stand at the closet door and say, “Stay in there. Stay in the Dark closet. I’ll stand here and tell you that you are bad and wrong and you can come out when you agree with me.” We all know that bringing things into the LIGHT is the only way to be free. Let’s all let each other out. Of all of the closets. The sexual preference closet, the parenting style closet, the disability closet, the tax fraud closet, the abortion closet…into the Light. Into freedom. THEN we can talk…
We may still disagree, and I will still love you. I hope you will still choose to love me. We will know the truth about each other and STILL choose love. I will embrace you. I won’t deny another person affection based on their decisions. Know you will still be loved. No Matter. What. It’s the only way “out.”
Like Dharma and Greg 