The Holy Land. Israel and Palestine. It is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
My Holy Land. Wilton Manors, Florida, and our Zen garden on the Middle River are sacred to me.
Conservative Evangelical Christians (and many aren’t right-wing Republicans) are cheering that the U.S. sided with Israel and bombed Iran. They oppose other wars, but they wanted the site of Jesus’s life and death to be protected. If that meant siding with the Jews, for whom they have no love at all, then so be it.
A 31-year-old man tried to enter the Wilton Manors Gay Pride Parade, armed with a gun and additional magazines. It would have been a massacre. He was stopped by the metal detector at the entrance and by several security and police officers. He wanted to bloody Wilton Manor Drive because he hates homosexuals or his own homosexuality.
The gun carnage of one mentally unstable man can’t compare to the 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs the Evangelicals wanted dropped by the U.S. in Iran. The bombs killed far more Iranian men, women, and children than the intended murderer could do on Wilton Drive. But the Fundamentalists wanted their Holy Land protected and be a place where they might feel safe and valued.
So do I. Our intended mass murderer entered my Holy Land, my very special place where kindhearted gay and bisexual men, lesbians, and transgender people live and play side by side. This is our Happy Gay Snow Globe that, when you shake it, the glass ball is filled with colorful balloons, sparkles, smiles, and cute dogs. Gay people don’t use violence against each other. We’re not used to it, and we do not want to live in fear, not in our sacred space.
When a person with negative energy enters our home or garden, we and Sebastian are quick to pick up on it and eager, with grace, to have the person leave. We then light incense and walk through the house and garden. It is not only us that suffered from their self-hate, but the flowers, butterflies, and birds too.
I’ve never wanted to go to the Middle East Holy Land. It is a Christian Disneyland. I have a wonderful relationship with my brother, Jesus, that doesn’t require false piety where he is said to have been crucified. I can’t stand the thought of being surrounded by so-called Christians whose values and behaviors have nothing to do with Christ. So, keep your Holy Land and leave me, Ray, and our friends alone in ours.
This is where we celebrate our unique gifts, have our weddings and birthday parties, dress in elaborate costumes and make fun noise on Halloween, eat homemade ice cream, get lost in candy stores, and live our lives in peace.
Hats off to the organizers of the Wilton Manors Gay Pride Parade for taking such steps to keep us alive and not living in grief.
Brian McNaught’s new memoir, “A Prince of a Boy,” is now available as a self-narrated audiobook.
