Saturday, February 24, 2007

Coming out of the Broom Closet: Don't ask, don't spell

Merry Meet!

I have had conversations with many witches of diverse traditions. I have also met many gay folk. Many gay folk who practice the Craft and they all say the same thing: I was easier for me to come out of the sexual closet than the broom closet. I thought to myself why that is, and with hopes that I don't offend any gay folk, this is what I have come up with.

Gay folk are looked at as misguided folks who may be sinners but have done nothing that God cannot forgive, but tell your family that you are a witch and images of grotesque blasphemies rise up in the minds of your family. They assume you have done something to commit the unforgivable sin and that is "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit".

And this simply comes from a place of ignorance. They believe all those scary stories that have been told since the Middle Ages that we sacrifice children and have sex with the devil and attend black masses. The thing is, a true witch would find that distasteful to do something to insult another religion, the second thing is that the activities themselves would have very little meaning to a true witch, as their religious beliefs do not acknowledge the importance to such things as the black mass, as these are simply parodies of a Christian activity. And no witch would harm a child, it is against the rede and the legends of child sacrifice exist as a part of testimony only after torture by the Inquisition.

For me, I believe that I will likely be in the broom closet all of my life. It doesn't bother me, it simply is this way. The Craft does not require me to convert, in fact the Craft is esoteric, but it is sad that the reason I can't be more up front about my practice is that people refuse to accept the diversity of the world.

Brightest Blessings Be
Aslinn Dhan Dragonhawk

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