ole saint lou and the uu

geography helped designate st louis as the gateway to america's west. once you pass beneath the famous arch on the west bank of the mississippi river, you enter louisiana purchase territory. tho this town is better known as an east-west thoroughfare, in my humble opinion the arch should have straggled the river diagonally, as dear st lou feels more like the buffer between the midwest and south than east and west. either way, the istanbul of missouri is an interesting walkabout. as i made my way on foot over a few hours, i appreciated the sturdy and majestic turn of the century architecture and gritty industry in the downtown core. furthermore, since god hates homos, it just so happened that im here instead of seattle or chicago for pride. dont stop the presses, but st louis pride was meagre and alabaster white.

im here to speak at the unitarian universalist associations general assembly on sunday morn. the uu's are a curious posse... among societys most liberal, aged and well educated (think ralph waldo emerson) who weave the intellectual and spiritual together. on the social justice front, they sanctioned same-sex marriages decades ago and have been leaders on gender equality issues.

tho uu-ism has been around since the early 16th century, the faith (i learned that some people reject the word 'church' as exclusive of their culturally jewish, buddhist, muslim and other members.) in its current form came about in 1961, when the unitarians and universalists formally merged. many uu's dont consider their faith under the increasingly intolerant and so very not 'WWJD' christian tribes.

that said, the couple hundred thousand members in the usa are 98% white. even neo nazi groups aren't that white. so no matter how 'inclusive' uu-ism claims to be, their demographics say it plain. case in point was a meeting i joined this afternoon with about 60 or so committed, passionate and intelligent uus of color. remarkably, this group represented most of the colored folks in a conference boasting 5,000 attendees! it was sad to see the pain from these remarkable people who felt ignored and tokenized by this overwhelming WMWP (well-meaning white people) faith. one young, former-catholic filipino homo told me that his sexuality was totally affirmed but his pinoy heritage was not. i met a lot of uus of color who were in st louis as integral participants in the conference, but who protested their second class status by not wearing the denomination's symbolically-important burning chalice lapel.

last year while in rio dijaneiro, i ducked into a nearby church to escape a sudden rainstorm. since then ive felt the need to develop my spiritual identity. growing up, i thought church and faith were only about discipline and community. much like not speaking fluent korean, as an adult i can no longer blame my parents or anyone else for not having a spiritual home. the idea of joining the uus- curious and skeptical people of faith who celebrate my sexuality and right to create a civilly-sanctioned family- is incredibly exciting... yet seeing/hearing reminders of the humiliation of being on the front lines of 'white ally' organization give me pause.