Hope

When I watch the election coverage coming out of the States, I am left fearing that the world is becoming an increasingly intolerant and hate-filled place.  This morning, however, I had a brief glimmer of hope that maybe things are actually getting better.  One of my friends, an open lesbian who is married to another woman, got ordained as a pastor this morning.  Surrounded by representatives from multiple Christian denominations and multiple churches, she was welcomed not only into life in the church, but into life as one of its leaders.  To the best of my knowledge, she is the first openly gay pastor within her denomination in Canada. 

Her denomination is not one that is commonly associated with progressiveness or open-mindedness, and I know that her journey to this point hasn't been an easy one.  There were people who resisted her advancement at multiple steps, and I suspect that there are people who will leave her congregation because they can't see past their bigotry to how fortunate they are to have her as their pastor.  For the people who remain, even the ones who are hesitant to be led by a lesbian, my hope is that they will see how utterly ordinary her relationship with her wife is.  The genders may be different, but they experience the same love and companionship and struggle of any heterosexual couple.  Different on the surface, but fundamentally the same underneath.

I hope too that Americans will come to their senses and not vote a dickhead for POTUS.