The City Paper covers the recent meeting of the minds of the Christian Associates of Southwestern Pennsylvania and KDKA head honchos in which they determined well, really not much of anything other than to mutually continue beating their own drums of “we did nothing wrong.”
That's a complete load of hooey and Brent Dugan is dead because of it. When I read the article, I just heard wheels spinning furiously as both sides desperately try to avoid taking responsibility for the homophobia underlying their actions. Brent's friends seem to genuinely believe he killed himself due to the betrayal by his lover and the publicity of KDKA, a stance that to me just perpetuates the loneliness he must have felt even among his closest loved ones. If the Presbyterian Church continues to dodge “the gay question,” people both in and out of ministry who happen to be gay will suffer.
Ledcat pointed out that I have not yet considered KDKA's homophobia and she's right. Pursuing a gay minister in a bookstore story is obviously tapping right into gay-hysteria and shame on them for pandering to the, well, shame factor in society. But I still say pointing the finger at Marty Griffin misses the mark. He's just one cog in a giant wheel of gay-intolerance.
Everyone let this man down. His loved ones. His faith community. His fourth estate. And his community — we perpetuate a culture that excludes, minimizes and reduces homosexuality to second-class status. Everyone is to blame for this man's death.
As everyone dances the denial route, it is apparent that Brent Dugan is as lonely in death as he seems to have been in life. Thank goodness, his God is more compassionate than his fellow human beings.
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