Life, Love, Freedom:
One Pride, One Struggle
By Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe., Ph.D.
PUBLISHED: AUGUST 2009
Speech delivered during Baguio City’s Queer Pride Mass.

"Liberation from moral slavery involves realizing that sex is also instituted by the Creator for companionship. This is seen even in the Bible, for those who look to the Bible for answers as I do." Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe., Ph.D.

Then there is the moral slavery to the rule that sex is OK only for heterosexual married couples. No room for masturbation or premarital sex, no room for LGBT couples, only sex that is open to making babies.

Liberation from moral slavery involves realizing that sex is also instituted by the Creator for companionship. This is seen even in the Bible, for those who look to the Bible for answers as I do. In creating the second human being, God not only created a mate to “mate with” for populating the earth with human beings, but God is also quoted as saying, “It is not good for a person to be alone.” Sure, populating the earth was a necessity at that time, but God also recognized that companionship is  a human necessity.

Let’s look at one more moral slavery. LGBT people are not allowed any sex, in any way, at any time, in their entire life.

Whew! Scientists tell us people do not choose to be LGBT. They are born that way. They do not choose to have a loving attraction to a person of the same gender. That attraction is a wonderful gift, given to them by the Creator.

And that is the same Creator who said it is not good for a person to be alone.  Of course heterosexual mating was necessary in the beginning to produce the children of the earth. But, Christians who believe in evolution, and there is no reason not to,  believe that same-sex attraction was part of the massive evolution that has taken place across the face of creation over the millions of years.  That may be easier for some to believe than to swallow the idea that we once looked like monkeys.

Surely, a just God, a loving God, a caring God,  would not allow or cause a significant percentage of the people of creation to come into this world with same-sex attraction and then order them never ever in any way to enjoy the sexual gift given to them.  That is very sex negative. And so ridiculous that it is blasphemous  to accuse   God of it.

Sex positive thinking, on the other hand,  opens the door for loving companionship, for committed sex.  Father Pittenger says that all sex is good, but loving sex is better, and committed, long term, loving sex is best.

Most of all, the bottom line is “Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle”
Sex positive thinking frees us to be who we are – from the hand of God.  And then the right to love as God constitutes us to love. And that includes the basic human right to marry  the one we love.

The most basic concept behind the Queer Pride Mass is the unflinching, unfailing, unconditional love of God for each and every LGBT person in the world.  The 8th Chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans tells it completely and  clearly. For those who honor the Bible, as I do, that’s the answer. Paul says, “There is no power anywhere that can separate us from the love of God.” That means no church, no civil authority, no prophet can stop God from loving you and me. Nobody, anywhere.  We are offered and entitled to God’s love. It is ours for the accepting. God’s arms are held out in embracing love. All we need to do is hug God in return.
That’s just a sample of sex negative and sex positive thinking.

In my own life, I had joined the left-leaning Gay Liberation Front which blossomed 40 years ago after the historic Stonewall moment in 1969. I had  opportunities to participate in the huge Pride Marches in Los angels, to take part in the longest Pride March in history, a weeklong trek from the Mexican border  through the desert to Phoenix,  Arizona. Then I was blessed to be able to work with Rev. Perry, meet Fr. Pittenger and Fr. McNeill, and to write some books on the sub ject, and to teach sex positive theology in the MCC international seminary in Los Angeles.
After 17  years of liberating work in the gay and lesbian communities of Detroit, Chicago, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, I was working as a sex-positive priest and psychologist in New Zealand when I heard that there was not one voice publicly speaking out for the religious rights of LGBT people  in the Philippines. In my heart I knew the LGBT people of the Philippines had the right to rightfully claim the unconditional love of God, the right to worship God, the right to be unchained from the moral slavery that drug them down to underserved shame and guilt complexes. They had a right to stable wholistic lives, and somebody had to introduce them to the basic rights that are theirs.

I came here to check it out in June 1991, and I was invited to start a work in the Philippines  by a petition of 43 LGBT people who wanted to hear a voice speaking out for them.  I resigned from my pastorate in New Zealand with its salary and perks, and came here to answer that calling in  September 1991 with no salary, no perks and set up MCC Philippines,  the first openly gay and lesbian activist organization in the country to begin the task of liberating LGBT people through sex-positive thinking. I have been privileged to follow that calling for the past 18 years.

In  early 1994 Oscar Atadero, an officer in MCC,  brought up to me that it was the 25th year anniversary of Stonewall, when gay liberation came out of the closet in America. We talked and decided that it was time for gay liberation to come out of the closet in the Philippines. He was part of the founding of the LGBT activist organizati0n, Pro Gay, in 1992. He arranged that Pro gay and MCC Manila, the organization I had founded in 1991, would co-sponsor the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March and Rally. Oscar  was the real author of that  historic event which took  place virtually 15 years ago today on June 26, 1994. I gave the keynote address and celebrated the Queer Pride Mass, and  we later found out it was the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in Asia.  I had celebrated the first LGBT Pride Mass in the Philippines and delivered the first-ever public LGBT Pride Speech on June 26, 1991 at the main altar of the  Cathedral of the Holy Child in Manila with a future bishop and a Methodist Pastor concelebrating, and 50 some people in attendance.

For months after the Pride March in 1994, there was massive media attention to that march and to the growing gay and lesbian movement. We appeared on Mel and Jay and numerous television shows, and, in short, the movement was off and running.

More and more gay and lesbian organizations sprung up.  After Reachout AIDS Foundation and Jomar Fleras sponsored large and colorful marches in Malate in 1996, 1997, and 1998,  we formed Task Force Pride as a network of more than a dozen organizations plus individuals to carry on  the marches in 1999, and TFP, until now, produces the annual Pride March in Manila.

I am very proud that Baguio is celebrating its third Pride March this weekend and I salute you people who are working so hard to pull it off.

I am proud of Rev. Ceejay Agbayani who has gone to seminary for years and been ordained and founded MCC Quezon City.

I am proud of Myke Sotero, your new MCC Baguio pastoral Leader, who has given his all to this work and is enrolled in a theological seminary for this work.
I am proud of William and all you brave and hardworking pioneers who are establishing MCC Baguio. Never forget the noble liberating work you are called to, setting LGBT people free from the chains of sex-negative thinking so they can enjoy   wonderful, clean, and beautiful sex-positive thinking and living. 

I challenge you all to work together, to collaborate,  to support each other’s programs.  Nationally, get behind Ang Ladlad, work with other LGBT organizations.
With the help of John Maxwell, ask yourself some questions about your involvement in LGBT liberation in Baguio.

Do you really have a  dream for  our people?

Ask yourself: does my dream for the LGBT community compel me to work for it?
Do I have a strategy; (in my group and in my personal ways of helping) do I have a strategy for my  dream?

Am I willing to pay the price for my dream to come true for the LGBT people of  Metro Baguio?

Does my dream fulfill only my ambition, or does it really benefit the community?

Does my dream, does my work, collaborate, cooperate with and help fulfill our common dream, our common hope, and our common destiny?

The Jaycee Creed says, “Service to humanity is the best work of life. Our work is liberating our people, advancing justice and full human rights  for our people.  Ask yourself: Is that my dream? It begins right here, right where we are, with an attitude of love and cooperation with the others who have this dream.

The time of liberation has come. It is time for the theme of your celebration this week: “Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle.” It is time to live in freedom and dignity the life and love and wonderful gift of sexuality our Creator has given us.

Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe, Ph.D. is Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit Philippines, Abbot of the Order of St. Aelred, a priest and psychologist. He has been in LGBT ministry for 38 years in the United States, New Zealand, and in the Philippines for the last 18 years. He introduced weddings for same-sex couples to the Philippines in 1991, with his founding of the first openly gay and lesbian activist organization, MCC Manila. He founded the Order of St. Aelred in 1995.
Mickley is a veteran of the Korean War in Korea, a former university dean and professor, and was a successful restauranteur for several years. He worked as a psychologist in Los Angeles. His doctorate is in Clinical Psychology and his masters in Counseling Psychology for Gays and lesbians.

The Order of St. Aelred is at St. Aelred Friendship Society, 82-D Masikap Extension, Barangay Central, Quezon City. For information, call (+632) 9218273 or 9209034909, email saintaelred@gmail.com, or visit http://www.geocities.com/staelredmonasterymanila or http://richardrmickley.blogspot.com.