An Open Letter to Rep. Bachmann, R-MN

Dear Michele Bachmann,

You just can’t seem to stop talking about homosexuality. As a lifelong homosexual, and a former fundamentalist, I can speak with some authority on the matter.

Your weird brand of Christianity forces you to believe that homosexuality is evil. As a first-person witness to all the struggles I have had with my sexuality, I am now in a position to inform you that you are completely wrong. You’re wrong because I exist. I’m gay, and I’m happy. My spiritual development is on track, my heart is full, and here’s the kicker: I’m touched by God.

Seriously. Six weeks ago, I took more prizes in the Van Cliburn Foundation’s International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs than any other participant. People have told me all my life that I have a gift from God, and they’re right. I can play the piano really, really beautifully. I can touch people’s hearts deeply and profoundly, and it’s easy for me -- easy, and deeply rewarding. It’s obviously God’s plan, because it’s hard-wired into my very being. Always has been. I’m a musician; it’s the language my prayers go out in.

I’m also gay, and once I stopped listening to people like you, that became another source of happiness for me: not misery, not confusion, just sheer delight.

And I am, inarguably, happy. I’m a big, happy, red-blooded, beer-swilling, porn-loving American, and God’s love and blessings and approval permeate me, and I stand as incontrovertible evidence that when you say that my “lifestyle” is evil, you are lying about me. You are lying about what God actually does in the lives of people like me, and about the ineffable joy that having a healthy relationship to one’s sexuality can bring, and I'm asking you to stop it.

Now that you know these things, stop it. Your religious views may oblige you to fear what you can’t understand, but you don’t have the right to continue to spread cruel lies when it’s all been so clearly explained to you.

Sincerely,
Clark Griffith