I can't get it out of my mind. It haunts me. It is likely not one of us here at Beatitudes Campus, either resident or staff, has not been affected by the events in Orlando last weekend. One wishes that such brutality and terror were only in the movies. But not even a movie can portray the horror of what we all witnessed. It is impossible to comprehend what the victims and witnesses were facing as the sick and demented soul made his way through the nightclub shooting and killing unceasingly.
The horrible irony is that the people who gathered in that club on that night, like millions of other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people did in their own communities, did so because it was there that they felt safe, secure, accepted and uniquely free to be just as they are – unlike almost any other gathering area in the United States. It is at such clubs, for the moments they are open, that a genuine sense of community exists for those who have no other community, even if they live and sleep in their various neighborhoods and cities.
For everywhere else there is fear of judgment, condemnation, retribution, and physical, psychological and mental abuse by the public around them. On that night they were to be safe and away from the potential harm they have to endure on a daily basis that is inflicted upon them by faith communities, politicians, television pundits and, too often, neighbors and family. What shakes the gay community to the ground is the fear that there are no safe places any more.
When I think of community, I think of my community—Beatitudes Campus. Since coming here, I have had only one agenda: help create a community where all are received and accepted just as they are, and valued as unique and unrepeatable creations. I believe that to be the one and only goal of true community. In our society, elders are often relegated to the sidelines in condescending ways, but not here. We respect each other, value each other, and care for each other as equals. We may have different colors of our skin, opposing political viewpoints, competing faith traditions, innumerable levels of physical and mental abilities, various sexual orientations and gender identity concepts. But those do not matter in this community, other than they are beautiful characteristics of our whole community.
The reality is that the Beatitudes Community has the opportunity to show the rest of the world what it is to live, not just tolerating each other, but truly accepting and embracing one another. I believe what we are creating in our community will be a model for the larger community around us to discover and learn about living in peace and harmony with one other in a world that clearly does not understand how it is to be done.
It is a fact that one of the most frightening possibilities for senior gay people today is having to move into a community like ours. The fear of rejection, discrimination and having to go back into “the closet” just to survive is beyond too painful a possibility to have to consider. I am grateful that we proclaim our acceptance of all people proudly and deliberately to the LGBT community, as also evidenced in Our Promise. We know we are all one and the same.
Perhaps, more than ever, it is important for us to try to understand and learn more about each other here and those who might be coming to our Campus in the future. Study other religions, learn about other cultures, listen to a neighbor who is now dependent upon assistive devices to move around, befriend a person of a different sexual orientation or gender identity and look at the world through their eyes. Dare to do this and see how your life might be changed for the better, and watch how our community will grow stronger with a love and acceptance that I believe there is not a one of us here who doesn't yearn for that deep inside. When you hear or witness discussions or actions that are denigrating or exclusionary of others, find the courage to stop them, because it is only destroying a community that I believe is meant to be a model for all others.
Some may know and some may not, but I am gay and proud of who I am after decades of trying to deny who I am. Some may say I am biased as I write this. I will always believe I am just working to help create a community that aspires to the dream of God for all peoples as I long to be part of a community who will accept me, and people like me and all others. For I, too, crave to be able to walk in a community where I won't feel people looking at me and talking about me when I am with my partner. I am tired of the shouts coming from a passing car calling me a “fag” and worse. I hunger for a time when I, or my friends like me, don't have to always have it in the back of our minds, “are we safe here?” like we have to today. I want to know there will be a safe community for me when the day comes that I want to live in a Beatitudes Campus type of community.
So I ask my community to please commit to making our community safe and loving for everyone. Let's work together to make this the model that it so easily can be. Your grandchildren and great grandchildren, nephews and nieces will remember you as trailblazers for teaching this world how to be a better world and showing them what true community is all about. For we are all one and the same. *
Respectfully,
Rev. David W. Ragan
Our Promise
Beatitudes Campus is a not-for-profit ministry of Church of the Beatitudes, a United Church of Christ congregation. Our heritage of Christian hospitality calls us to welcome all people. This includes outreach to Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and other faiths, as well as those with no connection to a faith community. We value the diversity of all – regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, marital status, or sexual orientation. Core values of compassion, respect, accountability and excellence drive every aspect of our community, and are what have made Beatitudes Campus a strong and respected leader in retirement living for 50 years.
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