The Gay Reverend is Surprised How well she is treated at the bedrock of Homophobia AL.
What surprises the Rev. Lynn Hopkins the most is when the gay community is treated like full citizens.
The minister at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Montgomery has lived in Alabama since August, and said that while she has not encountered any overt hostility in being gay, she is in her 50s and has "lived a long time in the outskirts of social structures."
"This is a really exciting time for me, because you are seeing ... people talk about marriage, home ownership, church membership. This is a new thing for American society, and a really new thing for Alabama."
The Alabama Department of Public Health this week sent new marriage forms to the state's probate courts, following federal court decisions striking down same-sex marriage bans in Alabama. The new form lists "spouse and spouse" instead of "bride and groom."
U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade ruled the state's 1998 law and 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage were unconstitutional in two separate decisions at the end of January. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to grant the state a stay beyond Monday. State officials have appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the nation's highest court declines to intervene, same-sex marriage licenses will begin to be issued on Monday, and probate courts around Alabama have been preparing for the possibility.
"There is absolutely nothing in Christian scripture that supports the condemnation of gay people," said Hopkins, who is not legally married but was joined in holy union with her partner of 28 years in 1988. "It is my conviction that those that stand in the pulpit and say so are either uninformed or disingenuous.
"There are people out there suffering because they believe God hates them."
'Alabama ... hotbed of homophobia'
Darian Aaron was born and raised in Montgomery. The 34-year-old came out as gay when he was 16, and after high school, moved away, living in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York. He returned to Montgomery to earn a broadcast journalism degree at Alabama State University, where he founded AMPLIFIED, the university's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) student group.
Asked about being gay, and the difference between living in larger cities and in Alabama, he answered: "It's the Bible Belt. Religion has such a strong hold on the city, on the community, on the state. Whereas big cities like L.A. and New York are such a melting pot ... it's people from different backgrounds.
"I am a product of living in a homophobic society, and Alabama is no exception. It's definitely a hotbed of homophobia ... as well as a hotbed of racism. It has a long history of both. I definitely felt ostracized when I first came out because it's such a strict, religious, conservative environment. So I was terrified with how my family would receive my coming out and how members of my community would react to me. That was always a fear. But thankfully, I've never experienced a direct violence."
Neither has Jon Perdue, who moved from north Alabama to Montgomery with his partner, Tim Burgess, four years ago.
"I've lived in Alabama in the closet and out of the closet," said Perdue, who works for the state as a social worker. "And for some reason, when you begin to live with integrity and begin to be who you are, people don't have that power over you anymore. Once you step from the shadows, you no longer live under any type of intimidation. Or worry that your boss is going to find out, your neighbors, your church.
"I wish I could say that I felt put-upon, but I don't. But I suspect that's because I grew up in a family that had me convinced from the beginning that I hung the moon. That kind of foundation ... I think you carry that with you."
'It's not really, really bad'
Caleb Gumbs, 19, didn't always have that feeling.
Born a female, Gumbs, who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands and studying chemistry at ASU, grew up primarily in a private Christian school and had a strong religious upbringing. Gumbs considers himself a "queer trans male of color."
"In school we were taught ... that gay people were wrong, and going to hell, and that it was sinful," said Gumbs. "I think that when I was 17 years old, I had just gone into the public school system ... and found people of the same mindset — a place where I met people like me. They had same-sex attractions; they were not afraid of it, and I was able to start embracing it."
Gumbs, who identifies most as a male, and who started treatments last month to make the transformation to a man, has not been met with any hostility in Alabama because of his sexual identity.
"I found that ASU has been a place where I can identify as male without receiving a lot of backlash for it," Gumbs said. "I do see Montgomery in that light ... it's not really, really bad. I just wish I had the opportunity to experience somewhere a whole lot more progressive. I wish that sometimes people would try to learn about different backgrounds and start thinking for themselves."
What Alabama needs to do
What needs to happen in Alabama for the gay community to be more accepted?
"I would be a wealthy individual if I knew the answer," said Perdue, who plans to one day marry his partner in Alabama. "Time is a mitigating factor. I think the more that we feed that lunatic fringe, the more power they have. What we as a community need to do is move forward in dignity and integrity, and walk in truth, and the rest will sort itself out."
Aaron, an openly gay student on the ASU campus, said while he might hear things in passing, he uses them as teachable moments.
"I am able to confront that homophobia head-on when I hear it in discussions," he said. "Education is definitely a part of the piece that needs to happen in Montgomery. But we also need to learn how to embrace each other's differences, and to respect the humanity in each individual and to be able to separate religion from civil issues.
"In terms of marriage equality, it really is a civil issue."
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