Spiritual Journey of Gay Men and Lesbian Women

human species. For example, E.O. Wilson, in his Pulitzer Prizewinning book, On Human Nature (1982), suggests that "homosexuality... is a distinctive beneficent behavior that evolved as an important element of human social organization. Homosexuals may be the genetic carriers of some of mankind's rare altruistic impulses" (p. 149). Although not all would subscribe to the sweeping nature of Wilson's statement, Jung (1959) apparently had a sense of an evolved spirituality among some [male] homosexuals when he wrote that "he is endowed with a wealth of religious feelings . . . and a spiritual receptivity which makes him responsive to revelation" (p. 86). Few gay men and lesbian women, however, know that their ancestors have been the spiritual leaders and shamans throughout the history of civilization. These healers were highly esteemed and have been found in at least 88 Native-American tribes, in numerous African and South American civilizations, as well as in Polynesia, India, China, Japan, Tibet, and Malaysia, in addition to ancient Celtic, Greek, and Roman cultures (Clark, 1987; Evans, 1978; Grahn, 1984). According to Grahn:

In tribal culture we often formed a pool of potential initiates some of whom became the shamans and medicine people who can enter the spirit world, the wind, the mountains and rivers and the bottom of the sea; the worlds of the dead, or spirits, or other people's minds, of the gods and their forces; we it is who bring back the strange and old messages, interpreting them for the benefit of our tribe. (p. 273)

Another reason to perhaps recast the image of gay men and lesbian women is the findings of three recent dissertations, two (Bordisso, 1988; Wilson, 1984) of which demonstrated that gay and lesbian populations were significantly more advanced in Kohlberg's moral developmental level than were their heterosexual counterparts, and a third one (Mitchell, 1983) that found that 120 gay and nongay individuals were not significantly different in their level of moral development as measured by Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT) (1979). In C. V. Wilson's (1984) study, which controlled for age, sexual orientation, and sex, the DIT was administered to 192 subjects. Wilson saw the higher level of gay and lesbian moral development as a result of the disequilibrium inherent in living with an orientation that is in conflict with society's prevailing norms and rules. Bordisso (1988), also employing the DIT, controlled for age and education when studying 30 gay and 30 heterosexual Catholic priests and explained his similar findings as follows: "For homosexually oriented priests, it appears that the issue of their sexuality, introspection, conflict, anguish, fear of rejection, and alienation, provoked them to seek a more adequate stage of moral reasoning regardless of age or education" (pp. 106-107).

Although undoubtedly not applying to all persons of samegender orientation, the findings of Wilson, Bordisso, and Mitchell, as well as the writings on shamanistic spirituality, do seem to contradict the prevailing imagery of gay men and lesbian women as being morally inferior and lacking in spiritual lineage. Counselors can assist clients in achieving spiritual wholeness by holding up to them these more inspirational and hope-renewing images. If, rather than accepting the tendency to see themselves as creatures of a dark or spiritually bankrupt life-style, gay and lesbian people could be encouraged to experience themselves as potentially rich with spiritual receptivity and as inheritors of a sacred tradition of leadership, their self-image as a people of faith could be recast. Thus, by redirecting clients toward more evolved mystical and symbolic possibilities inherent within themselves, gay men and lesbian

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women may be helped to reconcile the losses of their past and assimilate the gifts that are uniquely theirs to give.

Reframing Loss

Developmental literature and theory, as well as the themes and motifs of most of the world's major religions, stress the interrelatedness of loss and gain, crisis and opportunity, and death and resurrection. For gay men and lesbian women then to proceed toward individuation and spiritual wholeness, their path will be through their grief and loss (Fortunato, 1982, 1987; Fowler, 1981; Topper, 1986; Whitehead & Whitehead, 1986). It will be through the reality of their orientation, rather than in spite of it, that they will reach a sense of the mystical and transcendent. In other words, their losses become a springboard for spiritual transformation.

"The pain and suffering that a homosexual in a homophobic culture undergoes can be either redemptive or alienating" (Fox, 1984, p. 190). Fox goes on to say that when suffering is redemptive, it leads to a sensitivity, a compassion for other oppressed people such as "the Jew, the Black person, the Native American, [and] women in a patriarchal society" (p. 190), the outsider of any description. Not only can this increased compassion prompt gay men and lesbians to a higher sense of personal and spiritual generativity (or a "giving back" to the culture) but it also models a sensitivity of response to the alienated of society.

Building upon the civil rights and women's movements of the 1960s and particularly the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969 (which is considered by many to be the starting event of the gay liberation movement), the AIDS crisis seems to be further empowering some gay men and lesbian women to assume the role of models. Confronting issues as disturbing as death, loss, and injustice has compelled many to tap deeply into themselves and to emerge with personal and spiritual resources to share with the entire community (Clark, 1987; Fortunato, 1987).

The losses of gay and lesbian people are many and they are profound-their feelings of not belonging to church, family, society, or the workplace; the loss of friends and loved ones to AIDS; the psychic destruction caused by heterosexual society's often projecting upon them its greatest fears and secrets; and the general loss of respectability, knowing that their very beings are unhesitatingly and unquestioningly despised by many. In the process of grieving through their losses, gay men and lesbian women are frequently faced with personal and spiritual developmental choice points. At any juncture they can get so mired in grief and pain that they may fail to realize the paths that lead to wholeness and, instead, take those that lead to further mistrust, shame, guilt, inferiority, confusion, isolation, stagnation, and ultimately despair (Fowler, 1981).

By highlighting and engendering the more life-affirming responses at each of these developmental junctures, counselors can assist lesbians and gay men in gaining a spirit of generativity and integrity and, hence, the individuation necessary to achieve a Conjunctive or Universalizing Faith (Fowler, 1981). As the alcoholic or child of an alcoholic begins to recover by talking, trusting, and feeling, so must many people of same-gender orientation. By aiding these clients to consciously and repeatedly identify, come to terms with, and release anger and pain in the face of their losses, a truer sense of autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, generativity, and integrity can be gained. Counselors, then, can assist gay men and lesbian women in freeing their souls of the negativity and death-dealing emotions that may be preventing them from proceeding along their spiritual journeys.

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Facilitating a Spiritual Path

In the process of recasting self-images and reframing their losses, some gay men and lesbian women are meeting their communal religious needs by retaining full affiliation in traditional religions, or becoming members in a gay or lesbian subgroup of these organized denominations, or joining alternative churches. Still others are finding their way into ancient, or non-Judeo-Christian spiritual expressions.

It is the purpose of this section to acquaint counselors with these various options so that they might better facilitate whatever healthy and viable paths along which their clients may be called. The discussion will most likely not prove relevant for those with little concern for religion or spirituality. To assist those clients who might have such an interest, however, some of the references at the end of this article on pages 13-14 might prove helpful. Those starred with a single asterisk indicate literature dealing with traditional Judeo-Christianity; those marked with a double asterisk relate to ancient or non-JudeoChristian expressions.

Traditional religion. Some gay and lesbian clients have been able to find a home within traditional organized religion. For those who remain there sometimes exists a blindness to the discrimination that surrounds them. For others, the struggle to stay is painful and is by no means resolved. A third group may find itself welcomed by denominations (e.g., Quakers, Unitarians) or by individual congregations within denominations (e.g., Episcopalian, United Methodist Reconciling Congregations [Cook, 1988]), some of which are actively trying to reverse previous ill-treatment by Judeo-Christianity. For yet another population, mainline religion is perceived as exclusionary and unresponsive to their needs, and affiliation is transferred to a gay and lesbian subgroup within that religious body. In this regard, most major cities in the United States have lesbian and gay synagogues that are branches of the Reformed Movement of Judaism and are members of the American Hebrew Congregation. The partial list available at the end of this article contains reference to the umbrella Jewish organization as well as other denominational affiliates. Likewise, many of the books in the reference list contain information concerning the beliefs of such groups.

The best example of an alternative church that serves the needs of gay men and lesbian women is the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC), which has more than 40,000 members in 12 countries. It has been in existence more than 20 years and is the largest organization in the world designed to serve lesbian and gay individuals. Perry (1987), the founder of MCC, indicates that this denomination invites gay and lesbian individuals to worship God freely and to stand before God's altar, as a people unashamed and proudly gay. In this regard, MCC is thus seen as philosophically reasonable, morally helpful, spiritually illuminating, and communally supportive.

Non-Judeo-Christian spiritualities. Some lesbian women and gay men have begun a quest to reconceptualize spiritual imagery and to connect themselves with ancient, more gayaffirming traditions by re-examining non-Judeo-Christian religions (Christ & Plaskow, 1979; Thompson, 1987a). Particular themes in these spiritualities seem to relate to the search for a more integrating, less dualistic approach to faith, a return to prepatriarchal mysteries and traditions, and the creation of rituals and symbols to reconnect gay men and lesbian women at the deepest level of their dreams.

There seems to be a trend toward viewing creation on a

Ritter and O'Neill continuum (Rich, 1976), to seeing the unity and relatedness of all realities-inner and outer, God and humanity, the masculine and feminine as divine images, self and community, earth and "mankind," body and spirit-and to believing in the integrating power of dreams (Goldenberg, 1979; Rich, 1976; Starhawk, 1979, 1982).

Another direction being taken by some lesbian women and gay men is toward prepatriarchal religious expressions (Daly, 1973; Evans, 1978). These are exemplified by Native-American Spirituality with its emphasis on the sacred nature of the earth and humanity's oneness with it, by Old Religion based on the principle of the Goddess as imminent in the world (Starhawk, 1979), and by Eastern and ancient mystery religions with their emphasis on the oneness of all beings and experience with a divine Source (Doore, 1988; Downing, 1981; Grahn, 1984).

A third theme weaving itself through the previous two is that of lesbian and gay people reimagining and retelling their lives and creating a spirituality unique to their experience. By means of ritual and symbol, lesbian women and gay men are giving expression to the cycle of death and rebirth intuitively understood by many of them as they have progressed through the stages of coming out and moving through the accompanying losses (Clark, 1987; Evans, 1978; Grahn, 1984; Thompson, 1987a).

These three themes are perhaps indicative of the spiritual rebirth occurring with the gay and lesbian community. By moving through the losses of life and encountering the accompanying darkness, a new spiritual vitality and vision is taking place. It is through this transformed vision that creativity emerges. "The darkness of letting go and letting be are precursor to the energy of birth and rebirth. Living marginal existences is conducive to creativity, while comfort seldom is..." (Fox, 1984, p. 199).

Personally and spiritually evolved gay men and lesbian women are beginning to express this creativity in transformative ways. Some perceive themselves as vital links in a chain from shamans to modern day priests, celebrating and reverencing their own and the earth's innate beauty and magic. Others become healers, tapping deeply into their own compassion and birthing the dying into death-or life. Coming out of injustice often builds justice makers who themselves join the struggle to help others as marginalized as they. Some are seen as mentors, guiding by wisdom and shared experience those who are beginning to walk the path toward wholeness. Still others, out of a more developed sense of identity synthesis (Cass, 1979), are able to bridge between the sexes as well as between the inner world of creative inspiration and the outer world of society.

By appreciating the sacredness of gay and lesbian people, the richness of their spiritual questing, and the opportunities for transformation as they move with their clients through loss and grief, counselors can facilitate spiritual wholeness. The reality of being lesbian or gay can be reframed as "a 'gift' allowed to a certain percentage of humanity, offering a different set of biological, social and spiritual receptors through which the world can be perceived and interpreted" (Thompson, 1987b, p. 184). By such recasting, counselors can hold up an illuminating vision of gay men and lesbian women as healers, justice makers, mentors, and bridge builders.

REFERENCES

Augsburger, S.W. (1984). The church as a change agent for the male homosexual: Etiology, intervention, and change. Dissertation Abstracts International, 45, 19056B.

Bordisso, L.A. (1988). The relationship between level of moral development

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