A public meeting had been planned for this date at 2pm in downtown Jakarta entitled:
“Peace and a Multicultural Society." The gathering was sponsored by KUMPUL, a coalition of several organizations whose stated purpose is the unity of a pluralist Indonesian society. Panel members (see pic): Intan Dharmawati, an activist theologian, myself a lesbian priest, and Kathryn Poethig (my partner) professor of Global Studies. We arrived at 1:00p and had time to clarify with Intan and ourselves what each of us would offer. When Intan discovered that I also created theatre, she suggested that I start my 10 minutes with a theatre exercise! Fine, I said, just don’t take it away from my 10 minutes!
As the audience arrived it was made up of many young people, including the young lesbians who had greeted me the night of my arrival in Jakarta. There were many women and men who are activists in the Jakarta community and representing their organizations. There were also a number of transgender people present. And a good third of the audience (150 people) were women in jilbabs (the Indonesian hijab worn by Muslim women).
The meeting began with music, a beautiful poem addressed to “mother” – the sense of which was: forgive me for all the times I didn’t show the kind of love you did to others.
Since my own mother had died just weeks before, I was choking back tears during this.
The program then moved to a very different format. The taped music began and a young transgender woman then took the stage and lip sang to a popular Indonesian song. She was dressed in a long black gown and sparkling high heels. Certainly a rousing prologue to our panel!
Then it was time for the panel to begin:
Intan asked us to think about: which part of your body are you most proud of? which part the most uncomfortable with? She pointed out that our identities are multi-faceted, as are notions of our bodies. To our identities and perceptions of our bodies, we must bring a “hermeneutic of suspicion,” realizing that our identities, including our sexualities, are both socially constructed and biological. In most patriarchal theologies women’s bodies have been derided and considered lower than the soul (represented by the male). But a wholistic approach to sexuality is needed. One that understands the goodness of all sexualities and how they can be the expression of God. [the reader here must understand that the audience was at least 1/3 Muslim women in jilbabs, many of whom were nodding yes to Intan’s ideas].
I began with asking for volunteers to create a three-dimensional sculpture on the theme of gender. There were so many willing participants, and participants from all sexualities and much enjoyment. In fact it was really a sculpture that offered a window into the construction of gender and the fluidity of sexualities. Moving to the spoken word from the enacted word, I then offered thoughts about the construction of my own multiple identities: U.S. citizen (where in 2050 there will be no hegemonic ethnicity), California resident (where there is no one hegemonic ethnicity today), white woman professor who teaches a course entitled “Women of Color in the USA” where we make alliances across ethnicities, lesbian Roman Catholic priest (enough said) and theatre writer/director.
After giving the history of women deacons, priests and bishops in the RCC, including our contemporary movement [www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org], I spoke to the related issues of misogyny and homophobia in the RCC and how this is built on the dualism of body and soul. I offered the contrast of how sexualities can be an expression of God’s love. Right relationship and mutuality in lovemaking is “Godding.” And certainly, when the global RCC feels the winds of the Spirit and changes its positions on women and LGBT people, as it certainly will in time, then the social and cultural influence this will have globally will be immense.
Kathryn offered the connection between empire (U.S.) and the construction of sexuality and violence. She began with the recent court decision in California allowing marriage for LGBT folks and announced that we would be getting married upon our return. [rousing applause!] She then went on to say that “ as progressive folks working against empire, we are asked to be non-sexual as gay people. How long do we have to subjugate our sexuality to progressive inter-faith interests. Especially when we are talking about empire and it seems that the hard economic analysis is the only acceptable critique---neo-liberalism, marxist analysis. But we must also have a sexual analysis of the sexual perversions of empire. This is because militarized cultures require the nation to have a virile masculinity and are homophobic. We see this in Abu Ghraib, where the “enemy” was portrayed as savage, sexual and effeminate. And thus the U.S., portraying itself as a muscular/masculine nation represents a kind of hypersexuality focused on a normative masculinity. And sexual minorities become the canaries of the nation---meaning, you see how sexual minorities are purged in the hetero-normative state.”
There were many questions afterward and the discussion was lively!!
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