Baguio Pride Mass 2009

I had the privilege of speaking and presiding at the Pride Mass offered as part of the 3rd Baguio Pride Week celebration on June 27, 2009.

The Concelebrants of the Mass were three dedicated ‘servants of God with whom I have worked for many years. And, indeed, I was proud as a grandfather (knowing that I should claim no credit for their dedication and zeal and hard work) attending a mass celebrated by three dedicated ministers who had been over the years protégés of mine in one way or another.

The Rev. Ceejay Agbayani has been with MCC for many years in Manila. Several years ago he took up residence in Union Theological Seminary, where I was proud to sponsor him for several years in a humble way and visit him as he pursued his studies. When he received his Masters in Divinity (Theology), he was ordained by MCC, and proceeded to found MCC Quezon City where he has been pastoring for more than two years now.

Art Ventayan has been a faithful member of MCC ever since I took him to worship there in 1997 after he had been worshipping with me in Marikina until I moved from there. Over the years he has been active in the LGBT community as well as a never failing member of MCC Manila. When I talked to him about his selection as Pastoral Leader of MCC Manila, he replied in his humble way, “I did not know I was next in line.”

Myke Sotero has long felt a calling to serve God and the LGBT community. A long time member of the Order of St. Aelred, he eagerly got involved with the efforts to start MCC Metro Baguio. He was installed as Pastoral Leader at the Pride Mass June 27, 2009. He is attending theological seminary in Baguio in preparation for professional ministry.


Baguio speech, Queer Pride Mass, 2009

Why Do We Have a Queer Pride Mass?
“Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle”
Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe., Ph.D.

At one point in my life, as Assistant Director of Pro Football’s Hall of Fame in Ohio, I had occasion to go to civic groups and colleges to present films of pro football’s Super Bowl games for interested audiences.

Little did I ever dream that later in my life I would be going to television shows, universities and civil society groups in the Philippines to speak on sex-positive thinking.

Then, I spoke as a sports enthusiast. Today I work as a psychologist and priest to bring peace, hope, and salvation to hundreds, perhaps thousands who have been immersed in moral slavery. Think about it. Slavery – moral slavery. More about that later.

In ministry with LGBT people, the work of the priest and psychologist merge. This is because a big challenge of the priest and psychologist is to counteract the ill effect of moral slavery. This is done by changing from the binding chains of sex-negative thinking to the liberating light of sex-positive thinking.

Years ago, in my abnormal psychology class in undergraduate school, the professor introduced the subject by informing us that most people are in mental hospitals because of sex or religion or both.

In our work in the LGBT community, we see a lot of people adversely affected by the combination of religion and sexuality. Because of the type “religi0n” teachings they have been subjected to, many people have a warped reaction to sexuality. Not being able to handle this kind of interpretation of religion and sexuality, they often get all twisted up psychologically.

A powerful example of this is seen in the effect of Bagong Pagasa, Exodus and those groups which try to use religion to change people from homosexual to heterosexual. They use religious threat; some call it religious torture; others call it religious brainwashing. It just does not work. I have seen in three countries where I have worked that it does not work.

All too often this method leads to suicide or extreme confusion about what is religion and what is sexuality, and how do religion and sexuality intersect in real life? The frustration results from a false confusing picture about what is religion, and what is sexuality. The founders of Exodus recognized this several years ago in a speech at MCC General Conference and apologized to the world for all the suicides and messed up lives they had caused. This is documented on internet in the following words

In 1979, Exodus International's co-founder Michael Bussee and his partner Gary Cooper quit the group and held a life commitment (wedding) ceremony together and… made a public apology for their roles in Exodus.[8]

They had tried to use religious threats and persuasions to change LGBT to straight. In the long run, that’s why we have to deal with both religion and sexuality in this matter. That’s why for nineteen years we have celebrated an annual Queer Pride Mass in the Philippines.

The bottom line is that religion and sex do not merely intersect

For those who choose to have religion, a healthy life integrates religion and sexuality. For them, a healthy life makes religion and sex compatible, working together for a fulfilled life here and perfectly OK for the goal of heaven.

Even for those who choose to not practice a religion, a healthy life must be liberated from the ill effects of moral slavery upon a person’s life. And, to be sure, the life of every LGBT person I have ever met has been negatively impacted by false ideas of how religion and sex interact in life.

Let’s look at a few concrete examples of this phenomenon. The phenomenon is the way moral slavery can take control over my life, over the normal natural existence of sexuality in my life; and of course it comes from the sex-negative teachings of churches.

This, then, was what led the pioneering work of Rev. Troy Perry to give the world MCC in 1968, one year before the Stonewall riots. In his heart Troy knew it was time for people to come out of moral slavery to the promised land of God’s unfailing and unconditional love.

Let’s look at the first example of moral slavery: many young people are nearly driven crazy by church teachings that masturbation is a very nasty shameful sin.

They want to hear what religion is saying, but their very nature, their very psychological being, and what we now know as their very normal self tells them: if masturbation is sinful and ugly and shameful, why do I find it so irresistible, so much a part of the needs of my personhood at this time in my life.

That dilemma pulls them in two directions – with no help from religion. For straight guys, it may seem less shameful to make a baby out of sexual “need” than to masturbate.

That’s when they need somebody who can help them integrate religion and sexuality in their life. Great thinkers, theologians, priests, professors, doctors have led the way in explaining a sex-positive approach to life. Rev. Troy Perry, Fr. Norman Pittenger, Fr. John McNeill and dozens of others have shown us the way.

The whole LGBT world has a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Rev. Troy Perry who had brought the Love of God for Gays and Lesbians out of the closet by founding MCC a year before Stonewall. I had the great privilege of working directly with Rev. Perry for many years, in his office, in his churches.

I have been able to take the books, the thinking, the teachings of Rev. Perry, Fr. Pittenger, Fr. McNeill, and develop a sex-positive approach to lead victims of moral slavery in the Philippines out of these chains of shame and frustration.

There is no justification in the Bible for condemning masturbation. This condemnation, this requirement for Catholics to admit masturbation in the confessional has caused inestimable harm, not only to self esteem, but to the very spiritual and mental health of countless millions of its victims. In short masturbation is a harmless, normal, human function.

Another moral slavery has to do with condoms. It all stems from the very negative view that sex is “bad” unless it is to produce children. The Catholic teaching is that sex is bad unless it is open to the reproduction of children. Of course, condoms would prevent that. Therefore condoms are forbidden, even to prevent AIDS.

But in sex positive theology, as succinctly explained by the famous theologian, Fr. Norman Pittenger, all sex is good – if it is not harmful or forceful. That replaces the sex negative approach all sex is bad that is not open to reproduction of children. Then when condoms were discovered to be an effective prevention of transmitting the HIV virus, the church still clung to its “no condoms” teaching. You and I know that a couple with six kids whom they can’t afford to feed or send to school would be sinful not to use condoms to prevent more starving kids. They would be much better off, morally, spiritually, physically, financially, logically if they would use condoms, and surely God would want that. But wait a minute: the church says, “No problem, just solve it all with ‘no sex.’” That is indeed sex negative and indeed abnormal for anybody, but especially for a married couple, living and sleeping together.

Then there is the moral slavery to the rule that sex is OK only for heterosexual married couples. No room for masturbation or premarital sex, no room for LGBT couples, only sex that is open to making babies.

Liberation from moral slavery involves realizing that sex is also instituted by the Creator for companionship. This is seen even in the Bible, for those who look to the Bible for answers as I do. In creating the second human being, God not only created a mate to “mate with” for populating the earth with human beings, but God is also quoted as saying, “It is not good for a person to be alone.” Sure, populating the earth was a necessity at that time, but God also recognized that companionship is a human necessity.

Let’s look at one more moral slavery. LGBT people are not allowed any sex, in any way, at any time, in their entire life.

Whew! Scientists tell us people do not choose to be LGBT. They are born that way. They do not choose to have a loving attraction to a person of the same gender. That attraction is a wonderful gift, given to them by the Creator.

And that is the same Creator who said it is not good for a person to be alone. Of course heterosexual mating was necessary in the beginning to produce the children of the earth. But, Christians who believe in evolution, and there is no reason not to, believe that same-sex attraction was part of the massive evolution that has taken place across the face of creation over the millions of years. That may be easier for some to believe than to swallow the idea that we once looked like monkeys.

Surely, a just God, a loving God, a caring God, would not allow or cause a significant percentage of the people of creation to come into this world with same-sex attraction and then order them never ever in any way to enjoy the sexual gift given to them. That is very sex negative. And so ridiculous that it is blasphemous to accuse God of it.

Sex positive thinking, on the other hand, opens the door for loving companionship, for committed sex. Father Pittenger says that all sex is good, but loving sex is better, and committed, long term, loving sex is best.

Most of all, the bottom line is “Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle”
Sex positive thinking frees us to be who we are – from the hand of God. And then the right to love as God constitutes us to love. And that includes the basic human right to marry the one we love.

The most basic concept behind the Queer Pride Mass is the unflinching, unfailing, unconditional love of God for each and every LGBT person in the world. The 8th Chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans tells it completely and clearly. For those who honor the Bible, as I do, that’s the answer. Paul says, “There is no power anywhere that can separate us from the love of God.” That means no church, no civil authority, no prophet can stop God from loving you and me. Nobody, anywhere. We are offered and entitled to God’s love. It is ours for the accepting. God’s arms are held out in embracing love. All we need to do is hug God in return.

That’s just a sample of sex negative and sex positive thinking.

In my own life, I had joined the left-leaning Gay Liberation Front which blossomed 40 years ago after the historic Stonewall moment in 1969. I had opportunities to participate in the huge Pride Marches in Los angels, to take part in the longest Pride March in history, a weeklong trek from the Mexican border through the desert to Phoenix, Arizona. Then I was blessed to be able to work with Rev. Perry, meet Fr. Pittenger and Fr. McNeill, and to write some books on the sub ject, and to teach sex positive theology in the MCC international seminary in Los Angeles.

After 17 years of liberating work in the gay and lesbian communities of Detroit, Chicago, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, I was working as a sex-positive priest and psychologist in New Zealand when I heard that there was not one voice publicly speaking out for the religious rights of LGBT people in the Philippines. In my heart I knew the LGBT people of the Philippines had the right to rightfully claim the unconditional love of God, the right to worship God, the right to be unchained from the moral slavery that drug them down to underserved shame and guilt complexes. They had a right to stable wholistic lives, and somebody had to introduce them to the basic rights that are theirs.

I came here to check it out in June 1991, and I was invited to start a work in the Philippines by a petition of 43 LGBT people who wanted to hear a voice speaking out for them. I resigned from my pastorate in New Zealand with its salary and perks, and came here to answer that calling in September 1991 with no salary, no perks and set up MCC Philippines, the first openly gay and lesbian activist organization in the country to begin the task of liberating LGBT people through sex-positive thinking. I have been privileged to follow that calling for the past 18 years.

In early 1994 Oscar Atadero, an officer in MCC, brought up to me that it was the 25th year anniversary of Stonewall, when gay liberation came out of the closet in America. We talked and decided that it was time for gay liberation to come out of the closet in the Philippines. He was part of the founding of the LGBT activist organizati0n, Pro Gay, in 1992. He arranged that Pro gay and MCC Manila, the organization I had founded in 1991, would co-sponsor the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March and Rally. Oscar Atadero was the real author of that historic event which took place virtually 15 years ago today on June 26, 1994. I gave the keynote address and celebrated the Queer Pride Mass, and we later found out it was the first Gay and Lesbian Pride March in Asia. I had celebrated the first LGBT Pride Mass in the Philippines and delivered the first-ever public LGBT Pride Speech on June 26, 1991 at the main altar of the Cathedral of the Holy Child in Manila with a future bishop and a Methodist Pastor concelebrating, and 50 some people in attendance.

For months after the Pride March in 1994, there was massive media attention to that march and to the growing gay and lesbian movement. We appeared on Mel and Jay and numerous television shows, and, in short, the movement was off and running.

More and more gay and lesbian organizations sprung up. After Reachout AIDS Foundation and Jomar Fleras sponsored large and colorful marches in Malate in 1996, 1997, and 1998, we formed Task Force Pride as a network of more than a dozen organizations plus individuals to carry on the marches in 1999, and TFP, until now, produces the annual Pride March in Manila.

I am very proud that Baguio is celebrating its third Pride March this weekend and I salute you people who are working so hard to pull it off.

I am proud of Rev. Ceejay Agbayani who has gone to seminary for years and been ordained and founded MCC Quezon City.

I am proud of Myke Sotero, your new MCC Baguio pastoral Leader, who has given his all to this work and is enrolled in a theological seminary for this work.

I am proud of William and all you brave and hardworking pioneers who are establishing MCC Baguio. Never forget the noble liberating work you are called to, setting LGBT people free from the chains of sex-negative thinking so they can enjoy wonderful, clean, and beautiful sex-positive thinking and living.

I challenge you all to work together, to collaborate, to support each other’s programs. Nationally, get behind Ang Ladlad, work with other LGBT organizations.

With the help of John Maxwell, ask yourself some questions about your involvement in LGBT liberation in Baguio.

Do you really have a dream for our people?

Ask yourself: does my dream for the LGBT community compel me to work for it?

Do I have a strategy; (in my group and in my personal ways of helping) do I have a strategy for my dream?

Am I willing to pay the price for my dream to come true for the LGBT people of Metro Baguio?

Does my dream fulfill only my ambition, or does it really benefit the community?

Does my dream, does my work, collaborate, cooperate with and help fulfill our common dream, our common hope, and our common destiny?

The Jaycee Creed says, “Service to humanity is the best work of life. Our work is liberating our people, advancing justice and full human rights for our people. Ask yourself: Is that my dream? It begins right here, right where we are, with an attitude of love and cooperation with the others who have this dream.

The time of liberation has come. It is time for the theme of your celebration this week: “Life, Love, Freedom: One Pride, One Struggle.” It is time to live in freedom and dignity the life and love and wonderful gift of sexuality our Creator has given us.


Introduction of Fr. Richard

Fr. Richard R. Mickley, OSAe, Ph.D. is Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of One Spirit Philippines, Abbot of the Order of St. Aelred, a priest and psychologist.

He has been in LGBT ministry for 38 years in the United States, New Zealand, and in the Philippines for the last 18 years. He introduced weddings for same-sex couples to the Philippines in 1991, with his founding of the first openly gay and lesbian activist organization, MCC Manila. He founded the Order of St. Aelred in 1995.

He is a veteran of the Korean War in Korea, a former university dean and professor, and was a successful restauranteur for several years. He worked as a psychologist in Los Angeles. His doctorate is in Clinical Psychology and his masters in Counseling Psychology for Gays and lesbians.