Making Trax

I went to a gay club with a few friends last night. It was definitely an interesting experience. The majority of the people there were men, but there were quite a few women there as well. The most striking thing about it was how open and almost forced a lot of the physical displays between people were. Oddly, or not, the only same sex physical displays I saw were men making out and dancing closely on the dance floor. There were some women dancing together, but not overly close, and they weren’t doing anything that you wouldn’t see girls doing at any other club. The way the men acted really made an impression on me, though. They acted a lot like men at any other club would act except that they were hitting on other men. There seemed to be a definite pattern: spot a guy they were interested in, move in and dance close to him, if he accepted the advance then start kissing hard, continue dancing, and end by taking off their shirts. The last bit may have had something to do with the fact that there was some kind of special promotion at the bar for a company that made underwear. By the end of the night, a lot of the guys weren’t wearing anything but underwear. I think a lot of straight people feel uncomfortable even thinking about being in a gay club. I guess it’s because they are worried that they will get hit on by members of the same sex, but after my night at this club, I can say that it’s unlikely. I didn’t get hit on by any guys, not even once. Neither did the other straight male friend that went with us, and neither did either of the straight girls for that matter.

After the initial feeling of oddity at seeing male couples being physically intimate passed, I started wondering why these physical displays seemed so forced and kind of unnatural, and when I say “unnatural” I don’t mean in a Biblical sense, but in a social interaction sense. It kind of felt as if they were trying to put on a show and go out of their way to create these physical displays. Then, I realized that most of them must spend a great majority of their time repressing their feelings and emotions and that places like this club were places where they could release all, or a lot of, their pent up tension. This got me thinking about how society and even more importantly the Christian community treats gays. I can’t remember any specific situations where I saw people at church interacting with someone who was gay, so I guess I can’t say for sure, but the general attitude of people in the church seems to be very harsh toward gays. Not necessarily to the point of committing hate crimes, but definitely to the point of taking a very strict, hard-line approach toward them. It almost seems like many Christians view homosexuality as some kind of ultra-sin, something almost unforgivable. The Bible lists homosexuality with numerous other sins, including: adultery, idolatry, greed, and sexual immorality. However, a lot of Christians seem to be more willing to accept people who have committed that latter than the former. What I mean is that people in church seem to think of sinners of the latter sins as people who have lost their way and need some direction to get back on the right path, but homosexuals are sinners who are going to hell, as if there is no hope for them. Perhaps it’s the uncomfortableness that they feel when confronted with homosexuality that causes them to react this way, and not all Christians share this same attitude, but the truth is that the Bible lists all those sins together, equally. It doesn’t make any special reference to homosexuality as being worse than the rest, and I think it’s important to recognize this because if we don’t, we will continue to drive gays away from the church and away from God. When I asked a gay friend of mine if he wanted to go to church, he just made a “teh” sound and said, “Heck, no!” as if he would never even consider it. It may have something to do with experiences he has had with the church in the past or it may just be his own pride, but it’s obvious that he would feel as uncomfortable in church as most Christians would feel in a gay club, and that’s not what church is meant to be like.

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