I receive my first comment!

Apparently I have readers--or at least one. A fellow United Methodist blogger noticed my use of the term LGBT (i.e. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) and has asked me to explain the significance of "bisexual." The use of that acronymn or phrase LGBT is intended to be inclusive. My understanding is that what all of us designated by those letters have in common is the challenge we raise to our culture's "traditional" gender roles. All of the rhetoric about "God made Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve" and it's variations expresses our culture's anxieties about appropriate gender roles and behavior.

While LGBT people have this challenge to gender roles in common, we may not have that much else in common. So it is that I need to confess that I am no expert on the L, B or T segments of the coalition. I have found this interesting article on the Religious Tolerance.org website which has some interesting things to say about misunderstandings that some conservative Christians may have about bisexuality. I think the biggest problem is that some conservative Christians make the assumption that "bisexuality" must, by definition, mean promiscuity. They are wrong. As the article suggests, a bisexual person may have attractions to individuals of both sexes, and yet still remain faithful to one partner (who may be either of the same or other sex). There is no requirement to alternate the genders of ones sexual partners in order to remain a bisexual in good standing.

In fact, as the article suggests, some "ex-gays" (so-called) may simply be bisexuals who now have settled down with a partner of the gender approved by their conservative Christian friends.