Virginity

Today, December 8th, is the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception. When I was a youngster being indoctrinated into the Papist cult in post-WWII America, there were jokes about the impregnation of the Virgin Mary being celebrated the day after the 'sneak attack' at Pearl Harbor. I once thought about writing a play called, "Screwed by an Angel". It would be all about growing up a gay Catholic in the 1950's and 1960's. 

Virginity is the finest wine in the cellar of misogynist patriarchy. How odd. The same patriarchal religious fanatics who would stone pedophiles in the public square drool over the idea of taking the virginity of a female adolescent. They blow themselves up to get to a heaven where they can deflower virgins with the blessing of their patriarchal god and his prophet. 

I always hypothesized that gay men were attracted to the Catholic priesthood because of its adoration of heterosexual virginity, with which they were blessed due to their sexual preference for males. No pressure to test one's fertile virility there. 

Our forebears wrote poetically about the virginity of the North American continent. Virgin prairies, virgin forests, virgin lakes. Well, we have seen what patriarchal men do to virginity in the way America's leaders have raped and squandered its bounty after committing genocide to wrest it from its previous custodians, the American Indians. 

I will be attending the preview of a new Humanist Hub in Cambridge, MA, today. Greg Epstein and his staff at the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University have constructed a new friendly space for non-religious folks. This conception of a space for freethinkers occurred by no mystery nor angelic conveyance. Hard work, fundraising and outreach will determine the course of this form of intentional community. I hope this virgin Humanist Hub continues to be impregnated by down-and-dirty intercourse of inclusive ideas, questions and experimentation.