Baseball, hot dogs and a famous name

[Guest bighugbearphx]

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie... and a Gay Pastor?

 

DALLAS, June 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Mike Piazza, Senior Pastor and Dean of the Cathedral of Hope, recently experienced firsthand the confusion and embarrassment that can occur when you share your name with a well known -- and avowedly straight -- professional baseball player:

 

My name is Mike Piazza and I am gay. I have been gay since before my mother gave me that name moments after I was born. And for the record -- I had it first. The name I mean. Being older than the N.Y. Mets catcher by the same name, I have first claim.

 

After the Mets catcher recently felt compelled to defend his heterosexuality, I began to get e-mails from all over. Many didn't miss the irony that the Senior Pastor of Cathedral of Hope, the world's largest lesbian and gay church, was also named Mike Piazza. However, I didn't feel compelled to defend my homosexuality ... until recently.

 

I was boarding a plane in Savannah, Georgia when the gate agent examined my I.D. and said my name aloud. He looked up and said, "I sure am glad you aren't gay!" Now, the catcher and I look nothing alike so I doubt he thought I was that Mike Piazza. The gate agent was probably just making a joke. The issue is I am gay. It is something I am proud of, so I smiled back and said, "But I am." To which he replied, "Yeah right."

 

As I started down the jet bridge, I felt the overwhelming urge to go back and prove my homosexuality to the agent. I'm not exactly sure how I would have done that. There were copies of Out Magazine and The Advocate in my backpack. Maybe I should have shown him a picture in my wallet of the man I've been living with for 22 years. Though our two daughters, who are also in the picture might have confused him.

 

There were several things that came to mind that I could have said or done that would have proven my sexual orientation. There are many things that make me gay, and the fact that I love men is just one of them.

 

Because I have watched our community change and grow and evolve, I don't want anyone to take away my place in it. We have not only survived AIDS, but have thrived despite AIDS. We have fought for our children and then demonstrated extraordinary parenting skills. We have fought for marriage rights, while creating new forms of family that are functional and realistic.

 

Imperfect, wounded, struggling, yes ... but when I look at the attendees at the same-sex weddings I have officiated and when I watch the dancing and fellowship at a Pride festival, I see my sisters and brothers transcending barriers and forging new communities of love. I am proud to be one of them and I am insulted that someone would presume I am heterosexual. That feeling comes from a deep pride at being a part of the queer community. No, I don't have a $90 million contract like the catcher, but I have a place and a people that money cannot buy. Mike Piazza is gay and proud of it.