KIRO NEWSRADIO: SEATTLE NEWS & ANALYSIS
First gay bishop teaches integrity, offers congratulations to newlyweds
Dec 10, 2012, 12:47 PM | Updated: Oct 11, 2024, 12:59 pm
New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in the global Anglican fellowship congratulated newlyweds during an interview on the Ross & Burbank Show. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
(AP Photo/Mary Schwalm)
The first gay bishop is congratulating newlywed same-sex couples in Washington state. New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson of the Episcopal Church traveled around to states where the issue of same-sex marriage was on the ballot.
Robinson offered his congratulations to Washington’s newly married same-sex couples a day after they could legally wed on KIRO Radio’s Ross & Burbank Show Monday.
For him, being able to be a religious leader while maintaining his personal relationships and staying true to who he is, is about integrity.
He used his position as a leader in the gay community and as a man of faith to help promote the issue of same-sex marriage before last November’s election.
Robinson came out of the closet when he was 39 years old. When he was younger, he was in therapy twice a week for two years, trying to cure the gayness out of him.
“Growing up the ’50s was a different world than what we have now,” Robinson told Ross & Burbank.
About two weeks into a relationship with one woman, he told her about going to therapy, his attraction to men, but how he thought he was ready to be with a woman. They were eventually married and had two daughters together.
But he couldn’t change who he was, and eventually the pair got a divorce. “We went back to the church to end our marriage.” A priest accompanied the pair to their divorce hearing. Then at church together, they asked each other for forgiveness and pledged the joint raising of their daughters.
“It was one of the most healing moments in our lives.”
Trying to cure himself didn’t work. Even so-called ex-gay ministries admit they can’t really “cure” anyone, Robinson said. But he felt that when he finally came out of the closet, one of the hardest things he had to give up was his life as an ordained person.
“It was my great love.”
He doesn’t have any regrets though. “It’s how I’ve come to know God’s grace.” Eventually, Robinson was named a Bishop in the Episcopal Church. By the way the media took a stab at Robinson’s ascension in the Church, you would have thought half of the flock had left.
Robinson said that really wasn’t the case, of their 2 million parishioners nationwide, 200,000 found a new home for their faith.
His work now is reaching out to kids who may not know they can come out of the closet, and like him, maintain their faith – and integrity.
Admitting you’re attracted to someone of the same gender, according to Robinson, can feel like putting a gun to your own head. In being called by God to come out of the closet, and share his ministry, he hopes he can reach out to “impressionable young people.”
Robinson is the author of “God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage.”
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