Let's get our Science clear first.  From God's standpoint homosexuality, heterosexuality, bisexuality and transexuality are all the same — the unfolding of completeness, uniqueness, and immortality.  They are divine ideas, and to the extent we cannot see this we're drifting along with the popular level of belief and, of course, not practicing Christian Science.

Mary Baker Eddy states "...the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unenlightened human mind, the vision is material" (Science and Health, pg. 573:6-9).

We set our subject as Healing Internalized Homophobia because we wanted to remove the planks from our own eyes, etc., before dealing with external forces; but one of our members pointed out that all homophobia is internalized based on the work of our psychologist friends.  Both Freud and Jung showed that everyone is bisexual  (a human working out of Mrs. Eddy's earlier discovery of the oneness of male-female in God's creation).  Most live a heterosexual life based on psychological and societal pressures which had validity in low population tribal times.

Today they are anachronistic, but as with any habit that outlives its usefulness, late stage manifestations can be compulsive and highly dysfunctional.  The pressures and the attendant homophobia will collapse in time, but we can help them along by standing for the scientific fact of man's present perfection and immortality, needing no cycles of time or genetics.

Several additional areas of interest arose at the meeting:

1. Any sin, including homophobia, is never personal but always impersonal and entirely unreal.

2. The deleterious effect of guilt and shame (they're not the same) on one's life was discussed (see Science and Health, pg. 455:3-8).  We looked at how years of parental and peer, verbal and physical violence,  together with media, religious and psychological clap-trap can leave  pain in their wake that is often unacknowledged but converted into depression or mania.  Look at a Gay Pride March and see how much pain is on parade.  But remember the healing stance in Science is not reading mortal mind but reading divine Mind. "The latter is a revelation of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of all things" (Science and Health, pg. 83:26-29).

3. A model one could use in his or her own recovery would be the story of Jesus' crucifixion, so akin to the initiatory  woundings actually sought by shamans to promote spiritual growth.  The main point for our purposes is the healing Jesus brought to the situation — apparently without kvetching, without benefit of all night boogie parties.  Of course, we don't have all the details, but Mrs. Eddy intuited   "[Jesus'] three days' work in the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time. He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the master of hate" (Science and Health, pg. 44:7-10).

4. There is now, raging through our community, what the Greeks would have seen as a fight between Apollo (represented by books from Rotello, Sullivan and Signorilli) and Dionysus (represented by groups like Sex Panic and practices like barebacking). The battle spilled over into our meeting.  Not all the images on view, whether drag queens, Nazi generals, faeries or solemn religious and social activist groups, are about manic depression or hidden pain.  There are real forces and energies clamoring to the surface, and it may be well for the Scientist to consider these in the light of Mrs. Eddy's startling illuminated vision (i.e. seeing what's up below the sense presentation).   Here's part of her definition of Elias: "...the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold" (Science and Health, pg. 585:10-11).  Our infinite, eternal Father-Mother God encompasses all energy, lightness, joy, and all probity, balance and harmony.

So we're back at the place where we began, with God constituting all elements of our being.  We didn't have reports of healing this week, for we ran out of time doing justice to the topic.  Maybe someone in our internet family has some experience or healing they'd like to share — write us and we'll put it up!