"Who's leading?"

"She couldn't make it because of the snow."

"Don't look so stunned — heterosexuals do it, too. I guess they're just as confused..."

"How do we know who's straight?"

"Well, how do we know who's Gay?"

"These divisions are passe. Everyone's their own sexual orientation. What appeals to me probably wouldn't appeal to you — but we're both supposedly Gay."

"We all have our own desires and pleasure images. Terms like Gay, straight or LGBT are political."

"Kinsey said sexual orientation is on a scale from straight to Gay."

"I'm in the middle — I have bisexual desires sometimes."

"You mean heterosexual?"

"Exactly."

"I think Gay is more than just sexual function or politics. It's a whole cultural spectrum. When you hear names like Tennessee Williams or Michelangelo or Dag Hammarskjold you don't think about them having sex."

"What do you do about transsexual feelings?"

"I have them many times but I'm not ready for the knife."

"Yet. You'll get there."

"I'm happy folding my trans drives into my general male life."

"Everyone's designated a male or a female. I wonder if these seemingly fixed identities vary over a range."

"Of course. We all know super males and super females — and all the gradations between."

"Have I lost count or do we have three sliding tracks — biological identity, sexual orientation and transgender possibilities?"

"That sounds about right — and I'm sliding along on all three. So what does it convey for me to say I'm Gay?"

"Good question. We should probably spend energy bringing life to our unique combination of characteristics and qualities."

"Tell us exactly what happened today at your job."

"When I got there this morning the personnel director called me in and said my services would no longer be required."

"Wow! I'm sorry. How long had you been there?"

"Nine years. I hadn't been happy with the situation for quite a while. Work was drying up and I had a lot of time on my hands. I'd been thinking about looking elsewhere. But when the ax fell it was still a shock. My sister said they gave me a nudge I couldn't give myself."

"How are you feeling now?"

"Pretty positive. On the subway coming home I realized I was always employed in God's service. I don't feel panicky. "

"I've had lots of experience with unemployment and dealing with government agencies. You can get retraining during your unemployment period. Call me anytime."

"Thanks. I will."

"Talking about sex and love, I could give you a job right away. You're an expert in Internet dating, n'est-ce pas?"

"Well, I guess I've developed a kind of knack."

"Here's the deal. Set up a site for me — photo and verbiage, with your flair for pizazz. Then administer it."

"Count me in, too. I need help in this area big time."

"How many dates are you guys looking for?"

"Not that many. You'd be there to sift through the influx."

"We need to talk in detail — the logistics are daunting, but it could be an interesting stopgap."

"And lucrative. I'm sure I speak for both of us when I say we'll pay well for this service."

"On a broader scale, your reading from Miscellaneous Writings about marriage [see readings page 52] can be applied to my employment situation. It was sometimes pleasant, sometimes wretched, occasionally a love affair. My next job, I hope, will be a union of the affections, lifting us all higher."

"I've been trying to discern the place of sex and love in my life. So far, I see love as much broader than sex; I must love all but have sex with few. The problem is I carry around too much sexual imagery. Or more precisely, romantic imagery. I'm trying to move it towards love."

"What do you mean by love?"

"It's a recognition of the utterly divine status of everyone."

"Agape, not Eros?"

"Well, I don't know. If Eros is merely sex, I'm probably closer to Agape — but I agree with Jung that Eros is really about relationship and not just sexual involvements."

"I read once that Jung felt love could be seen as purely within one's own mind. It's the ego or male energy desiring the unconscious or female energy and vice versa."

"That's sexist, and by the way where does that leave Gay people?"

"It's dated and silly. When you find out Jung had trouble keeping his pants on, you understand the price of intellectualism."

"Here's something I found in a Shift magazine from June-August 2005: '...love...sets a mysterious alchemy into motion that operates in ways beyond what the rational mind can comprehend' (page 17)."

"It can certainly knock you off your props."

"Are we talking about romantic love?"

"All kinds really — but romantic love is perhaps the most intense version."

"It's very disorienting to be smitten by love. Most of us want to control it and can't."

"I usually run from it — whether it's romantic or friendly."

"Why, do you suppose?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's because of my horrible childhood — or a series of scary relationships with lovers and friends."

"Okay — I had those, too, but this is now, and the fields are white to harvest."

"I heard a testimony recently by a woman who was having trouble breathing. She didn't say what it was, maybe she didn't know. Anyway the problem continued for several days. She was condemning herself for not being a better Christian Scientist. She couldn't read or even think clearly because of the discomfort and fear. She called a friend to come over and help her. When he arrived she put on a happy face and said she was doing better. He took one look and said, 'You're no better!' It went in like an arrow. She thought, 'He's right. I'm no better — I can't get any better — because I'm already perfect!' With that, she was instantly healed and her breathing was normal."

"That's truly wonderful. There's a quote in Science and Health that applies: 'Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well' (14: 12-16)."

"If we can be conscious that Love alone pushes through all the sad images of past failures in sex and love, we can have what God intended for us: Love's perfect concept."

"'Perfect love casteth out fear.' If I'm afraid, my love is still personal — not God."

"Listen to this from the Lesson on Substance: 'Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence' (Science and Health 58: 7-11). Bring that to bear in sex and romance. There's no reason in the world to wall off these activities from the healing Christ."

"I like to keep in touch with the moral level of thought set out on page 115 of Science and Health. 'Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance.'"

"If I'm attracted to someone or they're attracted to me, it's really attraction to the Christ. 'Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind' (Science and Health, page 124)."

"I think we make too much of sex — there's too much expectation and angst attached to it. When I was a teenager my mom told me sex was about two people having fun together — just don't get the girl pregnant!"

"I wish I'd known your mom. I waited fifty years to have sex with another person. Of course, I talked love out the wazoo but when I finally had sex with someone I love, why it was like Dorothy opening the door on Oz — or the movie Pleasantville. Everything came to life in color and I understood Love with a capital 'L'."

"I waited a long time, too. When it finally happened I was blown away. Sadly, I became promiscuous and then addicted. I had to give it up."

"I hope you can retrieve it — in a healthy way."

"Yeah, me too. This discussion is giving me some new ways of seeing things."

"I was into solo sex for years — you know masturbation — and was really happy without messy personal situations. Eventually some girlfriends came along and opened me up. I mean to the extent I can now have a full body orgasm just driving along listening to music."

"Is that legal?"

"Yes — but keep your hands on the wheel."

"I used to have sex a lot — even on the first date. My feeling was, get that out of the way, then in the morning over breakfast see if there's any loving spark to build on. I got several relationships going that way. Nowadays I'm mainly into non-sexual, unconditional love for friends and clients. But if the right guy came along...."

"Did everybody see the summary of the Christian Science Board of Directors' meeting in Denver? Gay people can join The Mother Church — but cannot hold office, be teachers or practitioners. And please, no Sunday School participation."

"Let's not waste valuable meeting time on that. We're doing the work we hoped they'd do."

"It was always ours to do I guess — but I'm disappointed."

"The Board is sunk in homophobia, which is pure sin. but we need to heal that by standing porter at the door of thought and affirming it's impossible for anyone to be afflicted with that."

"Just look at what we've covered in our two meetings on sex and love. Can you imagine any church organization devoting time to that?"

"Look — we have our books. We have Jesus and Mrs. Eddy — both of whom said nothing about being Gay but had first hand experience."

"Where'd you get that?"

"For Jesus, see Theodore Jennings book, The Man Jesus Loved. Google him and scroll down to Amazon. For Mrs. Eddy, see the Gil biography, page 627, note 32."

"I don't think we can say in real life they were Gay..."

"Or non Gay."

"Okay. But as founders and leaders they have a certain symbolic value tending to sacred wholeness and completeness. That should be our focus."

"And that needn't exclude the possibility of their being Gay!"

"Try this. Sex with Love is God being attracted to Himself — God engaging with Himself. It's supersensible good as the source and condition of all. That's what poor mortal mind calls being smitten, being the target of Cupid's arrow."

"God's grace is everpresent, ever available as Love to guide us to appropriate, revelatory sex."

"But not only sex. Love is the motive power in our work and art — our calling, our Christian Science practice! 'God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis' (Science and Health 258: 13-15)."

"We're getting close to the end of our meeting. I want to remind everyone of the SAGE memorial service on Sunday, March 19th, 2:00 PM at St. Luke in the Field on Hudson at Christopher. We've been asked to participate and have decided to read the Lord's Prayer and its spiritual interpretation from our textbook."

"Should we have a topic that supports the service? Like, 'death as transition'?"

"Or something about what level of boredom, anger or depression brings death on?"

"But why death?"

"Perfect!"

"What?"

"'Why Death?' as our topic."

"Do we all agree? Okay — ' Why Death?', two weeks."