Saturday, December 05, 2015

Queer cheer for Christmas: Make the Yuletide gay


“Make the Yuletide gay,” urges a popular Christmas song. In that spirit, click the headlines below to find queer cheer from Christmas highlights at the Jesus in Love Blog.



Gay baby Jesus comes out on Christmas billboard

A gay baby Jesus with a rainbow halo lit up a billboard for a church in New Zealand.



Kwanzaa: Queer black Jesus icon honors African American holiday

An icon of a queer black Jesus by David Hayward is presented for Kwanzaa, a weeklong celebration of African American culture starting Dec. 26.



Some children see Him queer or gay

A rainbow version of the Christmas carol “Some Children See Him” has a new straight/queer stanza added to the standard multiracial lyrics.



Christmas chant for Christ the bridegroom: Cum ortus

An ancient Christmas chant raises queer questions by comparing sunrise on Christmas morning to mystical marriage with Christ the Bridegroom.




A minimalist merry Christmas

Chist is born in a way that liberates people from limitations of gender, race and sexual orientation in the minimalist “Color Nativity” by British artist Sebastian Bergne.



A very lesbian Christmas…

A lesbian couple cares for the baby Jesus in a heartwarming personal story from one woman’s Christmas journey.



Gay baby Jesus comes out on Christmas billboard

A gay baby Jesus with a rainbow halo lit up a billboard for a church in New Zealand.



Gay Nativity scene in Columbia sparks outrage

A gay Nativity display in Columbia was condemned by the atholic Church as “sacrilege” while thousands criticized it on social media.



3 kings or 3 queens?

Reimagining the three kings as queer or female gives fresh meaning to story of the Magi. Biblical scholarship suggests that the Magi were eunuchs -- people who today would be called gay or transgender.



Gay and lesbian nativity scenes show love makes a family

What if the child of God was born to a lesbian or gay couple? Because, after all, LOVE makes a family.



Conservatives attack lesbian and gay Nativity scenes

Nasty accusations of blasphemy were hurled when conservative bloggers discovered my gay and lesbian Nativity scenes. “Love..is NOT the criteria for making a ‘Family,’” said one critic.



Good (gay?) King Wenceslas 

There’s good reason to believe that Good King Wenceslas was gay. Yes, the king in the Christmas carol. Many details in the carol are pious fiction, but historical research documents the love between the king and his page Podiven.



Queer Nativity project

Seven people from three countries sent images for the Queer Nativity project at the Jesus in Love Blog. They present Christ's birth in an amazing variety of liberating, loving new ways.



Christina Rossetti: Queer writer of Christmas carols and lesbian poetry

Christina Rossetti was a 19th-century English poet and “queer virgin” whose work includes the Christmas carol “In the Bleak Midwinter.”



Hate crime targets gay and lesbian
Nativity scene at California church


Vandals knocked over the same-sex couples in a manger scene at a church in Claremont, California. Police investigated the attack as a hate crime.



Lesbian couple portrays Madonna (Photo by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin)

The Madonna and her female lover are portrayed by a real lesbian couple, seven months’ pregnant through artificial insemination in “Annunciation” by Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin.




Lesbian Madonna, lover and son affirm Christmas (Painting by Becki Jayne Harrelson)

Two lesbian mothers cuddle the Christ child in “Madonna, Lover and Son” by Becki Jayne Harrelson.




Transwoman Jesus tells Christmas story

Jesus’ angelic birth highlights the holiness of EVERY birth in a scene from the controversial new play “Jesus, Queen of Heaven” by transsexual Jo Clfford.




Conservatives blast inclusive Christmas card

Conservatives attack an Episcopal bishop’s gender-bending Christmas card because it shows a multi-racial trio of female Magi visiting the baby Jesus and his mother (“Epiphany” by Janet McKenzie).





Inclusive Christmas tree: Anti-gay DVDs become ornaments

DVDs against same-sex marriage are being recycled now as decorations for the inclusive Christmas tree of Minnesota artist Lucinda Naylor.



Can you imagine? A gay Nativity scene

Video and commentary on Amsterdam’s 2008 gay Nativity scene with live actors.




Animals symbolize peace at Christmas, so the Jesus in Love Blog gladly dedicates a special post to animals.
Alternative Christmas art shown

Nine artists mix Christmas imagery with a progressive vision of GLBT rights, racial and gender justice, and a world without war, poverty or pollution

Nursing Madonna honors body, spirit and women

A nursing Madonna affirms the goodness of the human body, although some are shocked by her bare breasts.


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Top image credit: “Rainbow Star” by Andrew Craig Williams, a queer artist in Wales.
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This post is part of the LGBT Holidays series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and our allies.

Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
http://www.jesusinlove.blogspot.com/
Jesus in Love Blog on LGBT spirituality and the arts


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