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IS JULIE LYONS GAY?

For those who don't know, she's the editor of the Observer. For those who do, this piece has the media world buzzing. Julie says she was extremely attracted to girls throughout her youth and young adulthood, but never acted on that attraction; such was the fear of sinning. She was also very depressed during this time, a point that doesn't surprise me. Then she and a group of people prayed away her depression and her "curse of sexual perversion." Today, she is neither gay nor depressed.

Oh so many things to discuss.

First off, this is a brutally honest piece. Even as someone who worked with Julie, day after day, month after month, for a year and a half, I didn't know any of this. And frankly, I didn't want to know a lot of it. Your former boss' sexual fantasies should be kept between that boss and whatever the fantasy is. Julie's story is creepy, if I'm allowed to be as honest as she is.

But it is also a fantastic read. Julie can write; parts of this piece are beautiful and it's a shame it will be limited to the Observer's blog. Yet her ability is also confounding: for a person as gifted as Julie, she sees her conflict of sexual ambiguity as, ultimately, a call to serve Jesus Christ. I see Julie's conflict for what I believe it is: homosexuality.

She says she's cured of both her depression and her sinful thoughts. Maybe so. Even with a piece as searing as this, there's some stuff I don't know about Julie. But neither does she know my homosexual friends, who struggled mightily to hide who they were, often in families as fundamentally strict as Julie's. Coming out brought relief, freedom, a chance to, finally, lead a normal life. I would argue my friends are saved, too, just by allowing themselves to be who they are.

But Julie doesn't see that. She--still--sees homosexuality as a sin. She wants to illuminate how uncertain sexual orientation can be, but in the process sides with the fundamental Christians she initially chastises. But maybe that's all you should get from this essay: a conflicted view point from a (once) conflicted person.

I am glad she wrote it, though. Rarely does the glib world of the blogdom get such a concentrated effort. But I disagree with Julie. I wonder if she isn't fooling herself.

Paul Kix · September 22, 2006 11:14 AM