6
Diversity Rules Magazine
September 2015
Nahmod - Con't from page 3
No less than the Transgender Law Center acknowl-
edged Megan's assistance in getting Taylor freed from
jail at the TLC website.
"ey were calling Lutheran pastors around the coun-
try because I'm 'stealing money from a black woman,'"
Megan told me, when we met in their office this past
week.
I asked Megan if they thought the LGBT community
was having a mental health crisis due to the almost
endless personal attacks which LGBT people and ac-
tivists seem to be inflicting on each other. I referenced
the classic gay play-turned film e Boys in the Band,
in which a gay birthday party becomes a cesspool of
gay-on-gay hatemongering.
"If only we didn't hate ourselves quite so very much,"
said Michael, the play's protagonist.
"All of the people who had done these things to me
indicated that they had been treated in a similar fash-
ion," Megan said. "I have deep compassion for their
healing process. But their behavior is unacceptable."
Megan admits there are problems in the LGBT com-
munity. "Like all things, there are good people in bad
organizations, and bad people in good organizations,"
they said. "I try to do the best I can to listen to the ways
I need to do better, and to actively work on healing my
wounds so that I don't deflect back on others."
Megan said that they had been suffering from PTSD
symptoms in the aftermath of the ordeal. ey point-
ed out that there are 177 violent church incidents per
year.
"I do a lot of gardening," they said. "I get nervous when
people approach the church. I heal with hot choco-
lates, laughing with friends, stupid reality TV shows,
sacred rituals and rocking babies."
Megan acknowledged that their seems to be a pattern
of such behavior in the LGBT community, and that
many LGBTs were suffering from PTSD as a result
of unhealed traumas brought on by homophobia, in-
equality and anti-LGBT violence.
We, as LGBT people are the only ones who can heal
ourselves. We must decide what kind of a community
we want. To that end, Megan and I agreed to orga-
nize a community forum on LGBT mental health,
tentatively set for February 2016 at Grace Lutheran
Church. Our focus will be discussions on the causes of
the behavior we're seeing, and ways we can heal our-
selves.
Stay tuned to future editions of this column for more
details.
PTSD Resources
www.ptsd.va.gov
www.ptsdalliance.org/resources.html
www.giftfromwithin.org
www2.nami.org/template.cfm?section=ptsd
