Last Updated on December 4, 2019 by Kittredge Cherry
Queer Nativity scenes made international headlines this week after they were denounced as blasphemy by a right-wing Christian group in Britain.
The media frenzy included a major Huffington Post article and a satirical video on Advocate.com
Two Nativity scenes are available as Christmas ornaments. One has two Marys with the baby Jesus, and the other features two Josephs with the Christ child.
“These decorations are a desperate and ridiculous attempt to pretend that homosexual relationships are pure and holy,” accused Andrea Williams, chief executive of Christian Concern. “They blasphemously portray the Lord Jesus being parented by a homosexual couple. What depths will the LGBT lobby stoop to in order to try and normalise their behaviour?”
In contrast, I believe my queer Nativity scenes are true to the spirit of the Christmas story in the Bible: God’s child conceived in an extraordinary way and born into disreputable circumstances. Love makes a family—including the Holy Family. The true meaning of Christmas is that God is with us, all of us.
Same-sex Christmas ornaments sparked the scandal
It all began on Dec. 19 with an article in the Daily Mail article headlined, “’This is a blasphemous attempt to rewrite the Christmas story’: Christian campaign group slam a gay tree ornament showing a nativity scene with two JOSEPHS.”
Meanwhile the gay and lesbian Nativity ornaments were relocated to the Jesus in Love Zazzle store, sparking more headlines such as, “Gay ornament pulled from store after protest” (Religion News Service). The images are also available on Christmas cards.
I first blogged about the queer Nativity scenes back in 2009, so it was a surprise that controversy erupted now. As Huff Post wrote,
Cherry wasn’t expecting her photo series to pop up in the news this year. She said it was an “unexpected gift” to be able to share these images with the world again ― especially considering the challenges that queer Americans will face after President-elect Donald Trump and his vice-president Michael Pence, a conservative Christian, come into office.
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Queer Nativity scenes show love makes a family by Kittredge Cherry
I think these ornaments. Of course the homophobically-inclined do not want us to have images which speak to us. I hope to see more images like this in the future.
Sorry I meant to say “these ornaments are lovely”.