"A Rich and Wonderful Opportunity"
Last night I led a gather-in for my Area for heterosexuals to discharge about the Gay Policy. In preparation, I re-read the Guidelines, Harvey's "Report to the World Conference," and "Jane Marple's" letter in the April Present Time. It's so good to lead so that I have to re-read articles.
The two points I emphasized were that we need to become effective counselors for all Gay people on their internalized oppression and that we need to discharge in order to reach for our own thinking, rigorously and with courage and integrity, on every issue and policy. To do both requires us to be effective clients and counselors.
I liked how people worked honestly as clients, with great variety in where they had access to discharge and about what. Three women who had identified as Lesbian in the past discharged on remembering their oppression. What I've noticed is that many women in this situation are so happy they are no longer living under the gun of the oppression that they don't want to remember or look at what it was like. A Jewish man worked on the Jewish commitment after he said that what got pulled up for him was not trusting anyone. A Catholic man, who felt "angry" about the policy, actually felt embarrassment that's pinned on the organization for having such a "stupid" policy. The direction, said with complete pride, "I belong to RC and we have a Gay policy," worked well. A middle-class Jewish woman had lots of terror come up that made it hard for her to figure out where to client. She eventually came out with feelings of herself being a bad person or Gay people being bad for having same-sex relationships. The direction of her being completely good started the discharge for her.
During my client time I said, "Sex between a man and a man is irrational," and laughed, "Sex between a woman and a woman is irrational," and laughed, "Sex between a woman and a woman is rational," and laughed, "Sex between a man and a man is rational," and laughed. I was also sweating a lot. There were no "thoughts." I did this for awhile until real thoughts started to come into my mind. I eventually cried about being a raised-working-class female without any expectation of being able to think big, confidently, and visibly about things, regardless of the consequences.
After my turn, I re-remembered that using the discharge process with like-minded people is incredibly vibrant, exciting, revolutionary, productive, and profound. I wonder if many of us forget that it is not a chore to discharge, but rather a rich and wonderful opportunity to get our minds to work better and stretch in the company of others-truly a collective endeavor.
Caryn Davis
New York, New York, USA