A Toast to the The Amazing Racers!

Early on in my "coming out to the children" phase, Dean and I "kind of" surrounded Parker and Adrianne with all kinds of images of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender images and impressions from the world's so-called "modern media outlets," a.k.a., "main stream media" or MSM. We watched and laughed through many episodes of "Will and Grace" in the evening; we watched "In and Out," rooting for Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck as they kissed; laughed, sang, and cried through parts of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," to critiquing this season's new gay couple on "Desperate Housewives," and the transgender lover in ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money." Today, the children, now young adults and teenagers, can pick up on what is a campy stereotype to a sincere portrayal of life lived largely by those who are LGBT.

With Parker watching with one eye while "working" on the computer, we watched CBS on Sunday night, in which the latest couple on "The Amazing Race!" the Episcopalian Reverends Kate Lewis and Pat Hendrikson were told by Phil, the emcee, that they have been eliminated from the race in Amsterdam! They were the first lesbian couple on "The Amazing Race!" in its 12th season. And they were an "out" Christian couple! With all my writing and experiences of pilgrimage, this is where my vocation as teacher-pilgrim and being a gay dad cross: I enjoy the antics of this show as they run too quickly through foreign lands, especially watching the gay or lesbian people on this show! As has become customary on this show, like "Real World" on MTV, there seems to be either an obviously lesbian or gay person or couple (along with some interesting closet-cases, which my children and I figure out rather quickly). On this episode of "The Amazing Race," the couple who came in last were an amazing (in my judgment) couple who were both ministers and lesbians in a long term healthy, prayer-based relationship! Among all the couples on this season, they seemed to be, well, the most "normal" in terms of the lack of drama or becoming hysterically unglued at the slightest obstacle [read heterosexual couples...they can be such drama-queens:-)]. The couple took their loss in stride, saying that they would've liked to stayed a little longer on the journey since they had only just begun, pointed out where they should've chosen a different task (sorting out bicycles?) but they had also said they had already had great experiences to tell others about when they got home to Thousand Oaks, California. And their Episcopal bishop was behind them 100%, giving them permission to be on a race in which they were simply amazing!

So here's a toast (as I raise my coffee cup full of French Roast coffee this morning) to the most normal and less self-absorbed, Christian couple on "The Amazing Race" this season! To you other heterosexuals: this couple has set the bar for maturity in this wonderful race!

And check out their story on this link:http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/12/tv.amazingrace.ap/index.html
As we said on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compestela, "Bien Camino!" or good journey!

Peace, Brett