I bet he'd sing a different tune about "obedience" if he didn't perceive himself to be culturally dominant.

I bet he'd sing a different tune if he grew up having to hide who he was — change critically important behaviors and identity just to get by.

I grew up with his kind in charge, and when I was a child, obedience wasn't
a realistic option for me, and things remained that way into my adult life.

As a teenager, I had to lie to trusted adults that I was straight. I had to pretend to date girls. And I did so at the pain of being sent to a conversion therapy camp. Literally.

I had to lie to pay for university. Because to receive a particular military scholarship, I had to answer two or three questions in such a way as to affirm that I was straight.

After I got my degree, I had to continue to lie as I did my obligatory military service. I also disobeyed by having romantic and sexual relationships with other men. I never for a moment considered obeying the laws and regulations that required me not to do that.

Things continued in that vein for quite a long time, but I'm sure you get my drift. And I'm sure you can imagine what sort of value I place on obeying laws and regulations.

Instead, I value doing the good and decent thing no matter what laws and rules say to the contrary. I value resisting. I value protest. I value teaching children to question authority and never bow down to it —not without thinking carefully and making their own moral choices.

It seems to me that the last thing in the world anyone should be teaching children is to obey without question.

But I'm not surprised that a conservative religious leader is doing that. I think one of the greatest evils of religion is its tendency to force conformity and obedience.

When somebody tells me that I must do something, my first reaction is to resist. Maybe that's a little overboard, but that's what my life has taught me I must do to survive.

I think more children should learn that.