In May 2013, I met one of my heroes, LGBT activist Bishop Gene Robinson.

A loving, warm and open man who related to me as my equal, I drew hope from the stories he told and the courageous life he has lived. It struck me that this man, who had been excluded from so many circles due to his sexuality, knew a God who loved and accepted all people equally. He shared this message openly and without shame. I found this deeply refreshing as I had struggled to keep this vision of an accepting God alive inside me, like a flickering candle in a storm, after so many years of hiding, judgment and rejection.

My life and background are a striking mix of contrasting and almost irreconcilable influences. Competing notions about being Australian and being Christian have featured strongly in my journey. If one could view my life as a collection of separate experiences, one might see a younger version of myself feeling the weight of an ancestor’s sacrifice at the Shrine of Remembrance on a cold ANZAC Day morning; images of my grandfather’s cattle farm; the Catholic church I grew up attending, and my loud Mediterranean family gatherings with far, far too much food. One might see my expressions of pride about the contribution of my father’s culture to Australia, and the many memories of staring down the barrel of xenophobia when people have “mistaken” me for a “real Australian” and have freely shared their thoughts about Australia thinking (erroneously) that I would agree.

There would be images of me furiously studying for exams at a conservative theological college and the recent experience of holding my partner’s hand as we walked down Fitzroy Street in the Pride March. There would be snapshots of times of deep prayer in my inner city Evangelical church and there would be long bouts with depression somewhere in there too. The last few years have also involved walking away from ten years in various Ex-Gay therapies and grieving the loss of a dear friend to suicide, a man who found it much harder to shake off the surprisingly powerful hold of the Ex-Gay worldview. As separate snapshots, these do not all make sense individually. Woven together, they form the narrative of a journey to self-acceptance and the developing of a life story of which I am proud. As a gay man who spent many years battling depression due to the clash between my faith and my sexuality and who has a migrant father, I have known what it is like to be the other in the Australian story that has dominated for so much of the nation’s history. Of course, I also have the experience of being a privileged, white, educated, Christian male so I know how easy it can be to disregard the other when in a position of power.

Bishop Robinson, the world’s first openly gay bishop and a figure of controversy in the worldwide Anglican Communion, came to Melbourne at the invitation of The Centre for Faith, Life and Learning, a group of Christians from progressive, evangelical, Catholic, LGBT, straight and multicultural backgrounds.

Gene’s largest public event was a spectacular marriage equality forum at The Edge at Federation Square, featuring marriage equality advocates and a Baptist church pastor with a fully inclusive attitude to LGBTI people. There was something very Christian about the Baptist pastor and something very Australian about all of them. None of them spoke as others or outsiders. Yet they effortlessly presented a LGBTI-inclusive view of Australia that made detractors and objectors seem very much un-Australian and un-orthodox.

Fun-loving, charming, eloquent and clever, the Bishop had a remarkable awareness of the conflicting narratives involved in being Australian, being gay and being Christian in 2013. He expressed his admiration for the Australian practice of acknowledging the traditional owners of the land at public events. He effortlessly wove together images from the Exodus story with powerful stories from his personal journey and hilarious caricatures of religious homophobia. He encouraged Christians to reclaim the original and radically inclusive definition of the word gospel. He demonstrated that one did not need to adhere to Australia’s more conservative branches of Anglicanism to be a genuine and faithful Anglican, and he reminded the audience that LGBTI people had been a vital part of the story of Australia long before they were widely known to be LGBTI people.

Perhaps I was overwhelmed by the sight of the Edge theatre filled with hundreds of people from diverse backgrounds having an open and fair discussion about marriage equality.

Perhaps the subject matter was bringing up painful memories from the previous few years dealing with rejection from dearly loved Christian friends, or perhaps my mind was busy ticking through the many objections I had received by email during the three months I had spent organising communications for the Bishop’s visit. Many of these emails were from people who felt the LGBTI rights movement was meddling with Christian and Australian identity. Whatever the reason for my delayed reaction, it was not until after the event that I grasped the significance of Gene’s public forum. Amidst the talk of inclusion; the acknowledgement of the unsung contributions of LGBTI people to Australia’s culture and history; the powerful acceptance and insights of pro-gay Christian theologians, and the celebration of same-sex parented families who seemed as Aussie as Hills-hoists, I was confronted by how uncomfortable I had become with the labels Christian and Australian. I had not felt that they had fit me, yet now it seemed that there were other ways of being Christian and Australian, and people like me no longer had to prove that we belonged. I felt grateful that my personal struggle for acceptance and equality had occurred completely in sync with the broader Australian conversation, but was reminded that the lack of belonging experienced by too many past Australians led a large number to question their reason for living.

The radical, loveable and humble Bishop made a landscape-changing impact on the marriage equality debate in Australia. He initiated a theological discussion in the public sphere, provided a solid and authoritative alternative understanding of Christian inclusion, and encouraged LGBTI people (and couples) to take ownership of their rightful place in Australian society.

– Nathan