Taco Queen

“Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (Luke 15:1-2; NRSV)

 

At a gay disco while serving in the Air Force, some friends and I were standing having some drinks when we noticed a group of young men laughing, dancing, and conversing in Spanish. “Taco Queens!” sneered someone in my group.  The remarked surprised me and when I said, “Hey, not cool, I’m Mexican.”, my friends laughed and assured me I was different, in that I didn’t “act” Mexican. “You’re American, Robert, you’re one of us.” 

 

I marvel how oppressed people will oppress others with labels of being “other” and “unacceptable”, even as we live in a world where in some places it is still dangerous to be openly Lesbian, Gay, Bi or Transgendered.

 

Jesus must have marveled as well, that the Pharisees and the scribes attempted to fault Jesus with eating with the “unacceptable other”, even as they lived in first century Roman Empire Palestine which had little regard for the Jewish people and culture.

 

In the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus points us, we are all equally valued and loved in the eyes of God…no matter what people think or say about us!

 

That night, I looked at my friends, smiled and told then, “Oh, believe me, I AM a Taco Queen” and left them to join my people for a great night out.

 

Prayer:  Querido Dios, thank you for loving us as we are, Taco Queens and all the Queens in the world, who dance the night away rejoicing that Jesucristo came to show us the way to you.  Amen!