I was surprised when I logged on to my Facebook business page today. It had gone from 1,048 likes to 1,003. As a business owner who has taken classes on social media marketing, you learn to ask "What have I done to lose so many followers?" "How can I fix my marketing strategy?" But in this case, I already knew what I had done.
Back in October I was approached by a lady at the Best of Pueblo event at the Pueblo Convention Center. I had a booth and was very excited to have been voted Silver for Best Photographer category in 2014. My clients voted for me, and I was so honored to be there. Right after I found out that I had won Silver, a lady asked me, "Are you gay friendly?". I was honestly surprised by the question and had honestly never thought about that before. I was raised going to church, and had learned that God created us to procreate as husband and wife to populate the earth, but had also learned that Christ commanded to, "love your neighbor as yourself." I have a lot of friends who are gay, one of my best friends in high school and my date to Senior Prom let me know early on in our friendship that he was. Another good friend in high school let me know secretly before she came out. Neither of these were issues to me. I loved them both as friends and still do to this day. So why did it surprise me when she had asked me that? Honestly, I wish it hadn't. I didn't say anything negative, my only response was, "Well," before she responded with, "So no then," and immediately walking away. Her reaction to my surprise was not a good one, and I felt bad about that.
I'm glad that she approached me though, because it allowed me to think about my response the next time I was approached. I still am a Christian and love God and prayed about this. Some things immediately came to my mind: that God is our judge, we are not to judge others, and that one of God's greatest commandments is to love one another. How can I claim to love people and be a Christian, if I treat anyone differently? If anyone deserves my kindness, it is especially those who are regularly ridiculed and hated by those who call themselves Christians. (By the way, I will treat everyone with love and kindness, no matter who they are, because I believe that God wants me to be this way.) What you are and who you are is between you and God, and I believe that His love for us is unconditional. In fact, I am not the only one who has come to this conclusion. The Apostle Paul wrote this in Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
So if nothing can separate us from the love of God, why have so many people treated these people as if they aren't deserving of God's love, or our love?
This year, I was emailed by a young lady who asked me if I was available on her wedding date. I was, and I immediately scheduled an appointment with her and her fiance to discuss their wedding, and to hopefully book it. When I arrived at the coffee shop, I found two beautiful young ladies and immediately realized that they were a couple. They were kind, funny, and we immediately hit it off. I was so glad to meet them and book their wedding. We scheduled engagement photos, and I was excited to shoot these for them.
During their session, one of the ladies seemed nervous, so I asked her if she was okay. Their response was that they were afraid because they never knew what kind of reaction people would have to them. One of the ladies said, "People will say really mean things, or do really mean things. But surprisingly, a lot of old people have been kind to us." I think that's because with age comes wisdom, and the wise will know that love and kindness are more important than anything else.
At another point, we came across these words written in chalk on a wall, "It's a girl". We realized that it was intended for a a maternity photo shoot, but one of the girls asked to take a photo by it. She said that her grandma didn't know that she was gay yet, and that she was raised Mormon. I am praying for her situation with her grandmother. I hope that her family will still show her love and kindness.
So I posted these photos of these two women, and treated them exactly as I treat all of my clients. I plan to continue to treat them exactly as I treat anyone else, and even if I continue to lose followers and business, I promise to always try to treat all of my clients with love and kindness. I am not qualified to judge anyone, only God can. If you disagree and think that you should judge, and that you are better than I am for showing love and kindness to these women, maybe it is a good thing that you have decided to unfollow me.
**UPDATE**
I was just informed by a fellow Christian Photographer that Facebook has removed inactive accounts from following business pages. I cannot tell you the relief I felt in knowing that most of these dislikes had nothing to do with the photos that I took for these ladies. I decided to leave this blog up, though, because it is still an issue that I feel strongly about.
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