GAY SPIRIT
(Charlie Murphy)

When we were born they tried to cover our eyes
Then they tried to tell us what to see
We are discovering that did not work
For we were born to be free

CHORUS
There's a gay spirit singing in our hearts
Leading us through these troubled times
There's a gay spirit moving round this land
Calling us to a time of open love

When we were born they tried to put us in a cage
And tell our bodies what to feel
We have chosen to feel all the truth
That our bodies do reveal

We are no strangers to all the pain
That comes with fighting for our love
We are the outlaws in this lovesick land
Whose crime has only been to care.

You run and tell that ol' patriarch
We're no longer blind to his ways
You run and tell him we've stolen all the keys
To the prison he has made

Sometimes it gets too hard to feel all the joy
In the face of all the pain we see
But there's a healing place within our hearts
It's coming alive in you and me


Notes: Narrow definitions of "gayness" block awareness in gay people of the deeper, more all-pervasive spiritual source that is at the essence of gayness. This, of course, serves the interests of the patriarchal system. The gay spirit springs from a place of balance and a passion for equality like the world has never known yet!


From the liner notes for Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men
Folkways records FTS 37587

Charlie Murphy Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4vmHQdy2I8