On one particular day, however, out of this conversation came the comment, “I stopped going to church because religion hates gays.” (No, I have no idea what this has to do with Chinese food. There were certainly no Buddhists in the room.) This comment about religion made me really sad, and I told them that.
Not a particularly religious person myself, I nevertheless knew that many people are religious and how important their faith is to them. Many of those people were LGBT, and I knew they’d found a place for their faith that let them be who they wanted to be.
To that end, I had I the head of the local United Congregational Church come in and talk to my kids about those churches that are accepting and welcoming of LGBT people.(1) My kids were shocked to learn that just because their particular branch of Christianity called their status sinful, not all of them did.
Before I go on, I’d like to say what you’re NOT going to read from here on out: An explanation of why Christianity, or any other religion, says being LGBT is OK or not. For one thing, I’m not well-informed enough on any particular religion to argue anything, though I know many LGBT people who are.(2)
More, however, I don’t think that really matters. When it comes to tightly held religious beliefs, people believe what they want to believe. And it doesn’t matter what I or anyone else says. Until they want to open their minds to accepting LGBT people, you can quote scripture until your head explodes and they aren’t going to change their minds.
That’s why a decade ago, it was a pretty revolutionary thought that LGBT people could find a home in organized religion. Certainly, more people today know this. Indeed, with LGBT issues getting so much more coverage, I think most people know this. (Whether or not they actually want to accept it, that’s another matter.)
Still, however, every once in a while I still hear LGBT wonder if religion and an LGBT life can co-exist.
They can.
“In recent years, a growing number of organized religious groups in the United States have issued statements officially welcoming lesbian, gay and bisexual people as members,” notes the Human RIghts Campaign.(3) “Many religious organizations also have taken supportive stands on the issues that affect LGB people in America, such as the fight for freedom from discrimination, the solemnizing of same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay clergy.”(3) The HRC’s post then goes on to give an overview of 26 different religious organizations around the globe, their position on LGBT people, and the issues that affect them.
Another valuable source is -- of course -- Wikipedia, which has numerous articles on religion and LGBT status. The one I found most helpful, at least when looking at Christian denominations, was “List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality.”(4) Complete with a chart showing nearly 60 different denominations’ practices concerning members and their LGBT relationships, it shows who allows as members, ordains, blesses unions and marries.
Certainly, all of them do not. Indeed, most of them do not. And if you’re a transgendered person, the list gets even shorter, with only four choosing not to stay silent on transgender people.(3)
Still, though, I’d like to see even this small amount as progress beyond the idea that “religion hates gays.” Indeed, I don’t recall even having such a conversation the last few years around the GSA lunch table.
Now if we could just do something about the “Chinese food.”
References:
1) Funny story: Years later, when I had the local head of PFLAG come talk to the GSA, my principal -- always a teensy bit concerned about the “gay agenda” -- asked me if what I had done wasn’t the same as someone inviting religious leaders to school. When I pointed out I’d already done that, he said: “Oh, yeah… Never mind. You’re good.”
2) If you are someone who understands Christianity enough to have an intelligent discussion, I’d suggest John Shore’s piece, “The Best Case for the Bible Not Condemning Homosexuality” in the Huffington Post. It’s as good a place as any to load your theological barrel if you like to fight about these kinds of things.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shore/the-best-case-for-the-bible-not-condemning-homosexuality_b_1396345.html
3) Human Rights Campaign: Resources: Faith Positions
http://www.hrc.org/resources/entry/faith-positions?gclid=CP7hwvL5nr4CFYlafgod0noAyQ
4) Wikipedia: List of Christian denominational positions on homosexuality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_denominational_positions_on_homosexuality