In this Pride month, it’s time we applied some critical thinking to this query. Because the answer to this simple question will reveal a lot about our beliefs, and even more about the values and goals of our religious institutions. And we may not want to hear it.
If we are all created in God’s image and our MO is indeed to love thy neighbour and do unto others as we would have them do unto us, how can we explain – or, more importantly, defend - the exclusion of members of the LGBTQ community? When we are told they are sinners, that only a man and a woman can marry, that sodomy is a mortal sin which brings eternal punishment to the unrepentant, and that homosexuality is a sexual deviation or an abomination – I always gag when I hear this word - what does this tell us? For many, it offers permission to condemn, shame, ostracize and bully – and worse. It condones the mistreatment of a marginalized group, a group marginalized because of such religious teachings.
These so-called lessons of scripture encourage the flock to hate, a message that, dare I say, is unbecoming of an institution that has long claimed to be the moral authority. Shameful - embarrassing really.
The lessons are harmful. And we know it.
Is this really what our Lord and Saviour is telling us? It seems unfathomable given that Jesus was a champion of the marginalized and the downtrodden. Which can only mean that someone has lost the mission statement somewhere along the way.
I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here in stating that non-affirming religious institutions have, and continue to do, great harm to members of the LGBTQ+ community by perpetuating and propagating the outright condemnation of this group.
It’s wrong and incredibly dangerous, and it has to stop.
It’s time to hold leadership accountable for such ungodly action.
Because it’s clear who the real sinners are.
If this is the kind of conduct that religious institutions are encouraging, it’s time to go back to the well.
____________________________________________________
LEARN MORE
Homosexuality and religion https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_religion
The relationship between religion and homosexuality has varied greatly across time and place, within and between different religions and denominations, with regard to different forms of homosexuality and bisexuality. The present-day doctrines of the world's major religions and their denominations differ in their attitudes toward these sexual orientations. Adherence to anti-gay religious beliefs and communities is correlated with the prevalence of emotional distress and suicidality in sexual minority individuals, and is a primary motivation for seeking conversion therapy.[1]
Among the religious denominations which generally reject these orientations, there are many different types of opposition, ranging from:
quietly discouraging homosexual activity,
explicitly forbidding same-sex sexual practices among their adherents and actively opposing social acceptance of homosexuality,
supporting criminal sanctions up to capital punishment, and even to condoning extrajudicial killings.
Religious fundamentalism often correlates with anti-homosexual bias.[2] Psychological research has connected religiosity with homophobic attitudes[3] and physical antigay hostility,[4] and has traced religious opposition to gay adoption to collectivistic values (loyalty, authority, purity) and low flexibility in existential issues, rather than to high prosocial inclinations for the weak.[5] Attitudes toward homosexuality have been found to be determined not only by personal religious beliefs, but by the interaction of those beliefs with the predominant national religious context—even for people who are less religious or who do not share their local dominant religious context.[6]
Why Become an Affirming Ministry
Excerpts from “Open Hearts: Resources for Affirming Ministries in The United Church of Canada.”
https://united-church.ca/sites/default/files/why-become-an-affirming-ministry.pdf
The Stonewall Uprising: The Origin Story of Pride Month
Forgetting history means repeating the past
By SAM W.
A Starter Guide for Parents of a Queer Child from an Adult Queerdo
Hi! We’re queer and we’ve always been here.
By AND ALSO…
https://pinkhairandpronouns.com/a-starter-guide-for-parents-of-a-queer-child-from-an-adult-queerdo-e165e5b45587 Education is key. Become their fiercest ally. Do not out your child. Find community for yourself and for them.
Parents: Be open to getting uncomfortable, educate yourselves, and stand up for your queer child. There are some easy ways to start. Then when you de-center yourself from their narrative, it opens up the possibility for them to become the fullest, most authentic version of themselves.
DOCUMENTARY FILM
1946 The Movie
What if the word “homosexual” was never meant to be in the Bible? In 2020, more than 45,000 churches still preach that the homosexual lifestyle is a sin. But, what would happen to these churches if they knew the truth? 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted a Culture is a new documentary that investigates how the word “homosexual” was incorrectly entered into the Bible, and the grave consequences its had on religion, culture, politics and the LGBTQIA+ community over the last century. https://youtu.be/g0SblBvSZMs?si=mAmFv_Pt7MQHM_Xa
PODCAST
The Amendment
Queering Our Way to a Liberated Future with Kelley Robinson
Season 1, Ep. 18 • Wednesday, June 12, 2024 https://shows.acast.com/the-amendment/episodes/queering-our-way-to-a-liberated-future-with-kelley-robinson
OVERVIEW
PRIDE IS UNDER THREAT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
CSIS warns that the 'anti-gender movement' poses a threat of 'extreme violence'
Intelligence agency says risk will 'almost certainly continue' over the coming year
By CATHARINE TUNNEY
PRIDE IS UNDER THREAT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
A Message for LGBTQ+ Christians This Pride Month
By ESTHER SPURRILL-JONES
PRIDE IS UNDER THREAT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
On the Cusp of Pride Month, I Ask, Didn’t God Create Rainbows, Too?
Why then, must we be on alert?
By RAND BISHOP
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small. All things wise and wonderful. T’was God that made them all.
PRIDE IS UNDER THREAT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
Why I Can’t Bring Myself to Celebrate Pride This Year
On Pride, (un)happiness, and the limits of Queer acceptance
By KAYLIN HAMILTON
Happiness for some involves persecution for others: it is not simply that this happiness produces a social wrong; it might even depend upon it — Sara Ahmed (2010) The Promise of Happiness (pg. 96)
PRIDE IS UNDER THREAT. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR YOU THIS YEAR?
What Do I Have to be Proud Of?
Queer anxiety during Pride & reflections on resisting hate
By KAYLIN HAMILTON
A Gay Pride Litmus Test: We Are the Rainbow Canaries
Our nation stands, but our civil society has fallen. By HENRY LEE BUTLER https://medium.com/prismnpen/a-gay-pride-litmus-test-we-are-the-rainbow-canaries-f6f45430c7d8
The foundation of a civil society is the capacity of its members to recognize and value the humanity of others. No matter the differences in belief or ideology or appearance, at our core we are human; that is the first element of identity. Whatever we may seek to be in this world, it is built on our humanity.
The question is what does it mean to be human?
Conservative attacks on Pride month make the case for why we need Pride month
It's legal in some states to discriminate against LGBTQ people in housing, medical and public accommodations. Across the world, LGBTQ people are still put to death or imprisoned.
By KATELYN BURNS
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/pride-month-still-needed-rcna159508
Straight from the Heart: My Journey into 2SLGBTQ+ Awareness
2SLGBTQ+ — Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning and additional sexual orientations and gender identities.
By DINAH DAVIS
Why are trans people still persecuted by society?
By MONICA S
Expanding Societal Norms: Parenting the Next Gen with Pride Embracing Differences, Fostering Love: Creating Safe Havens for Our Children
By DINAH DAVIS https://medium.com/prismnpen/expanding-societal-norms-parenting-the-next-gen-with-pride-fa7f02821b65
What to Do if Your Child Comes Out as Trans or Nonbinary
These tips for parents of gender nonconforming kids go to 11.
By DANA DUBOIS https://pinkhairandpronouns.com/what-to-do-if-your-child-comes-out-as-trans-or-nonbinary-77c0102f1ac7
What DID Might Tell Us About Gender Identity
A different way to have Pride
By DR. PATRICK BRYCE WRIGHT
“Queer People Anywhere Are Responsible for Queer People Everywhere”
Revisit writer and community organizer Adam Eli’s recent gallery talk featuring LGBTQ+ works in the Jewish Museum collection
By THE JEWISH MUSEUM https://stories.thejewishmuseum.org/queer-people-anywhere-are-responsible-for-queer-people-everywhere-c7092048ebc0
Judith Butler’s “Who’s Afraid of Gender?”: Chapter One
By NOAH CHRISTIANSEN
https://medium.com/@noahjchristiansen/judith-butlers-who-s-afraid-of-gender-chapter-one-f3129c186de0 Judith Butler begins Chapter One, titled The Global Scene, by exploring the connection between Catholicism and the spread of strict gender norms internationally. Butler specifically notes that Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, is not inherently accepting of homosexuality as many people assume.
Pope Francis’s perspective on sex, sexuality, and gender, aligns with the doctrines of his faith. In the classic Judaeo-Christian tradition, gender is inherently essentialist, strictly binary, and immutable, a view reinforced by the myth of Adam and Eve. However, from the Church’s viewpoint, any deviation from these gender or sexual norms is seen as a threat to the natural and divine order.
Although this book cannot give a full history of the anti-gender movement, it is important that we tell some of the recent history to see how the phantasmatic clustering passed off as “gender” has come to inhabit the argumentation and rhetoric of official church and state policies, policies that have enormous consequences for the lives of women and trans and queer people across the world. (Who’s Afraid of Gender?, 72)
Why Do So Many People Struggle With Internalised Homophobia?
What is internalised homophobia and why do so many people (myself included) struggle with it so much.
By LISA FOUWEATHER
https://medium.com/counterarts/why-do-so-many-people-struggle-with-internalised-homophobia-d37fedf3d612 Despite the progress we have seen in terms of LGBTQI+ rights, the fact is that, in a heteronormative society within which, according to the 2021 census, only 3.2% of people are not straight, identifying as LGBTQI+ is still very much ‘going against the norm’, as we are reminded of, all the time…
To be queer is inherently to exist on the margins; to be odd, peculiar, weird, hated, oppressed, in revolt and rebellion.
I See Homophobia As Just Another Form Of Terrorism
By DUA SUBZWARI
Our society has been inflicting pain on the LGBTQ community for so long, and (in Justice Indu Malhotra’s words) it owes them an apology. But our society’s conservative nature will never leave hold of people’s minds. It is almost impossible to change the mentality of people who have already made up their minds that a certain community is dangerous for society.
Love, Religion, and LGBTQ+: The Relationship Dilemma You Can’t Ignore!
By TAMER AYDOGDU
In a Nutshell
Intolerance in a relationship should never be tolerated. Regardless of its origins, it is crucial to address and confront intolerance head-on. Religion, while deeply personal, should never be a shield for bigotry. In a world where love, acceptance, and understanding should be our guiding principles, it is our responsibility to foster an environment where differences are celebrated rather than shunned. Love, after all, should always be about growth, compassion, and unity.
“Respectful Dialogue” Is Easy When It’s Not Your Life on the Line
The privilege of free expression and the cost of silence
By JOHN WERTH
Pride Month is an opportunity to remind people that respectful dialogue is great in theory but complicated in practice.
For instance:
I’m talking about two people finding enough common ground that they can…respect that one of them believes that marriage is only between a man and a woman and the other believes love is love, no matter the couple. Respect is something in short supply.
A Trans Girl Approached Me in the Ladies’ Bathroom and It Bothered Me. Here’s Why.
Why the girls’ bathroom is a sacred space for women and how we must seek to keep it that way.
By NATALIE S. OHIO
So often bigots behave as though those they feel prejudice towards are some sort of subhuman entity that needs to be exterminated to restore a sense of harmony and order to the world.
In reality, we’re all just people. Trying to just get by and get on with things before we shuffle off this mortal coil once our number is up.
Coexisting peacefully really isn’t as complicated as it’s made out to be. Being kind to others is far from difficult. We’re all different, and that’s fine — it doesn’t need to be fire and brimstone and bloodbaths and battalions.
Outstanding: A Comedy Revolution
2024 | 1h 39m | Documentary
Explore the history of LGBTQ+ stand-up comedy in this funny and heartfelt documentary featuring personal stories from an all-star roster of performers.
SOGI
Queer History and SOGI In Schools
Why these important topics should be and are taught to kids
By Mason Smith
We’re talking about laying the groundwork for a future where everyone can see themselves as part of humanity’s grand story, not as an outsider looking in.
Canadian SOGI-Inclusive Student Policies Receive Push Back
By JENN GALANDY
The Real Problem with SOGI 123
By Andrew Millage
HOMOSEXUALITY AND RELIGION
Gay Christians, Muslim Lesbians, and Untouchable Hindus
By THE OTHER MILLENNIAL https://medium.com/@phystro/gay-christians-muslim-lesbians-and-untouchable-hindus-894d2dc79dac
Why would you want to legitimize the authority that has eternally de-legitimized me as part of its moral code?
Dear Evangelicals, Why are you persecuting our LGBTQ+ Brothers and Sisters?
By MIKE ROSEBUSH, PhD
https://medium.com/gayoda/dear-evangelicals-e242690b6bef
The Many Things Anti-LGBTQ Christians Don’t Think About
A response to TJ Seany
By ERIC SENTELL
The author looks at TJ Seany’s powerful and telling essay, “The Thing Gay Affirming Christians Don’t Think About,” that illustrates SO many things that anti-LGBTQ Christians fail to think about.
I’m Rejecting Gender in My 40s After a Misogynistic, Catholic Upbringing
Forcing people to conform to gender roles leads to misogyny, bigotry, assault, and trauma. I know from first-hand experience.
By TRACY.3
I care when someone’s beliefs about gender and sexuality are forced on others and are taking away people’s rights, thus causing harm and trauma to a big chunk of the population. Gender roles are a social construct that exist to control people. Forcing gender conformity leads to domestic abuse, rape, child abuse, child sex abuse, and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community. To truly save the children, we need to throw away these outdated and harmful notions, and bring forth an evolved society that sees all humans as equals who deserve the same rights, respect, and freedom.
All the “anti-gay” Bible verses Christians cite are 100% fake
A religion badly misrepresented its supposedly sacred text
By JONATHAN POLETTI
The Journey of Some (One) Clergy from LGBTQ+ Aversion to Acceptance
Some conservative clergy embrace their LGBTQ+ friends-but at a cost…
By JAMES ALEXANDER, MATheol, MA, PhD
Why I’m Making A Documentary On LGBTQ Sikhs (And Why It’s Important)
By SUKHDEEP SINGH
Being gay has its own set of challenges and struggles in a world that still thinks homosexuality is to be condemned or has to be ‘treated‘. But, it is doubly hard when you are a minority within the minority, and you have no one you can look up to or identify with.
Documentary On LGBTQ Sikhs
Sab Rabb De Bande, as a documentary, brings forth the various challenges that LGBTQ Sikhs grapple with and the different ways in which they reconcile their faith and gender/sexual identities.
This video is absolutely amazing. A very brave Birmingham based Gay Sikh records a conversation between himself and his mum in Punjabi about homosexuality. In the video she talks about unconditional love for her son, how God designed him in this way and how forced marriages are doomed to fail. If anyone needs help or advice about coming out and their parents speak Punjabi, please show this video. The message is so much more powerful when spoken in Punjabi.
Being gay in India: A Sikh man comes out to his father
By MANINDER JIT SINGH
Affirming mosques help gay Muslims reconcile faith, sexuality
From Toronto's Unity Mosque to Berlin's Ibn Rushd-Goethe, several LGBTQ-inclusive places of worship are proving "there are many ways to practice Islam.”
By FINBARR TOESLAND
Gay Muslims? Yes, It's a Thing
Michael Lofton reviews numerous Muslims who claim to be both Muslims and actively gay. He then considers how some Muslims react to this phenomenon and compares it to Christian reactions.
Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: Islam - Sunni and Shi'a
Produced by the HRC FOUNDATION
Homosexuality in the Islamic Empire Will Totally Puzzle You Does Islam inherently hate LGBT+ people, or is the violence against them due to cultural influences? By TANNER THE HUMANIST https://medium.com/@tanner_79717/homosexuality-in-the-islamic-empire-will-totally-puzzle-you-78739b361f1a Societal acceptance increases Muslim-Gay identity integration for highly religious individuals… but only when the ingroup status is stable
By YASIN KOC, HELIN SAHIN, ALEX GARNER & JOEL R. ANDERSON
Muslims opposed to LGBTQ curricula for their kids aren’t bigots
It boils down to moral values rooted firmly in one’s faith, not in a political ideology — left or right.
By YASIR QADHI
Supporting family members when queer & trans Muslims come out
By RAHIM THAWER
Further to the creation of interactive sessions for a North American audience to respond to common questions about queer and trans Muslims, these questions were recently revisited with responses that could be used in a support group manual called Crescent Moon: A Facilitator’s Guide to Supporting Family Members of LGBTQ+ Muslims.
In the above-noted article, you’ll find seven common questions from the pool we received many years ago and I’ve articulated my responses below. These have been written for family members of LGBTQ+ Muslims but they are widely applicable to others.
The main purpose of this article is to alleviate the burden of education that falls on so many LGBTQ+ people — it’s nothing short of exhausting and the role of a spokesperson can set back our own psychological development. There’s a beautiful life waiting for us on the other side of the rainbow and it’s not fair for us to be hindered by other people’s questions.
A Firsthand Account of Muslim Queerness
A foray into the uncharted lands of the intersection between queerness and Islam.
A young gay Orthodox man died by suicide. We must confront how Jewish teachings harmed him
Like many queer Orthodox Jews, 25-year-old Herschel Siegel struggled with teachings that paint LGBTQ identity as an ‘abomination’
By MORDECHAI LEVOVITZ
What I am demanding is that we not look away from the human cost of our religious positions. We can only lay claim to the holiness of our faith if we are willing to bear witness to the suffering it can inspire.
Judaism and Homosexuality: Do Homosexuals Fit into the Jewish Community?
By TZVI FREEMAN
Gay and Orthodox: Book charts the rise of a once unthinkable dual identity in Israel
'Queer Judaism,' a new work from academic Orit Avishai, explores the rapid transformation over just two decades of the visibility and activism of LGBTQ religious Jews
By AMY SPIRO
By GREY WEINSTEIN
How can you be gay and Jewish?
Jay Michaelson argues that the Bible does not forbid homosexuality and discusses the different ways that Judaism has understood Biblical text. He suggests three points which are the fulcrum of our whole understanding of the question: 1) God makes some people gay/lesbian, 2) God is loving, therefore, 3) a loving God cannot proscribe all gay activity in Leviticus 18.
By JAY MICHAELSON
To say “the Bible forbids homosexuality,” knowing the consequences of saying so, is the true abomination.
Jewish Views on Homosexuality
“The people you’re attacking want to live and love. They face the world with courage you and I don’t have — a kind they only need because of those making their lives more difficult for no good reason.” - John Werth, from “Respectful Dialogue” Is Easy When It’s Not Your Life on the Line
Criminalising Homosexuality: Irreconcilable with Good Governance: Synopsis and our Recommendations
By HUMAN DIGNITY TRUST
Religious groups are protecting Pride events — upending the LGBTQ+ vs. faith narrative
More than 120 faith groups will fan out across 50 events this June to de-escalate extremist anti-LGBTQ+ protests from hate groups.
No, the idea that men and women are defined by two distinct biological sexes is not common sense
By Jack Molay
Not too long ago Europeans believed that men and women were variants of one biological sex. The idea that gender can be reduced to a static and unchangeable “biological sex” is far from obvious.
These days we often find transphobes and anti-LGBTQ activists talk about “biological sex” and the way genitalia, gonads or chromosomes determine our gender and the abilities associated with that sex.
This is a way of upholding traditional gender roles and force queer and trans people back into the closet.
Same-sex sexuality is, apparently, bad because it is unnatural and does not lead to procreation. Transgender people are wrong about their identity because a gender identity follows automatically from their biological sex.
Many transphobes see these statements as self-evident and eternal. It is “the woke mob” that is misleading our youth and destroying God and Nature given facts.
But if this was self-evident, we would expect this belief of extreme gender polarities to be found in the past too, right?
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