The Religious Right Wants You to Think Anti-LGBTQIA+ Hatred Is Justified. It’s Not.

Homophobia and anti-trans hatred are strangely accepted in our society.

Today’s Supreme Court decision upholding bans on transgender women and girls in sports is another example of this.

As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I struggle to understand why our world has normalized this level of aversion to the simple existence of queer and trans folks.

Tormenting children by sending them to conversion therapy, cutting out friends and family members, and perpetrating violent hate crimes against queer folks. These often aren’t recognized as the truly despicable, hateful acts that they are, solely because a person is part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Faith and political leaders are the bedrock of this status quo. They masquerade their blatant homophobia and “objections” to our God-given identities as legitimate faith-based concerns.

I think I can speak for the broader LGBTQIA+ community when I say this: We see right through the lies.

Many people truly believe that holding homophobic views because of religion absolves them of wrongdoing — that they are acting in the interest of God.

But that does not matter. Plain and simple, anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and beliefs are rooted entirely in hate, judgment, and ignorance.

It makes no difference if you wrap up your beliefs with a pretty bow — citing Scripture, delivering a sermon, making your remarks from a Supreme Court concurrence, or while wearing a miter — when the truth behind your message is this ugly.

Hatred exists in a world of layered subtleties and microaggressions. It doesn’t need to be flagrant or explicit to qualify.

We see the disdain behind their eyes when they tell us, “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”

We hear it in their voices when they call trans women “biological men.”

We feel the apathy when major media outlets publish titles like “Support for Gay Marriage in the U.S. Has Declined” rather than writing “Homophobia in the U.S. Has Increased.”

(And we can still feel it when they change the headline after receiving backlash.)

We don’t even have to read between the lines when they ask, “Why do you have to shove it in our faces?”

Share

I know (and hope) that the majority of people who carry anti-LGBTQIA+ bias don’t do so maliciously. Many biases are not intentional — in fact, I know they aren’t, because I struggled with severe internalized homophobia for years. I had to work hard to deconstruct the belief that there was something wrong with me, something that needed to be deeply repressed.

Our society is not a welcoming space for queer folks, and it has only been in the most recent century that we have seen progress toward acceptance and understanding. It is possible and easier than you think to recognize your internal biases and understand the need to work through them.

It’s only human to carry biases unknowingly. For these folks, I know the path to acceptance, love, and understanding is simple. Every one of us is wonderfully and intentionally made in God’s image. God made LGBTQIA+ folks precisely to be LGBTQIA+ folks. There is nothing wrong with us. There is nothing to fix, suppress, or shame.

To deny that fact on behalf of somebody else is not faith — it is prejudice.

Start by recognizing that your negative view of queer people isn’t a religious sentiment, but one rooted in bias and discomfort.

I get it. Change is hard, and it takes time. We all grew up in this society built on a foundation of heteronormativity. But Jesus always stood with the most vulnerable and marginalized among us, and I know that Jesus stands with the LGBTQIA+ community today.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that I have never felt more like I was denying God’s creation and purpose for me than when I was in the closet. It wasn’t until I learned to unravel the hatred for queerness that is so tightly interwoven into the fabric of this country and my religious upbringing as a Catholic that I finally felt like I was living authentically, in God’s image.

I’m not afraid to call the faith-based, political, and social arguments against LGBTQIA+ folks and our happiness exactly what they are: pure, unabashed hatred.

LGBTQIA+ folks exist. We always have, and we always will.

LGBTQIA+ folks are a part of the church. We always have been, and we always will be.

LGBTQIA+ folks deserve to live their lives authentically in pursuit of joy, love, and acceptance.

We always have, and we always will.