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There’s so much tension between the LDS and LGBTQ communities and so often I feel like it’s so unnecessary. These are two groups that honestly have a lot in common—a desire for fairness and love. Hope to be a part of a strong family. A sense of civic duty.
I’ve been really fortunate to have a *very* devout Mormon family (literally all of them) who never batted an eye at fully embracing me and then my husband when he came along. It was never a question to me that they would always choose to be my biggest cheerleaders.
I can’t imagine a group of people more in tune with their religion and yet they walk with me with no difficulty. I ache for people who don’t have this. It’s not fair. I don’t share this to brag, but to explain why it’s so confusing to me that it can’t be this way for everyone
I’ve had so many friends with religious families who literally disowned them when they came out. I have a friend whose mother yelled when he tearfully told her he was gay “what if the neighbors find out my son is a pervert?”
Years ago I dated a guy whose stake president father chased him down the street and then beat the shit out of him when he came out to his parents.
Why? None of it makes any sense. No one has to be terrible. There’s no obligation to be bad on this issue. And if you’re Christian, there’s probably an obligation for you to be supportive and loving to your child or family member or friend who needs that support.
Here I am, and despite all my snark and my jokes, I have no bitterness toward the church I grew up in. I have no animosity toward the religious community that raised me. And that is 100% because my family has been so good to me.
From time to time I hear religious people in my community complain that they are persecuted or mocked by lgbtq people. The best way you can stop that from happening, is by not making yourself a target for vengeance.
And the path for that is easy: love the person you raised. Put yourself in their shoes. Comfort them, because they’re in need of comfort. Your religion supposedly tells you to do that anyway. So what’s your goddamn excuse?
