Posts Tagged ‘Religious trauma’
1,575 Christians Support LGBTQ People In Missouri
Contact: James Rowe Director, Believe Out Loud jrowe@believeoutloud.com 646-723-7826 1,575 Christians Support LGBTQ People In Missouri LGBTQ-Affirming Christians Demand Missouri Lawmakers Stop SJR 39 New York, NY—Christians from across the United States responded last week with overwhelming support for the Missouri Senate Democrats’ 39-hour filibuster against SJR 39, a harmful anti-LGBTQ religious exemption bill that…
Read MoreComing Out…Again
It seems that my last 40 years has been about coming out. And each time I come out, I’m filled with awe by the courage of those that have come before me. I’m afraid that those who have professed to love me will change their minds. I’m certain that I will again be “too much.”…
Read MoreWhen Religion Puts Our Lives In Peril
Within my Christian upbringing, I attempt at being a spiritual person. I believe that our spirituality and faith is a source of strength and hope. Unfortunately, I have seen religion too oftentimes be a firmly held set of rituals beholden to a literal and legalistic interpretation. Historically and currently, religion is a source of spiritual…
Read MoreHow I Came Out To My Church As HIV-Positive
Wrap yourself in the comforter and you will sweat that fever out. I can hear these exact words echoing in my ears as an adult whenever I get sick. As a child, my mother and grandmother would offer me these words of advice to combat whatever sickness had crept up on me. They would give…
Read MoreA Christmas Message For LGBTQ People Who Have Lost Their Families
Every year, I try my damnedest to get excited for the holidays. I really do. I listen to holiday music for .5 seconds, consider buying the packaged eggnog at the local grocery, and panic about the gifts I haven’t bought—usually to no avail. No matter how hard I try to enjoy them, the holidays still…
Read MoreI Survived Conversion Therapy, But Not Without Scars
When I was 15, my parents took me to the basement of a church in my western hometown for “therapy.” The “therapist,” Michael, was an older, pale-faced man with graying brown hair. His office was painted sky blue and decorated with white-framed pictures of his family sitting on hay bales, grinning at the camera. The…
Read MoreContinuing The Work After Houston’s Fallen HERO
Our work toward justice continues. Yesterday, Houston voters rejected Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO), an ordinance that would have protected the rights of 15 different categories of people. Opponents of HERO centered their campaign on a shameful, transphobic message—“No Men in Women’s Bathrooms.” Faith leaders in Houston advanced this harmful message and advocated to defeat…
Read MoreAnd We Rise To The Top
My grandmother sat on green rocking chairs, in South Dallas Porches, singing songs like “Cheerios, Cheerios, push them to the bottom of the bowl and then they rise to the top.” My grandmother sat on green rocking chairs, in South Dallas porches, right in front of the drug dealers, in the midst of gun shots,…
Read MoreHow I Found The Courage To Be Myself
I think one of the hardest, trickiest, most admirable things to do in this world is to be yourself. I grew up in central Indiana in a town called Anderson. Anderson was a small-ish town just outside of Indianapolis. I’d like to say we were suburb-of-Indy status, but we weren’t. From a very early age I…
Read MoreA Word Of Advice For Non-Affirming Christians
I wonder what life would have been like if I never had to hesitate when I crossed my legs. I get a feeling sometimes that my aunt will come out of nowhere and say, “Boys don’t cross their legs.” I wonder what life would have been like if I was allowed to clutch my shirt…
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