News Flash: LGBTQ People Not Destroying World
By: James Finn
Tags: LGBTQ, Faith, Christianity, Religion, Equality

The end of the world as we know it

As a gay man and LGBTQ advocate, I find myself immersed in sentiment that LGBTQ people represent a destructive force that’s destabilizing society. As a former devout Christian, I swim in religious toxin as I research stories I hope will outrage, uplift, and inspire members of gender and sexual minorities.

I’m not writing to LGBTQ people today. I’m writing to spiritual leaders.

I’m reaching out to men and women of faith who are sincerely interested in the spiritual well being of members of gender and sexual minorities. I had to kill my faith to save my life, and after a conversation with Ken Wilson, a Christian minister formerly of the progressive evangelical Vineyard movement, I decided that sharing my own spiritual journey and life story might add to positive dialogue.

LGBTQ people are suffering —

As a Christian leader, you have to decide what to do about that. How to love your neighbors. If you don’t welcome LGBTQ people with open arms, how will you cope with the moral consequences?

LGBTQ youth suicide rates are very high. Youth homelessness rates are a tragedy, and experts who measure the phenomena tell us that religious rejection is the primary reason for both.

Organized religion causes much LGBTQ suffering —

For most people, participation in organized religion results in better mental health and dampens suicidal thoughts and attempts. For LGBTQ people, the opposite is true. An important 2018 study that examined over 21,000 young adults found that the more LGBTQ people participate in organized religion, the more likely they are to think about and to attempt suicide.

The same study saw that negative effect disappear for LGBTQ people attending affirming faith communities that recognize their equality.

Is religion REALLY working right when it causes people to try to kill themselves?

Religious teachings about social harm inflame homophobic attitudes and lead to intolerance and bullying

Individual spiritual harm is only the beginning of the damage that Christian leaders inflict on LGBTQ people. Research shows a strong correlation between being religious and being homophobic. On average in the US, the more a person attends church, the more likely they are to express negative attitudes about LGBQT people and the more likely they are to oppose civil equality.

Violence against LGBTQ people in the US is on the rise again after falling for decades, and according to the Pew Research Center, intolerant people almost always learn their intolerance in church.

Sadly, religious leaders from most major Christian denominations regularly engage in “LGBTQ bashing” by falsely claiming that acceptance, affirmation, and full civil equality will lead to civilization-crushing immorality and social chaos.

Western Civilization is at stake!

Evangelical leaders and respected bishops of the Roman Catholic Church repeatedly and publicly claim that full civil equality for members of gender and sexual minorities will lead to social chaos.

A high-profile alliance of Catholics and evangelical Protestants has issued a sweeping manifesto against same-sex-marriage that calls same-sex unions “a graver threat” than divorce or cohabitation, one that will lead to a “moral dystopia in America.”

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops repeat the trope of damage to society as their leaders object to the proposed federal Equality Act, which would add gender identity and sexual orientation to civil rights laws. The bishops complain that the Act “would impose sweeping regulations to the detriment of society as a whole.” The bishops claim that dignity and freedom from unjust discrimination are important values, but go on to explain that society faces “grave consequences” if discrimination against LGBTQ people is prohibited by law.

Image By Kathy Hutchins on Shutterstock

I’m reminded of Bill Murray in Ghost Busters as Dr. Peter Venkman, dramatically declaiming the dénoûment of End Times: “Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together — mass hysteria!”

I realize this topic isn’t actually funny, and I mean no disrespect to religious leaders by comparing them to a comedy. But the reality is that from the perspective of LGBTQ people and those who love us, the idea that we’re destroying civilization is just about as improbable as Murray’s big laugh line.

It’s past time for Christian leaders to examine their faith in the light of increased human knowledge.

Love, after all, is an exponential function, and family is a basic human drive. LGBTQ people are driven to participate in love and family as much as any other human being. Including us inside institutions centered on family and love does not encourage chaos or destroy social cohesion.

Quite the opposite is true

Including members of gender and sexual minorities in stable institutions increases stability.

Conservative Christians make the same basic error Murray made. His line is funny because we all know that dogs and cats aren’t going to run off and pair with one another.

That’s not how nature works

It’s not how nature works with people either. Since time immemorial, very small percentages of human beings have been born (created, if you will) to experience sexual attraction primarily to other humans of the same sex.

The only thing that’s going to happen when that tiny percentage of people are treated as fully equal and human is that they will have the same opportunity as other humans to pursue love, fulfillment, and joy.

Same-sex attraction isn’t catching. It’s not a disease. It’s an inherent human condition rooted in complex genetics plus prenatal and external environmental conditions, as one massive study just demonstrated.

Same-sex attraction is biological

While sexuality experts have long favored this hypothesis, as Emily Mullin reports in OneZero, the evidence is now all but conclusive. Experiencing same-sex attraction is an ordinary, biological part of being human for small numbers of people.

Organized religion does the most harm when it denies the biological basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. By falsely teaching that LGBTQ people “choose lifestyles,” churches and schools set kids up for misery and mental health crises.

Some Churches, like the Roman Catholics, have taken a step down the path to acceptance by acknowledging that same-sex attraction can be innate, but they don’t yet do anything about the admission. They still demand LGBTQ people live without intimacy and partnering. They still teach shame, and they still stigmatize.

Empathy, except theoretically, seems to be entirely lacking

Empathy ought to focus minds on re-evaluating theologies conceived before humans understood the biological bases of sexual orientation and gender identity. Instead, some people cling to outdated belief systems rather than to their children, who are suffering.

Including LGBTQ people in civil institutions does not destabilize society

According to the Pew Research Center, now that equal civil marriage is available in the US, LGBTQ people are flocking to it, forming couples that are as stable and long-lasting as in any other portion of society.

LGBTQ couples raise vast numbers of needy children

According to the Williams Institute, 114,000 same-sex couples in the United States are raising children, a majority of them through fostering or adopting.

While 68% percent of same-sex couples who are raising children have biological children, an astonishing 32% raise either adopted or foster children. By contrast, only 3% of different-sex couples adopt homeless children. Many fewer become foster parents. Nearly ten times as many same-sex couples raise foster children compared to different-sex couples.

Qualifying LGBTQ people to care for children dramatically impacts the available pool of parents for children in need, according to lead Williams Institute scholar Shoshana Goldberg.

Children raised by gay couples grow up healthy

According to studies reported in the Washington Post, children raised by gay couples do better in school than children raised by straight couples, though this difference is likely due to socio-economic status. Other studies have found no statistical difference in the educational performance or well being of children raised by gay or lesbian couples.

Equality is not summoning the end of the world

Including LGBTQ people in stable institutions increases rather than decreases social cohesion. Access to civil marriage increases the sum total of stable family units. Equality in child care decreases the number of children languishing in institutions and increases the number of children living in loving and stable homes.

Dogs and cats are not about to start living together in sin

While religious leaders are entitled to their beliefs about morality, intolerant views are causing harm to innocent people, decreasing the sum total of love and happiness in the world, and increasing levels of violence and suffering.

It’s past time for Christian leaders to examine their faith in the light of increased human knowledge and to inform their faith in the light of love, respect, and tolerance for human biological diversity.

It’s past time to acknowledge that welcoming gender and sexual minorities as equal humans is not destroying civilization.