A Gallup poll released in February 2022 revealed 7.2 percent of Americans identify themselves as
- Generation X (which’d include me) is about 3.3 percent non-hetero.
- Gen Y, the millennials, is at 11.2 percent.
- Gen Z is at 19.7 percent.
I didn’t include the stats for baby boomers and silents because—let’s be honest—a bunch of them are still in the closet. Or in denial.
And I have some questions about those Generation Z figures. Because—let’s keep being honest, shall we?—some of the younger adults don’t know what they are. Young people are still figuring it out! Some of them might legitimately be queer. Some might not be, but they’re trying queerness, because being straight hasn’t really worked out for them. I’ve got one coworker who figures he’ll try anything once, and that includes gay stuff, because who knows?—maybe he’s gay. He doesn’t know, and aren’t parents always telling their kids about food, “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it”? So he’s trying it.
Yeah, I can already hear my conservative readers wringing their hands from here: “Woe is us;
(Relax folks; it was always going to hell. Isn’t that what
But lemme leap back to that previous comment I made about the baby boomers and silents. ’Cause if you think I was just making a joke about ’em, no I wasn’t. If you think I was just being facetious, I’m really not. There have always been queer people. They’ve been hiding. Those low numbers in those older generations do not mean there used to be fewer of them, but their numbers are growing. They mean many of ’em are still hiding.
Because not too long ago in America, you could get killed over it. Still can. All it takes is someone with hate in their heart, who thinks nobody’s looking, and thinks God’s actually okay with killing people over it. ’Cause you can certainly get that idea when you quote certain anti-gay scriptures.
Leviticus 20.13 KJV - If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
There are other countries, like Russia and Uganda and Saudi Arabia, which have made laws based on such scriptures, and will jail and execute you for being gay, and think they’re righteous for doing so. And when you listen to certain conservatives in the United States, they think those countries are right to do it, and wanna know why we don’t do it.
Well duh; because we’re not
Our Constitution (specifically article 6 section 3, and amendment 1) establishes no religion nor religious system over this country. The United States may be predominantly Christian, but it was intentionally made a pluralistic society. As such we can have among our citizens and residents Christians and
So all those conservatives who imagine God’s gonna be very, very angry with America unless we purge every queer person from sea to shining sea? Man have they got God wrong.
And that’s where we are this LGBT Pride Month.
“Born this way.”
It’s popular in the LGBT community to claim they were “born this way,” and are just expressing themselves the way God made ’em. It’s a saying which really bugs conservatives, and used to bug me back when I was conservative.
I should clarify: Back when I was an ignorant conservative, who used to foolishly argue, “God made you exactly the way you are.” Studying theology has since taught me… no he hasn’t. Fr’instance humans are born with a natural tendency to sin. A “sin nature,” for short. Our self-centeredness corrupts just about every decision we make, rendering us
And there are plenty of more obvious examples of us humans getting “born this way,” but born wrong. Like congenital heart defects. Cleft palates. Extra fingers. Tails. I’m bowlegged; that’s a birth defect too. And let’s not forget all the miscarriages and spontaneous abortions, where things definitely went wrong.
When birth defects come up, we usually correct those defects with surgery. It’s rare you’re gonna find a heartless
Though I should say it’s not that rare a heartless determinist will insist they continue to suffer. Happens every time a transgender kid says, “I came out the entirely wrong gender.”
Yeah, I know. Conservative Evangelicals are gonna insist that’s absolutely not a birth defect. (They were kinda hoping I was gonna conclude gayness is the birth defect, right?) But again, they fall right back on the ignorant statement, “God made you exactly the way you are.” Except, well, not if it has anything to do with falling into the LGBT categories. God didn’t make that. Satan must’ve.
I don’t know whether God made some people lesbian and gay, or not, or bi; or whether nature made ’em that way independently of God. I don’t know whether he decides, “You’re a boy,” but nature decides, “Nah, you’re a girl,” and now we’ve got a really confused kid who needs therapists and surgeons to help sort him out.
I’ve simply found it makes more sense to not presume what God made or didn’t make, when we’re using prejudices instead of scriptures to back up our presumptions.
So what then do we do? Share Jesus!
What I do know is everybody needs Jesus. And
Again, you’re gonna get people who insist God’s not saving queer people, ’cause bible:
1 Corinthians 6.9-10 ESV - 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
“Homosexuality” was how the translators of the
But let’s not take the verse out of literary context either, shall we?
1 Corinthians 6.11 ESV - And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Some of the Corinthians in the church Paul and Sosthenes wrote to, were among these sexually immoral, adulterous, idolatrous, whoremongers. And they repented, and followed Jesus. As anybody can.
The only reason conservative Evangelicals and Catholics balk at sharing Jesus and his gospel with LGBT folks, is because they want these people to stay out of
I keep running into this one obnoxious type of Christian: The one who insists gay people have gotta give up their gayness before they can turn to Jesus. The one who tries to test any lesbians who enter their church building, by saying some really homophobic stuff—and if the lesbians are rightly offended and leave, they shrug and say, “Well they failed the test; guess they didn’t really want Jesus.” We had this one woman in my church who refused to treat a trans girl as anything but a man—simply because the woman prioritized “You’re not really a girl” over the gospel. These Christians demand everybody first conform to their standards before they can receive salvation.
I try to share Jesus with people, and sometimes that includes gay coworkers. I hope they come to church. Y’never know; they might! But I pray when they do come to church—I pray very hard—they don’t run into those obnoxious legalists who only want them to go to hell. I pray they run into good compassionate Christians who can point to Jesus and say, “He loves you, y’know,” and mean it.
I pray I’m one of those Christians. I still got a lot of bad upbringing to overcome.
