Celebrating the gifts LGBTQ+ people bring to faith and the ways in which queerness is a gift to ourselves and the world
@thisisbgm
(✡️)
@shannontlkearns
(✝️)
This is why we say “kind” homophobia is still evil. You cannot claim to love your kids and despise who God made them to be. Queer/trans kids who are reading this: you can demand more from your parents. You can set boundaries. You can walk away from “love” like this.
If you are a Christian, unless you have E X T E N S I V E L Y studied Judaism *from Jewish rabbis and theologians* for like, years, most of what you think you know about Judaism, including Judaism at the time of Jesus, is probably wrong.
@TheRaDR
@Bookshop_Org
I got fired up all over again as I was prepping your ep! Can’t wait to share it. It’s so moving. Thanks again for sharing yourself with us + all the work you do + your personal words of encouragement after we finished recording 💙💙 (-b)
FYI
@tumblr
is blocking access to our blog (you may be able to view it if you are logged in and have safe mode off). They also removed our logo. We have never posted explicit content—we're just LGBTQ Christians existing. Or trying to.
(we support users posting explicit content)
Virginity is not something that you can lose or give. It's a concept designed to shame and control.
You have your body. You can share it how you like. Your value is not a finite commodity. Your body is holy. Your love is abundant.
As a trans man who’s been writing about the intersections between transition and resurrection for over 15 years now I find beautiful serendipity in Easter and Trans Day of Visibility falling on the same day.
Some of y’all have left the evangelical church but refuse to let it go.
You don’t have to read their takes. You don’t have to follow their news. You can just let go.
Your queerness does not need forgiving
Your queerness does not need forgiving
Your queerness does not need forgiving
Your queerness does not need forgiving
Your queerness does not need forgiving
"Disabled people were the only ones equipped to get us through this pandemic in a way that would cause the least amount of harm and you ignored 'cause you left us for dead" -
@Imani_Barbarin
I don't know who needs to hear this today but: DO NOT get trapped in conversations of "Please explain yourself to me" with people who refuse to read the dozens of books + 100s of articles already written on these topics. They don't want to understand, they want to keep you stuck.
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
As we wake on this Transgender Day Of Remembrance to news about a shooting at a queer club in Colorado we remember that all of our liberation is bound up together. We must fight for all of us in a world that does not want us to survive.
I don't know who needs to hear this but internalized shame built from a lifetime of being subjected to queerphobia is not the same thing as the holy spirit
Telling LGBTQ ppl to stay in unaffirming churches as members is spiritual malpractice.
You can't be nourished by a place that doesnt affirm your full humanity. You can attend in protest, as activism. But it cant be your faith home.
Telling ppl to stay is advising them to starve
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
When we say anti-LGBTQ theology is violent, it's not an exaggeration. Actual LGBTQ people actually die as a direct result of those beliefs.
If you hold them, repent.
If you're on the receiving end, protect yourself.
If you're an ally, obstruct & disrupt them.
"The Bible is the literal, inerrant word of God — except in the places where it's a metaphor or an allegory or only applies to that specific context ... and btw I'm the one who gets to decide that" is a really shitty hermeneutic
(Yeah, we know how to use that word too)
Transgender Christians have been writing, speaking, and organizing for A LONG ASS TIME. If you don't know, here ya go. This is (obviously) only a partial list 👇
We grieve with the family of Rachel Held Evans and all of those who loved her. Trusting that death is not the end we believe in the hope of the resurrection even as our hearts break.
“‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen." - Ezekiel 16:49-50
There is a difference between "I feel called to celibacy" and I "I think I should be celibate because I think that God is against queer sex." The latter necessarily implies an extension to all queer people (even if never explicitly stated).
That distinction important.
#Qconf19
LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX LGBTQ CHRISTIANS CAN AND DO HAVE SEX
There are some LGBTQ+ Christian orgs who’s sole purpose is to get approval from Evangelical churches. They just want to be let back in. But the reality is if every evangelical church suddenly became gay affirming overnight alllll the same problems would still exist.
I don't know who needs to hear this but "sex positive" and "sending sexual messages to people who have not in any way consented to receive those messages" are not the same thing. (-b)
I don't know who needs to hear this but internalized shame built from a lifetime of being subjected to queerphobia is not the same thing as the holy spirit
"The Bible is the literal, inerrant word of God — except in the places where it's a metaphor or an allegory or only applies to that specific context ... and btw I'm the one who gets to decide that" is a really shitty hermeneutic
(Yeah, we know how to use that word too)
In case you'd been fooled: Lauren Daigle is aligned with white Christian nationalism and gleefully performing at an unmasked, packed in, likely superspreader event.
"Coming out" was originally abt coming out into queer community. Being associated with telling our queerness to straight, cis people came later.
You can be out even if you haven't had The Talk™️ w/ your parents or coworkers.
Connect with LGBTQ people, that's how you come out!
Here are two truths:
- the US military is a violent, colonizing force in the world
- any discrimination against trans people is an assault on their dignity and a threat to freedom
Trans people are not a burden. Gender diversity is a blessing. The
#TransMilitaryBan
is wrong.
I don't know who needs to hear this but internalized shame built from a lifetime of being subjected to queerphobia is not the same thing as the holy spirit
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
In this week's podcast ep, Millie encourages Christians to do 2 things
1. learn about our own history
2. learn about Judaism and Jewish people *from Jews*
Listen for more of Millie's insights:
I don't know who needs to hear this but internalized shame built from a lifetime of being subjected to queerphobia is not the same thing as the holy spirit
We gotta have a talk about conserv. Christian morality...
The convo so often goes, "Well if you can be LGBTQ, what's stopping me from being a thief/rapist/murderer/pedophille???"
If fear of God is the only reason you aren't abusive, that's a problem w your morality, not ours
LGBTQ folks only (will start a separate thread for cis/straight folks): if you used to believe that being gay / having gay sex / affirming your gender / transitioning / otherwise "practicing" being LGBTQ was a sin, how did your beliefs about that change?
This
@teenvogue
article "Gender Variance Around the World Over Time" and how nonbinary identities have existed for THOUSANDS of years is a reminder that we are ancient and holy 🙏
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
You are not your deepest insecurities.
You are not your deepest insecurities.
You are not your deepest insecurities.
You are not your deepest insecurities.
This
@teenvogue
article "Gender Variance Around the World Over Time" and how nonbinary identities have existed for THOUSANDS of years is a reminder that we are ancient and holy 🙏
Reminder: you can be queer and Christian
Reminder: it's also ok if you come out and decide you're no longer a Christian
You don't have to stay in a faith that doesn't fit to *prove* that LGBTQ can be Christian. Choose abundant life wherever you find it.
"The Bible is the literal, inerrant word of God — except in the places where it's a metaphor or an allegory or only applies to that specific context ... and btw I'm the one who gets to decide that" is a really shitty hermeneutic
(Yeah, we know how to use that word too)
Reminder: you don't have to go to a church that doesn't fully accept and affirm the goodness of how God crafted your gender or sexuality. Even on Christmas.
"The Bible is the literal, inerrant word of God — except in the places where it's a metaphor or an allegory or only applies to that specific context ... and btw I'm the one who gets to decide that" is a really shitty hermeneutic
(Yeah, we know how to use that word too)
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
LGBTQ people, a liberating word for you today:
You don't need their approval.
You don't need their blessing.
You don't need their ordination.
You don't need their recognition.
You are good & holy & loved. God is here, amongst us.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Your "personal religious beliefs" stop being personal when you:
- tweet about them
- write a book about them
- tell them to your kid
- form church policy around them
- vote according to them
- share them at a conference
- talk about them in public
Then they become public.
Queer 👏 sex 👏 is 👏 sacred 👏
Queer 👏 sex 👏 is 👏 sacred 👏
Queer 👏 sex 👏 is 👏 sacred 👏
Queer 👏 sex 👏 is 👏 sacred 👏
Queer 👏 sex 👏 is 👏 sacred 👏
Queer 👏 sex 👏 is 👏 sacred 👏
Nightly reminder that you don’t actually love LGBTQ people if you think that basic expressions of our humanity (aka being relationships with each other, living into our gender) are sinful
Every now and then I remember the time I was banned from any property owned by the University of Notre Dame for life because I gave LGBTQ-affirming resources to a closeted gay student there.
I would do it again in a heartbeat. (-brian)
Homophobia is a sin
Biphobia is a sin
Transphobia is a sin
All queerphobia is a sin
If you call sinful that which God has created as good and beautiful and holy, you are separating yourself from the divine.
We pray for you.
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
PSA: the "choice" between "worship me unconditionally and mentally assent to the correct abstract statements or be tormented forever" is not actually a choice. It's violent, abusive, coercion. It's definitely not good news.
Pssst... The reason why pro-LGBTQ arguments based in apologetics end up in endless debates is because the objection was never about logic, it's about disgust.
Jesus didn't argue about the humanity of people that society was disgusted by, he served those people.
Progressive Christians committed to God's liberating work in the world are still Christians bc we believe, specifically, in Jesus who we call Christ, his ministry, and his legacy.
If we didn't, we could just be secular humanists.
You don't get to tell us we aren't Christians.
You can never be married enough or monogamous enough or have a white enough picket fence to make your unaffirming family / church / friends accept you.
You've got to love and take care of yourself. Here. Now. Just as you are.
You are already enough.
To straight, cis Christians (including affirming ones!) who want to "show God's love to the LGBTQ community":
What if YOU are the one who need ministering to? What if LGBTQ ppl (even non-Christian LGBTQ folks), hold the key to God's love?
You have something to learn from us!
The spirit of God moves at Pentecost
The spirit of God moves at Stonewall
The spirit of God moves at the border
The spirit of God moves at every Black Lives Matter protest
Diversity, access, justice are holy fuel for the fire of God's spirit. Listen for her, she's roaring.
Sometimes when I'm at a gay club, I take a step back & watch my friends shower each other with physical affection. Hugs and kisses and winks and nods and silly faces and pinched cheeks and grinding and making out.
If you squint your eyes just right, you can see the Holy Spirit
There are Christian pastors/writers who were very influential to me at a time when I needed it and nudged down the path toward the person I am today.
And I can now see clearly that they are harmful to LGBTQ people.
And this is what I do about my complicated feelings about them:
Trans folks: Your body is good. It's good the way it is. It's good if you've changed it. It's good if you want to change it. It's good both before and after hormones and surgery. Your body is good. And it is yours. And you are loved.
We don’t “debate” the rightness of LGBTQ lives any more than Moses debated with Pharaoh.
“Let my people go!” is his and our charge.
#faithfullyLGBT
#queertheology
Then, you can listen to this episode with the BRILLIANT Dr. Amy-Jill Levine about Christianity & the New Testament through the eyes of a Jewish professor:
Redefining families is a deeply queer thing to do (see: queer chosen families, taking care of each other during homelessness, the AIDS crisis, trauma)
It's also a deeply Christian thing to do (see Matthew 12)
Our experiences as queer Christians compliment each other
Friendly reminder that so much of what post-Christians (and even many still-Christians) don't like about "the old testament God" is really anti-semitic lies and distortions from power-hungry evangelical Christians and not actually representative of the Jewish God
Reminder: You don't have to go home to a family who calls you the wrong name or makes your partner sleep in a different bed or tells you that they are disappointed in you or that your queerness is an issue. Your queerness is a gift, protecting it is your sacred duty.
We go more into depth on this here: and if your parents are treating you poorly know you’re not alone. We will walk with you as you figure out what to do next and how to protect yourself from them.
PSA: if you are an evangelical Christian who openly agrees with anti-LGBTQ ideology but in your heart of hearts, you think actually it’s ok to be LGBTQ…
… you are not in the closet!
You’re just contributing to the oppression of LGBTQ people.
When I came out, I thought I was gay. A Christian counselor asked me to do therapy to move my attractions toward bisexual, then I could "choose" women & follow God's plan.
JOKES ON HIM because I ended up bi, hella queer & living God's best for my life
#bivisibilityday
(-Brian)