‘Some Christians are gay. Get over it.’
With the holidays just around the corner, it can be a sad and lonely time for many LGBTI people.
According to the Family Acceptance Project, LGBTI youth become happier the more accepting their family is. However, many who have been rejected or ostracized by their families due to their LGBTI identity are more likely to attempt suicide, report depression, and/or use illegal drugs.
A common reason many families cite for rejecting their LGBTI child is religion. In the following video, various traditional Christian parents begin to rethink their opinions on LGBTI inclusion.
Old views vs. new
‘I really did believe that same sex relationships were wrong,’ one woman says.
‘This is wrong. These people are wrong. There’s the gay agenda,’ another man echos.
‘You probably wouldn’t be gay unless something had gone wrong,’ the first woman states.
‘I had always just assumed it was a choice,’ a different woman says.
Many of the Christian parents in the video identified as Evangelical.
‘You’re fed someone else’s interpretation of Scripture,’ the second woman recalls.
When all of their children came out as LGBTI, none of them knew what to do next. Some were scared and ashamed. They worried what their friends at church would think.
One mother believed she did ‘something wrong’ in raising her child for this to have happened. Others tried to pray the gay away. Some cried, some tried conversion therapy. The LGBTI children, in some cases, were told they were no longer welcome at church.
So, the parents decided to look at the small handful of verses on homosexuality themselves.
‘What does the Bible really say about it? Just a handful of verses that didn’t even apply to same-sex couples today,’ one mother realized.
‘A lot of conservative Christians say “you can’t be gay and Christian, you can’t be trans and Christian,”’ another mother explains.
‘It changed my life to meet gay Christians,’ a father states. ‘I could meet someone who was gay who had this incredible, rich walk with God.’
‘My faith actually led me to be affirming of same-sex relationships,’ one of the mothers concluded.
Yet, not everyone at their respective churches were as accepting. Some of these parents were even told they were being ‘used as a tool for Satan.’
‘My child being gay was the single most impactful, powerful thing of my faith I’ve ever experienced.’
Learn more about how these Christian parents came to accept LGBTI people without rejecting their faith in the video below.
