GLBTQ Folk: How is your relationship with the religious group (church, synagogue, mosque, etc) you grew up in?

Question

- {♂♂} - {♂♀} - {♀♀} -

Please explain the reason for your current relationship with this group.

- {♂♂} - {♂♀} - {♀♀} -

Answer 1

I live in Italy. About nine years ago a family member was going through a very sad separation from her abusive husband.

"Our" Catholic Church "supported" this woman by "granting" an anullment of the marriage....for a price of USD 20,000 !!

I, like some members of my extended family, have "ignored" the Catholic Chucrh since that time.

Currently I "practice" my own form of spirituality and have no relationship with "organized" religion.

Answer 2

I no longer attend the church I grew up in, but not because I'm queer. I felt unwelcome there because I chose to go into theatre, and apparently the requirements thereof - heavy makeup and dancing - are considered sins by the Nazarene church. Also, I was tired of being told that my jewelry was sinful (I'm so sorry . . . I wasn't aware that birthstone earrings were against the Bible), that dresses cut to my knees were too short, etc.

Answer 3

My family attended a Church of Christ as a child (which is to be distinguished from the United Churches of Christ, a very gay friendly church). I remember feeling ashamed of myself because I thought wanting to be a girl meant I was one of those "effeminate" people who couldn't go to heaven, and as a teen found myself ashamed of who I was and feeling guilty when the topic turned to homosexuals, sermons centered on why it was OK to hate and ostracize people like me, sermons telling me I was going to hell just for being who I was.

Church was not a pleasant place for me.

It wasn't until later that I realized that I wasn't homosexual, but transsexual, but that wouldn't, and still doesn't matter to the people in the churches I attended.

I haven't attended any service at any Church of Christ in two decades. There are protestant churches that accept gays--the MCC churches and aforementioned United Churches of Christ, for example--but the constant barrage of hate that I got growing up left me sour on any conservative form of Christianity; it wasn't until I found the Unitarian Universalist Association that I knew I'd found peace.

Answer 4

I didn't really have a Church until I was about fifteen. I still go every now and then but I never felt like it meshed with my beliefs. They are insanely pro-gay and everything though, with many openly gay members and everything, plus many pro-gay (and pro-human) rights done every year. I mainly still go because I work there on some Sundays.

Answer 5

My mother was jewish so i was brought up so. i went to hebrew camp a few summers, i went to catholic high school because i passed the test and it was a better option. my father was german and an occasional christian. i was taken to many different services from all the different religons as a child. not once but many times to each. we also skipped some weeks for family time. i am currently in good standing with my temple but somewhat estranged. i am welcome whenever i feel the need, like one time two years ago. however i am also welcome at my brothers catholic church as a guest because his wife is catholic and he converted.

Answer 6

Unfortunately my relationship with my church is nill right now. Because of my brother being kicked out because our priest found out he was gay, we are Catholic. What I don't get is they allow child molesters to preach to children, but being gay is a sin? Go figure.... It makes me mad that a church we grew up in will not accept him. But, it is their loss. My brother is too good for them anyway.

Answer 7

I don't have a relationship with the Catholic church anymore (unless you count my family's ties to the church as an indirect relationship).

Answer 8

I was raised as a Catholic schoolgirl.
Now I am agnostic, and currently in a relationship with my girlfriend, Gabrielle.

Answer 9

No relationship for my partner or myself. We independently decided years ago that we would have no part of any religion with a god that considers us abominations.

Answer 10

After the fires, they don't really speak any more.