A question of faith.

I find myself blankly offended.

In some ways I'm even more offended because I am a Christian. My faith has always been important to me. Being queer and Christian are two things that most people seem to feel are mutually exclusive, but I can't agree. And then I read things like this. It is painful on a fundamental level. To feel this kind of hatred aimed at me by people who claim, at the same time, to want to bring "Christ's love" to the world.

"You telling these miserable, Hell-bound, bath house-wallowing, anal-copulating fags that God loves them!? You have bats in the belfry!"

That? Where does that come from? Where does that kind of hate fit into Christ's tenant that we are to "love your neighbor as yourself"? It doesn't. It's that simple. It just doesn't. I know that growing up I was terrified of my own sexuality. That the very idea that I might be even a little bit "that way" was something that was out of the question. My ability to wrap my mind around the thought that I was queer wasn't something I was capable of. Convinced that I would be disowned and abandoned, I simply decided to ignore it. My bisexuality was something I viewed as a kind of safety net. I wasn't lying to anyone, I wasn't doing anything wrong, I simply didn't allow that aspect of myself to have any kind of outward effect on my life. I lived the "don't ask don't tell" ideal.

( And it ate me from the inside out. )