I have many friends and family that are religious. They go to church, read the Bible, and pray. They don’t care that I’m gay and I respect them for that, because they do what God wanted them to do: love.
What irritates me are the religious people that don’t accept the LGBT community. They claim that it’s a sin so they don’t believe in same-sex relationships and ignore the fact that people are born gay. “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination,” is from Levitcus, so people naturally follow this command. But wait! Levitus also mentions what fish not to eat from the ocean and when it comes to the ones that “hath no fins nor scales in the waters,” then those are an abomination. So if people are choosing to believe every single thing within Levitcus, why aren’t they protesting shrimp which has neither fins nor scales?
I’ll tell you why; they’re picking and choosing which ones to protest and using religion to make their homophobia okay despite the fact that it’s discrimination. Throughout history, discrimination has led to death. Look at what happened in the Southern states with African Americans. Look at Hitler. The differences aren’t so vast. We have hatred groups, we have suppressed rights…we have people okay with LGBT teens committing suicide.
The solution to this is awareness and understanding. If they take the time and listen to the stories coming out from the LGBT community, then they would realize that: 1. No one chooses to be gay. 2. The LGBT community is as harmless as a fly, despite the rumors that have been around for decades. The time for our society to grow up is long overdue.
I’m proud to say that I have many religious friends that are for gay rights and equality. That’s how it should be. Let’s leave ignorance behind and induce understanding, to create a better tomorrow with less hatred and less death.