This might be one of those posts that makes some people uncomfortable, makes you not want to read my blog anymore, or makes you think with an open mind. I’m hoping that it is the latter, but it is definitely a topic that is important to me. In case you didn’t know June is pride month. Pride month is a time for the LGBTQ community and allies to come together to support the freedom’s that they have to just be themselves, which is something so many of us take for granted.
If you didn’t already know, I am a history nerd, and taught history for several years, so I couldn’t talk about pride month without telling you a little about the history of it. June was picked to celebrate pride month because the Stonewall Uprising happened in June of 1969 in New York City. This uprising happened when a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City was raided. At the time solicitation of same sex relationships were illegal in New York City, and these raids were happening frequently to establishments that were frequented by members of the LBGTQ community. This particular raid started protests that lasted six days, and was the start of the gay rights movement in the United States. I always love to learn and teach the history behind things, because it gives you a better understanding of the “why”.
So you might be wondering what my why is. Why do I celebrate pride month? I celebrate pride month for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is because I truly believe that love is love. I am a counselor and always want my students to know that when they talk to me it is a safe place, and one without judgement. I am also raising children that I want to love others and be kind humans regardless of what their personal preferences or beliefs are. It shouldn’t matter what my sexual preference is, or what anyone else’s sexual preference is. What matters is that we are called to love others.
I had a student come to me this year that said they had a question for me. I was intrigued and as the student went on, they said “I know you are religious because of how you act, and I know you support people no matter who they love because of how you act, but how does that work?” I asked the student what they meant and they said “well a lot of Christians I’ve spoke to say being gay is a sin, and they don’t support people like you do.” As I sat there thankful that the student trusted me enough to come to me with this, I was also sad that this is what that student has seen of Christians. I told the student that not all Christians believe that, and that for me, I believe we are called to “love our neighbor”, ANY neighbor. The student asked if it says being gay is wrong in the bible, and I told the student that it depends on the translation you read.
If you haven’t researched this before and are basing your Christian views on the LBGTQ community off of bible verses such as the ones in Leviticus, 1 Corinthians, and Romans, OR from the use of a translated word for “arsenokoitai”, then I implore you to DO YOUR RESEARCH. Did you know that the word “homosexual” wasn’t used in an English Bible until 1946?! Both of these articles are great reads if you are interested in the mistranslation that many Christians commonly use to condemn the LBGTQ community.
https://um-insight.net/perspectives/has-%E2%80%9Chomosexual%E2%80%9D-always-been-in-the-bible/
https://baptistnews.com/article/my-quest-to-find-the-word-homosexual-in-the-bible/#.YLfbK6jYrIU
Regardless of what you believe is right or wrong when it comes to love, love is discussed over and over again in the Bible. The word love is used 551 times in the new international version of the Bible. There are two verses that stick out to me as the most important verses about love.
These verses are so important to me because they tell us HOW to love. The first one tells us to “love your neighbor as yourself”. It does NOT say love your neighbor who looks like you, worships like you, speaks like you, or loves like you. It says LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. Even if you can’t swallow that one for what it is, we are further instructed to love like God loved us. We read parable after parable in the bible discussing how Jesus loves and seeks out the social outcasts. If you still feel that the LBGTQ community doesn’t deserve the love you do, then consider this. We see Jesus associate with sinners, tax collectors, adulteresses, prostitutes, the unclean, the sick, and the list goes on and on. Do you really think that God doesn’t love who YOU consider to be a social outcast because they are different than you? At the end of the day you have to remember that God is Love, and Love is Love.
Fear is a Liar 
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