Organized Religion is Failing the Gay and Transgender Community [View all]

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http://www.chicagonow.com/trans-girl-cross/2013/06/organized-religion-failing-lgbt-community/



By Meggan Sommerville, Sunday at 8:27 pm

Organized religion. Those words can cause some lively if not heated discussion. You add the topic of sexual orientation and gender identity into the mix and the heat gets dialed up a few notches. Then add being gay or transgender in the church and the conversation can often go to the negative extremes. Organized religion has failed when it comes to the perception of the church that is so dominate in the LGBT community.

Being transgender and being Christian, I know that I am a minority of a minority. I consider my walk with Christ to be the most important part of who I am and unfortunately, I have seen and been the victim, more than once, of the church’s ignorance, shallowness and prejudice towards the transgender community.

A recent study done by PEW Research shows some interesting and extremely disappointing numbers. Only 1 out of 10 people that identify as LGBT say that mainstream religious institutions are friendly to the LGBT community. Though it is the pastors of Christian churches that are the ones we hear about most speaking out against the Marriage equality or transgender policies in schools, it is not the only religion that takes a hit in this survey. The majority of the LGBT individuals surveyed rate that the Muslim, Mormon and the Catholic church as unfriendly. For me, this statistic is one of the saddest numbers I have ever seen. But from experience, it’s one statistic that doesn’t surprise me in the least.

The most important commandment that Christ left us with was to love one another just as He loves us. Whether my child chooses to have tattoos, body piercings or a radical and extreme hairdo, I love my child. If my child chooses to wear clothes that rebel against what the rest of society deems normal, I love my child. If my child would come to me in the years to come and tell me he or she is gay or trans – then I will love them all the same and I dare say many of you would as love your children the same way.

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