https://19thnews.org/2023/12/lgbtq-religion-people-limited-data/
Faith and queerness are not exclusive. More data could help push back against hate while allowing LGBTQ+ people to tell more expansive stories about themselves.
As a religious LGBTQ+ person, I don't feel the need to flaunt that or give that data. My FAFSA application asked questions about my LGBTQ+ status, and I lied my ass off because I'm scared of what the Nazi so-called-Christians in my government will try to do with that information. I'm a "real" Christian whose favorite Leviticus line isn't the one about not being gay, it's 19:18. That part, somehow, slips their minds when making decisions.
I think having this data would be interesting, but to say
Proof of religious LGBTQ+ people pushes back against hateful movements
in the context of what the article is discussing is a big assumption. Hateful movements gonna hate. I’ve seen individual hearts and minds change once people realize that LGBTQ+ people aren’t “boogeymen” that must be watched out for, but are instead their neighbors, coworkers, sons and daughters (and I’ve seen those hearts and minds harden too…). But at the group level, in my experience, people who buy into those hateful religious movements don’t usually view their group actions as hateful—they view them as necessary to save themselves and others in the name of their beliefs.
Instead of shouting “those people are unlike us and we must fight against sin” in the direction of non-religiously affiliated LGBTQ+ people, it becomes “bless their hearts they want to be on the righteous path but we must help them overcome the scourge of sin” directed at religious in-group LGBTQ+ people. Maybe the hateful vitriol is softened, but the outcome tends to be the same.
But maybe I’m just jaded because I think organized religion is largely a scourge on humanity.
This, plus being queer isn't inherently making you or people accepting you necessarily less bigoted. For example, even queer TERFs side with Nazis. Of course it is more likely that if a movement is more accepting of one minority, it may be also accepting to others. But it may also use one minority group to pit against another...
Exactly. Minority groups that are tolerated within larger, harmful movements are often manipulated and leveraged in some way that negatively impacts that minority group or other minority groups. See also the Log Cabin Republicans.
I'm a Discordian and once walked backwards for several days as a child. Idk what that does for your data pool.