The Identity Smoothie
Written by Katelyn — Wisconsin, USA
As a queer person of faith my religion is a defining part of who I am because it allows me to defy the “norm” of what we associate with being queer, and what we associate with being religious. There is this stigma within the queer community that you can’t be queer and practice religion at the same time. This idea stems from the incredible amount of prosecution that queer people have faced in religious settings for centuries. To avoid being discriminated against, we separate ourselves from the labels of those who hurt us. So if christians hurt queer people and I am a queer person then that means I can’t be Christian, right?” And so these hostile remarks of “there is no place for you here” in religious spaces are internalized and we as queer people alienate ourselves from religion. This mindset drives queer individuals away from exploring faith because how can you love a religion that believes your entire existence is a sin?
Healing the rift between identity and religion as a queer person comes when we allow ourselves to be in religious spaces in the first place. To banish the thought that by following religion, we are turning our backs on the LGBTQ community. Accepting that religion can be intertwined with and a part of one’s identity.
I am a practicing Methodist and I love my church community with all my heart. They have advised me through so much and the countless other queer people in my congregation - some way older than I am - have helped me cement my belief that you can be queer and religious. The ability to see thriving adult individuals who openly identify as queer gives me so much hope for my own adulthood and my future in general. If these individuals are queer and deeply involved in faith I can be too. These identities can be blended like a smoothie, and I believe that we all turn into the exact mix of identity that we are for a reason. If God put me on this earth and I found out that I was queer then that was his recipe for me all along. How can I believe that I have betrayed the Creator when he made me just the way I am? If I am authentically living out to my full potential, am I not simply celebrating his beautiful and cherished creation?
Ultimately I feel that as a queer Christian, I can help re-solidify the true motivations of my religion; to aid, love, and support others. That is the basis of how I use my faith throughout my daily life. To truly love and accept all and show that there is not one simple way to be Christian nor is there one way to be queer. Through showing kindness and respect under my identity as a queer person of faith I can hopefully help bridge the gap and allow more queer individuals to feel safe in settings of worship and praise. Celebrating and expressing the truest form of yourself is the best way to form a connection with faith because we are made in the image of the Creator and, therefore, are all beloved and all are perfectly unique smoothies of his creation.
