Contents:
- COMG OUT AS A GAY EVANGELIL CHRISTIAN - LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH REFLECTN BY PAM GOLD
- THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.
COMG OUT AS A GAY EVANGELIL CHRISTIAN - LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH REFLECTN BY PAM GOLD
'I don't see myself as straight, gay, ex-gay or halfway between. (RNS) — When Grant Hartley first disvered he was gay at age 13, he adopted what he lls an “ex-gay mdset. “I started to thk of more as a gift, as a strength, ” said Hartley, now 28 and openly gay.
While grateful for the experience of beg gay, Hartley se his gay inty as somethg that go beyond jt sex — “I never say that I’m grateful for same-sex sexual sire, ” he said — also clus athetics, culture and worldview.
As Si B disurse was fdg s way to onle foms, the flagship Christian ex-gay anizatn Exod Internatnal closed s doors 2013 after s of g nversn therapy on LGBTQ dividuals. Many LGBTQ Christians who had been harmed by the ex-gay approach — but still held to tradnal church teachgs on marriage — turned to Si B for a more acceptg muny. “There’s a wi range of ways to give and receive love, ” said Th, a gay celibate Catholic wrer and speaker wh a forthg book.
THE EX-GAY CHRISTIANY MOVEMENT IS MAKG A QUIET EBACK. THE EFFECTS ON LGBTQ YOUTH ULD BE VASTATG.
RELATED: Celibate gay Christian lear urg fahful to ‘normalize’ mted iendships.
Bridget Eileen Rivera, a celibate gay Christian and thor of “Heavy Burns: Seven Ways LGTBQ Christians Experience Harm the Church, ” don’t e the Si B label. Greg Johnson, a gay pastor the Prbyterian Church Ameri (PCA) and thor of a forthg book, believ the Si B language n be eful. “When a gay person lands the more nservative, tradnal mp, ’s helpful to distguish them om those who are really theologilly a different place, ” he said.