I'm a Catholic who also happens to be skeptical of religion. I believe in God and I believe in the things Jesus spent his life teaching. There's been a lot of back and forth here on religion and having just witnessed a gay person receive HRs for expressing skepticism toward religion I wanted to speak up. I don't think many of you realize the terror inflicted upon LGBT people because of religion. And it's not just Christianity - at least three major religions condemn homosexuality and recommend killing gay people.
In fact, in quite a few countries it still happens. Iran, for example. The United Nations recently voted that protections against murdering gay people should not be allowed. It was only after pressure from the United States that the United Nations relented. This was not a LGBT-affirming vote. It wasn't for protection for gays. Just a resolution that it's kind of mean to kill people for being gay. And it very nearly was not adopted.
The Pope blames gay people for the sex abuse scandal. He has said so repeatedly. He's called for witch hunts against gay priests because he believes that it will stop the sex abuse. This is despite the fact that studies have proven that not only is there no link between homosexuality and sex abuse or pedophilia, but that sex offenders target those who are within their reach. If a church only allows altar boys, a pervert is going to target boys, whatever their orientation may be.
The Family Research Council and other religious organizations have not just been called hate groups because the SPLC is really, really mean. There's actually a logical reason. Quite a few religious groups spend their time and money attacking gays. Read some of the stuff James Dobson or Tony Perkins or Pat Robertson or Paul Cameron has said - not just the quotes that are tame enough to be mentioned on TV. Religion has resulted in the systematic destruction and dehumanization of LGBT people.
When they're not scapegoating gays for pedophilia and sex abuse and when they're not spouting rhetoric horrendous enough for them to be called hate groups, they're promoting conversion therapy and creating conversion "camps" to turn gay people straight. This has been proven to be mental and emotional abuse and it has a lasting effect on children. And it doesn't work. There is no approved therapy in existence to "change" one's orientation. Yet these things not only continue but they're mentioned in the media as if they're created equal and conversion therapy is just another side to the debate on whether gay people are humans who deserve to be who we are without the persecution. People like Tony Perkins and other "religious authorities" are given ample time to disseminate their views (witness the DADT debate) while the LGBT point of view is always either oversimplified or not given very much time at all. We are hardly ever mentioned in history textbooks, if at all. Religion has been very successful in helping to eliminate gay experiences from the record.
So, have a little bit of damn patience with LGBT people on this site and our skepticism of religion. It has played a huge role in our lives, and in the most negative way you could imagine. Or maybe you can't, but I wish you'd try.
I was raised Catholic. My family is very conservative Catholic. I went to Catholic school from K-7th grade when my mother finally let me go to public school (we are poor and the rich kids at the private school were always snotty to me.) Not only did I go to church every Sunday because I actually wanted to, but I played guitar for the Friday Mass at the school. Again, because I wanted to.
My family is the type that has pictures of Jesus and Mary all over the place in their home. And when I moved out here, my mom forced me to put a religious-themed picture in every room of my apartment. (Incidentally, there's one religious picture I got that I actually wanted - this wooden picture of Jesus that used to be in my grandparents' house.) And we're the type to pray before every meal at family dinners and say the rosary during storms.
As I wrote just yesterday, though, I had a really bad childhood because of my parents' inability to look past their religion and accept me the way I am. From the time I was thirteen I used to cry myself to sleep at night begging God to please change me. Just make me straight so I never had to come out to people. My family talked about how horrible gay people were and I was very accustomed to that kind of speech at a young age. (Indeed over this past Christmas a young cousin of mine called someone a queer, in a negative way, so apparently this is continuing even now.) And of course God never changed me, so I eventually realized he just didn't care enough about whether I loved a guy or a woman.
And as I already wrote, when my mother found out about me she asked how I could do this to God. She said she couldn't love me the same. And she made it perfectly clear that her objections over it were religion-based and that she would love God (who, no offense, is invisible and never appears in this world to anyone to say anything) over her own child. And let's not pretend this is uncommon. This is the main objection to gays from anyone. This is even the main objection cited in dissents of Supreme Court cases on gay rights. Read Scalia's dissents in Romer and Lawrence. Religious opposition to gays is so prevalent that some of our Supreme Court justices would like to use it as a legal basis to hurt us.
Of course I'd be skeptical of religion. I am less hostile than others and especially other LGBT people but I can understand cynicism or outright hatred toward something that is powerful and uses its power to hurt us just for being who we are.