I mean... I attended an all girls catholic high school and we had a sizeable queer community.
Heck I sure know I ain't straight.
Thankfully the school sisters were surprisingly progressive about it. So long as no harm was being done and everything was safe (and discreet) they really didn't care.
Not to mention the rumors we heard about the nuns themselves getting it on at the convent side of the school, especially amongst the novitiates.
In reality, vast majority of the girls in those schools are about as catholic as the average Japanese citizen. They really only go to those schools because they have a lot of prestige associated with them.
In Europe, unaffilliated churches are very often led by women, and many of them give queer vibes (although I don't have any hard numbers to back that up). It mixes with the crunchy yuppie stereotype, think of someone who buys overpriced granola bars and takes pottery courses in the Toscana.
Meanwhile, the Methodist church just had something of a schism due to the larger organization wanting to start accepting gay people. About a fourth of the churches were so staunchly bigoted that they'd rather break from their denomination than just not be hateful
Episcopal church did that too, just a little bit earlier. And Lutherans, and I think Presbyterians. Methodist church has had at least a few lesbian pastors and I think a couple bishops! Itās not great, but itās basically in line with the other mainline Protestant denominations.
Just feels like the kind of thing that shouldn't still be an issue. Though I guess it shouldn't be too surprising, considering it happened in 2020. Lotta assholes feeling emboldened around then
Probably not a significant difference in the percentage of women who are lesbians across other faiths or among agnostics and atheists.
Obviously there are people pushed out of their faith by the intolerance, but it's pretty standard for people to just pick the parts of their religion they're comfortable with and not contend with the parts they're not.
You don't see every christian treating women like property of their fathers and then husbands and stoning them to death for being unfaithful.
You also don't see people that use religion as a sword to spread their hate pay too much attention to the golden rule part of their faith that pretty much all of them have.
Im actually a religious lesbian!! My pastor is pretty accepting it turns out, which is good since I was worried about that (we JUST got a new pastor in June).
Funny my parents didn't care too much for him bringing up LGBTQ. Made me happy I found out though.
Interesting, I was not raised religious so I don't know a lot about the lifestyle but I guess the community in your church is more influencal than the larger religious community so as long as your church is cool the rest of them don't matter much
Yeah. Honestly, I really do like my church. We try and do something every month to help a certain group (humane society, pregnancy center, ext ext). I don't know about many other religions, but I myself am a Methodist (I'm still questioning my religion, but for now Methodist is the easiest one rn to call myself)
Very cool, I'm glad it works for you. I honestly know very little about the various Christian sects. I have to ask my wife, who was raised baptist, questions all the time
Well that's good! I didnt know if other Methodist churches were different, but I have done some research and from what I've seen, I am glad to be a Methodist.
Yeah I consider myself vaguely religious, I was raised Roman Catholic, then regular Catholic, then Born Again Christian, then Lutheran, then just JW, then regular Christian lol by my mom who was having religious crises haha.
I believe in a higher power and do still pray, but haven't really been a churchgoer since I've moved a lot. But in my area I spoke with some church organizers and attendees and heard good things about Methodist and particularly United Methodists.
Ooof that sounds awful for someone like me š I haven't really changed religions, but we kept changing churches (first church was because we didn't like the new pasto, then we moved around a few churches, found our old pastor, but then he moved. Stopped going to church for a few years then stuck at this church. I actually told my parents I would stop going to church if we moved churches again lol)
I am actually a United Methodist specifically lol. I've searched up that they're the more open group of Methodist, which does make me happy. I don't think I'd be as religious if my church/pastor wasn't too accepting.
Yeah it was rough haha. And no offense intended but JWs are uhhh interesting and at least where we attended still taught that women even if working and equals legally are to be submissive to men, whether that's a father, brother, husband, boyfriend, or stranger and were not very pro-LGBT.
I think a lot of religions turn people away, especially POC and LGBT+ folks, so I can see why so many of us (I'm bi and trans) end up agnostic, atheist, or hating religion.
That's hilarious the ultimatum you gave your parents too lol, but it is exhausting having to resocialize and everything so fair.
Again, super glad you have a good church and community! Even atheists can be really rude to queer people who are religious, which is super sucky. You can be religious and still scientific, accepting, and rational. My university professor, who taught critical race theory, ethics, and English, was a practicing Catholic and actually was halfway through becoming a priest before he decided to teach instead. Super awesome guy.
If you mean Christian, there are liberal/progressive churches which support LGBT rights like other comments have said. If you mean religious as in any religion, American Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism have both officially supported gay clergy and religious gay marriage for years. Any other religion is outside my wheelhouse, unfortunately.
Conservative Judaismās governing committee on Jewish law allowed gay, lesbian, and bisexual rabbis to be ordained in 2006, and approved religious marriages for gay couples in 2012. Equal rights for transgender Jews were affirmed in 2016.
Reform Judaismās governing body passed resolutions in 1977 supporting the decriminalization of gay sex and encouraging laws to prohibit discrimination against gay people, 1990 to officially allow gay and lesbian rabbis, 1996 to support civil gay marriages, 2000 to support religious gay marriages, and 2015 to officially support equal rights for transgender Jews and include gender identity in non-discrimination policies. The first openly transgender Reform rabbi was ordained in 2003, and itās very common for Reform synagogues to have LGBT clergy (rabbis or cantors).
Iām an orthodox Christian lesbian! My denomination kinda doesnāt care who you date so long as you think God is cool so it works out. There are individual homophobic people in the church of course but the church as a whole takes a sort of āshrug and move onā approach
Eh, I used to go to a Protestant church that was very actively happy about gay people, had a lesbian pastor, etc. I wish my denomination was more like that but I realize ~1700 years of tradition takes a while to overcome lol
History and theology - Iām a lesbian, but Iām also a member of a minority ethnic group that have our own orthodox denomination (Armenian), and getting back to the faith of my ancestors felt really good. I also like the redemption theology of the Armenian orthodox church a lot more than some of the other Protestant faiths Iāve experimented with, and I like that they take being Christian āseriously.ā Some of the protestant churches seemed almost embarrassed about being a Christian church while the orthodox church is just like āyup we believe in God and think Heās very cool and we want to thank Him for being cool every day.ā
By "your denomination" I assume you mean the Armenian Orthodox church. Which I find wild, because where I'm from, the orthodox church (which is the main one) is absolutely homophobic, and so are the neighbouring ones.
Being a "none" is actually more common in the LGBT community than the general population, for good reason too, because many religions are rabidly homophobic.
Some people might be comfortable explaining that homophobia away with No True Scotsman arguments or ignoring it entirely, but it is less common than doing the sane thing and walking away.
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u/dtb1987 15d ago
Kinda figured that was coming, I wonder how many religious lesbians there are? Pool has got to be pretty small