LGBTQIA+ Christians and the Church

A few weeks ago I read a New York Times article and video where an Evangelical pastor's love for his gay son led him to be a strong advocate for LGBTQIA+ Christians within the Evangelical church.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/opinion/evangelical-pastor-gay-son.h…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhv1AzMa3uo

This article reminded me of the time I attended an Evangelical church for 8 years in the 1990s.

We usually stereotype all Evangelicals as being anti-gay. But if you looked below the surface of that church, there was a lot more diversity than one would expect.

There were Christians who thought homosexuality was a sin and hated gays and lesbians.

But there were also gay and lesbian Christians, as well as Christians who privately supported gay rights but were intimidated from expressing their views inside the church.

There was a third group: Christians who thought homosexuality was a sin but who also had close gay and lesbian friends and family members whom they deeply cared about. These Christians hated the way their gay and lesbian loved ones were treated by their fellow church members.

I don't know what the exact percentage of the church community was in one group or another. But there were a significant number of churchgoers who either supported gay rights (in the 1990s, transgender people were not in the church's radar) or who were protective of their gay and lesbian friends and family members from the more overtly homophobic church members.

I left the church in the 2000s. I don't know how that church has evolved over the past 2 decades.

But I remember what happened in the 2008 California elections when Proposition 8 was in the ballot. Proposition 8 would outlaw gay marriage in California.

Many Evangelical, Mormon and Catholic leaders were lobbying their congregations to vote for Proposition 8 at the time.

While the church leaders were lobbying for Prop 8, I personally knew Evangelicals, Catholics and Mormons who opposed Proposition 8 and supported Marriage Equality.

Over the years, more Christians in all denominations have changed their minds and now support LGBTQIA+ rights. There are groups like Dignity USA (https://www.dignityusa.org/), New Ways Ministry (https://www.newwaysministry.org/), Affirmation (https://affirmation.org/) are advocating for LGBTQIA+ Catholics, Mormons, and Evangelicals from within their churches.

With transgender people now under threat in the U.S. and around the world, there are Christians that will speak out and oppose those church leaders that fan anti-transgender hate.

Here is a youtube video on how I created this cartoon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzjP8nI2dY