"My Identity is Not in Sin..."
My queerness is more than just the temptation to be sexually intimate with the same-sex. It is a unique lens and perspective that allows me to see the world differently than my peers. That isn't to say that my perspective as someone who is queer is better than someone who is not, just that I see the world differently. The very fact that I feel it would be impossible for me to default into marriage to experience some form of physical sexual fulfillment allows me to see the beauty in other relationships in our lives. It forces me to try and understand what being created a sexual being looks like when our only form of physical sexual expression is not permitted. It allows me to reevaluate what chastity looks like and how it is lived out. It gives me a soft heart for the other.
My identity is not in sin, it is in the life that Christ gives. It is in the friendship that builds me up, it is in the family (given and found) that draws me closer. Does the label confuse Christians? Yeah sometimes, but so do many labels. Labels are nothing but a convenient shorthand for my lived experience. a simple three letter word or acronym is never going to be able to tell you my full story. Calling myself a gay Christian isn't because I hold my core identity to be rooted in my gayness, rather it is used to show that these two things (being attracted to the same sex and following God) are not mutually exclusive. It is important to me to call myself gay and Christian because I was never told that those things could exist in the same person. I refuse to propagate this lie because it does matter because kids very lives are at stake when they believe this lie. Unnecessary? No, you might see it as unnecessary because it confuses straight Christians, but this was never for the sake of straight Christians because they never had to worry about being accepted by the God they love because of who they are attracted to. I am sorry if I have confused straight Christians with my choice of labels, but I have also done everything in my power to explain what those labels mean to me. If you are unwilling to even hear me out as a fellow follower of Christ, then I am sorry but your confusion is definitely not my responsibility.
