I have become the devil’s advocate and
as the truest of masochist I have buried
and carried buried and carried buried
and carried so many flags like the flag
of my faith a flag that makes my past my
sins my memories erased giving me a
whole new face so you could see the God
in me a God that gives me air to breathe
and the Sun and the moon for consistency
in my life and yea though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death I will
fear no evil for thou art with me
even though your religion condemns me
that’s a piece from a poem I wrote ten
years ago I was 15 growing up in
miami-dade County trying to get a grip
on my sexual orientation and how that
impacted my salvation and my spiritual
identity during this world one time in
my life there were three things that I
need to be true I love the Lord I was
queer and the Lord didn’t love me and
this isn’t a plea for your heartstrings
people this is really how I felt and how
could I feel any differently growing up
in a small Lutheran school and attending
one of the largest churches in the area
where homosexuality was frequently
looped in with sins like incest
pedophilia and bestiality oh and I
wasn’t technically I’m still black so I
was further I was even further isolated
because not only was I some kind of
super center but I was like the only
black person alive
I of course realized around 11 or 12
that wasn’t true but I felt that way for
quite some time so you can’t really
understand a person until you’ve walked
in their shoes but who has time for such
an impossible task that’s why God does
not require us to walk a thousand miles
in order to connect with one another we
are simply called to love each other
because God loves us the end
but somewhere down the line we added a
second
religion course religion 101 God loves
everyone
religion 102 God loves everyone except
those abominations Sodom and Gomorrah
Leviticus holy go breaking gays see my
my point is in a modern era in order for
us to create unity in our religious
communities it’s going to take a lot of
action centered on love we cannot have
unity in our religious communities
without LGBTQ people we know this to be
true we now know this to be true because
Christians have already conducted a
similar experiment with African slaves
in America this proved to be extremely
divisive and traumatic according to the
African American registry during the
centuries of slavery black religious
meetings symbolized the ultimate threat
to white existence despite this Africans
retain their faith in God and continue
to find refuge in their churches these
churches were organized politically and
spiritually and we’re not only given to
the teachings of Christianity but also
faithfully relied upon by its members to
address the specific needs of the
community specific needs of our
community the impact of this type of
religious ideology coated in fear and
bigotry are still felt today even in the
research we see that blood historically
black churches are called out separately
from white evangelical communities and
rightfully so due to the severity of
their separation within the Christian
religious body we’re even starting to
see young African American Christians
leaving black church white church really
any church because of this bitter and
unfortunate history
being an african-american Christian
myself I understand this type of
religious division well it’s why I feel
so passionately that in this modern era
we do not repeat the same mistakes with
LGBTQ community but there are sites like
gay church org that helps LGBTQ
Christians in there F in our efforts to
find a church that’s willing to accept
us and with a growing list of over 8,000
churches globally some would think eight
thousand churches globally that’s pretty
good for the gays
but when we compare that to almost 37
million churches around the world that
8,000 number feels pretty dismal it
should be noted tallahassee has seven of
that eight thousand so you all should be
proud of yourselves
that’s true yeah that gets a clap too to
be clear LGBTQ people not attending
mosque synagogue or Church does not
equal some kind of super holy sanitized
religious community it only creates yet
another subset of similar religious
values that hence create further
division and already complex fragmented
religious bodies and because those who
seek will always find we cannot somehow
prevent LGBTQ people from practicing it
seems that the current model is to
create religious communities that are so
hostile and devoid of God’s love for
LGBTQ people that some LGBTQ people
it’s largely done through religion 102
you remember religion 102 God loves
everyone except those abomination Sodom
and Gomorrah Leviticus holy cold
breaking gays see I always heard the
same thing growing up the story of sodom
and gomorrah and how the angels had come
to save lots family but the townsmen
came to sexually assault or rape said to
angels and a lot offered the men his
daughters instead or Leviticus thou
shalt not lie with another man as one
does with a woman this is an abomination
it was more than enough for me to
believe what I was taught
God could pretty much tolerate anyone
else but homosexuals and because I was a
homosexual God couldn’t tolerate me this
is this one time in church that really
stands out we typically only went to
church as a family on Sunday but this
Wednesday night service my mother was
determined for us to be there because
the night before at 15 I had had a
complete mental emotional and spiritual
breakdown I had finally gotten tired of
the tidal wave of religious pressure of
being an LGBTQ person but still wanting
to be loved by God I was sick of
listening to the Exodus international
videos calling me an abomination and
condemning me to an eternity in hell for
my sexual orientation so I finally gave
him I finally accepted God hates gay
people and thus he hates me so the
pastor asked the crowd if anyone wants
give their life to Christ all they have
to do is come up and he’d pray for them
now let me level such our expectations
about how the story ends if you think I
was going to somehow hat here
message and rededicate my life to the
Lord on that altar you’re wrong
I was unmoved I actually just kept
sitting there thinking why my mother had
brought us here knowing God hates gay
people but the people came to the altar
but there was this one woman in a blue
tank top and dark jeans who was just
praying the house down she had her hands
in the ears and she was praying and
praying and praying and maybe it was how
earnest her prayer was that got my
attention but I watched her as she
walked towards the altar
then clean past the altar into overflow
all the way in the back and without
hesitation she laid her hands on me
and she lift the other one to the sky
and she prayed for me like my life
depended on it see that moved me it was
in that moment I realized whatever they
were teaching in religion 102 was wrong
God did love me he loved me so much that
he was going to let me know without a
shadow of a doubt he loved me in that
moment it wasn’t Sodom and Gomorrah or
Leviticus on my mind or in my heart it
was love this is not a sermon I’m not
here to tell you how to interpret your
religious texts I simply asked you to
explore it no your religious texts for
yourself you may come to the conclusion
that homosexuality is a sin if you do
I’d like to refer you back to religion
101 God loves everyone and because of
that you can now actively work to make
your religious communities more open and
accepting to LGBTQ people alternatively
you may come to the conclusion that
homosexuality is not a sin I’d like to
rinse and repeat religion 101 God loves
everyone so in closing I’d like to leave
you with one of my favorite quotes about
God and a challenge one of my favorite
academics brené Brown defines God as
the divine reminder of our inherent
worthiness I’ll ask you all take the
time to ask yourself what muscle purse
what must a person do to be loved by God
if you get to point two or three you’ve
gone too far we all are so deeply loved
by God which is aren’t it which is our
example of how we should love one
[Music] [Applause]
as the truest of masochist I have buried
and carried buried and carried buried
and carried so many flags like the flag
of my faith a flag that makes my past my
sins my memories erased giving me a
whole new face so you could see the God
in me a God that gives me air to breathe
and the Sun and the moon for consistency
in my life and yea though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death I will
fear no evil for thou art with me
even though your religion condemns me
that’s a piece from a poem I wrote ten
years ago I was 15 growing up in
miami-dade County trying to get a grip
on my sexual orientation and how that
impacted my salvation and my spiritual
identity during this world one time in
my life there were three things that I
need to be true I love the Lord I was
queer and the Lord didn’t love me and
this isn’t a plea for your heartstrings
people this is really how I felt and how
could I feel any differently growing up
in a small Lutheran school and attending
one of the largest churches in the area
where homosexuality was frequently
looped in with sins like incest
pedophilia and bestiality oh and I
wasn’t technically I’m still black so I
was further I was even further isolated
because not only was I some kind of
super center but I was like the only
black person alive
I of course realized around 11 or 12
that wasn’t true but I felt that way for
quite some time so you can’t really
understand a person until you’ve walked
in their shoes but who has time for such
an impossible task that’s why God does
not require us to walk a thousand miles
in order to connect with one another we
are simply called to love each other
because God loves us the end
but somewhere down the line we added a
second
religion course religion 101 God loves
everyone
religion 102 God loves everyone except
those abominations Sodom and Gomorrah
Leviticus holy go breaking gays see my
my point is in a modern era in order for
us to create unity in our religious
communities it’s going to take a lot of
action centered on love we cannot have
unity in our religious communities
without LGBTQ people we know this to be
true we now know this to be true because
Christians have already conducted a
similar experiment with African slaves
in America this proved to be extremely
divisive and traumatic according to the
African American registry during the
centuries of slavery black religious
meetings symbolized the ultimate threat
to white existence despite this Africans
retain their faith in God and continue
to find refuge in their churches these
churches were organized politically and
spiritually and we’re not only given to
the teachings of Christianity but also
faithfully relied upon by its members to
address the specific needs of the
community specific needs of our
community the impact of this type of
religious ideology coated in fear and
bigotry are still felt today even in the
research we see that blood historically
black churches are called out separately
from white evangelical communities and
rightfully so due to the severity of
their separation within the Christian
religious body we’re even starting to
see young African American Christians
leaving black church white church really
any church because of this bitter and
unfortunate history
being an african-american Christian
myself I understand this type of
religious division well it’s why I feel
so passionately that in this modern era
we do not repeat the same mistakes with
LGBTQ community but there are sites like
gay church org that helps LGBTQ
Christians in there F in our efforts to
find a church that’s willing to accept
us and with a growing list of over 8,000
churches globally some would think eight
thousand churches globally that’s pretty
good for the gays
but when we compare that to almost 37
million churches around the world that
8,000 number feels pretty dismal it
should be noted tallahassee has seven of
that eight thousand so you all should be
proud of yourselves
that’s true yeah that gets a clap too to
be clear LGBTQ people not attending
mosque synagogue or Church does not
equal some kind of super holy sanitized
religious community it only creates yet
another subset of similar religious
values that hence create further
division and already complex fragmented
religious bodies and because those who
seek will always find we cannot somehow
prevent LGBTQ people from practicing it
seems that the current model is to
create religious communities that are so
hostile and devoid of God’s love for
LGBTQ people that some LGBTQ people
it’s largely done through religion 102
you remember religion 102 God loves
everyone except those abomination Sodom
and Gomorrah Leviticus holy cold
breaking gays see I always heard the
same thing growing up the story of sodom
and gomorrah and how the angels had come
to save lots family but the townsmen
came to sexually assault or rape said to
angels and a lot offered the men his
daughters instead or Leviticus thou
shalt not lie with another man as one
does with a woman this is an abomination
it was more than enough for me to
believe what I was taught
God could pretty much tolerate anyone
else but homosexuals and because I was a
homosexual God couldn’t tolerate me this
is this one time in church that really
stands out we typically only went to
church as a family on Sunday but this
Wednesday night service my mother was
determined for us to be there because
the night before at 15 I had had a
complete mental emotional and spiritual
breakdown I had finally gotten tired of
the tidal wave of religious pressure of
being an LGBTQ person but still wanting
to be loved by God I was sick of
listening to the Exodus international
videos calling me an abomination and
condemning me to an eternity in hell for
my sexual orientation so I finally gave
him I finally accepted God hates gay
people and thus he hates me so the
pastor asked the crowd if anyone wants
give their life to Christ all they have
to do is come up and he’d pray for them
now let me level such our expectations
about how the story ends if you think I
was going to somehow hat here
message and rededicate my life to the
Lord on that altar you’re wrong
I was unmoved I actually just kept
sitting there thinking why my mother had
brought us here knowing God hates gay
people but the people came to the altar
but there was this one woman in a blue
tank top and dark jeans who was just
praying the house down she had her hands
in the ears and she was praying and
praying and praying and maybe it was how
earnest her prayer was that got my
attention but I watched her as she
walked towards the altar
then clean past the altar into overflow
all the way in the back and without
hesitation she laid her hands on me
and she lift the other one to the sky
and she prayed for me like my life
depended on it see that moved me it was
in that moment I realized whatever they
were teaching in religion 102 was wrong
God did love me he loved me so much that
he was going to let me know without a
shadow of a doubt he loved me in that
moment it wasn’t Sodom and Gomorrah or
Leviticus on my mind or in my heart it
was love this is not a sermon I’m not
here to tell you how to interpret your
religious texts I simply asked you to
explore it no your religious texts for
yourself you may come to the conclusion
that homosexuality is a sin if you do
I’d like to refer you back to religion
101 God loves everyone and because of
that you can now actively work to make
your religious communities more open and
accepting to LGBTQ people alternatively
you may come to the conclusion that
homosexuality is not a sin I’d like to
rinse and repeat religion 101 God loves
everyone so in closing I’d like to leave
you with one of my favorite quotes about
God and a challenge one of my favorite
academics brené Brown defines God as
the divine reminder of our inherent
worthiness I’ll ask you all take the
time to ask yourself what muscle purse
what must a person do to be loved by God
if you get to point two or three you’ve
gone too far we all are so deeply loved
by God which is aren’t it which is our
example of how we should love one
[Music] [Applause]
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