Christianity and queerness are not mutually exclusive. Illustration courtesy of freshman reporter Charly Elston.
Homophobia, transphobia, and other types of queerphobia are often justified by religious means, and San Luis Obispo High School students have no doubt noticed this. Despite the popular religious justification, this is not only hateful and ridiculous, it makes very little sense under scrutiny.
There are no means to justify queerphobia, religion certainly not one of them.
“I think the [idea] that homosexuality and queerness is inherently wrong and impure or a sin, doesn’t come from the Bible persay, rather the biased interpretation of a book that is centuries old,” said freshman Vyolet Burrus.
Firstly, following a centuries-old book as a basis on what is moral and what is not is problematic in itself. There’s nothing wrong with using certain passages, and there’s nothing wrong with being religious. But when used to justify hatred, it’s being used for the wrong reasons.
People who use it for hatred disregard other passages, and are selective on what they follow. “The Bible strictly forbids eating rabbit, shellfish, pork, weasels, scavengers, reptiles, and owls,” according to an article titled “11 kinds of Bible verses Christians love to ignore” on salon.com.
Those who are selective on passages they decide to follow aren’t trying to follow the Bible. They’re trying to justify their hatred of queer people.
The most ironic part?
The passage mentioning homosexuality is regarded to as a misinterpretation by many and wasn’t even in the Bible until 1946.
The Greek word “αρσενοκοιται” in the Bible was never translated to mean “homosexual” until 1946, meaning it was in the Bible for thousands of years before it meant “homosexual”.
German versions of the Bible have the passage reading against pedophilia, rather than homosexuality.
So if someone’s using the Bible to justify their hatred, they’re not trying to follow it. They’re trying to give reasoning for their hatred.
Further, not all religious people interpret religious texts to be against homosexuality, it’s just the queerphobic religious people.
I would like to end this by saying that I don’t hold this perspective as a religious person, meaning I can’t speak to my own experiences with religion, as I haven’t had those experiences. However, I am in the LGBTQ+ community, and have observed religion being used to justify queerphobia. I don’t have anything against religion; I believe it can be a beautiful thing, unless it’s being used to justify hatred, then it’s being misused. I believe it doesn’t need to be used this way, and raising awareness that not all religious people use religious texts incorrectly. Most do, and don’t use it to excuse hatred. I’m addressing those who take it the other way, and use it to say why they’re better than other people, for things they can’t control.
If someone who is supposed to love all is reading a religious text to mean that certain people have committed sins because of something they can’t control, is that person using the text correctly?
Sources: salon.com, um-insight.net