This thread was ever on track in the first place? Look, I really hate to be "that guy," but I have no idea why this thread exists or how it has continued to exist for over three weeks despite very little of substance being posted.
The reason I descended from my high horse to post this is because these are exactly the kinds of "discussions" that perpetuate stupidly false binaries and lazy generalizations, even if these are never spoken and remain implicit. It's awfully frustrating that an issue as broad and important as LGBT [insert issue here: violence, employment/housing discrimination, marriage, representation in media, etc.] can get reduced to the circlejerk that is this thread, which isn't going to be challenging anyone's beliefs--wow, I never knew this transphobe was backwards!--and doesn't actually do anything positive that a sympathetic LGBT discussion might do, like raising awareness about [insert specific lgbt issue here] or encouraging empathy. I especially liked the part where people speculated that the homophobe/transphobe in question is a closeted homosexual and/or a pedophile. @_@ you know, slinging that around as an accusation masquerading as an irony isn't exactly being an a-plus ally, but whatever
I don't want to minimize what this guy could represent: I don't think extremists are irrelevant in the sense that these are the people who are going to be carrying out violence against LGBT people, and that's a very scary reality in the LGBT community. The problem is that that's obviously not what this thread is about. It looks more like hastily assembled moral high ground from which posters can sling mud at some random bigot for no purpose whatsoever.
Instead of taking shots at some walking straw man like this guy--does every LGBT/Christianity topic have to be like this?--could we have a real, actual discussion about the interplay between Christianity (or western organized religion as a whole) and LBGT people, politics, etc., which is a very interesting and multifaceted topic? As a (mostly closeted) LGBT person and a (mostly closeted, with some people anyway, haha) Catholic, it's an issue I certainly would love to talk about. It's much more interesting, at least to me, to go beyond surface-level identifications like "this Christian is a hypocrite!" and discuss why this hypocrisy is so prevalent, how it is changing and/or being challenged, how LGBT people of faith reconcile these two parts of their identity with themselves, how they reconcile with their family (if possible), how they don't, etc. Can't we do better than the discourse present in this thread? Please?
tl;dr: caitlyn jenner isn't an abomination, but this thread certainly is
So just to put my money with my mouth is (so as to not just be ranting about low thread quality and proposing topics but actually attempting to contribute to a discussion), here are my thoughts on the issue:
While I am a very sincere Catholic, I feel like the faith can lend itself to internalized sexual shame, which is made even more difficult when you're not the "ideal" straight/cis person. Being attracted to females and being able to pass as straight is convenient, but it doesn't exactly make up for years of accumulated shame about, in crude terms, wanting to have sex with a bunch of people around you. Some of that comes externally, I think--I think there is a ton of low-key shaming of male sexuality despite, especially for people who reject things that overly glorify it (fratty rape culture, or whatever)--but it still makes it a struggle. I still don't really feel like I've experienced a "normal" sexual relationship, if only with myself internally.
Even so, as many people like to point out, over the years Christians have picked and chosen what to take from the Bible and interpret literally. I don't feel any theological shame. It's more the Christian community as a whole that can be unwelcome. There is a reason I'm closeted, I guess.
I don't think that means that these two identities are fundamentally opposed. I had a very long discussion about this with one of my good friends and a sort of LGBT father figure for me. People choose to act on different things based on their own biases, even when they're trying to be objective. People are often hateful. That's just the way humans can be. I think it sucks that LGBT people are systematically oppressed, but I think trying to blame an entity is a bit of a fool's errand. I feel like, if LGBT people gained political power, they'd find their own targets of discrimination whether they meant to or not. (You can see this within the LGBT movement itself, which is hardly the monolith I've been implicitly depicting it as. It's not like LG have always been great to B, or that any of the three have been great to T, etc.) I hate to be so fatalistic, but I think there is a certain inevitability to hatred, so we do our best to minimize its impact and to police our own imperfections. I have not found it emotionally satisfying to try to blame something like Christianity for hatred, though I definitely understand why some people do/don't think they're wrong to do so.
I do think that there is a tendency to make lazy generalizations with an oppressor Christianity/victim LGBT [rights/emotional well-being/quality of life/etc.] binary (which is another reason I can't stand this thread). I don't know the demographics of the issue at all and I might be in anecdotal fallacy range here, but a good number of the outspoken conservative Christians I know are very pro-LGBT--at least the young ones. I am happy that it seems to be a generational issue, and whatever justified complaining you can do about slacktivism and bandwagoning causes and self-indulgent/fake "allyship," perfect is the enemy of good, and I'm glad it's progressing. I honestly think that a lot of Christianity/LGBT issues will decline as LGBT people in general become more accepted in society, even if that rate of change might be a little slower. I don't think "crazy 'Christian' pastor" will have any impact on that general trend whatsoever.
The political side of it doesn't interest me as much and I don't have anything thoughtful to say about it.
Sorry if this post was too aggressive. (Or, uh, off-topic I guess lol.)