Walking the Rainbow Bridge

Chapter 6: Can someone be Gay and a Christian?

Many people are told by their Christian friends, family, and church members that being a Christian and being gay are incompatible. This controversy has led many LGBTQIA+ people away from Christianity to seek out other religions or become atheists because they believe they have no choice.

I know this because I was once in a similar situation. Although being an Asexual Transgender person has allowed me to effortlessly live a life of celibacy, as many religious people say is the only way for an LGBTQIA person to live, it does not allow me to be accepted by most Christians.

And let’s be honest about one thing. Most non-LGBT people don’t even know the difference between being Transgender and Gay. Who can blame them? After all, we are all suspiciously fabulous.

And although I am Asexual, many people believe it is just my denial of my homosexuality. But I don’t deny that I have gay moments 1 percent of the time like that one time I bought a loaf of sourdough bread at the Hy-Vee bakery just because the guy who worked there was cute.

But the main point is I know I will never be accepted by most who call themselves Christians. However, I have come to my understanding with God over time and have learned to conveniently ignore the opinions of people who pretend they know about my “sinful lifestyle” when they don’t know anything about me because they haven’t spent time with me.

I am not the most qualified to write about all the controversies between an LGBTQIA identity and what the Bible or church tradition says. However, I know some authors that have been a great help to me. I want to recommend 3 different books written by 3 different authors.

Walking the Bridgeless Canyon: Repairing the Breach Between the Church and the LGBT Community by Kathy Baldock

Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate by Justin Lee

God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships by Matthew Vines

All of these books contain historical context and differences in translation between different Bible versions. Justin Lee and Matthew Vines are both gay men who can speak from personal experience in reconciling their Christian beliefs with their gay reality. Kathy Baldock is not LGBT at all, but she started researching this topic because of her experiences with her gay friends.

These books have been helpful to me, but before I found books like this to offer me a new perspective, I had a different way of handling the situation. Instead of seeing my identity as a sin and rebellion against God’s design, I think of the example of a butterfly. The following is a post I wrote about it.

The Meaning of the Butterfly Hairclip

Chastity stood before the mirror. She was fully ready for work. She had just put her hair in a ponytail using the butterfly hair clip she bought at Walmart, where she worked.

She took a good look and realized how much she loved the way she looked. The sight of her always inspired people to ask her whether she was a boy or a girl. The truth that Honesty the Unicorn had given her was that it was complicated.

And it is. Chastity did believe that there were two genders, but she knew that she was both of them. Just as the chessboard is half black and half white, so was she more than one thing. Her brother-in-law joked about how she was the best of both worlds. She was both and yet unmistakably felt that a female identity suited her better.

After all, Chastity is known as a girl’s name. Of course, it was assumed that if someone vowed celibacy, it had to be a female. So, she knew she was a female Vegan Virgin.

But if a man can also take the same vow. He would be Mister Chastity. It was true that Chandler and his experience would always be a part of Chastity.

But of course, Chandler had transformed into Chastity just like a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The symbolism of the transformation of the caterpillar is what her hair clip truly meant.

People say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Chastity now knew this to be the truth. She had thousands of words to say. But humans say a lot of things that make no sense. Some say that God does not make mistakes. To those people, Chastity often joked that they would think differently if they ever looked in the mirror.

But now, Chastity was standing in front of the mirror. She did not see a mistake at all. She was a hybrid of a man and a woman. Her mother was a writer and poet. Her father was a chess player and kept huge amounts of data on computers about his genealogy.

Chastity stored gigabytes of data of a very different type. Chastity stored words and pictures on her computer and cell phone. Sometimes, she even used artificial intelligence to turn her words into songs. She wasn’t a musician like her mother was, but she definitely could sing.

Chastity was the hybrid of her parents, but she was more than that. She had both the body and soul of a genderfuck, although she does not fuck anyone of any gender. Because she is Chastity White Rose, the Vegan Virgin, in this, God did not make a mistake.

Some said that Chastity was sinning by transitioning to a new name and female identity because God had intended for Chastity to remain a man. But no one would tell a butterfly that it was wrong to transform because that was exactly how God planned it. Who are these humans who claim to know what God had intended for Chastity? She was like a butterfly, and when she wore her hair clip, only those who knew this secret meaning could understand how beautiful it was. Chastity finally had her wings.