Response to Celia Riley's Article on the Election of Trump - Part 2

Firstly, if you haven't read my other related post, I recommend you do so first. It's important to understand where I'm coming from, as otherwise some of what I have to say here won't entirely make sense.

So how should conservative Christians opposed to Trump act towards the LGBT community?

(Actually, you could easily remove the “opposed to Trump” part, because so most of this applies more generally.)

Celia's article, which inspired my two, has at its core a simple but powerful and important message: we do not have to reconcile with our abuser. This doesn't mean we shouldn't forgive them, as she pointed out; it means that those who have harmed us should not expect reconciliation, and we should never be under obligation to provide it. As someone who has been abused repeatedly, more often because I have a disability than because I am queer, it is something I agree with entirely.

However the election of Trump has altered the situation. It places two groups which have historically been at odds on the same side. Those two groups are the LGBT community, and those conservative Christians who, like Celia, recognise Trump for what he is and the threat he represents. I believe that, in this case, some form of reconciliation between these groups is necessary if we are to limit the damage Trump is capable of doing, and this means some understanding of the other side's perspective is required.

Specifically, I think that Christians need an opportunity to learn about and understand the perspective of the LGBT community, and why we view Christians as our abusers, because my experience has been that very few Christians have any real understanding of why we have spent the last several decades (longer than I've been alive) campaigning for the rights we are demanding.

This need to change.

Many Christians will probably not believe me when I say that, for the most part, LGBT people don't actually bear much animus towards them. Nevertheless it is true. There is resentment, but that is a reactive emotion, something created in someone by harming them, so is primarily the fault of Christians themselves. Animus, as a proactive emotion, is rarely a factor.

The reason we appear to obsess about Christians is that, from our perspective, Christians seem equally obsessed with us, if not more so. In particular Christians seem obsessed with imposing their concepts of morality on us in ways which are directly harmful to our physical safety and our economic, psychological and spiritual well-being. For example, Christians are often blissfully unaware of their complicity in the high rate of suicide among LGBT youth, despite the fact that there are remarkably few dots to join up. The high rate of suicide is a direct consequence of laws which legalise discrimination against, or even mandate the direct persecution of, LGBT people, and those laws are invariably promoted and campaigned for by Christian groups such as the National Organisation for Marriage, One Million Moms, or the American Family Association.

For example, I grew up living under Section 28, a British law campaigned for by Christian groups like the Salvation Army, Christian Institute, and CARE, which banned the “promotion of homosexuality” in schools. This sounds innocuous enough, until you realise what it meant in practice. Firstly, it banned the provision of accurate and appropriate sexual health information to gay and trans teens, significantly increasing HIV transmission rates among gay teens, young men and transwomen at the height of the AIDS epidemic. In addition it banned teachers from dealing with homo- and transphobic bullying, effectively making all other anti-bullying measures irrelevant because bullies quickly realised that the moment they started yelling "faggot”, “poofter”, “dyke” or some other similar word, the teachers were banned by law from getting involved. Many teachers were even afraid to intervene even when a child was in danger of serious physical harm, and some children suffered life-changing injuries as a result. Others were killed by their bullies, while many more committed suicide.

This is just one example of how laws campaigned for by Christians are directly harmful to LGBT people.

There are equivalents to Section 28 in many US states, and their abolition has long been a key goal of the LGBT rights movement in America. This is not because we want to turn children gay, lesbian or trans. Most LGBT people believe it to be impossible and, with many of us (including me) having been subjected to various forms of dangerous and unethical "reparative therapy", which ranges from psychological abuse through physical torture to sexual assault and outright rape, we are universally opposed to it anyway. In any case, conversion is something Christians do. When did you last get a couple of queens on your doorstep wanting to tell you about the Good News of Elton John, or the Gospel of Cher? I'm guessing never.

The reason why LGBT people want these laws overturned is, ironically enough, something which should be at the core of Christianity but is sadly lacking among many on the Christian right: basic empathy and human compassion. We want to prevent LGBT teens from being put through the same hellish experiences that we had growing up. We want them to experience hope and joy, not fear and misery. That is all. And it shouldn't really be much to ask, yet it often seems as if it is a key goal of many Christians to impose misery on our young through laws of the Section 28 type.

Celia – your article makes it clear that compassion is very important to you. It is central to your faith, just as it is to mine, and for good reason: compassion is a form of love, the first and IMO most important of the Fruits of the Spirit. But I am sure you recognise that not all those who call themselves Christians, especially those who voted for Trump, display compassion for others. I would call into question whether they can truly be considered Christians when they so willingly ignore one of the most important commandments Christ gave: to love one-another.

I could continue at great length about the many reasons for the LGBT community to harbour resentment against Christians. In fact I could probably write a small library on the subject. But in each case the reasons boil down to the same issue, something I've mentioned once already:

Many Christians believe they have a God-given right (and in some cases a God-commissioned obligation) to impose their beliefs on others, regardless of the consequences.

This does not only cause problems for the LGBT community. For African-Americans the consequences including hate crimes such as lynchings; economic exclusion; and systemic injustice at the hands of the police, courts and prisons. These threats stem from the belief held by many Christians that non-whites, and African-Americans in particular, are inherently inferior to whites. Some even view African-Americans as subhuman. They are not.

For women the consequences include denial of access to adequate or appropriate medical care; denial of access to education or employment; objectification; and domestic abuse, sexual assault and rape - which in many cases are also hate crimes. These threats stem from the belief held by many Christians that women are inherently inferior to men. Some even view women as subhuman. They are not.

For LGBTs the consequences include being disowned by your family; denial of adequate or appropriate medical care; denial of hospital visitation rights; corrective rape; challenging of wills resulting in elderly LGBT people becoming homeless; hate crime; workplace discrimination; and discrimination in public accommodations. These threats all stem ultimately from the belief held by many Christians that LGBT people are inherently inferior to our fellow heterosexual, cisgendered citizens. Some even view us as subhuman. We are not.

Trump's presidency, and the growing tsunami of bigotry is is already unleashing, will massively increase the risk of all these threats to African-Americans, women and LGBTs, as well as equally harmful threats to other groups.

The first effects are already being felt. Eight trans* young people committed suicide within hours of, and as a direct result of, Trump being declared president-elect. That is eight people who probably had sixty or seventy years ahead of them, but would rather be dead than endure just four years of a Trump presidency.

I would not be surprised if there was a similar reaction among young gay, lesbian, bisexual, African-American, muslim or Hispanic people and young women, given the sharp rise in calls to suicide hotlines, and I know that there has been a similar reaction among disabled Americans, given the reaction of several disabled friends. In one case, his near-total silence over the last 24 hours means I believe he may have followed through.

Celia – I already know that you recognise the threat Trump poses to African-Americans and women, since you listed many of them in your article. So I hope that you can also recognise the range of threats also faced by the LGBT community as a result of a Trump presidency, and I hope that your compassionate nature will persuade you, and others like you, to be willing to work with us to limit the harm that Trump does not only to LGBTs, but also to immigrants, African-Americans, women, and the many other groups who will otherwise be seriously harmed by his presidency.

I do not ask or expect you to change your beliefs about whether or not homosexuality is sinful. My first blog post already showed that isn't necessary anyway. But I do ask that you recognise our basic humanity, and recognise that everything we have ever fought for is not because we hate Christians – we really, truly don't – but because we believe we have a moral and legal right to the same civil and human rights as any other person. We have never asked for special rights, as many conservative Christians claim; we want only equal rights – the same thing that women, African-Americans, the disabled, immigrants and others also seek.

As to what we can do together to combat Trump, the first and most important task is to tie his hands. This includes, for example, helping ensure that the Republican Party loses enough seats at the mid-terms to lose control of one, and preferably both, houses of Congress. As long as Trump can't simply pass whatever legislation he likes, or appoint whatever judges he likes, the damage he can do will be severely restricted.

It also requires educating ourselves about the key issues affecting the various groups who will be harmed by the Trump presidency. It is mentally and emotionally exhausting to have to repeatedly explain why a particular law or legal ruling is significant to me as a person, whether because it harms me or protects me. Having someone step in and give an accurate response is an absolute blessing from God, especially when they are someone outside my own community whose opinion can be trusted to be more objective than my own. I know that many African-Americans, women, disabled people and others will say the same. It is an issue that has been raised frequently by African-Americans protesting against police violence and wider systemic injustice.

Hopefully over time you will come to recognise that LGBT people are not the monsters we are frequently portrayed as. We are humans, same as you. We experience the same range of emotions, the same desire for companionship, the same desire for family, the same desire for security, the same desire for happiness and – for many of us, and often despite immense wrongs at the hands of the Church – the same love of God.