In this episode, we recap our Thanksgiving holiday and look forward to the rest of the holiday season … not without some trepidation. As we discussed in our last episode, this time of year can be difficult for LGBTQ+ folks, including those of us in mixed-orientation relationships.
Thinking of how to deal with the holidays to come, in the diversity, equity, and inclusion space we often talk about the need to get uncomfortable and have hard conversations about things like privilege and implicit bias. But we seem to be unwilling to have hard conversations about one of the biggest sources of friction between straight, cis-gender people and the LGBTQ+ community: Religion. Or, more specifically, the way so many people use religion as a justification to discriminate against the queer community and deny us our basic humanity.
Well, now more than ever, the time has come to have that conversation, because just about everywhere you look these days there’s somebody saying that anything that they dislike, anything that inconveniences them, and anything that makes them uncomfortable is against their religion. Whether it’s claiming that their religious beliefs exempt them from having to get vaccinated or wear face coverings, or that those beliefs give them license to discriminate against others on the basis of sexual orientation or identity, “religion” is the ever-expanding excuse to get out of the basic responsibilities of living in a modern, pluralistic society.
But these so-called religious beliefs often don’t withstand scrutiny. Instead, “religion” is often an after-the-fact justification people use to excuse biases and prejudices they already have. Scouring religious texts and lifting obscure passages out of their context to confirm your preexisting biases does not transform those biases into sincerely held religious beliefs. It’s matter of convenience, not faith. And, frankly, it cheapens religion.
So please listen to this week’s episode and, as always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
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