“Closetedness,” or being “in the closet,” is when persons of LGBTQIA identity live without disclosing their sexual orientation or gender identity. When a person is born with a penis or vagina, society designates them as male and female respectively along with gender specified roles. However, the gender or sex assigned at birth may not accord with one’s gender preference or sexual orientation.
Society assumes a perverted understanding of the LGBTQIA community based on how they perform physical and sexual activities. Thus, fails to see their ever-present inner turmoil. Even genuine love-based relationships that the LGBTQIA community encompasses are blatantly ignored and disregarded by society due to cultural and religious beliefs, ignorance, or homo/transphobic attitudes. Such discrimination through public and religious institutions, result in the oppression of LGBTQIA persons’, pushing them to remain closeted and ostracized everyone around. Some LGBTQIA persons choose celibacy to escape overt and covert discrimination; some hide their relationships, some go through forced marriages, while some others give-up living.
During my B.D days, I had several discussions with colleagues and friends on homosexuality, mostly because of assignments. I observed that students would write and talk about being in solidarity with the LGBTQIA community in their papers. Nevertheless, outside the class or paper, being LGBTQIA was still treated as a sin. For many it is all about, “Love the sinner, and hate the sin.”
Society, and seminarians, in particular, ought to move beyond solidarity talk and accept friends identifying themselves as LGBTQIA persons. By accepting, I mean affirming them wholly, seeing them as ordinary people, ordaining them, allowing same-sex marriage, giving them equal opportunities, jobs and leadership positions in Church and in the society and quintessentially affirming the non-binary LGBTQIA as a normal discerning process identity.
To reiterate, being gay/lesbian/queer is not a sin. If we still think that the Bible is condemning homosexuality/Queerness, we are reading the Bible wrong. Due to misinterpretation of the Bible, the church that is supposed to be a welcoming community has become toxic, judgmental, and non-Christ-like. When we believe that Christ came to challenge us, we should also believe that Christ overturned everything we knew of our binary understanding of the world. A baby should be conceived because of sex. But Christ overturned that notion and was conceived by the Holy Spirit. It was always birth and death, but Christ was resurrected; radically flipping our understanding of life and death. A person can either be fully divine or fully human, but Christ was fully divine and fully human. If Christ challenged the binaries, who are we to live in a world of our binary understanding of sexual identity?
The problem is not the persons from the LGBTQIA community being in the closet but rather the homo/transphobic attitude that coerces people of LGBTQIA identities to remain closeted. Society might condemn, judge, and ostracize the LGBTQIA community, but God is present in the closets that is perceived as dirty. However, the question remains, if we believe in such a God, then why not accept the LGBTQIA persons? Come, let us make our space a welcoming space for all.
Prayer
Loving God enable us to be more Christ-like and walk with the so-called “other” in this broken world. Help us each put to those who remain hidden for fear of being condemned so that they too might live wholly. Grant us the courage to resist all forms of injustice and become one in you. Amen.
Author: Gloria Venuh
About the Author: Gloria completed her B.D from United Theological College and is currently doing Master of Arts in Theological Studies, Columbia Theological Seminary, Georgia Atlanta.