Brief Formation of LGBTQ+ Community
As society shifted in the US, from agricultural to industrial, and during the onset of certain times of war, people migrated to major cities. During these migrations, some of these people found others who were also attracted to the same sex or held incongruences with their biological gender. Communities formed that were more homophile in nature and even wanted society to shift to allow for fair treatment of people like them (D’ Emilio 1989, 11, 23-24; Chauncy 1994, 135-136). Trans people were also part of this subculture but were perhaps even less known (Stensberg 2021). What seems to have happened is more of a growing subculture that has become more self aware and even creating unique cultural dynamics amidst intense social pressure to even exist. Through a lot of social challenge and battles, a mixture of sexual and gender minorities have become what we now recognize as the LGBTQ+ Community.
There are, in my estimation, helpful broad level classifications that will allow us to understand this diverse people group with the hopes that followers of Jesus might grow in empathy and love for them. The broad classifications really differentiate along the lines of a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity. We’ll go through how these classifications branch out to different aspects of the LGBTQ+ identifiers.
Yet, before I do, I want to welcome feedback from the LGBTQ+ Community in hopes I am accurately sharing some important qualities of what it means to be LGBTQ+. To the Straight Christian, I hope and pray that you do not write off people (including TRM) and instead do the work of growing in empathy, which is in fact, selfless love (1 Cor. 13:5).
The Journey of Sexual Orientation: L, G, and B
L and G
Lesbian and gay people share that they are sexually attracted to someone of their same sex. Most understand these are people who are attracted to the same sex—personalities and gender identities aside. But, it is important to note 3 very important components to understand a gay or lesbian person.
The first is the idea of sexual orientation as being an enduring component of personhood. The circumstances around the closure of Exodus International (2013) and Netflix’s Pray Away (2021) are two major cultural assays that highlight the enduring same sex attraction (SSA) for many CHRISTIANS. While I will not develop these events and their implications until later posts, please go on the journey yourself or wait. The simple point that I’d like to make is that, there are many Christians whose SSA hasn’t gone away after conversion and long journeys of sexual mortification. This enduring basis of SSA within the Church is, seemingly, the parallel journey of Queer people wherein a person discovers their sexual orientation. This observed parallel between Christian and non-Christian alike, has therefore, been embraced by many Christians with SSA to embrace a Lesbian or Gay identity, even if they don’t engage in the behavior because of their adherence to a historical Christian sexual ethic. The critical component of the gay or lesbian person is therefore their enduring sexual attraction to the same sex.
The second vital component in understanding gay and lesbians is that their sexual identity is not just about sex. Instead of just sexual actions in the conventional sense, the romantic and emotional side of sexuality is a notable factor for why someone identifies as gay or lesbian. A celibate Gay Christian friend sought to differentiate between sexual intimacy and emotional intimacy for me when he lamented that missing out on marriage would mean missing out on a romantic connection as well. Similarly, a lesbian co-worker once told me how she was not emotionally attracted to men. In my learning from gay and lesbian people, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) assessment seems to make sense to me when it states same sex sexual orientation is a person’s enduring pattern of emotional, romantic and/or sexual attractions to the same sex (APA 2008).
B
The bisexual individual has a more fluid sexuality being attracted to the same sex or different sex, with some complexity and mutability. While a gay or lesbian person has fixed and enduring sexual and romantic attraction to the same sex, the bisexual person has attraction to both. The idea of a spectrum of sexuality is clear here, one where some see gradations as opposed to binary sexuality. Some research has even shown sexual attraction for bisexuals can change over the lifetime of the individual. The previously mentioned APA pamphlet does seem to point out the enduring nature of a bisexual orientation (APA 2008). The unifying component for bisexuals would thus be sexual attraction to both sexes.
The Journey of Gender Identity: the T
The transgender person is one whose biological gender or gender assigned at birth is at odds with how they think and feel about their gender. A person’s psychological perception of their gender is known as gender identity. Christian sexual identity researcher, Mark Yarhouse, says, “To discuss being transgender is to discuss one’s experience of gender identity, one’s sense of…[self]… as male or female, and how that psychological and emotional experience is not aligning with one’s birth sex” (Yarhouse 2015, 16). So, although there are others placed in the trans categorization of peoples, the fact that a person’s gender identity was or is at odds with their biological gender is perhaps the major unifier for trans people. Those whose gender identity is consistent with their biological gender are cis-gendered persons.
The Q, Queer and Questioning
Queer people can be an all encompassing term for the LGBTQ+ Community, but it seems most helpful to see the “Q” in this important acronym as questioning. The Q in this way signifies folx questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity (LGBTQ Nation, Aug. 2022). Some of those who don’t identify as either male or female for instance call themselves gender non-conforming or non binary.
+, the Expansion
There is a growing list of others including intersex, asexual, pansexual, etc.. The Intersex population, based on my research and science background, could actually help increase compassion and empathy regarding the basis for sexual minorities. This group bridge between conventional biological genders because they have both female and male sexual characteristics. For me, they have been a call for humility regarding strong, and often derived Western religious condemnation of the LGBTQ+ Community. Within sexual desires, the asexual individual is one with no perceived sexual attractions or very little (Q?). While the pan sexual individual would be sexually attracted to all sexes and genders. LGBTQ Nation brings a lot of clarity regarding the other letters and the +, when they share how they are “…added to include the vast spectrum of identities and sexualitites that exist outside heterosexuality” (LGBTQ Nation, Aug. 2022).
References
American Psychological Association. (2008). Answers to your questions: For a better understanding of sexual orientation and homosexuality. Washington, DC: Author. [Retrieved from www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.pdf. (accessed 9.20.22)]
Chauncey, George. 1994. Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940. New York: BasicBooks.
D’Emilio, John. 1983. Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
LGBTQ Nation, What does the ‘Q’ stand for in LGBTQ?. LGBTQ Nation. Aug. 6, 2022. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/q-stand-lgbtq/.
Klein, Fritz, Sepekoff, Barry, and Timothy J. Wolf. 1985. Sexual Orientation: A Multi-Variable Dynamic Process. In Bisexualities: Theory and Research. ed. Fritz Klein and Timothy J. Wolf, 35-49. New York: Hawthorn Press.
Klein, Fritz. 1993. The Bisexual Option. 2d ed. New York: Harrington Park Press.
Stensberg, Shawn. “Trans People Have Existed For Thousands of Years and Other Things You Should Know About Trans People.” Buzzfeed. Mar. 2, 2021 https://www.buzzfeed.com/shawnstensberg/a-brief-history-of-being-trans.
Yarhouse, Mark A. 2015. “Understanding Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture”, Downer’s Grove: InterVarsity Press.
