Let's say that two people, a straight person and a gay person, both fall in love with someone who loves them back. To an anti-gay Christian, the fact that the straight person has fallen in love, especially if both people are Christians, means that their love is blessed and from God.
So if two gay people fall in love, and they are Christians, then their love is blessed and from God too, right?
We already know the answer to that one. No matter if both of the gay couple are Christians and love the Lord, no matter how much they may love each other, it's always, always, always, from the devil or their own evil nature.
In other words, the feelings of the straight person are valid, while the feelings of the gay person are not. The feelings of the straight person are "real," and taken seriously, while the feelings of the gay person are not.
Either the straight person is more mature or intelligent than the gay person, automatically, or the straight person is treated as more valuable than the gay person--there's no getting around that. No amount of lip service about "equal worth" or "God's unconditional love" is going to change the fact that the straight person is treated as more valuable than or superior to the gay person, and when it comes to love, actions are what counts, not words. (Are you listening, complimentarians?)
And furthermore, God provided an outlet for the straight couple, marriage, which he apparently did not for the gay couple. As I've said before, God does not treat all of his children equally, if he makes some for the fulfilling sacrament of marriage, while others he forces to choose between a lifetime of loneliness and frustration, and an eternity in hell.
Some might say that God didn't "make" anyone for a lifetime of loneliness, that homosexuality is a choice...and they would be totally ignoring the millions of testimonies out there, on the internet alone, that say otherwise.
In other words, homosexuals are inferior beings, who don't even know about their own lives and sexualities. Anti-gay Christians and theists listen when straight people talk about falling in love, and automatically accept their feelings as valid--but gay people are confused, and their feelings are automatically not valid. This applies even if the straight people are atheists, Satanists, witches or drug addicts, and the gay people are devout and committed believers who have never abused any substances or have no mental health issues at all.
If you are straight, you can get to heaven by believing in Jesus, and not having sex before marriage. But if you are gay, you can get to heaven by believing in Jesus, and not having sex at all--or getting married at all--for your entire lifetime--if you're even "allowed" to be gay, know that you are, and describe yourself as such.
And while masturbation is generally frowned upon, and considered sinful, for both groups of people, the straight people can look forward to someday getting married and having sex, while the gay people can look forward to...cold showers for the rest of their long, lonely, very single lives.
Does that really sound equal to you?
Now let's also talk about the way the different groups of people are treated by the conservative churches.
A straight person is generally free from suspicion of premarital sex or adultery, if they do the "right" things and date or court the "right" way, though they may have to be "accountable" to a person or group regarding temptations, masturbation, porn or lustful thoughts.
But to almost every anti-LGBTQ Christian, the word "gay" means the same exact thing as "gay fucker." Any talk of the "gay lifestyle" shows that bias (as if they themselves fuck everyone of the opposite sex that they possibly can, just because they're straight, even if that is against their beliefs or preferences).
Gays are guilty until proven innocent, to these people. When even a devout believer says the words "I'm gay," what they hear is "SEX-SEX-SEX-SEX-SEX-PORN!"
This isn't exactly the anti-gay teachings, but it is the fruit of such teachings, and Jesus himself said that "by their fruit you will know them." Evangelical Christians have been taught to be, and choose to be, naturally suspicious of gay and lesbian people, even their own brothers and sisters in Christ, and even those who are Side B (no gay sex at all, even in marriage).
They do this because they think that there is only one type of gay person, and that that gay person is not, and cannot be, a Christian, or get to heaven. There is no corresponding automatic judgment or stereotyping of straight people. This is a lot of things, but it is not equal.
Gay Christians know, can sense, that these teachings are inherently unequal. Christians' gay children know that they will always be looked upon with suspicion by their evangelical churches--if they are even allowed to be honest about who they are, at all. They are taught that God made these wonderful things called love and sex and marriage--and that he only made them for their straight brothers and sisters.
They hear their pastors, parents, and older Christians gush about how wonderful God is to create sex and marriage, and how beautiful and perfect these things are--and then they learn that these wonderful, perfect things are not for them. And never will be, for them.
They see that everything is much easier for their straight peers. Their straight peers don't have to beg God to change not only their lustful thoughts, but their very nature. They would give anything just to struggle with the same temptations as their straight peers, because their own struggle is seen as much more shameful, by themselves and by everyone around them.
Supposedly, their struggle is equal, but in practice, it is not treated as such. Their straight peers' sex drives are natural and god-given--and theirs are unnatural, perverted, twisted, sinful, and literally from the devil.
Their straight peers have to control themselves before marriage, and then only think of their spouses lustfully, while they have to control themselves for an entire lifetime, and never think of anyone lustfully, because they're not even allowed to have anyone to love. (Even if their church is more liberal in this area, and they are allowed to have a relationship, which I've never heard of, thus far, there will be speculating on what the couple might be doing in the bedroom, something that never would happen to a straight couple.)
Their straight peers see an end in sight, marriage, when they can finally find both love and sexual fulfillment, and possibly children.
Is there an end in sight for the gay evangelical Christian? No. There never will be, in some forms of Christianity. Gay youth know that "God" does not treat them as well as he treats others.
"God" treats them as if they are inferior, and straight evangelical Christians expect that they will not believe themselves to be inferior.
"God" hates something about the gay Christian, that they know from experience that they cannot change, and straight evangelical Christians expect them not to hate themselves.
It doesn't matter how much "love" is spoken with the message, if the message is that God hates an intrinsic and unchangeable part of who you are, and that you are not allowed to have a good, wonderful, perfect thing that he allows everyone else around you to have.
That's not love, that's hate, no matter how much they doth protest. And gay youth are getting this message of hatred loud and clear.
This is why I am sickened when I hear atheists make statements such as, "I wish they would all just move to their Christian communities and leave us all alone."
There would literally be nothing left for their LGBTQ children to do, but kill themselves. And they are already doing it. (I could put links to examples of this, but frankly, I don't want to. Google it yourself if you don't believe me.)
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