Recently, I read with considerable consternation that suicide rates among LGBTQ youth are up — again.
Then I was targeted online with anti-LGBT citations from the New Testament. I was tempted to let this go — like most writers I have moved onto other topics — but then it occurred to me that there is a connection between anti-gay sentiment in the Bible and LGBTQ youth committing suicide. Young people are being taught that they don’t matter — and the few anti-gay passages in the Bible are trickling into the bully culture of mainstream society.
My first thought was that citing the anti-gay passages from the Bible does not make one a Biblical expert. In fact, the second citation was wrong. The first citation from Romans (which Biblical scholars believe was written by the Apostle Paul who is believed to have been gay himself, unfortunately with no small amount of internalized homophobia) is one of the few (if not the only) references in the Bible to lesbianism. The citation reads, “women exchanged natural relations for those contrary to nature.”
To which I reply, “Good for them!”
It’s nice to know that some 2,000 years ago, same sex passion did exist and was important enough to have several mentions in the Bible.
There are plenty of references to men engaging in “unnatural” passions with each other. But what I noticed most when I read part of the Bible as research for my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders is the intense misogyny. By comparison, the anti-gay parts seemed to drop away. It is after all — one (patriarchal ) history of the creation of the world. Some would say it is THE history of the world. But there are plenty of creation myths. Then there is science. The Bible just happens to be a very popular set of creation myths.
There are also, beyond a doubt, some absolutely beautiful passages in the Bible. So rather than throwing out the baby with the bath water, I have decided to claim the parts of the Bible that suit me.
To learn more about my novel THEY, a biblical tale of secret genders (published by Adelaide Books New York/Lisbon), click here.
Janet Mason, author 