The story recounted in this post is also interesting as an illustration of the struggles that bisexuals or people with heterogenous cross-gender desires have with religion and living in society. Another thing one might object to here is the idea that there is some necessary conflict between being a sort of Christian believer and being a practicing homosexual. The word ‘Christian’ is meant in a very specific, ideological way here. Look at the Christian world today and throughout history, and it is pretty trivial that in order to qualify as a Christian one does not have to believe and/or follow everything written in religious texts and part of the tradition. If this were the criteria, then there would be no such thing as a Christian. Every sect and variant of the Christian tradition choose aspects and interpretations of the texts and tradition to emphasize, and others to de-emphasize. This is true in the case of Jesus of Nazareth even, with respect to the Jewish tradition. So it is not so clear that being a homosexual, and perhaps going against a literal interpretation of a few passages in religious texts, disqualifies one from being a Christian. Anyway, that is my opinion as a non-Christian, or perhaps to some a ’secular Christian’.

A big part of the solution to the problem of homosexuality and religion would come, I think, from increased understanding and tolerance, as well as an end to institutional discrimination and coercion, and from a re-examination of both the phenomenology of homosexuality and the tradition of religion. Perhaps sexual identity therapies could be a part of this.

Thanks for the article.