Religion and LGBT Rights

In this essay, I will explain how religion is sometimes used to mobilize against LGBT people, how some people’s religious and personal doctrines conflict regarding LGBT issues, and how religious belief and community can be a positive force for the LGBT community.

In history, mainstream Abrahamic religions have had a negative relationship with LGBT persons. Beginning during the Hebrew exodus of Egypt, the purity codes documented in the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Leviticus explicitly stated a slew of rigid rules that attempted to keep a new Israelite nation “clean”. As William Countryman argues in the article “Dirt, Greed, & Sex”, the bible sets a precedent for what is “clean” and pure as well as what is “dirty”. In this sense, dirty means where something doesn’t belong, or is out of place. The ancient Israelite text as well as some New Testament verses have been used by many contemporary Christian denominations to condemn LGBT persons to hell and to provide “moral reasoning” for supporting legislation that makes LGBT people second class citizens. Missionaries during the imperialist period of European history have also used these verses to spread hate around the globe, and many of these anti-homosexuality sodomy laws that were backed by christian colonial monarchies are still on the books in former colonies in Africa, Asia and Oceania. The spread of Islam, a religion that also considers the Hebrew texts to be holy scripture, has also had the same effect on the Swahili Coast, Horn of Africa, Persia, and Southeast Asia. These religious texts have been the basis for anti-LGBT laws across the world, and as Abrahamic religions spread, the tolerance for LGBT people in other societies declined.

Although the doctrine and head clerics of...

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...do-Pakistani cultures and two spirit individuals in American Indian cultures. These examples of LGBT acceptance in society could be a basis for the coexistence of the acceptance of LGBT persons while maintaining adherence to religion.

In the text above, I have explained how religion is used to persecute LGBT persons, how personal views can differ from religious opinions, and how the LGBT community and a religious society could coexist. LGBT people have appeared in recorded history for ages, and long before the dawning of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the past, these societies had roles for LGBT persons that allowed acceptance, and in our global society where Abrahamic religions are widely influential, we can draw back on our ancient histories to create a environment where LGBT persons are accepted while continuing to have a religious and spiritual society.