Is your place of faith anti gay?

So many churches and other places of faith express that they "welcome all". Many have cool pastors or clergy or whoever leads them. They are friendly, loving and seem like awesome places to worship.

But many of them are anti gay. To be specific, they believe that gay people are going to hell. To be a little more specific, they believe that gay people who have sex are going to hell.

They might not talk about it. They might try to convince you that no matter what you believe, no matter how many gay friends and/or family members you have, that being in a sexual gay relationship means hell.

They say things like "we're not against something we are just for Jesus" and "it's really between the person and God". Yet invariably something negative will be said about gay people. My favorite is when these same people refer to our marriage as "so called gay marriage".

I acknowledge that this is a difficult topic for many, and that biblically speaking it is a topic with a lot of feelings and emotions.

I also believe that it is well past time for equality-loving folks to stop supporting anti-equality places of faith.

One of the most difficult things for me to experience in my life is watching people I love, and who I know love me, support places of faith that teach that I am going to hell.

I see this often. I am reminded by it all of the time by posts I see on Facebook. It's heartbreaking.

It's heartbreaking because I know these folks love me, and Mike. I know they support us 100%.

Financially supporting places of faith that denigrate gay people, in any way, is taking action against gay people, against equality.

Our church does not believe that we are going to hell. There is absolute love for us as a married couple. Those who preach at our church believe fundamentally that our love, our marriage, is not "sin".

This is a tough topic for both of us. We both have experienced hate and persecution from religious people.

Please don't support them. As with many things, we can vote with our dollars.

Thanks for reading.