Thread by @shuurens

my friend came out as bisexual to me today.

we used to know each other from church, though i stopped going bc i haven't really sorted through a lot of issues i have with my faith. i'm still... so stunned. the sheer amount of courage that it took to come out to me— (1/9)

a girl he just knew from church, someone who just occasionally shows up for the college fellowship meetings—must've been so unbelievably immense. i've known i was queer for two years, and i haven't dared tell any of my friends from church at all. (2/9)

i was waiting for someone when i bumped into him, but we ended up talking for a long while. about church, faith, being queer, and the intersection between all these. i remember him asking me in a whisper, "do you think we'll go to hell?"

friends, my heart broke. (3/9)

i'm honored that he felt safe enough with me to come out. it felt like affirmation for the years i spent soul-searching & unraveling everything i thought i knew about the world. learning to be kinder. yes, this is the kind of person i want to be. this is all that matters. (4/9)

but god. i have so much heartache for the kid. i've barely known him for 2 years after i moved here for college, and he has been nothing but relentlessly generous and kind. a warm light. it breaks my heart to know that he's tried to come out to members of his church before, (5/9)

and they responded exactly how i feared they would. they loved him but not the sin, and they took him to "meetings" to "make the thoughts go away". that this meeting followed a very recent statement from a local minister on how LGBTQ+ people don't even exist in malaysia... (6/9)

it's unfair that queer people have to carry around so much heaviness in their heart just because they have the audacity to exist. it's unfair that the institutions sworn to protect the downtrodden are often their biggest sources of heartache. (7/9)

to my queer friends, to the ones who don't belong, here's to you. i'm sorry none of us have easy answers. i hope you find warmth and peace and community in the places you need it the most, in the places your heart longs for. i hope you're safe. i hope you find sanctuary. (8/9)

christians, i hope we learn to make more space for wandering and doubting in our faith. we don't have all the answers either. may we remember the gospel grace has always been for the least of these. above all else, this alone holds true.

we are to love the least of these. (9/9)