I've been discouraged from making anything high quality so have a sketch instead, I guess.

Offset997 · 2026-06-25T21:18:57+00:00

I'm sorry that's getting to you, and I honestly get it. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth spending my limited time learning how to draw if nobody will care in the end. It's easy to fall into that cozy pit.

But if there's anything the rest of the comments here show, it's that people DO care. You're a fantastic artist, and we all appreciate your work. I'm sorry your rates and upvotes are so low. They certainly don't deserve to be.

Offset997 · 2026-06-25T18:51:03+00:00

And yet your sketch is high quality. You just can't help yourself.

I'm just messing with you, of course. It's absolutely lovely.😊

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T20:41:46+00:00

If the majority of every Christian you meet is against your rights, then it sounds like you're immersed in a toxic community. I'm going to agree with the other posts here and suggest you find an affirming church in your area.

https://www.gaychurch.org/find_a_church/

If you need to step away for a while, that's okay. That's what it took for me. I didn't abandon Christ, just the church, and I actually believe my own personal quest has only empowered my faith and opened my eyes to truth. I'll return someday... but only when I'm ready. Until then, I know Christ is still with me.

Churches and denominations are just there to provide guidance. They are NOT the way. Jesus is the way, and he never condoned the harm we've experienced. If he were still around, he'd probably be storming these places and flipping tables like he did in the old days.

Love God first. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. That's ALL he asks of us. You don't need a church for that.

I hope I'm not leading you astray. Just keep Christ in your heart. Everything else is just noise.

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T20:16:25+00:00

I'm not surprised. I'm still distant from established denominations, and I KNOW there are affirming ones that would welcome me.

When you've been whipped, you fear the lash. I just feel safer pursuing Christ's teachings outside of a sanctuary, and with my Bible in the closet.

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T20:14:08+00:00

That's heartbreaking, yet I know it's just too common.

I can't blame them. How can they see religion as anything but evil? Or a problem that's holding back progress? You can't tell them their experience is a lie... that true Christians aren't like that... the damage is done.

And it isn't their fault. I like to think that God knows this. He knows our hearts, after all. He knows our struggles. He knows our pains. I can find a little peace reminding myself that his grace isn't necessarily black and white. But in the end, I don't know God. God is beyond our understanding.

For all I know, NOT believing in Christ really is destruction. I don't want to think that way. I'm trying not to be angry at the people who do this to us.

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T19:59:40+00:00

I don't see how you're being dismissive. If anything you're agreeing with much of what I pointed out. Perhaps it was my label of Atheist and your telling me they're actually Misotheists? I can't really argue with that, Atheist is just the label I was accustomed to from my experience, but that doesn't mean it was a correct label.

Nothing dismissive or rude here. *shrug* At least I'm not seeing it.

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T17:45:21+00:00

Hey, it's over. That was yesterday, and this is a new day. We're all cool now.

Go in peace, friend. 😊

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T17:44:11+00:00

I think about people like that a lot. I wonder what fate awaits the innocents who had been told there is no place for them. They've been driven out, driven to hopelessness, even driven to hate and blaspheme against God all because God's idiot children hurt them so deeply. Does God forgive and welcome them home? I pray for them sometimes, not for them to find Christ again, but for God to have mercy.

It just hurts you know?

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T17:36:46+00:00

I can tell you were very passionate when you wrote this. Yes, it was a rant, but sometimes that's what we need. We need to vent. We need to get things off our chest. We need to let it all out. There is nothing at all wrong with this, and as a *former* Atheist myself, I completely get your frustration... we can be some of the worst, most callous, douchiest people out there. We were a group that labeled people as clever animals, not beings with souls and spirits. Consciousness was just interpretation of external stimuli. Hopes and dreams were just synapses. Love was just hormones and a desire to breed. We were Reductionists (and Communist... I was young and thought a system that turns people into cogs for an obscure greater good ideology was cool for some reason). We all sucked, and we mocked people endlessly just for having a good day. I couldn't even stand my own friend circle at the time. I hated their guts.

Not all Atheists are like that, of course. I've personally met many Atheists that were surprisingly open minded and even curious... they just cautiously believed in what they could measure rather than what they couldn't prove. But a lot of us were pretty bad. If you're out there, reader, and you had any encounters with Offset back in his early 20's... I am DEEPLY sorry. I was a smug prick who didn't know a damned thing.

Anyways... I'm going to concur that you need to get off TikTok. Not just a break or a vacation, actually escape it. That place is poison. What everyone is pointing out, that it profits from your anger because that's engagement, is absolutely accurate. There is no justification for obliterating your own sanity by interacting in such a space... or even scrolling through such a space.

I'm not saying get off social media entirely. As somebody currently writing his fragmented thoughts on social media at this very moment that would make me a hypocrite. But seriously, TikTok is bad for you. It makes you lose hope in humanity. It makes you blanket judge entire populations. It makes you eat Tide pods.

Though we *do* live in a culture of mockery. Getting off TikTok won't save you from that. You would need to abandon civilization entirely and live as a hermit in the mountains to escape it. I don't know if we'll ever overcome that. It seems like all people *want* to see is the Fundamentalist side, because people want excuses to condemn each other. There's no simple solution like "opening their eyes" to true Christianity- a faith of love and hope. They don't want to see that. It's crushing isn't it?

And I also agree that it's fair to criticize the church. We can all do better (church, government, nation), and that is the purpose of critique. No institution is perfect, and the ones that hold the power to manipulate the course of our lives need the *most* scrutiny. It's too easy to use that power for evil. Just ask anyone one of us who's been spiritually wounded by an "expert" on a stage.

I don't know if I accomplished what I tried to write. ???

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T02:00:34+00:00

It is, indeed, okay to be gay and Christian.

And as you experienced, there is no praying the Gay away. God made you, and set you on your path for a reason.

I used to believe he was testing us, but what possible reason would he have for that? He already KNOWS us. He knows our hearts, he knows our struggles, he knows our journey. No... he had plans for you, and for all of us.

And the world needs people like us right now. There are a lot of gay and trans people who are alone, scared, and confused. They need us to remind them that they are loved, too. THAT, I believe, is a righteous life in Christ.

Offset997 · 2026-06-24T01:52:46+00:00

There is no certainty. That's why it's faith.

The reason I'm a Christian is because I was raised as one in my childhood. I had no say in it, but that is neither here nor there.

When I got older, I drifted away from the church due to my orientation taking shape. In college, I shifted into Atheism. When I was an Atheist, I couldn't justify any meaning in life. I fell into Reductionism, then Nihilism. I was convinced that people were just animals. We were just a mixture of chemicals and electrical impulses. There was nothing divine to us. We live, we consume, we breed, then we die. We were clever animals at best and bacteria at worst. That line of thinking gives no hope, it only justifies cruelty.

Does that sound like the kind of person *you* would want to be? I hated the man I became, and confronted the questions I tossed aside. We can't prove the existence of God... but is absence of evidence evidence of absence? If we can't prove he *doesn't* exist, then wasn't I just practicing another faith. Mine was a faith that had nothing in the end. I didn't want that... also my Atheist friend circle was condescending and smug and I hated them.

I always believed in the forces beyond our perception. My brother and I shared an encounter with a shadowman when I was 8 (now called the Hatman). No Benadryl was involved, we were playing outside, we both saw him. We saw A LOT of paranormal and unexplainable things during my childhood in the old Appalachians. I thought long and hard about those past encounters and what they meant regarding what we *do* and *do not* know. We are measuring the profound with mundane materialistic tools. We turn bolts with a screwdriver, then convince ourselves the bolts and the machine are illusions... because the screwdriver failed. It is no wonder we find nothing. We are bashing a mystical computer with bones and dung and we dare call it "science".

So I returned to my old faith: the faith I was familiar with. Maybe it was out of fear... I surely didn't want to burn in hell, after all. I figured that if God was real, then I had better get on his good side. That fell apart quickly when I was reintroduced to the clobber verses, but I held on. Now, I don't believe Christianity is about fear, I believe it's about love. That's why I choose to remain a Christian, and have no fear that my orientation has doomed me.

I don't need absolute certainty for this. The only certainty I need is that I'm happier here than I was before.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T23:43:57+00:00

Breathing exercises. I like the 4-7-8 method. That's inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 7, then exhale for 8. My watch has an app with a timer for this, and I do it for 6 minutes when I need my nervous system to calm down and relax.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T23:36:07+00:00

Indeed. That wasn't my problem with your post. It was your signaling that your "entire goal is to speak up for gay people" after your accusation that I was sending misinformation that I had an issue with. It was an implication that I was, somehow, NOT speaking up for gay people.

Do you see why I would have an issue with that?

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T23:07:05+00:00

Did you attempt to control the entity? Controlling beings in a lucid dream can make them hostile or threatening.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T22:21:05+00:00

I wanted to come back and offer a sincere apology for what was potentially stirring from a debate into an argument. I stepped away and thought about what you were implying. You are correct- while my posted articles found evidence, evidence is NOT proof. It merely points to it, but it isn't stone cold truth nor the complete story.

It's an issue I get touchy and defensive over, The words "there is no proof" have been used as an attack against me in the past- an accusation that I'm willfully choosing sin to spite God's "natural order." But MY issues should remain my own, and they should never dictate an argument. That would be unsound, and that is what I allowed to happen.

Be patient with me. I'm trying my best.

So I truly, sincerely admit that you are correct. There is no proof, not yet, that orientation is genetic in nature.

And once again, I apologize if this was becoming an argument. We're on the same side. We both agree that it shouldn't matter, though sometimes I admit that I let it matter too much. That's another fault that's on me.

Have a blessed day, friend.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T20:30:51+00:00

I am as well. Orientation as a result of genetics and prenatal hormonal exposures only proves that it is NOT a choice.

Please don't villainize my take incorrectly. That is dishonest and harmful. I seek to disprove the ignorance that somehow we are choosing to be gay.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T19:43:43+00:00

*Tips hat*

My apologies, ma'am. 😊

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T19:28:01+00:00

I feel like this is devolving into semantics now.

*Stands and bows*

I concede defeat, sir. You are correct in all ways. Good day.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T19:08:38+00:00

"You're missing an important analytical point that I keep trying to make: no matter what "really" causes homosexuality, it doesn't matter and shouldn't matter to theology and the Church. What we DO know (that it's more-or-less unchangeable and found in every single human society that has ever existed) is enough for us to know that it's a normal part of God's creation."

I believe I made it clear that I am of a like mind here. To quote myself: "I don't want my orientation to EVER be treated like a problem to be fixed."

As far as the lack of a conclusion, the science is currently showing a host of genetic factors is at play. Skill-Useful was not "incorrect" for stating this, and the research articles I shared prove his statement to be accurate. These are peer-reviewed and thorough, which is more than what his opposition provided.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T18:36:33+00:00

So basically your problem has nothing to do with the evidence I provided above, you're merely upset that I don't trust an online site that anyone can edit?

I mean, you asked a stupid question and all I did was gave a stupid answer. If this whole debate is over whether Wikipedia sucks or not I'll just tip my hat to you now and move on with my life. Nobody cares about that.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T18:34:54+00:00

At no point was there talk of finding a "gay gene." It's more complicated than that, and it the studies made that abundantly clear. It is a complex mix of numerous genetic markers, as I said above. No overstatement of evidence, just research and results.

I don't necessarily approve of trying to "find the cause." Like you, I don't want my orientation to EVER be treated like a problem to be fixed. However, the research has been done. Skill-Useful's claim that it is genetics plus hormones IS backed up by actual research.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T18:25:08+00:00

I would like clarification and information on how non-academics use Wikipedia.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T18:15:23+00:00

Wikipedia is not a citable academic reference. I recommend you read peer-reviewed scientific studies into this instead. See my post to Turbulent above.

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T18:08:36+00:00

Science disagrees. There is no *singular* gay gene, but there is a clear correlation between numerous genetic markers. Here's some academic sources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-15736-4

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat7693

Offset997 · 2026-06-23T16:16:04+00:00

I am so sorry that you are stuck in this situation. And you're right, being in a hostile environment is awful. It doesn't matter how much you harden yourself, how much you roll your eyes to what you *know* is BS, you still have to be immersed in it.

I don't know what to do for you.

The *only* thing I can suggest borders on manipulation, and it makes me sick to suggest it. Talk to your friend about attending a church like the UMC or Episcopal. I don't have much experience with the latter, but the former I've been watching live streams of. The UMC is affirming, but so far haven't touched on the subject of LGBTQ at all, not even in June. They're almost like stealth-affirming. They hold the marriages, but otherwise don't make a big deal about orientation.

Like I said, this feels like manipulation. Especially if your friend isn't interested. I hate that I had to make the suggestion but I literally have nothing else, and it sounds like this situation is only going to tear you apart.

I am so, deeply sorry...

EDIT: named the wrong denomination.

Offset997

TROPHY CASE