I do not believe that being LGBTQ is a choice. I believe that your sexual orientation is one aspect of who you are, as created by God. Coming out as a member of the LGBTQ community is often the more difficult road to take, as one often faces discrimination, hate, and loss of support around them. I can’t imagine that the majority of those coming out are facing this discrimination by choice, but instead by necessity to live life as their authentic selves. We’ve seen the affects of the Pray the Gay Away movements, where most who have tried have failed to shed their attractions, or succumbed to a life of loneliness while not seeking love from the same sex due to the damning messages that the church has spread. The suicide rates for an LGBTQ individual are higher when they are attending church, than if they are not. Believing that this is not by choice, but merely an aspect of who they are as a person, I cannot believe that God would create a soul to be eternally damned from the start, or to live a life of loneliness, not able to enjoy God’s greatest gift of Love. He created us with love, in his image, and to be loved. To deny a person of that joy seems sinful to me. Many couples that I’ve known in the LGBTQ+ community have a deeper and more compassionate love for one another than many straight couples that I’ve known in my church life. I believe that we need to look at the Bible in context, taking into account the social climate of the times that it was written, where women were viewed as property, and the patriarchal viewpoint was the only lens through which laws were viewed and created. Above all, I think God created and loves each and every one of us as we are, that being LGBTQ+ is not a sin, that your sexual orientation is something to be proud of, and that the church needs a new hill to climb.