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Young gay Christians can carry a heavy burden, but help is at hand, writes Jenna Gray. 
You can hardly walk through the Valley or the city in Brisbane without someone informing you of your impending doom or eternal damnation – at least it seems that way sometimes.
You’re also likely to hear the prophets of doom at the annual Pride Rally in June. For the last two years I’ve taken part in the gay response to the small troupe of Christians protesting against us at Pride.
I’m not from a Christian background, so it’s easy for me to stand up and tell them they’re full of crap, but what if I had come from a Christian family or found religion sometime in my life?
Coming out can be a confusing and trying time for anyone, but especially so if you’re coming out in a family who don’t accept you or think you’re going to Hell for your ‘sins’.
For young gay people who are Christian, the presence of the shame and damnation set at Pride celebrations could spark massive internal conflict.
Young gay Christian Jaycee Corbo said that her church group was very judgemental after finding out she was gay.
“When I told them I was gay, they just stopped talking to me. [They] wouldn’t have anything to do with me, even my youth pastors. I haven’t spoken to them for nearly seven months.”
Instead of accepting Jaycee, they kept telling her to come to church with them and let them pray for her – to “pray away the gay”.
Jaycee struggled internally, knowing she was gay and knowing the church thought it was wrong. She tried to make herself like boys but that never felt right either.
She felt isolated and ashamed of her sexuality and sought counselling within the church, where they told her that being gay was wrong.
She came to question her faith because of the way she was treated by people who were supposed to support her.
Jaycee found her way to Open Doors Youth Service, where she realised that it’s ok to be gay, that being a lesbian is who she is, and that she should be proud.
Through counselling at Open Doors, Jaycee came to realise that she could be proud of her sexuality and her faith at the same time.
“I don’t need church and I don’t need a youth group to have my faith,” she said.
Not everyone has the same experience, but Jaycee’s story is hardly atypical.
For anyone struggling with these issues, it’s not anyone else’s place to tell you who you should be.
There are churches that accept and support gay Christians such as the Metropolitan Community Church, who meet to worship on Sundays at 7pm in Kelvin Grove.
Meanwhile, gay Catholics meet for support and fellowship at Acceptance, and SDA Kinship provides support for gay Seventh Day Adventists.
A new group, Freedom 2Be (www.freedom2b.org) , has also been established to support gays from Pentecostal or Charismatic churches.
For further details, consult the Community Contacts section of Queensland Pride.
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