"Spawn of the Devil!"

Sympathy for my LGBTQ+ friends

Photo by Jack Lucas Smith on Unsplash

“Spawn of the Devil!”

K.L. Orion

I am friends with people who are Hellbound. 

Some of them aren’t even sixteen years old. Some of them don’t even know how to drive yet. Some of them have never had a job before. They haven’t even graduated, yet they are doomed to burn in the fires of Hell for all of eternity. 

Fire and brimstone is all that awaits them after they die. No salvation. No mercy. They will suffer at the hands of Satan himself; his wrath will cripple their sinful souls like eggshells under a jackhammer. 

They’re condemned to rot in Hell not because they hurt someone, not because they do drugs, not because they have cheated, but simply because they lie on the LGBTQ+ spectrum. It doesn’t matter that they’ve led good lives; nice people don’t get into Heaven. Good, straight Christians do, NOT homosexuals. 

And yet I have sympathy for the damned, simply because they show me sympathy. 

Now, to be clear, I am straight as far as I can tell. I don’t want to pretend I’m not. It’s not fair to my LGBTQ+ friends to masquerade as one of them to gain attention. But with that said, I’ve never exactly fit in with the straight kids. I mean, I do have straight friends, don’t get me wrong. But my closest friends are LGBTQ+. Many of them are bisexual. Some are asexual. I have gay friends. I have trans friends. I even have role models and mentors who fall under some of those categories. I have relatives who fall under those categories.  

I don’t really entirely fit in with the LGBTQ+ kids, but it’s them who I find the most in common with outside of sexuality. Common interests, common goals, common beliefs. When I didn’t belong where I “should have belonged,” they opened up their sanctuary to me. They let me in their place of belonging. 

Would some of those straight kids do the same for an LGBTQ+ kid? 

There are plenty of straight kids who would. But there’s plenty who wouldn’t. 

As a matter of fact, there were plenty of “God-lovin’, patriotic” straight kids who bullied me and diminished my morale until it barely existed. They made fun of me. They picked on me. They outcasted me. Perhaps this is a shock to you, but I generally befriend the nice kids. And for me, I’ve found a lot of those nice kids I’ve sought after are not straight. 

That isn’t to say there aren’t nice straight people. There are plenty. And that also isn’t to say there aren’t nasty LGBTQ+ people. There are also plenty of those. But maybe that proves that the content of one’s character isn’t dependent on their sexual orientation but rather other factors. But there’s many who’d disagree with me on that. There’s many who’d say that those bullies I talked about who are complete human garbage will get into Heaven because they are “God-lovin’, patriotic” STRAIGHT kids. On the other hand, the gay kids who have put forth effort in being decent human beings are going straight to Hell because they’re dirty homosexuals. After all, nice people don’t get into Heaven. 

Well, mind my language, but that’s the biggest pile of bullshit I’ve ever heard. 

It’s no secret that there are straight people who are uncomfortable when it comes to anything relating to LGBTQ+ identities. There are many who use religion to justify it. And to those who use religion to justify their hate, I say to take a step back and think about it. You worship a merciful, all-loving god. A god who sent his only son down to die to save all of humankind from their sins. A son who was friends with sinners. A son who once told his followers to “love their enemies.” How does a religion like that justify any kind of hate? 

“Well, they’re spawn of the devil!” I hear some say. First of all, it’s bold of you to say that Lucifer has such a power over creation to corrupt millions upon millions of human lives in that way. As a matter of fact, wouldn’t such powers rival God’s? Do you really want to make the argument that the devil is capable of rivaling God in power? 

“It’s a choice!” I hear some say. “It’s unnatural!” First of all, it’s not a choice, and it’s entirely natural. One of our closest relatives, the bonobo, is famous for being extremely bisexual. Plenty of other animals have LGBTQ+ traits as well. Actual scientific studies have been done proving that it is ENTIRELY NATURAL. It’s also not a choice. Gender identity is complex and relies heavily on complex functions within the body. Being actually LGBTQ+ is not a choice. You have probably met people who do it by choice. That’s because they are faking it. They’re doing it for attention or to gain something within a social group they want. It is unfair to attribute the traits of an impostor to the group they are pretending to be a part of. Plenty of people pretend to be things they aren’t to get something in return. Should I hold all disabled people to the same regard as someone who pretends to be disabled to get benefits? Should I hold all Christians to the same regard as someone who pretends to be a Christian to get sympathy? 

“They do it for attention!” Yeah, tell that to my friends who are actively hiding their true selves from their parents and families. That surely is all for attention. 

“They’re rapists! Pedophiles!” Do I even have to make this argument? There are COUNTLESS of cases of STRAIGHT rapists and pedophiles. Just because you’re gay doesn’t make you a child molester. 

“They’re sinners!” If that’s the case, shouldn’t you welcome them rather than turn them away? Isn’t that the whole point of Christianity? I remember being told that Jesus Christ himself did not associate with the self-righteous, highly religious people. He was a friend of the sinner. Shouldn’t you try to be more Christ-like and be friends to sinners? 

“They’re trying to indoctrinate the youth!” You know what? Maybe they are. Maybe they’re trying to teach the youth to be less hateful and more understanding. More empathetic than cynical. More free-thinking than manipulative sheep. 

I grew up being taught that God loved every single one of his creations. If God is real, he created my LGBTQ+ friends, and I thank him for them. They’ve provided me with a needed community while others have casted me away. In many ways, they’ve saved me. God created them just the way they are and does not hate them for that. Is it a sin for them to express themselves the way God made them? 

And if it is a sin, if God really made homosexuals just for them to be condemned to Hell in some predestined nightmare, then that’s not a god I want to believe in. That’s not a god I want to worship. I don’t want to praise a god who promotes hate. 

Is this the kind of religion you want? One that persecutes teenage kids for trying to discover their identities and express themselves without hurting anyone? 

And for those who twist religion to promote their own biases and hate; for all those self-righteous, “Jesus-lovin’” homophobes; you will be the ones rotting in Hell (if there is such a place) as the “devil spawn” you bullied find rest and peace beyond Heaven’s gates. 

For I firmly believe that if there is a god, he will favor those who serve the greater good and do not believe in him over the ill-spirited impostors who tarnish his name by proclaiming that their filthy acts were done for his will. 

Remember, the Christian god is supposed to be a god of love; homophobes worship hate. With that in mind, who really is the true spawn of the devil?

-For all of the homosexual, bisexual, transsexual, and non-binary friends and mentors who provided me a place of belonging. You helped me when I needed it. This is the least I can do for you.