by: Mikylla Santos

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Are you a Catholic, a Christian, whichever religion, or maybe none of those? If so, do you have any prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community? Do you think homosexuals are immoral? If you have these kinds of beliefs or thoughts, are they because of how you’ve been brought up, because of religion or because of what the church says? Do you believe and affirm that all your beliefs are correct or you think they might also be incoherent? Where do you stand on this matter?

 

Throughout the years, the church and the LGBTQ+ community have always been in opposition. You might guess what it is. Yes, they differ in beliefs and such. Of course, it won’t be a hard time guessing what is the specific reason these two have always been arguing about.

 

The church is always intolerant to the LGBTQ+ community when it comes to their sexuality and sexual orientation as they believe that these “homosexual acts” are immoral and contrary to the natural law, which is a man is only for a woman and a woman is only for a man, and names “homosexual tendencies” as objectively disordered. They highly oppose the community when it comes to same sex marriage. They do not approve of this because according to the Bible based on the book of Genesis that a man is only for a woman.

 

So no matter what, they won’t ever approve of the same sex marriage because they regard this as a sinful act or an act opposed to God’s will. Although the church also respects the community, it will never change its beliefs. Since in the Philippines, Catholic churches dominate the country, it also has a say when it comes to this matter. Same sex marriage for them is a detestable act and an abomination  as this is very offensive and disgusting to the eyes of the Lord which was said in the Bible.

 

Since the church follows the scriptures of the Bible and what it says, its opinion of the community never changes and this is a very challenging part for the LGBTQ+ community. Due to the domination of the Catholic church, what it says is highly regarded and respected to many. For people believe homosexuals are immoral and are committing grave sins by uniting as one in marriage, it is not very easy to change and open the eyes of many people especially those who follow the “right path”. These beliefs led to the conservative thinking of many people, thus, when one finds out that there is a LGBTQ+ member in their family, they try their best as much as possible to “correct” this “immoral” behavior. 

 

Although the church and the LGBTQ+ community have been very opposed when it comes to such principles and moral beliefs, in the Philippines, the relationship of the two is not that awful. In fact, the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines also gives donations to the churches and many more. The LGBTQ+ community, when you look at it from a different perspective are not immoral people, they’re very good people. It is just that most of all people highly regarded the moral values of the church and is not yet open when it comes to the topic of homosexuality let alone same sex marriage.

 

Opening the minds and eyes of all people is a very hard task and a long process. It is very fortunate if people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community who experience battling with such stigmatism only need to conquer these traditional ideas but what’s saddening is that in this process, the road is not that smooth. Most of the members or maybe all members of the LGBTQ+ community have experienced microaggressions from the society and rooting its cause won't just be because of one reason. 

 

But in all of these, whether what belief you might have or which one on the opposition do you stand, it is very important to respect each of our differences, because at the end of the day, we can all agree with one thing, it is that all of us are made by God and whether which one of us abides by the rules of God or the natural laws, hurting someone is not tolerable whether you might think you’re right no matter what.