Resources for Episodes 027: When a Loved One Comes Out as Gay or LGBTQ+

“Coming Out to My Liberal Family Wasn’t All Sunshine and Rainbows.”

A young woman recounts how intolerant her liberal parents were to her coming out as a lebian. 

 Efforts to Overwhelmingly Indoctrinate Students

Los Angeles Unified School District Holiday Calendar, including nearly 40 LGBTQ+ holidays celebrated each year. This calendar includes all holidays for all groups, which are “outnumbered” by LGBTQ holidays: 

  • National Coming Out Day: Established in 1987 to promote the vision of a country where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals could live truthfully and openly. National Coming Out Day is celebrated internationally. 

  • Ally Week: Ally Week is for students to organize events that serve to identify, support and celebrate allies against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender biased-language, bullying and harassment. 

  • LGBTQ History Month… 31 days 31 icons: LGBT History Month celebrates the achievements of 31 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender icons. Each day in October, a new LGBT Icon is featured with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images and other resources. In 1994, Rodney Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher, believed a month should be dedicated to the celebration and teaching of gay and lesbian history, and gathered other teachers and community leaders. They selected October because public schools are in session and existing traditions, such as Coming Out Day (October 11), occur that month.

  • Day of Silence: Participants across the country take a vow of silence to bring attention to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender biased name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools (April 15)

  • Day of Dialogue On the Day of Dialogue: The Golden Rule Pledge calls on people of faith to affirm the safe and respectful treatment of all persons, focusing today on building bridges with LGBTQ people. Observed on the same day.

  • International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia: The International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia raises awareness of LGBT rights violations worldwide. 

  • Christopher Street West Anniversary of Stonewall Rebellion: The 1969 Stonewall Rebellion marked the turning point in the struggle for equity for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Communities throughout the world host pride events to commemorate this anniversary. Observed the second weekend of June in Los Angeles.

  • “Sex Week” at Yale University. Here the university encourages students to explore sex in all its permutations.

 Other Resources

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert : An English Professor's Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Butterfield

The story of a tenured professor at Syracuse University who specialized in Queer Studies and her conversion to Christianity. Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. Then, in her late 30's, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down--the idea that Christianity, a religion she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was. That idea seemed to fly in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a train wreck at the hand of the supernatural. These are her secret thoughts about those events, written as only a reflective English professor could.

Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ by Rosaria Butterfield

Read this follow-up to The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. 

Is God Anti-Gay? By Sam Allberry

A practical and sensitive exploration of the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality. It’s the hot topic of the moment. Christians, the church and the Bible seem to be out of step with modern attitudes towards homosexuality. And there is growing hostility towards those who hold a different view. So is God homophobic? And what do we say, and how do we relate to to both Christians and non-Christians who experience same-sex attraction. In this short, simple book, Sam Allberry wants to help confused Christians understand what God has said about these questions in the scriptures, and offers a positive and liberating way forward through the debate.

The Ethics of Homosexuality and the Gospel of Grace by Albert Mohler

A lecture given on clarity amidst confusion on the matter of homosexuality and the Bible.