Ex Church Kids (of Local Church) Ex Church Kids from Local Church of Witnes

[awareness]

This new section of LCD can only be read by non-ex=church kids.

The purpose of this thread is copy and paste posts from thee to be discussed, or maybe just cussed.

[awareness]

Originally Posted by awareness

This new section of LCD can only be read by non-ex=church kids.

The purpose of this thread is copy and paste posts from thee to be discussed, or maybe just cussed.

I thought this testimony from, The Ex Church Kids on LCD was worth bringing here for possible discussion :

Ex Church Kids (of Local Church) Ex Church Kids from Local Church of Witness Lee

http://localchurchdiscussions.com/vB...63&postcount=2

Re: LGBTQ Church kids

SoCalChurchKid
Long-time lurker, first time poster with a username. Thank you, SL, for helping create a space on this forum where I feel like I can belong and speak my mind with a decent amount of anonymity.

Growing up I had pretty strict parents, members of the first FTTA graduating class, was homeschooled, etc. so I was very rigid in my CL upbringing. I knew all the words that made people emphatically say "Amen", I learned how to cry on command to add impact to my speaking, etc. I was a good church kid, never rebellious, a goody-two-shoes, but never a snitch. I had a good image with all the saints and elders in my locality and they respected my opinion.

At the early onset of puberty, deep down, I was realizing that I was bisexual. I didn't know how to label it, but I just knew that I was inherently attracted to both sides of the cis fence. A couple years afterwards, the Prop 8 initiative to eliminate the rights of same-sex marriage in California was in full-steam, increasing my awareness of the LGBTQ community. I finally had a label for what I was, which gave me some assurance for two main reasons:
Other people were like me
I go both ways so let me just suppress the part of me attracted to boys so that I can have a 'normal' life.

This mindset being so firm in my mind during my developmental years has influenced my current sexual identity to shift on the spectrum from baseline bisexuality being sexually bisexual, but strictly heterosexual romantically.

I used to be pro-Prop 8. I used to think that, since I was able to "make a choice", everyone could. That all changed in college when I accidentally saw some DMs open on my younger brother's phone. My brother, who was in high school at the time, was secretly sexting other boys/men online. My worldview shattered at that point; my brother, who was very intelligent, knows what this type of behavior means in the church and yet he still chose the "wrong" choice. How could this be? It was an event that urged me to look into the LGBTQ community more and hear what others' experiences were. This moment was the tipping point for me; I knew that:
You are who you are when you're born
Your sexuality is not a choice
According to Christian doctrine, all humans are sinners so if God can forgive and accept murderers, why can't he forgive two consenting adults as they are?

That's when I realized that the church's official stance was hypocritical and oppressive by nature. I also realized I needed to protect my brother. Due to the 'good church kid' image I had in my locality, I started slowly working my stance towards the LGBTQ community into my 1-1 conversations with others saints, asking straight saints when they chose to be straight, etc. When I was able to successfully make them question their worldview regarding the matter, I told them that I was bisexual and told them my experience. They saw that I was "exercised" and that I was "partaking of the enjoyment" or whatever, so that made them question if their biases were wrong and most of them were surprisingly receptive. Even children of coworkers asked me what to do if their kids turned out gay/etc. I told them all the same thing, "just love your kid man, they were the same baby you fell in love with in the delivery room and guess what, they were gay then too."

This experience is pretty rare from what I know in the LC, mainly due to my locality being in SoCal, the social views of the coastal areas tend to be more liberal than the middle-America localities. Sadly, my more positive experience probably stems from being a brother in the church rather than being a sister. Due to the inherent sexism in the LC culture, more often than not, a brother's speaking always held more weight than a sister's.

While I don't currently meet with any locality, I still maintain contact and friendship with many saints in the 'church' to help continue to foster an environment where parents will at least accept their children for who they are.

[SerenityLives]

this shows that there’s not only female bisexuals on this forum but male ones as well. Socal churchkid is a sweet. He and Exchurchkid grew up in Mission Viejo together.