You’re a Christian pastor or campus ministry leader. You hold the traditional (sometimes called Side B) view of sexuality, but you want to be a safe person for LGBTQ folks. You want to know how you can show love to minority people like myself. Here are 18 suggestions.
- Ask me questions about my life experiences, then listen.
- Validate my existence and my experiences.
- Encourage me.
- Tell me I’m special.
- Tell me I have a purpose.
- Be at my side as I go into the deep.
- Ask me why my people feel unwelcome at church.
- Include me in your sermons/testimony.
- Let me talk about what life is like for me as a gay man, rather than you—a straight person—talking about what it is like to be a gay man.
- Defend me when you witness others judging me.
- Be sincere.
- Be respectful.
- Tell me when you feel uncomfortable with something I say.
- Ask me what we can do as a family to work through our differences and disagreements.
- Don’t avoid me.
- Include me in your conversation about gender and sexuality.
- Love me unconditionally.
- Love in action, not words.
Logan Paiste is an undergraduate student at Penn State University studying Ancient Mediterranean Languages and Jewish Studies. At the age of 19, he had a personal encounter with Jesus and has never been the same since. Logan desires to connect Christians to the LGBTQ+ community and create safe spaces at the university for everyone to gather as one.
