🏳️‍🌈 Queer Theology & Secular Pride

“They said I couldn’t be queer and spiritual.
Turns out, I was never the problem. Their theology was.”

This section is for everyone who was told that being LGBTQIA+ was incompatible with being good, holy, or worthy. Whether you still have a spiritual practice, have left religion entirely, or are somewhere in between — you deserve a framework that honors all of you.

📖 What Is Queer Theology?

Queer theology is a way of interpreting spiritual texts and ideas through the lens of queer experience — not as an outsider trying to justify our existence, but as people who have always belonged.

It:

  • Challenges traditional power structures and gender norms

  • Celebrates chosen family, embodiment, and fluidity

  • Sees queerness as sacred resistance to oppression

  • Reclaims scripture without bending over backwards to “fit in”

In other words: Queer theology doesn’t beg for acceptance.
It declares: We were always holy.

🚫 What Queer Theology Is NOT:

  • It’s not twisting scripture to feel better

  • It’s not asking for crumbs of tolerance from hateful systems

  • It’s not a requirement. You don’t have to “redeem” your faith

Some people heal by reinterpreting their traditions.
Some people heal by letting them go.
Both are sacred.

🌈 What Is Secular Pride?

Secular pride is what happens when you don’t need religion to feel whole, seen, or loved. It’s the celebration of:

  • Being queer without needing spiritual validation

  • Living ethically without fear-based morality

  • Reclaiming your body, voice, and relationships outside doctrine

  • Knowing your worth isn’t up for theological debate

You are allowed to feel pride in your survival, your softness, your queerness, your questioning.
You are allowed to live out loud — not as a sin, not as a testimony — but as a fully autonomous person.

🔗 Resources

  • Books

    • Our Lives, Our Stories: The First Queer Theology Anthology

    • Queer Virtue by Rev. Elizabeth Edman

    • God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines (progressive, biblical approach)

    • Transgender, Christian, Human by Austen Hartke

  • Podcasts

    • Queer Theology Podcast

    • Dirty Rotten Church Kids

    • UnErased

    • The Liturgists (older episodes especially)

  • Communities & Creators

    • @queertheology (Instagram / TikTok)

    • Q Christian Fellowship

    • The Reformation Project

    • @RevKarina / @ThatGayPastor

Affirmations for This Space

  • “I don’t need to be straight to be whole.”

  • “My queerness is not a mistake — it’s part of my magic.”

  • “Whether I reclaim faith or walk away, I’m still sacred.”

  • “I don’t owe anyone a theology that makes them more comfortable.”

  • “I am proof that love wins.”