Black, gay and Christian, Marylanders struggle with conflicts

Dan82 · Oct 13, 2012

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-blacks-and-gay-marriage-20121013,0,5029081.story

While growing up in an African-American Baptist church, Harris Thomas was taught homosexuality is an "abomination in the eyes of God." As a young minister, he disparaged the gay lifestyle even while secretly pursuing it. Today he heads a Baltimore church that serves gay Christians of color "right where they are."

Grace Harley, too, grew up in a mainstream black church. She discovered the gay underground as a teen and lived as a lesbian for nearly 20 years. But God freed her from homosexuality, she says, a "blessing" she gladly recounts as a straight minister based in Silver Spring.

Both longtime Marylanders began their spiritual journeys in a similar place, as black Christians who felt strong same-sex attractions. Both faced rejection from family and community, and particularly forceful disapproval from fellow African-Americans, a group whose values have long been shaped by conservative religious thinking. But on a key question of the day, Thomas and Harley could not be more different...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-blacks-and-gay-marriage-20121013,0,5029081.story
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DryOasis · Oct 14, 2012

I know of many similar stories here in SA. It seems like religion will always have a very big effect on how people interpret their same sex feelings. These beliefs cast a shadow over the very secular laws we have in our country.

Black, gay and Christian, Marylanders struggle with conflicts

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Black, gay and Christian, Marylanders struggle with conflicts

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