Interview: Religion

Hannah has been close friends with Taylor since elementary school. We talked to her about the pressures of being gay in a Christian household and how she feels about the concepts of organized religion and its place in society.

What's your name?
Taylor Ramsey

What's your gender?
Lady

What's your orientation?
Queer

Were you raised on any certain religion or set of beliefs?
Yes. Ughhhh. God, it's hard to describe...I come from a family of Baptist preachers, so my relatives aren't legalistic, but they rely on faith to make all their decisions. It's in everything they do. The one thing my mother wanted for me as a child was for me to know Jesus. It's kinda like, "It doesn't matter if you're happy, just be a christian." Haha. I don't know, it's a lot of pressure.

Do you still follow and believe that religion?
No, but I'm not really open about that with my family. It's easier for me to just lay low than to create conflict. As long as they're not trying to influence any part of my life, I'm okay. I just want to avoid conflict, and that's getting harder.

Why would you say it's getting harder?
It's hard for me to accept the fact that my mom wants me to base any decision I make on "Jesus". Like, even in school, my mom wants to know how I'm using my life for Jesus...Or if all my friends are christians.

Is it hard being gay and having a Christian family? Do they even know?
No, they're don't know. I think it would be really scary...Or I guess it will be really scary...When I tell them. It's weird to think there might be something about yourself that could make you lose the affection of your own family members. It's a bizarre concept for me.

Will you raise your children to believe a certain religion?
Haha, that's terrifying. That's the scariest question ever. I mean, no matter what I do, I know my mom is going to have a role in my children's lives and she's always going to be preaching about what she believes in. But I would definitely leave options for my kids to believe what they want, rather than scaring them into believing something.

Why do you think religion is so important to society?
Ummm...that's a huge question. I guess it's because we're scared and we need a way to explain things we don't understand. I guess we can't trust ourselves, so we need something else to believe in.

Do you think it is necessary?
I don't think religion is always bad. But I don't know, it has created so much conflict and so much hatred. It's taken something that could be so good and made it negative.

Do you think there is a difference between religion and spirituality?
YEAH. I feel like religion is more dependent on people. I mean, religion is based on men and no one is perfect. It will always get messed up. Spirituality is more of a personal thing. It can coexist with other things, its not so aggressive or antagonizing.

Do you think homosexuals go to hell or that God hates them?
Bullshit. That's just ridiculous to me. I think that idea has just come from people trying to scare other people from being gay. It's just hate. I don't know, it's just hate. And God is not hate. Such bullshit. That sounds really angry written down haha.

Do you think you can be gay and christian?
Yeah. I mean I guess it depends on what you mean by Christian. I think that organized religion won't really support it because it's a minority and its not the norm. But I think you can be gay and believe in God.

Do you think church and state influence eachother?
Yeah. I know my family has just been irrate about taking anything about God out of the public...you know, like prayer out of school. They think the success of our country is based on God. Obama scares the shit out of them. Both establishments definitely have a lot of power and influence the people individually.

So what do you personally believe?
I've been dreading this question. I don't know, I've been talking to my roommate a lot about this. I don't want to completely reject something that has been such a huge part of my childhood and my life. It's made me into who I am. And I think it would be completely hopeless to think there's nothing out there or any sort of creator or whatever. I don't know, there are so many negative things that get in the way and manipulate religion. It gets used to control people and accomplish agendas. But deep down I think the idea of it is good. It's just gotten messed up somewhere.