One At a Time

Lori Henne writes a piece for Whosoever Magazine where she takes readers through her path away from anger and unforgiveness toward hope and faith.

Over the decade I’ve been out as a lesbian, I have learned a great deal
about evangelical Christians. Most of what I’ve learned that’s proven to be
worthwhile, that’s proven to be trustworthy, I’ve learned from my own, personal
experience. Stereotypes and groupthink have proven no good to me at all.

I was told, time and again, that I could trust nobody on “the
Religious Right.” They “all” hated us, I was warned, and therefore I had to be
wary of them all. When it came time to begin coming out to the friends I’d made
over the years, most of whom were religious conservatives, I was afraid. Surely
to a one, they would dump me.

Finally I came out to one of my best friends, Shawnee, a lifelong Southern
Baptist. I hemmed and hawed while telling her, ‘til she became quite frightened
herself. When I finally got the words out, I got a huge surprise. She was
actually relieved!

“Is that all?” she asked me. “The way you built up to it, I expected you to
tell me you were dying of cancer or something.”

I should have taken a lesson from that, but I didn’t. Big media – including
the big GLBT media – kept right on telling me that “those people” were all
alike. Much the same way the big hetero media keeps telling straights that “all”
GLBT folks are alike. I knew very well that the latter was wrong, but for some
reason, it was oh-so-easy to go on believing the former. Most of my friends in
the community – even those who were Christian – accepted it as gospel, so why
should I have been any different?

Read her answer at Whosoever.