In all my years as a Christian I have never been "a hater." This is because I believe God is love. It is not possible to know God without having love, without experiencing love, without believing that love is the most important thing in life.
Most Christians know the Bible says this. They believe it to some degree or another, although some believe erroneously that if you love people you have to change them and make them "correct." And then they define what "correct" is by mining the more dubious areas of the Bible for substantiation of their own made-up views. I have never believed in that kind of Christianity and it has always disgusted me. And yet until recent years I have never come out openly in support of LGBT.
What has changed?
The older I've grown in life, I have matured by widening my circle of friends and increasing the influence of many different kinds of people on my personal life, rather than becoming more closed minded like many people think they must do for maturity. It is because I want to know truth, and truth is how people are, how they think and feel and believe.
One of the most important things that soon became evident to me was that many people do feel hated by Christians. It does not matter what Christians say they believe. What matters is how they act. This is why so many people in the LGBT community feel that many or most Christians are "haters." They perceive in the way that they are treated and not accepted that the Christians insist on trying to change them to make them what the Christians inappropriately label "correct."
As soon as I realize this I decided that I couldn't live with myself unless I made a radical change in my acceptance of others. This is why, today, this weekend, and from here on out I will PRIDE. I will do everything I can to show my support, love, friendship, camaraderie, essential and relevant common humanity with all people: especially those marginalized by others whether it is because of race, religion, sexual orientation or any other thing. It is inappropriate and unscriptural and ungodly for Christians to think they have the right to be so arrogant as to superimpose their morals and ideals on others.
So I stand with them, and if you for whatever reason persecute them, you persecute me too.
