Despite its large gay population, a list compiled by a gay Asian Christian group includes only six churches in the San Francisco Bay Area it believes are affirming to LGBT APIs, reports the Bay Area Reporter in the Edge.
“It is small. That shows the severity of the issue and how little LGBT issues are talked about,” said Lauren Quock of the Network on Religion and Justice for Asian and Pacific Islander Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People.
Quock herself recalls leaving the Presbyterian Church in Chinatown because of its anti-Gay stance and support of Proposition 8 which banned gay marriage. Yet she still considers herself a Christian and is looking for a new church to replace the one she lost.
“My church family growing up and the people who knew me, it is irreplaceable,” said Quock. “I lost those connections and it has been difficult to replace it. The Network on Religion and Justice has replaced that in my life.”
Mathew Chacko was born in India and had a similar experience when he left his church in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“After I came out I didn’t go to church at all. It was hard to reconcile my two identities because they were so diametrically opposed,” recalled Chacko, who lived in San Jose until 1992. “It wasn’t until I moved to San Francisco that I started going to church again on a regular basis.”
You can read more about the experiences of gay Christian Asian Americans in the Edge.
