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The Atheist community and the LGBT communiity

It seems today that anyone who is in the GLBTQ community is familiar with hate and its effects on others. Hate can stem from different sources such as fear, ignorance, religion, etc. My question is how have you, as a LBTGQ person, fit into the atheist community? In theory it would seem that we would have no issues since the whole "hate based on religion" is absent.

Thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by David Philip Norris on August 14, 2012 at 11:33am

Personally, I feel pretty lonely as a gay atheist. I know a handful of non-religious gays, but they're more apathetic than atheist. Maybe it's just growing up in the Midwest, but most of the gays here seem to have some sort of religion, faith or belief in something. Even my lovely boyfriend has a spirituality, though it's more like he believes that anything is possible. Thus far I haven't met any gay men at the Minnesota Atheist or Minnesota Skeptics events, and I can't really speak for anyone else but I'm left wondering if there's something about atheism that simply doesn't appeal to Midwestern gay men. I'm trying to not make any gross generalizations, but perhaps it's analogous to how rooted Christianity is in the African-American community: that religion offers comfort, solace and purpose to a people who feel abused, abandoned and marginalized. But the only gay atheists I really know are here on this site.

As far as "fitting in," I almost feel the need more to stick out, to be visible and prominent, a sort of gathering point for the irreligious gays in the area. The lesbians have Greta Christina, but there's really no one in the "prominent gay male atheist" role.

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on August 14, 2012 at 1:38pm