L2  -  "It is a mortal sin, evil, etc. etc. "

L3  -  "It was frowned upon.  They are totally against it."

L4  -  "It was wrong, unnatural and against the teaching of the Catholic Church."

L5  -  "We were cast-offs, evil and vile."

L6  -  "If you are homosexual you cannot receive communion."

L7  -  "That it is okay to be a lesbian but not to practise same sex."

L8  – "That it was wrong and immoral."

L9  – "It didn’t bother me."

L11 - "Anti"

G4  -  "Prehistoric!!!  Pathetic, narrow-minded, double standards."

G5 -  "It didn't bother me."

G7  -  "Negative attitude; it was ‘dirty’ or wrong."

G9  -  "Strictly homophobic and condemning."

G11 - "It was unacceptable."

G15 - "Crap"

G17 - "Against homosexuality which was also more pressure."

G19 – "That it was against God’s law."

G22 – "[The church’s view] was a load of utter nonsense."

G24 – "That orientation was OK but practice was not."

G27 – "The Catholic Church does not accept [homosexuality] and says it's wrong."

G28 - "They acknowledge its existence yet condemn the practice of it! (Typical!)"

G29 - "Complete intolerance."

Positive attitudes from Protestant churches  -  1 woman

L10 - "The church wasn't very strict.  We were told that a men and a woman together was the norm and that Christians should help anyone who differed or had a personality of their own." (Presbyterian)

Negative attitudes from Protestant churches  - 1 woman  3 men

L1 -   "That it was wrong and it was a sin to have homosexual thoughts."

G6 -  "Homosexuality was never discussed - it was never made an issue of." (Presbyterian)

G18  "Condemnation – [The church] believe a person chooses to be gay." (Church of Ireland)

G21  "Generally negative"  (Presbyterian)

No religion stated or neither Catholic nor Protestant  -  3 men

 G3 -  "That it was wrong."

G20 – "I had a fair idea of the bigoted views."

G25 – "I do not believe in God not accepting GAY. [I do not believe that God does not accept gay people]"

27 out of 30 (90%) respondents described their religion's attitude to gay people in negative terms

How religious attitudes affected gay people

The respondents were asked if their religion's attitude to homosexuality affected the way they felt about themselves

Why their religion's attitude made no difference to them

Catholic:-

L2  -  "The incompatibility of church teachings and actions led to the belief for my part that the whole thing is a farce."

L3 -  "I always believe that love can not be wrong.  Real love, that is, and that God made us all and does not make junk."

L6 -  "Because I am not a chapel-going Catholic."

L11 -"It turned me against Catholicism as it doesn't allow me to be myself.  It's enclosing people's emotions.  I just came to the conclusion that I'm gay and that's not how I live.  I lost faith."

G5 -  "Because I like my own life-style.  One priest visited me when I was in psychiatric hospital but he did not know I was gay."

G9 -  "I had cultivated my own relationship with my own God and never believed that he believed me unnatural or sinful."

G22 – "I’ve always despised the attitude of the Catholic church to any number of issues.  If anything it made me feel stronger in my resolve to come out."

G28 - "I was never very religious and disagree with many of the hypocritical Catholic church's policies."

G29 - "Religion should bring us together, not divide us."

Protestant:-

 G6 -  "It didn't make me feel better or worse because it was never mentioned.  I discovered attitudes by myself from the Bible."

G18 – "I couldn’t understand their attitude."

No religion stated or neither Catholic nor Protestant:-

G3 -   "It did not matter."

G20 – "I didn’t have and don’t have a very high regard for religious points of view."

Why their religion's attitude made them feel better

Catholic:-

G1  -  "Because I knew that the church was behind me and I felt good."

G4  -  "Knowing that I have a broad mind and I am a better person than most of these priests etc.  I don't judge anyone - if one is nice to me it will be returned.  It made me more determined not to hide anything about my sexuality.  It made me laugh at their total two-faced bull-shit."

G9 -  "I felt defiant/adamant that I belonged to God as unconditionally as anyone else be they priest, pope or mere mortal."

G15 - "I knew it was a wrong attitude (for them) to have."

Protestant:-

L10 - "I learnt quickly not to listen to the church.  I tried other churches and found a similar, if not worse attitude so I don't belong to a church or religion."

Why their religion's attitude made them feel worse

Catholic:-

L4 -   "I felt like a hypocrite going to mass and having feelings for members of the same sex.  At times it made me feel ‘dirty’"

L5 -   "It is clearly stated in the bible that homosexuality is forbidden and I always felt a hypocrite continuing to believe and practice my faith."

L7 -  "Because this wasn't support.  It was discrimination and makes me feel less of a person.  Again I felt unequal, dirty, as if it was wrong to love and want to be intimate with another girl."

G17 - "In a way I felt quite angry that this is the way although at the time I was a good, practising Catholic.  [What the priest said was] Just more pressure at an age when I was trying to understand it and come to terms with it; people like this were telling me I was a sinner."

Protestant:-

L1 -   "My family tries to be religious and I feel a part of me is too.  So feeling this way made guilty."

L10 - "I did carry guilt.  I always thought, what if they're right?"

The respondents were asked if they ever heard their ministers, priests etc. saying anything about homosexuality

What Catholics heard from their priests about homosexuality:-

L4 -   "One time there were rumours going round that there were two men in town who were going out with each other and the priest got up one Sunday and preached on about how wrong homosexuality was in the eyes of God.  [Because of what the priest said] I was really angry and from then on lost interest in going to church although I still believe in God and pray a lot."

L11 - "They [gay people] lived in sin"

G4 - " Self-explanatory.  Going to hell, abomination, evil etc."

G9 -  "Bigotry, condemnation, hypocrisy from the pulpit."

G22 – "Negative scare stories."

G29 - "They [gay people] are unnatural."

What Protestants heard from their ministers about homosexuality:-

L10 - "[It was] living in sin.  I had the 'What if they're right' feeling.  They made me feel guilty and doubt my own natural feelings."

G21 – "I had to sit through a homophobic, sectarian rant.  I was furious.  I was angry at the hate inspired and never  went back to church."

32 out of 39 respondents claim to have belonged to a religion when at school.

11 of these 32 (34.4%) report rejecting their religion as a result of its attitudes to homosexuality

See Appendices 10 & 11 for the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church and The Presbyterian Church of Ireland.

Many gay people disregard their church's attitudes to homosexuality either because they reject their religion completely or because they develop their own relationship with God

To go back to the index click here - index.html