Elliot
Hello, my name is Elliot Heye and I am a queer, transgender Christian. I grew up in the church and various religious groups, and while I faced discrimination in those spaces, I was always able to find supportive people to lean on.
Those people saved my life many times and helped me to feel safe and accepted within Christianity. Unfortunately, the place I found the most pushback was within the LGBT community. I remember when I first realized I was transgender, I was so excited to get involved with the community and meet others going through the same things. What I found though was largely anti-religious rhetoric.
Pronouns: he/him
Photo of Elliot
I wanted to be courageous in my queerness and faith, but it seemed like every queer person I knew was against the church and Christianity. I’ve experienced great amounts of rejection from the queer community because of this. There are spaces where I’m too queer to be Christian, and spaces where I’m too Christian to be queer.
It’s an incredibly isolating experience. Facing those things led me deeper into depression and loneliness as I felt alone in my conflicting faith and identity. I turned to a lot of horrible coping mechanisms that took years to recover from. Luckily, as I have moved into college and become more vocal about my identity, I have been able to find the folks who will understand all facets of my identity and share in them. Through an accepting church and bible study, as well as online spaces, I’ve found other LGBT Christians that can build me up.
I still find spaces I don’t feel welcome in because of my faith, but I have safe spaces to go back to, which has made all the difference.
Photo of Elliot
