Humanism may not have always been the ideal support group for LGBTQs but there have been many Humanists that offered their support in different ways.

Trav Mamone wrote a piece on why he believes that Humanism is a better option for queer people than religion is. He touches on influential pieces written by Alex Gabriel and Heina Dadabhoy, in which they shared a common belief in that religion is not queer-friendly. When Trav first came out, he was religious and all of his Christian friends supported him and he even found a church hat encouraged and supported him.

However, he has since moved on to Humanism and for many different reasons. He says that he sees things differently now than he did as a Christian, though he still thinks “it’s possible to be either a queer person of faith or an ally of faith, but to be honest, the acceptance of LGBTQ people has nothing to do with religion.” He adds that Christians who affirm queers are applying humanistic reasoning to scripture.

Humanism and LGBTQ

There are many different types of humanism, but one of the outlooks is that any time new information is revealed, they use scientific reasoning and logic to better understand the world and humanity. Meanwhile, religion follows doctrine and any new information that may be contradictory is revoked and called heresy. While religions may eventually accept the information as a fact, there is a lot of anger and debate thrown about beforehand, and at times, lengthy grudges. For example, Galileo, a devoted Catholic, made discoveries the Catholic Church thought were contradictory to Biblical doctrine in the early 1600s and was not officially pardoned until 1992.

Humanism and science-based beliefs have not always been the ideal support for LGBTQ, given that until 1973, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association believed that homosexuality was a mental illness. However, throughout the struggle, there have been many Humanists that offered their support in as many ways as they can. For example, Humanist celebrant, Jason Frye, elped two homeless women marry at the Pride Parade in 2008. The Humanist Association of San Diego paid for their license and entry into the parade, and Frye performed the ceremony four times, timing it just right for their ‘I do’s to be in front of the protestors.

I think everyone shd support humanism. Doesn't matter if you're black, white, Asian, male, female, straight, gay, whatever. — Jon (@joncheww) October 11, 2014

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