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Bailey Thompson<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n For many people in the LGBTQ community, it is challenging to continue associating with the religious groups they grew up with because they no longer feel like they are accepted by those communities. A common narrative says that LGBTQ identities and religion are mutually exclusive, but this is not something that all people believe. To talk about this further, the Stonewall Center organized a \u201cQueer People of Faith Panel\u201d on April 9 in the Werner University Center to discuss common issues that people who identify as both religious and LGBTQ experience.<\/span><\/p>\n With students of Muslim, Christian, Spiritual and Jewish faiths represented between the six panelists, a variety of perspectives were present at the event. In terms of sexuality, these students primarily identified as pansexual, gay and lesbian \u2014 although some of them acknowledged that it was not that cut and dry.<\/span><\/p>\n When panelists talked about their relationship with their respective religions before coming out, they largely echoed positive experiences of tight-knit communities and family traditions. However, this generally changed for people once those who have done so came out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI knew I was gay since I was probably like 8, but because of my faith and what I grew up with I didn\u2019t talk about it,\u201d said one of the panelists.<\/span><\/p>\n Another of the panelists shared that they had a similar experience of distancing themselves from the church because they did not feel welcome.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I came out, I felt that religion and spirituality wasn\u2019t for me and would never be for me because I had been so hurt by it,\u201d said the panelist. \u201cAnd it was a process of one to two years for me to discover that religion and spirituality is what I want it to be, and it\u2019s still a process. Those conflicting things is a really central part of me and it\u2019s something that I\u2019ve really worked to heal in myself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n From a different perspective, a couple of the panelists who described growing up in a more liberal community did not feel the same severity of judgment that these first panelists did.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhere I grew up and how I was raised it was never a big thing, but it was also never really spoken about. So, there is some work to be done there,\u201d said a panelist.<\/span><\/p>\n One thing that the panelists agreed upon was that it is important for queer communities to be having more discussions around religious identities and religious communities to be having more conversations about queer identities, since both of these will help to bridge the gap that currently exists in many places between these two groups.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am so grateful for having grown up religious and having come out as queer,\u201d said one panelist to conclude. \u201cIt\u2019s been real s—– sometimes, but it has given me such depth and such perspective about what it means to grow up and think one way and to entirely shift my perspective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n