Driving back to Calvin from my parents’ house in Chicago, I found myself off of the highway on a detour, not knowing exactly how I ended up there. I was standing outside of my parked car looking at a beautiful double rainbow across the sky. I then saw another double rainbow at Calvin not too long after that. 

A rainbow, both a symbol of God’s promise, as well as a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. Both of those double rainbows faded soon after I saw them. I felt God telling me: “Hannah Grace, you are valid, I affirm you, all of you and I love you so very much. You are my beloved child and you are made in my image. Nothing can separate you from my love.”

Queer Christians are valid, fully affirmed and loved by God. A lot of people within the LGBTQ+ community have asked queer Christians, “Why are you a Christian? Christians hurt us, they abuse us, they do not welcome us.” And this is often true: a lot of people who identify as Christians do not understand or affirm people in the LGBTQ+ community, even asserting the harmful and dangerous idea that sexual orientation is a choice and God is able to change people’s sexual orientation. Some Christians have claimed that the LGBTQ+ community is going to hell, that we are not loved by God. 

 Matthew 22:39 says “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and Romans 8:38-39 gives us the message that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The Bible makes it clear that we are all made in the image of God, every single one of us. These verses and ideas that come right out of the Bible apply to the LGBTQ+ community as well. 

It is extremely difficult as a queer Christian to find a fully affirming church that feels like home. As a junior at Calvin University, it was not until after Cokes and Clubs at the beginning of this semester that I started going to En Vivo church, the first church in Grand Rapids that I have immediately felt at home in from the moment I walked into the building. 

For so long, it felt like my queer identity was on one side and my Christian identity was on the other, and these two identities were constantly at war. I now am living into my identity of both queer and Christian, as these two identities are intertwined, not able to be pulled apart. Queer Christians are valid, fully affirmed and loved by God.  

For those of you who are in the LGBTQ+ community, and either also identify as Christians, or you are unsure of where your faith lands: you are valid, you are fully affirmed by God and you are loved. You are made in the image of God, and nothing, absolutely nothing can separate you from God’s love. You belong here.