Imagine this, except don’t imagine this because these are true events. You come out to your parents as homosexual. There’s a haunting silence that has suddenly overcome the room. A million things are running through your head. “Will they still love me?” Conversion therapy is suggested as a solution to your “problem.” According to Psychology Today, over 700,000 LGBTQ+ persons are exposed to conversion therapy. This was a harsh reality for Garrard Conley. When he was 19, his Christian parents sent him off to a conversion therapy program called Love in Action. At the end of the whole conversion process, he was near suicidal. People who are sent to conversion therapy report higher levels of depression, low self esteem, and suicidal behavior, PsychCentral. “Boy Erased” was a film made to tell Conley’s story. I believe that this tear jerker of a movie got across very well because it shows much people use religious beliefs to justify their discrimination against people. It displays “fine Christian people” using their beliefs to try to change something about someone that isn’t a choice that person has the option to make.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but when there is little to no justification behind those beliefs, they do not look like the sharpest crayon in the box. People may say that their justification is that they are a Christian, and the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin. Well, then they should reconsider how serious of a Christian they are because there are many so-called sins that Christians love to ignore. If people are true Christians, according to the Bible, they would believe that all sin is equal. So why shun a group of people for wanting to love someone else?

As a society, we should love one another. The Bible says “love thy neighbor,” but some exclude the neighbors who happen to be attracted to the same gender. Blending fabrics, wearing jewelry, getting tattoos, rounded haircuts, eating pig, wearing ripped jeans, holding grudges and manual labor on Sundays are just a few examples of sins that some Christians disregard. Why is there a lack of regard for these sins, but it is made an adamant point to send people to conversion therapies for being homosexual? Why are there not conversion therapies for people who wear jewelry and work on Saturdays? My point is that if people are going to justify their bigotry with religion, they should make sure they do not commit any of these disregarded sins.

“One page of the Bible isn’t worth a life.” This is a very powerful line from “The Village,” a song by Wrabel, that preaches to the LGBTQ+ community that there is nothing wrong with them, but there’s something wrong with society: a flaw of close mindedness, hatred and bigotry. Why do people care so much about what other people do with their lives? If I want to marry a woman and adopt beautiful children, then I’m going to do it whether anyone else thinks it is acceptable or not. Who someone loves and wants to spend the rest of their life with is really no one else’s business but the individual’s. Feelings are easy to catch and hard to control. If someone makes another person happier and allows that person to be in an overall good state of mind, the gender shouldn’t matter. Gender should never be a limit when it comes to love. And religion should never be used to justify the homophobia that puts fear in people who just want to love someone.

Religion is how someone else feels that people should live their lives. It can’t be proven. The Bible is one of the most common pieces of text that is lost in translation and has been in the hands of many people who have interpreted it differently. Those people may have added things, taken words out and completely misinterpreted the meaning and purpose of the Bible. I’m not saying that Christianity is a hoax because people can believe in whatever they please. But if someone is going to spew their hate to another person just because of sexual preference, they should base it off of 100% factual information, not theory or philosophy.

Society as a whole needs to be more accepting and open minded. There is no reason that people should be driven to depression or to suicide because of the lack of acceptance from the people around them. In conclusion I would like to say that we, as a people, need to pick each other up and do better because people need better.