LGBTQ+ Matters

Religious Studies: KS3, topic 3.4.10

LGBTQ+ refers to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer folks.

The belief that male-female sexual attraction is natural, and other forms of attraction are unnatural, is still widely held.
Some believe that gender is something someone is born with, ie. one is physically born a male or a female.
Many deny that sexual attraction between opposite genders is the only normal and natural attraction.
They argue that a lot of people experience same-sex attraction, and that this is a natural part of their make-up.

People experience a spectrum of sexual feelings.
Homosexual: a woman (lesbian) or man (gay) attracted to the same sex.
Bisexual: men or women attracted to the same and opposite sex.
Transgender: people who do not identify with the gender assigned to them at birth.
Cisgender: people who identify with their birth gender.
Queer: a reclaimed term, once used abusively, describing non-cisgender, non-heterosexual people.
The 'Q' is said to refer to 'questioning' sexuality.

In places where this natural range of sexual feelings is not accepted, LGBTQ+ people may experience severe persecution.
Same-sex relationships are still illegal in 72 countries.
In 10 countries gay men can be executed for having same-sex relations.
In many other countries gay men regularly encounter violence, even from the police.
The UK only decriminalised same-sex acts in 1967, ahead of Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In 1994 the age of consent was lowered from 21 to 18.

LGBTQ+ people face threats in places where religious teaching has condemned same-sex relations.
The Book of Leviticus (Chapter 18) in the Old Testament of the Bible says 'you shall not lie with a male as with a woman, such a thing is an abomination’.
In Islam, the Koran (4:16) says ‘And as for the two of you men who are guilty of lewdness, punish them both’.

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