25 LGBTQ+ Christian Quotes That Sustain Us

The American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the U.S. Many of these bills are written, supported, and justified by Christians. Even if most of these bills do not become law, it is dangerous when anyone, and especially people in power, deny the goodness of LGBTQ+ people. But Jesus offers a different way to discern a person’s goodness:

“[E]very good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:17-20). 

Below are quotes from queer Christians who bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Drag queen Marge Erin Johnson is bringing joy and sparkle back to church; Bayard Rustin organized the 1963 March on Washington; Cole Arthur Riley, creator of Black Liturgies, reminds us to breathe, have patience, and remain faithful to our dignity. 

In the podcast This Little Light of Mine, Bonnie Violet, a trans femme genderqueer digital chaplain, said, “Don’t pray for me not to be trans. Don’t pray for me not to be gay. Pray for me to get closer to God.” We cannot pray — or legislate — away queerness. Queer people of faith have always existed. We are here, existing now, and we will continue to exist well into the future.

Because of the ways in which many LGBT people have been taught to hate ourselves from an early age, pride is an important act of spiritual healing and witness that allows us to develop a healthy sense of ourselves, our communities, and those who we love. -Patrick Cheng, “The Spiritual Significance of Pride, ”  HuffPost (2010)  

I think young people are saying, “We got to do church differently.” Darling, never fear. The Holy Spirit is going to make sure we do church different. -Pamela Lightsey, “When the Institutional Church Dies, What Comes Next?,” sojo.net (2023) 

The search for love and for truth is a bodily one. Bodies in love add many theological insights to the quest for God and truth. -Marcella Althaus-Reid, The Queer God (2003) 

We must be patient, persevering, and tender with one another and ourselves. It will take years, decades, a long time, to learn, with one another, that our power to love is stronger than the fear that festers in our alienation. -Carter Heyward, Touching Our Strength (1989)

I’m not using my energy for useless fights. I’m using my energy to find peace. Let there be peace on earth. -Bishop Yvette Flunder, American Baptist College (2015)

Always and everywhere a certain percentage of men and women develop as homosexuals or lesbians. They should be considered as part of God's creative plan. Their sexual orientation has no necessary connection with sin, sickness or failure; rather, it is a gift from God to be accepted and lived out with gratitude. God does not despise anything that God has created. -John J. McNeill “Homosexuality: Challenging the Church to Grow,” The Christian Century (1987)

When we feel the warmth of belonging and being in community — any community — I believe God is pleased. -Matthias Roberts, “How to Find Healing From Religious Trauma,” Sojourners (2023)

When we get quiet, when we are alone, when we can clear away all of the noise and opinions and hate speech, we know that there is something we need to do in order to uncover who we are. When we get quiet and get in touch with our bodies, we know the truth of who we are, no matter what anyone else says. -Shannon T.L. Kearns “My Trans Identity Was Forged In The Wilderness,” sojo.net (2023)

Being trans doesn’t mean I spend all my time having solemn discussions about gender. Sometimes you just have to put the books down and go for a walk, rejoicing in the way your feet know exactly where to go; the way the wind feels in your hair; the way your eyes take in the tiny buds on the trees, all ready to blossom. -Austen Hartke, “6 Common Ways Christians Stereotype Transgender People,” sojo.net (2018)

I think getting our hands dirty is connected to salvation. No, not the eternal life kind of salvation—I’m talking about our salvation from the oppression and hell of today that keeps a noose around all of our necks: things such as racism, unfettered capitalism, a lack of affordable housing, or food insecurities. -Roberto Che Espinoza, “‘Like Thomas, I Don’t Always Believe’,” sojo.net (2020)

Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it. Bayard Rustin, To the House of Representatives (1969)

We are not bound to perpetual brokenness forever. We are human beings on a journey, and we have what it takes to solve our own problems. -Ashley Lynn Hengst, “You Are Not Broken” (2023)

Love will lead us to the ways that we can show up and love others as we love ourselves. -Darren Calhoun “LGBTQ+ Christians Can Build Bridges With Our Non-Affirming Family,” sojo.net (2024)

Trans people have existed through their visibility since the beginning of creation. We cannot erase, ignore, or segregate anyone from this divine form of creation. Recognizing trans-visibility in the world is to recognize the presence of life in everyone, formed in inclusive love. -Rev. Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey “Celebrating Black History Month,” Q Christian Fellowship (2024)

We are God’s beloved. You are so loved. And nothing, nothing, nothing in the world can change that. -Jeff Chu “The Theology of the Compost,” Evolving Faith (2020)

I want to be the queer elder I never had. And I want people to know that they’re loved and to give themselves permission to be ... who God created them to be. -Marge Erin Johnson, “Like Drag Brunch? Try Drag Church” Sojourners (2024)

Don’t pray for me not to be trans. Don’t pray for me not to be gay. Pray for me to get closer to God. -Bonnie Violet, “Pray FOR,” This Little Light of Mine (2021)

As I dance in the streets at my city’s Pride parade, I will embrace the scandal of it all and try to become more scandalous in my own expression of grace and faith. And in so doing, I will find myself inside the abundant, raucous pleasure of God, who is ever joining all our stories in promiscuous love. -Rev. Tonetta Landis-Aina “Black, Butch, Queer — And Baptized Into God's Scandalous Love,” sojo.net (2023)

It’s okay to distance yourself from spaces that demand a version of you that no longer is true. Belonging shouldn’t depend on an illusion. -Cole Arthur Riley, @BlackLiturgies (2023)

God is too large to be contained by human language, gender binaries, or even a single person’s experience. Even if we took the sum of every person’s experience and blanketed the cosmos with the truth of human existence from the beginning until now, it would only reveal a sliver of who God is. -Taj M. Smith “God Created Me To Be a Transgender Man,” sojo.net (2023)

But for me, living fully and authentically was less about being fully out and more about being deeply human. It meant being God’s beloved creation. And embracing my queerness was a way to embrace the gift of humanity. -Mihee Kim-Kort “Led Out In Joy, With Rainbow Cookies And Fresca,” sojo.net (2023)

I am not lacking, nor am I an issue to debate. I do not need pity, nor am I sick or broken or afraid of love. I am a manifestation of Love’s complex divine revelation, making visible what would otherwise be erased in the billion refractions of rainbow light. -Jenna DeWitt, “Asexual And Aromantic People Are Often Forgotten, But God Sees Us,” sojo.net (2023)

This is what the church was always meant to look like: a place where those who mourn are comforted, where the poor in spirit are enriched, and where those seeking mercy can find grace. -Ryan Duncan “No, ‘Being Fruitful And Multiplying’ Won’t Save The Church,” sojo.net (2023)

Dignity is the soul-knowledge that I am worthy of love and respect. -Rev. Jes Kast “’Tis The Season For Family Boundaries,” sojo.net (2020)

Truly, if we are created in the image of God, we are made to transgress narrow definitions of “masculine” and “feminine” behavior. The God of scripture is neither male nor female, transcending human conceptions of gender altogether. -Rev. Benjamin Perry, “The Problem Is Sinful Masculinity, Not Effeminacy,” sojo.net (2019)