I don’t have a problem with religion on its own. I don’t like it when religion is used to oppress people, especially oppress people like us. I also don’t like it when religion is used to start wars. But religion does set guidelines on how to live your life, gives you a purpose and give your rituals and a community. By the way, you don’t necessarily need religion to have rituals and a community, but those things are influenced by religion.

I was raised Catholic. I went to mass every week until I was 18. By the time I was in secondary school, I was one of the few pupils in my year who went to mass regularly, and I went to Catholic school. Then I went to a college, and went through an atheist phase for a number of years. Now in the last year, I’ve been praying every night. Last year I gave up something for lent for the first time since I was 18. I might even go to mass when the pandemic ends. So yeah, I guess I’m back to being a Catholic. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with the Bible's stance on homosexuality. Some scholars claim that Leviticus only condemns homosexual sexual activity if you do it too much, or if it involves incest, rape or paedophilia, but I’m not sure whether these scholars are correct, or if they’re just adopting a liberal interpretation just to be inclusive. But most Catholics don’t seem to care if you’re gay as long as you’re not promiscuous (Nick Fuentes being an exception, but there is a lot of speculation that he’s secretly gay so it’s hard to know his true stance), and nobody is perfect. I don’t see homosexuality itself as a sin, and my understanding of it is that vices like sex, alcohol and junk food should only be consumed in moderation so that way you enjoy them without letting them control your life, so that way you can be free.

I also believe in freedom of religion. I used to be hostile towards it, especially towards Christianity and Islam. Now I don’t mind these religions. Yes, they’re both homophobic, but that doesn’t mean every Christian and every Muslim is a homophone. Islamic countries are generally more homophobic than Christian countries, but then you have countries like Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where gays can serve in their militaries, sexual orientation is covered by anti discrimination laws and civil unions are being debated. Turkey is for the most part in homophobic, but homosexuality has been legal there since 1858 and Istanbul gay friendly for an Eastern European/western Asian city. When it comes to homosexuality and religion, I think it comes down to culture and how the religion is interpreted than the religion itself. Although I must warn gay Muslims that Saudi Arabia is financially supporting extremist and homophobic elements within Islam, and Saudi Arabia is being backed by western countries like America, Canada, Israel and Britain.