Many who have been hurt by the church previously either give up God altogether or they choose to give up Christianity and instead go the spiritual route. I have absolutely nothing against exploring different religions or exploring your spirituality, but many give up Christianity because they see only the one hateful image. I’m writing to say there is hope. There are churches who follow the original teachings of Christ and welcome and accept and love everyone. They teach that God is love and that we need to focus on Christ and not on cherry picking outdated verses from the Bible or warping intent from Christ’s words.
I am very extremely lucky I found a church which loves me for being just who I am, in the South no less! For a basic list of churches which are accepting of gay men and women go to: