As an intersex person raised male in a atheist household it came as a massive shock to me how hurt my parents would be when I started dating a man, lol. I thought it would hardly be a shock, but apparently it was. They are cool with it now and love my partner. I simply raise this as a reminder to myself that religious institutions don't have the monopoly on bad reactions. Laughably, this has only just occurred to me.
I rebelliously joined a Pentecostal church at 17 and spent the next 17 of them in the same fellowship. I married there and fostered and adopted children with my then wife. I truly loved her but alas the relationship went south and we parted company. Estrangement led her to affairs and I let her go when she admitted the affairs were a symptom of not wanting to be married to me anymore. Unfortunately, I lost all of my church friends because they thought it was my fault for being gay and assumed I must have cheated on her, once again lol.
Six years on both my ex wife and I have repartnered and we all get along well. The breakup was hard but the best thing for all of us. She has a lovely new boyfriend and I have a beautiful male partner who is helping me raise my intellectually disabled adopted son (of whom I have 80% custody).
I do not currently go to a church because I feel estranged from Christianity, but I think it is important for me to forgive and forget the terrible treatment I experienced (which i will not elaborate on in this post) and say hello to some Christians and their friends. So hello everyone.
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