Mainstream acceptance and celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and non-binary-identifying individuals has made major strides in the past couple of decades. It wasn’t that long ago that homosexuals weren’t allowed to serve in the military, and it’s only since 2015 that same-sex marriage has been legal across the nation.
That said, there’s been some major pushback over the last year or so. Some have been emboldened by the election of the divisive Donald Trump and his arch-conservative “moral” crusading running mate, Mike Pence, hate crimes are on the rise. Meanwhile, some state leaders think the most pressing issue facing the world today is transgender public bathroom usage.
Adherence to deeply-held religious beliefs is often the reason gay-unfriendly folks give for their extraordinarily unenlightened views. There’s also a contingent out there who thinks that people are gay because they’re just confused and lack spiritual fortitude. In short, they’re only gay because they haven’t learned to “pray the gay away” yet.
An evangelical Christian organization called Anchored North produced a video its members are praying goes viral, so that they can better spread their message. It’s titled “Love is Love,” using that powerful, progressive rallying cry against the movement that created it. That’s not nearly the most audacious thing about the clip. It features a woman named Emily Thomes who testifies that she used to live a “super wild” life as a lesbian, but now she’s happily married to a dude, all because she studied the Bible really hard and through prayer and devotion, realized she just wasn’t gay anymore.