Anti-LGBTQ+ teachings drive queer Christians to leave traditional churches, study shows

Anti-LGBTQ+ doctrine in many U.S. churches is pushing large numbers of queer believers to leave their childhood faiths or seek more inclusive congregations, research and personal accounts show.

Data from the Williams Institute at UCLA, reported by Advocate, indicate that nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ+ people raised Christian have left their churches. While some denominations and congregations, including Unitarian Universalists, many Presbyterians and Methodists, and Episcopalians, openly affirm LGBTQ+ members, most major U.S. churches still formally reject non-celibate queer people or tolerate them only in silence.

Psychologist Tyler Lefevor of Utah State University describes the trend as a “religious exodus,” arguing that many religious institutions do a poor job of affirming queer people. Broader shifts support that view: Pew Research Center data show rising numbers of religiously unaffiliated Americans, especially among young adults, who are both more likely to be LGBTQ+ and less likely to remain in the traditions in which they were raised.

For Southern Baptist–raised believer Monty Bennett, a professor’s description of homosexuality as “cancer of the soul” crystallized the conflict between her faith and identity. After being urged by Anglican clergy to stay and “deny herself,” she ultimately left and found full acceptance in an LGBTQ+-affirming Presbyterian congregation.

Similarly, Karmen Michael Smith, a Black gay man who grew up Southern Baptist, left that denomination after moving to New York and confronting the gap between his life and church teachings. Now an ordained nondenominational minister, he describes being gay as a “divine privilege” and fully compatible with his belief in God.

Bennett says affirming churches are acting from deeply held Christian conviction: “The churches that embrace LGBTQ people as beloved members of the community are motivated by love for God and neighbor. We see the beauty of God’s design in our real, embodied lives, and we seek human flourishing that is more than an abstract promise of finding meaning in the pain.”