On June 9th, 2019, I attended Philadelphia's Pride Parade. It was an amazing day, and I felt extremely loved and accepted by my community. I noticed a lot of signs in support of the LGBTQIA+ community, and I was so happy to see everyone expressing their opinions.

As I was walking with my friends, we noticed a family holding signs up that said, "Dear LGBTQIA+ community, on behalf of Christians, we are sorry. God is love." I felt extremely overcome with emotion and moved by these words.

Even though I attended 13 years of private, Catholic education, I consider myself to be an atheist. I personally believe that there is no God. Ever since I was young, I struggled with praying and my faith. I realized at an early age that the only reason that I believed in God was because other people told me to. I never had a real connection with God, even though I tried throughout my youth, so I eventually gave up.

I vividly remember the exact day I began to dislike Catholicism. My father wanted us to be raised Catholic, so I attended mass for years, and one day when I was in church with my family the priest began his homily. For people who don't go to church, this is a time for the priest to talk directly to the people.

What happened next shocked and offended me, and I will never forget it. The priest went on an almost thirty-minute rant filled with hatred for gay people and women who make the decision to have abortions. His words were filled with homophobia and sexism and did not relate to the gospel at all, which is meant to be the purpose of the homily.

Even though I had not realized my sexuality yet, I still knew in my heart that what he was saying was wrong. If God loved everyone, then why did he hate gay people and women who have abortions?

Since my college has no religious affiliation, I have learned to just tune all religion out. Some of my closest friends are Catholic, and they love me for who I am, but I always figured they were just a part of the minority of Catholics and Christians who have liberal views. I soon became uninterested and indifferent about Christianity.

Seeing that sign at Pride made me realize that there are Christian people who care, and want to see a change in their community. It strengthened the idea in my head that there are always radicals in every group, but we should not judge everyone in that group because of a few.

If you are someone who is Christian, and someone who is fighting for and supporting queer liberation, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I personally felt victimized by the community, and I now see that not everyone is like the priest I encountered years ago.

Although I doubt that my mindset about religion will change, I still wanted to make it known that as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, we see you.