TI
WISCONSIN| SERIES # 4
My name is Ti. I’m pansexual, gender fluid, and Catholic. The most difficult part of my life is my family relationships right now because of how I identify myself and how I love. I have strictly Catholic parents, and I was accidentally outed to my mother via unwise social media decisions made by me. It’s a rough business, living with people who claim to love you unconditionally. Especially when they want to change one of the most important aspects of your identity. I once sat with my mother and asked her, “If I got married to a woman, what would you do?” She told me she wouldn’t come to the wedding even if she was invited. She said she couldn’t stand for a union she didn’t believe was truly marriage. She said that if she wasn’t a Catholic, then she would support me.
Well, I think that religion is no longer an excuse. I love God, I know God loves me, and I know what the Bible says about how people should treat each other. It does not say, “Alienate people who want to identify themselves how they see fit.” It does not say, “Reject the people your children love because loving someone of the same sex is evil.” It says, “Love thy neighbor.” It says, “Judge not.” You’d think that a love-based religion would understand that gender doesn’t bind love. That sexuality doesn’t bind love. That gender identity doesn’t change self.
I live every day with the knowledge that God loves me for who I am, and the people who matter most to me love me just as well. Those who cannot love me for who I am and who I love have no place in my life, period. My identity, my love, my self, is not a sin. It is beautiful.
