Has your sexuality affected your spiritual growth/ your choice of (non)beliefs?

Yes. Indirectly. I have a 22 year old Son who is gay. I am Roman Catholic. I do not let my love for God and my love for my Son conflict. I do know that there is a reason that my Son was BORN the way the he was. I knew long before he did that he was gay. I have absolutely no problem with him and love him for exactly what he is. He is my Son and I would wish him to be nothing other than what he is. Him hiding his true self or being ashamed would not let him live a full life. He is not the first and I am sure not the last Gay Man in our parish. I am proud to have such a loving and wonderful Son. God has truly blessed me in so many ways.

when I thought I was gay (turns out I'm bisexual, who knew) I turned really against religions, I was raised catholic. Since then I have kind of drifted back and now I am some kind of judeo-christian agnostic. I believe there is a God and I believe he is infinitely merciful and understanding. Whether or not the whole Jesus thing is true I don't know but I know that no matter what God is going to accept me as long as I try to live a good life and do well by people. I don't think he blames me for being gay or thinks this is a sin cause he is kind of the reason I am. You could say it was his fault if there was any blame associated with it (which there shouldn't be.)

It was the final straw that made me decide to stop trying to believe and fit into Christianity. Like you, it wasn't the only thing but it was a major one. There are accepting denominations and churches but exploring the Bible and why and how it condemns homosexuality (which is debatable as to intent and exactly WHAT is being condemned) led me to lots more questions with no answers. The main one being, how can a loving deity create me and then condemn me?

I found the religion I was meant for and deities that had been waiting for me and didn't look back.

I'm straight, and I am actually in a very conventional relationship with a man I am married to. So, no, it wasn't censure of my natural sexuality that lead to god questioning. I'd say it had a lot more to do with my engineering education, and a lot of nonfiction reading.

Yes. I was given a label for "God" before I fully understood who He is (if anybody ever understands fully who He is), and I understood I was gay long before I had a label for it.

So in between, I had the revelation that even though the world says that all little boys are born to kiss little girls, and all little girls ditto ditto ditto, I knew that wasn't right. God had made me gay, and He must've had a reason for it.

My next step, one that greatly affected my spirituality, was thinking to myself: if they can be wrong about that, what else might they be wrong about? Maybe I shouldn't just accept what they tell me; maybe I should use my brain and reasoning skills to see for myself what God's truth is.

Ultimately I stayed in the Christian religion and in the Roman Catholic Church, because even though a lot of people say it can't be done, I am a functioning Christian and gay too.

The people who say I can't be Christian and gay at the same time are the same misinformed people who say that I wasn't born gay, so I'm aware that they have huge gaps in their knowledge of about God.

Well my choice in religion and acceptance of my sexuality happened nearly simultaneously. My choosing Judaism started with a very vivid dream as did the thing that got me to start accepting myself. So in many ways they are eternally linked.

Interesting question.

What I can tell you is that I have always felt as out of place in a church as I did when I finally came into my sexual life trying to fit into convention. Gladly, I decided that I didn't fit into either.

Did one influence the other? Absolutely not.

I would have to agree in a way. I was a very religious person and waited to have sex until I was married. Once I did have sex and realized what it REALLY was, I realized that religion today has really demonized the idea of sex and turned it into something that it is not.

I'm proud to say that today I am a sexually free and open person and making leaps and bounds spiritually. My religious life is dead...I like it that way.

My sexuality had nothing to do with me becoming an atheist. My mom told me Santa and the Easter Bunny weren't real at a very young age and it got me questioning the god story. My moms all no god is totally real lol. I'm like yeah sure. When I was 12 I had had enough pretending and chose atheism.

I suppose to a certain extent, the mere existence of sexuality is antithetical to a lot of Abrahamic teachings. So the fact that I like sex and want to have it might make me a little more opposed to certain religions.