It's about love, period.

I am a Christian and a lesbian. Some would view this as an irreconcilable contradiction. You can't be one if you're the other. You can't be both simultaneously. This is simply not true, at least so far as I understand the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a member of The United Methodist Church, we gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning folk have come under significant, unwarranted attack for loving and living with someone of the same sex. Because we believe in so much of what The United Methodist Church stands for, my partner and I have not given up despite these attacks by our denomination's more conservative members. In the wake of upholding a pastor's right to deny membership to an openly gay man (see story at http://www.umc.org) my partner and I—recently relocated to Nashville, Tennessee—have found a very accepting, welcoming United Methodist congregation that affirms and celebrates who we are as individual believers in Jesus Christ and as a same-sex couple. I do not understand why some who call themselves Christians must make it their full focus of faith to badger those of us, also calling ourselves Christian, because we are different. Of course, the point, they claim, is that we homosexuals are living in sin, and that sexual sin is more egregious than any other sin, e.g., murder, gambling, adultery, drunkenness, greed, etc. Frankly, it seems a huge waste of time and energy to be vehemently debating the scripturally ambigious issue of homosexuality when hundreds of thousands around the world are starving, homeless, and dying for lack of access to basic resources. The Bible seems very clear on how we Christians should respond to these injustices (see Matthew 25:31–46). Jesus didn't say one word about same-sex relationships, but he said a lot about relationships in general. Bottom line—it's about love, period.