For thousands of years, religion has been a cornerstone of the human experience. For many, it has been a source of comfort, security, and guidance, and an avenue through which people can connect with community. Unfortunately, however, religion has also been the cause of irreparable damage to individuals, communities, and entire cultures across the world.
One such group of people that have been hurt time and again by religion is the queer community. Under the guise of religion, we’ve historically been told that homosexuality is sinful (or immoral, or an abomination, etc.), with some groups going as far as imposing death penalties for same-sex acts.
Regardless, there remains a cross-section of people who are both part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and who actively practice their religion. And for these people, a safe space in which to practice is essential.
Not Safe For Queers chats with the president of Acceptance Melbourne, Dr Vinith Menzes, to learn more about why these spaces are so important.
Originating in 1972 in Sydney, Acceptance was created as a space for queer people to be Christian in a time when homosexuality was still heavily criminalised across Australia—and the world.
“It was arguably more important at that time,” says Menzes, “because the church was really anti-gay, society was pretty anti-gay. And now society has changed, but the church hasn’t.”
“So the main point of our existence is to be an explicitly safe space for LGBTQIA+ people, and still be a church space. Our existence is a kind of protest. We don’t have to do anything more than exist as a group to be quite visible in terms of the church,” he says.
This sentiment extends to the organisation of their monthly mass, too, with Menzes explaining that, “The mass is a standard mass: we have Catholic priests that come celebrate it in a church, we have music, we sit in the pews.”
“Everyone’s fully dressed. It’s not wild,” he jokes.
“I add, the normality of it is part of the activism. It’s the being there. Like, if someone like the archbishop comes and sees us, It’s just unquestionably a Catholic mass.”
The group boasts more than 200 supporters at their monthly masses, demonstrating how important it is to some in our community.
“If you’re asking why it’s important, it’s because if people are Christian, it’s sort of part of their identity, and if they’re queer, that’s part of their identity too,” Menzes says. “And if you can’t be both, then you have to split your identity, and that’s not very healthy.”
“I mean, the oldest person that comes along is about 90, and these people have spent their whole lives being told that they can’t have both, which, you know, it’s not healthy for people to split their identities or have secret identities,” he says.
Of course, Menzes understands that Acceptance may not be for everyone. “The Church has hurt people so much. And it’s funny because we—in this group—find ourselves defending a church that doesn’t really want us,” he says.
“So it’s not surprising that most people don’t want anything to do with it, and we really can’t bame people for not wanting anything to do with us. That was a predictable result of them being homophobic and unnecessarily conservative,” he says.
“But for me, this work is for the people who have been traumatised. This group is important for them; it’s important for people to be able to maintain all their better parts of themselves and not split themselves. And it’s important for the future of the church, because if it doesn’t wake up or sort it’s sh*t out, it’s not going to last very long.”
“So our existence is just a step in that inevitable direction.”
Acceptance Melbourne gathers on the second Friday of every month at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in South Yarra.