As a loving and decent human being, a gay man baptized Catholic and raised Baptist, nothing fills me with more despair than statements like this.

I'm perfectly aware that sinfulness is something one must repent from. That one must refrain from. When I see statements like this, I see hatred. I see moral condemnation. I see people telling me that I'm not okay, that being gay is wrong.

And yet Christians constantly tell me things like this, by telling me that they're sinners too, so it's okay.

It's not okay! It's not.

I've been following the UMC conference with great interest, and I have been since this struggle went public after the last conference refused to accept a compromise that would have allowed local autonomy.

I followed it with passionate interest given that the departing members of the UMC left not because somebody was trying to dictate their beliefs, but because they're not willing to be part of a group where some people actually value and affirm people like me.

I'm 62 years old, and I've been used to moral condemnation since I was 11 years old and realized I was gay while listening to a sermon in church, then jumped out of my pew to run to the men's room and lose my breakfast.

I spent years struggling against "sin," loathing myself because of Christian condemnation.

I can't even express how delighted and joyful I am that the homophobic monsters in the UMC have been driven out, and that the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States now recognizes that being gay does not mean that I'm a sinner.

I feel that I'm one step closer to be able to stand up and proclaim my absolute moral worth, my humanity, my decency, my dignity.

If only my 11-year-old self had known that would happen! If only when I was a suicidal 18-year-old, this had been available for me!

I rejected Christianity a long time ago, but I've never gotten over its hateful moral condemnation of wonderful human beings like the queer people I love.

I cannot express my thanks enough for the dedicated Methodist Christians who fought so hard to excise hateful doctrines from their religious teachings.

Thank you! Forever thank you!