This is a serious challenge, because we aren't limited to changing our own wrong beliefs. We're faced with people and powerful institutions that are determined to grind us queer people into the dirt.

Since you mentioned the Catholic Church, it's important to point out that nuns and priests, just to become nuns and priests, must affirm that we queer people are literally depraved and disordered. They must consider us to be morally inferior.

And they're not allowed to question the doctrines, at least not publicly!

And that's just the Catholic side of Christianity. The most numerous group of Christians in the United States are conservative evangelical Protestants, and it goes without saying that they people are absolutely committed homophobes. That vicious homophobia matters so deeply to them that they increasingly define their religion by how much they're opposed to our well-being and equality.

So no matter how hard we do the work to look into ourselves and question our beliefs, we're faced with huge numbers of people who despise us for not despising ourselves.

If there's any way to get them to look into themselves and change their beliefs, I don't know what that might be.

So I appreciate your pointing out that we need to do work on ourselves. I'm sure that's true. But I think that's far less important than the fact that evil institutions like the Catholic Church and other groups think nothing of slinging horrific slurs at us and treating us like scum.

Because no matter how well we deflect those arrows and refuse to internalize their ignorant, superstitious horseshit, our lack of internalizing does nothing to neutralize their hateful teachings and practices.