Bahai gay

The Baháʼí Faith considers homosexual sexual intimacy to be against God's will as taught by founder Baháʼu'lláh, [1][2][3] and views homosexuality as against nature and a sickness. [4]. What should a Baha’i with a homosexual orientation do if he or she experiences prejudice in the Baha’i community? The Baha’i teachings instill the belief that every human soul is indelibly imprinted with the image of God; this affords the ultimate dignity that all persons seek.

Question: The Baha’i religion believes that everyone is equal, no matter what ethnicity or gender, but what about sexual orientation? According to the teachings of Baha’u’llah, we have one duty toward each other — that is to love. Rayshel aims to make his religion, the Baha’i faith, more tolerant of its LGBTQ adherents. While making his documentary, “No Matter How Fine a Love” — which he’s airing in pieces in a YouTube series — Rayshel traveled across the U.S.

and to Israel to shine a light on the struggle of LGBTQ Baha’is. Homosexuality is sexual attraction between people of the same sex. The Bahá’í Faith forbids any sexual acts outside of marriage and a Bahá’í marriage must be between people of different sexes. While laws on marriage and sexual conduct are applicable to Bahá’ís the Bahá’í Faith does not advocate any stance in regards to those who are not Bahá’ís.

Photo courtesy of Rayshel. Prayer book in hand, he asked God if he was on the right path. Rayshel has been dancing in the same struggle for some time. Well, kind of. He also had an early penchant for calling male celebrities handsome. Rayshel remembers taking in the texts, bringing him to close grips with the tenets of the faith. All of humanity, across the axes of race and gender, are equal, and humans should seek to establish a global order of peace and harmony, according to the faith.

Young Rayshel read the texts and took in their radical vision of unity. He ate his sadness into obesity. On numerous occasions he thought about committing suicide, he said. He had flickers of hope. Yes and no. Others still acknowledge their identities but maintain a life of celibacy. After years of anguishing over the passage he read on homosexuality, Rayshel started coming out to his family after he finished high school.

First, he came out to his sister. She was the closest member of his social circle and who he was most confident would accept him.

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Plus the two had started going to underground clubs together, and Rayshel wanted to be able to be himself around her. She was fine with the news. Then came his mother. She took the news well. Rayshel was most nervous about coming out to his dad, probably because of cultural conditioning, he said. Barry took the news well, though his feelings were hurt by the fact that he got the news last in the immediate family.

Though the community knew he was gay, Rayshel wanted to get out in front of the possibility of someone reporting his sexuality to a higher authority. So, he enlisted the help of an auxiliary board member for protection. Having known the auxiliary board member since he was a child, he trusted them with the job. The Riverside Local Spiritual Assembly was surprised when Rayshel and the auxiliary board member came to meet with them.

They told the auxiliary board member they already knew Rayshel was gay, and that they loved him, Rayshel recalls them saying. Rayshel kept his romantic life separate from his religious one, and the Riverside Spiritual Assembly never delved into his private affairs, Rayshel said. Things continued to look up. Soon after that, on the now defunct dating website gay.

When he did, the community discovered how learned he was and quickly suggested he hold a seat on the Palm Springs Spiritual Assembly. Rayshel told the community that he was openly gay and had a partner. He asked if they would accept him for who he was.