After school on Wednesday October 23rd, Rev. Steve Secaur of St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church walked into room 164. He sat in front of a group of approximately 15 GSA members.

Secaur is the first of several speakers the group is inviting this year to speak about issues of tolerance and civil rights.

He came to talk about how some religious people say being gay is a sin.

“People commonly think Jesus is the one who said being gay is a sin,” he said. “He didn’t. St. Paul did. He was expressing his own opinion, in fact he was writing a letter to a church. People think that because we study it [as part of the Bible] it was the word of Jesus. It wasn’t.”

Secaur explained that many people think it is their place to judge other humans. Secaur feels it is not our place to judge.

The Episcopal Church in the United States is known to be more open-minded about gay rights than many other denominations; however, the new head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, was recently quoted on CNN.com expressing a similar sentiment:

“If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I [the Pope] to judge them? The tendency [to homosexuality] is not a problem… they’re our brothers.”

Secaur explained why he thinks people oppose gay marriage.

“I think they are afraid, afraid of change,” he said. “They think it’s going to affect them … If gay people have equal rights it will affect their rights. Why? I have no idea.”

Being a teenager is the hardest time in a person’s life, especially if you are different.  Secaur feels that in order to make it better, you have to be comfortable with yourself.

“Be comfortable in your own skin. Do the best you can to find out who you are. Love yourself. You are who you are, and whoever you are it is ok, because God made you this way.”

(Photo by Dalia Zullig)