Why are we LGBTQ affirming?
Easy! Because it is the simple and obvious nature of our Creator as revealed in Scripture, the universe, and human experience. Genesis 1 is a poem trying to explain God's purpose in creating the world. Just look around you. The world is so apparently full of diversity. We have the majesty of a sunrise and the glory of nightfall but most of the beauty falls in the artistry of all the different colors that come in between. We see so many species of animals with a vast array of functions, personalities, and capacities. God looks at that world and says "it is good" and, in fact, "very good". So we do the same! We view human life with all it's cultural, gender, and sexual diversity and deny our impulse to confirm it and instead seek to affirm that it is already good.
Further, we want to follow the life of Jesus who we see as the best example of love lived out. Jesus was asked which law was the greatest and his response was simple. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
It's all about love!
Love God with everything you have and love other people even as an extension of yourself because we're all connected.
We're all one!
Therefore we AFFIRM any relationship based on commitment, mutual sacrifice, and practical care for each other because that's the example Jesus gives.
Last, we see that scripture presents itself as a library of people's experience with God and God with them. We like to say it's God's story with humanity and God let's his children do the storytelling. It is not a perfect God-dictated book.
However we do honor it for how it teaches us wisdom and points us to God. It also seems to show a progressive pattern throughout of people understanding the full love of God better and better. A pattern of progress that continues even after the Bible has been completed. In the book of Matthew, Jesus, in the famous Sermon on the Mount, six times points to Old Testament scripture and says "you were told but I say." All of them were in reference to laws that were now unhelpful and Jesus encouraging them to love better. He was even confronted on violating the law of the Sabbath. His response was simple. "Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath."
It has become overwhelmingly clear that laws against the LGBTQ people are not serving humanity but harming it. Increased suicide rates, increased rates of mental illness, and increased rates of homeless in the LGBTQ community have shown direct correlation with the amount of social rejection experienced. The church has for too long now asked people to serve the law even to their own derision and this is in direct opposition to the teaching of Jesus found in Scripture.
Keeping in line with Jesus's teachings on love and wisdom, scriptural narrative, and the beauty in diversity shown in creation, we fully affirm LGBTQ folks in our church at any level of leadership and in any capacity. We do this not in spite of the Good News of the Kingdom of God but because of it.