Decrying "churchianity".

As gay people today look for new ways to build bridges between themselves and antigay religious forces, they still encounter the kind of organized opposition decried by openly gay Episcopal priest and best-selling author Malcolm Boyd in an Advocate special section on religion 26 years ago. Boyd wrote about a hypocritical "churchianity," which he associated with a church mind-set "sorely afraid of the senses, yet [it] secretly yearned for the release of pent-up feeling and repressed passion."

"I accuse the church of hypocrisy. This is the sin of the church concerning gays," Boyd continued. "Countless human beings continue to suffer because of what establishment religion communicates to them ... about God's attitude."

Boyd warned of "right-wing 'Christian' groups" that strove to "create the impression that all religious people are antigay" and urged closeted religious gays to come out within their churches. "Unless this happens, a permanent break may occur between institutional gay structures and organized religion."