Lesbian Teenager to Homophobic Pastor: Gay Youth are Role Models

Most 17-year-olds are not thinking about being role models. They're rebelling against cleaning their rooms, running around school trying to (or trying not to) get in with the cool kids, and rushing to keep up with the everyday pressures that come with adolescence. Any kid who puts forth the time and effort it takes to lead a youth group — be it at church or  a community center — deserves some sort of medal. How many teens are that unselfish?

But there was no medal this summer for Tory Inglis, a young lesbian junior youth group leader at First Presbyterian Church. In fact, she received a pretty devastating tongue-lashing instead. You see, Tory Inglis committed a horrifying crime. No, not murder. Not rape. Not even jaywalking. Yeah, you got it ... she posed for a picture. Badass, right?

On June 12th, Inglis appeared in a front page story on gay pride in the Royal City Record, a newspaper in New Westminster, British Columbia. A month later, Rev. Timothy Bruneau, her minister, called her in for a meeting and asked her to withdraw from the Gay Pride group with which she was affiliated.

"Basically, they told me that I wasn't being a positive role model for the youth in the church and the younger children, and that I was promoting a sexual lifestyle," Inglis said."I was one of the leaders of the junior youth group, and it's not like every week I went up in front of the youth and said, 'All right, let's talk about how I'm gay this week.'"

While Inglis knew the church was against same-sex marriage, she didn't know that posing for a photo would be an issue. I mean, why should it be when she lives in a country where gay marriage is legal and a province where gay adoption has been happening since 1996? Apparently, the church felt that they had to act on the "situation," not because Tory is a lesbian, but because her homosexuality became public.

"I was so upset. I was crying during points of the meeting," she said. "I've gone there ever since I was born. I was baptized there. So it's really hard to hear from this place where I was pretty much raised that I was now different."

Instead of quitting her LGBT group, however, Tory left the church. And while The Presbyterian Church of Canada claims that what occurred was against their policy (the church is not supposed to limit the associations of its members based on sexual orientation), the damage has already been done.

"Above all, I want to promote peace and love and acceptance," Inglis said. "And in a place that condemns people for loving, I would much rather be in a place that accepts people for who they are."

Let me say this: gay teenagers are role models. They are inspirational, courageous people — sometimes aiming to change the world and sometimes just trying to live their lives. But that's what I think and, frankly, I doubt that any church would care much what this little homo Jew has to say. And what do Tory's parents think? Well, they likely agree with me because they, too, left the church.

"I never thought they'd say she's not a good role model, because she is, and we've raised her to be that way," said Karen Inglis, Tory's mother. "Our belief is that God created us to be who we are, and I've raised her to be true to who she is."

Is it just me or does Christianity sound a lot more Christian coming from Karen Inglis than from Reverend Bruneau?

Photo credit: lori05871