Yes there should be a dedicated ministry outreach to LGBT people. One of the biggest issues and misconceptions is that many within the LGBT community feel Christians feel them as the worst of the worst and basically one can be either Christian or LGBT (in this I’m meaning experience same sex attraction or have gender dysphoria and not referring to any particular actions). Christians, in all honesty, have done a terrible job and the mentality out there is US vs THEM when dealing with this issue, particularly with certain high profile Christians often calling LGBT child predators, blaming all of society ills on them, and often implying experiencing particular temptations as a choice.
The biggest help for reaching out would simply be this. To listen to their stories and to just talk. To often, the approach to LGBT is to make sure they are aware of DON’T DO THIS and the message stops there as if that is the job well done. The message almost always stops at don’t do this and never really about other aspects of the gospel so it can be rather discouraging (particularly in our society that idolatries romance and romantic relationships while devaluing friendship so much). Once a line of communication and rapport is established with the LGBT person, then I think it is good to go into and probe their understanding of Catholic doctrine and ethics regarding various things including sexual ethics. A good source for them to read is to see celibate gay people who live within a traditional ethic: so movies like Desire of Ever Lasting Hills (here:
vimeo.com/101135437), The Third Way (here:
vimeo.com/93079367), “Washed and Waiting” by Wesley Hill, and the blog
spiritualfriendship.org are all good sources.
One final note is to help break this idolatry of romance and marriage. Within our society the implication is to have love, you must be within a romantic relationship and to be single is to be without love (this is even further pushed in some Christian circles where marriage is viewed as the only Godly pathway to fullfilment). With this faulty perspective, a gay person is going to see their options as pursue love within a romantic relationship or choose faith and give up the idea of having any love or support. This faulty perspective completely ignores the love, support, and intimacy that can be found within friendship. However, this perspective is not uncommon and makes choosing a celibate life very difficult; especially when many people around you begin to couple off, start families, and suddenly have less and less time for the single person who ends up feeling like the odd man out. Lack of support for a celibate vocation is a major reason why many end up rationalizing things that are not in accordance with church teaching (i.e. enter into a same sex relationship anyway because of the loneliness or a straight person who remarries despite being divorced and unable to receive an annulment).
One final final note is that there is unfortunately more often than I like homophobic comments that I have heard from parishioners in the various churches I have attended that have ranged from disgust when LGBT issues come up, accusations of LGBT as all mentally unstable, accusations of all LGBT as future threats to children, insunuations that a person with same sex attraction is somehow less of a Christian (i.e. 'good Christians don’t suffer from that), among other things. Not to mention frequent questions about dating life, marriage, etc which a celibate gay/ssa person has to deflect and ultimately ends up feeling very alienated from. Most seem blissfully unaware that there are LGBT/ssa people who do attend church services and these type of comments are the kind that are very discouraging and lead to them losing hope and eventually walking away from the faith sadly.
All of this perspective is coming from me, a mid-20s celibate gay/ssa Catholic guy so that is the life experiences and perspective I come from.
