I was born into catholic family and taught to treat others as I expected to be treated. My family was not overly religious; we went to mass occasionally but not every Sunday. I was made to study catechism and made my First Holy Communion. I served as alter girl at one point. Those of us who weren't Catholic were Lutheran; one of my cousins is a Lutheran Bishop. We were all taught that God loved mankind unconditionally. Imagine my shock when I realized that the same church that taught unconditional love treated gays differently; that this treatment by religious groups influenced the general population to the point of homophobia. The result causes many gays to be afraid to accept themselves as individuals and fear coming out. The church teaches love. Based on the teaching of the bible love are the bases of Christianity. In Matthew 22:37-39 it says "Jesus said to him 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it. You must love your neighbor as yourself" (The Holy Bible). In Romans 13:10 "Love can cause no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (The Holy Bible). The church teaches you should love and respect homosexuals but that if they engage in homosexuality they are sinners. It recognizes that they may have been born this way but it is a sin to give in to their desires. It again uses the bible as the bases for its views. Leviticus 18:22 "You will not have intercourse with a man as you would with a woman; this is a hateful thing” (The Holy Bible) Leviticus 20:13 "The man who has intercourse with a man in the same way as with a woman: they have done a hateful thing together; they will be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads” (The Holy Bible). Catholic catechism 2357 states "Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an