Gay Christian rock star Vicky Beeching faces vile abuse from Christians
Out lesbian Christian rock star Vicky Beeching said she has been forced to take a break from social media after reading messages saying she should be killed, and that she can’t be gay and a Christian.
The star, who came out back in 2014, took to her Twitter account to say she was forced to take a break after reading comments about herself from those who say they are Christian.
She tweeted that she had read comments about herself on a meme featuring her photo which reads: “You may be gay or You may be a Christian. But you cannot be a Gay Christian!”
The meme, shared on Facebook, was also captioned with the words: “Your choice. Heaven or Hell.”
Beeching tweeted: “Makes me so sad that the majority of vitriol & criticism I get comes from people *inside* the church. We need change – and fast.”
Adding: “I think a little break from social media will be the best thing for me. This vitriol’s gone on since 2014 & occasionally it just gets to me.”
Speaking to PinkNews, the star explained that she had received abuse from so-called Christians since she came out in 2014, including physical letters into her private mailbox (PO Box).
She said: “It’s never fun to follow rabbit trails across the internet and find threads full of hundreds of people discussing what they imagine you get up to behind closed doors; hypothesising about your sex life, or mocking you for the lack of a sex life (criticised either way); and using the most gross and vulgar terms. And saying your faith is a lie. And suggesting you’d be better of ‘taken out’ so you couldn’t influence anyone anymore to ‘live a life of sin’ by being LGBT.
“Social media can be brilliant but it can also dehumanise people. It all just got a bit too much for me this week. Especially thinking that 20,000 fellow Christians wanted to share such an offensive meme- they should see people like me as a sister in Christ, not someone ‘destined for hell’.”
She adds: “Friendly fire is always the worst; feeling like your own community has turned their back on you, and simply because you want to love someone of the same gender. This kind of vitriol has poured into my various inboxes online, and into my PO Box, since 2014 when I came out, and although I mostly handle it pretty resiliently sometimes it does all get too much.”
Tweeting a link to an article for the Independent, in which she came out, Beeching wrote: “It’s taken all my courage, and all these years, for me to finally do this interview.”
As well as her music career, she is a regular guest on a number of national radio and TV programmes and has appeared as a commentator on a range of topics.
She came out in support of same-sex marriage a year before coming out herself.
Click here to read a list of 24 wonderful LGBT+ women and allies.
US Pastor Scott Lively shortly after Beeching came out, told her that she has “given in to a lie” by coming out as gay.
She had a brilliant response when she was targeted by the adamantly homophobic Westboro Baptist Church.
