The Satanic Temple is in favour of equal rights for LGBT+ people
Lucien Greaves, spokesman for The Satanic Temple, with a statue of Baphomet at the group’s meeting house in Salem, Massachusetts. (Josh Reynolds for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The Satanic Temple is apparently thriving with LGBT+ members.
In a interview for documentary Hail Satan? published in Attitude magazine, Satanic Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves claimed that nearly half of Satanists identify as LGBT+.
Satanic Temple welcomes people ‘disowned’ by religions
Greaves said: “It would be a conservative estimate to say that more than 50 per cent of our membership is LGBTQ.
“I think that’s because they feel disowned and disenfranchised from the traditional religious institutions.
“So, you have a population willing to embrace a religious identification that is boldly willing to speak out to the contrary.”
He added: “From the start, when one of our early actions was the Pink Mass, a lot of LGBTQ people were looking for another community that didn’t see them as defined by their sexual orientation.
“Within the Satanic Temple, we’re all pretty much one and the same.
“We’re all Satanists and it’s not like we have ‘tolerance’ for trans people or gay people or sex workers, we just don’t f**king care, and a lot of people in those communities appreciate that.”
Half of Satanic Temple members identify as LGBT+
Greaves continued: “Our chapters are always involved with Pride parades in the United States, they’re always doing something for the LGBTQ community and they’re always open about inclusion.”
He explained that before the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of equal marriage, the Satanic Temple had planned to test ‘religious freedom’ laws by holding a gay Satanic wedding.
Greaves added: “We will always fight… to the death to ensure that there are equal rights for the gay community.”
When most major religions still directly discriminate against LGBT+ people, it’s not hard to see the appeal of Satanism.
Satanists don’t actually believe in Satan
A commitment to Satan is not required to join the Temple, although a commitment to trolling anti-LGBT evangelicals is desirable.
The group’s website clarifies that members do not actually “believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural.”
It explains: “As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.
“Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things.
“Our beliefs must be malleable to the best current scientific understandings of the material world — never the reverse.”
The group adds that “holds to the basic premise that undue suffering is bad, and that which reduces suffering is good.”
