How can we be more accepting of gay people?

Truth is not rejection

Accepting sinful behavior in others does them no good. Pointing out sin is not rejecting the person but rejecting evil; we owe each other the truth.

Some with same-sex attraction feel they were born with it, but there is no proof of that; they assume so because they cannot remember feeling otherwise. What we do know is that, for whatever reason, they have not identified with the parent of their own sex. Our culture insists that society adapt to their perceived needs and treat acting on such feelings as good, since everyone supposedly has a right to sexual gratification, with pleasure as the guide. Its greatest fallacy is that anyone who disagrees is judging and rejecting these people.

The context of Good Friday

Jesus never accepted sinful behavior. He accepted repentant sinners and always loved them, even at their most sinful. The context in which Jesus matters to us is Good Friday, when God revealed more of himself than ever before. On the cross he shows us how to live and what love is: sacrifice. "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" (Mark 8:34).

God loving us enough to become one of us and suffer and die for us is beyond our full comprehension, but our own crosses help us appreciate it. Many crosses keep people from married life and its sexual expression; same-sex attraction is only one. Accepting that cross and offering it in response to Christ's self-gift opens a person to the full embrace of his nail-scarred hands. We are most like Jesus when we accept our crosses and encourage others to carry theirs, not when we water down what he asks of us.