Love triumphs in Katy
LGBTQ-friendly church flourishes despite online hate over drag shows
The first-ever drag show at First Christian Church Katy saw rousing success, with the sold-out performance last month marking the church’s efforts toward LGBTQ+ inclusivity.
The church has been openly accepting of LGBTQ+ people since its inception in 1979, but church leaders decided to take a more proactive approach around 2006. That’s when they voted to become a congregation “expressly open to and affirming to the LGBTQ+ community,” said the Rev. Heather Tolleson, First Christian’s lead pastor.
“This congregation has always been a place where what they value most about the teachings of Christianity is an openness and willingness for all people and the idea that Jesus came to love all,” she said. “We’re a representation of that love.”
Like most churches, First Christian shifted to an online worship platform during the pandemic. Since then, it has seen membership triple, Tolleson
said. But as the congregation exploded, she said, so did the vitriol from the broader Christian community.
The church’s stance on the LGBTQ+ community has always garnered hate speech from other Christians, Tolleson said, but new events such as Drag Bingo or Drag Fashion Show have spurred more intense and frequent hostility, including acts of vandalism and theft.
Facebook users, almost all of whom openly identify as Christians, post cruel messages and send direct messages of condemnation, Tolleson said. The church has received so many angry calls that it no longer answers the phone.
In a voicemail message sent to the Chronicle by the church, one person said of Drag Bingo, “So disgusting to see this. Another false church leading people to hell instead of heaven.”
Another asked, “How do you promote homosexuality and honor God?”
Thomas Gilliland, spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office, confirmed that his office has received three re
“We just love people for who they are, and that seeps into everything we do.” The Rev. Heather Tolleson, First Christian Church lead pastor
ports of theft and vandalism from the church this year.
Gilliland said his office has increased its patrol of the area since the crimes were reported. “We take these things seriously,” he added. “People should be safe going to church.”
A steadfast commitment
The church remains undaunted by the animosity, Tolleson said, and will continue its drag events, which she said are family-friendly. The next event is Drag Bingo on Sept. 24.
The events serve as fundraisers for the church’s philanthropic endeavors, such as a food pantry and food distribution drives. They also include Transparent Closet, a place where people exploring transitioning can try on clothes associated with another gender.
“We have it set up like a boutique where you can find something really nice to try on and keep, like jewelry, makeup and clothes — anything somebody who is sexually exploring or transitioning could need,” Tolleson said. “The explicit intent is that teens and young adults have a place to go and explore and get what they need.”
First Christian opened Transparent Closet in late 2020, and soon people were coming from all over Texas to donate. The more responses they had, the more the church was inspired to expand its LGBTQ+ centric programs, and that brought in new people.
“Every Sunday when I look out into the crowd, I’d say about one-quarter of the congregation is faces I’ve never seen before,” Tolleson estimated. “With our new growth came so many people saying they’d been hurt by or excluded from their congregations. Some were even asked to leave,” Tolleson said. “But here we just love people for who they are, and that seeps into everything we do.”
Church member Erin Lewis-Freeman was one such congregant.
Lewis-Freeman grew up in Houston and has vivid memories of the treatment she got in her Baptist church for being a lesbian. As a teen, she was chastised and physically assaulted by other children in her youth group on church property, she said.
After the attack, she left Christianity entirely.
She found her faith again years later at a church in Austin, but when she and her wife, Molly, moved to Katy 10 years ago, they struggled to find an accepting church. That’s when they discovered First Christian.
For Lewis-Freeman, the church is the embodiment of Jesus’ message. The hatred toward her church is misguided, she believes, because Christians are called to love one another, not condemn.
“At the end of your existence, when you go up in front of God, he’s going to ask you how you treated your fellow human beings,” she said.
“He’s not going to ask you what the church down the street said. He’s not going to ask you about the same-sex couple that got married. He’s going to ask, ‘How did you treat your fellow human beings? Did you treat them the way I would have treated them?’ And I don’t think they’re going to have a really good answer when they get up there.”