Texas Fighting Aggie class of 26, Chloe is a Communications Major who hopes to be a professor and do research in Gender Identification. She has been told by others it seems she knows every person who is a part of the LGBTQIA community at A&M, because she is sociable and likes to make friends. She also expresses herself through hair color and the way she dresses, and she also is careful not to let this stand in place of her personality. She also stands in the gap of being Christian and queer. Her friends are surprised when she says she is both because these are things that don’t go together.
Chloe came to Treehouse with her brother. “My brother went to treehouse before me but I found treehouse before he did.” Chloe remembered, “Looking through the Howdy week stuff. My brother and I attended but I wasn’t able to continue the first year because of timing. This past year I missed being in a community of Christianity that also included the queer community.”
Being both queer and Christian is difficult. “Over the past year looking at my life I needed to be involved with a church/Christian org. I need a community where I can talk about God.” Chloe continued, “I feel alienated in queer spaces to talk about God. I don’t want to bring up past trauma for friends in the queer community. I was thinking about getting back to Treehouse and participate in that space. Then I saw Pastor Jerry at a Pride event in Bryan and knew I needed to get back to Treehouse.”
Treehouse is a space where Chloe could be queer and faithful. “I was seeking a space where I can be who I am,” Chloe shared. “I was drawn back to treehouse because of discussion aspects. Treehouse does not take the Bible as a literal translation, but we dig into the text and learn what it says. Treehouse reads straight from the Bible and work from there and does not start with a life situations and throw in a bible verse for good measure. Treehouse looks at the verses and discusses them.”
Chloe loves Treehouse because like her, we stand in the gap between the queer and Christian communities to show they are not opposites, but do go together, just like God created them to.