Pride Month Reflections: Faith, Identity, and Unconditional Love

 🌈 You Are Loved. You Belong. 🌈
In this heartfelt Pride Month episode, I open up about my journey through faith, spirituality, and becoming a lifelong ally to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Growing up in a conservative religion, I struggled to reconcile the love I felt from God with the rejection I saw around me. As an adult, I found a way to hold onto the parts of my faith that were rooted in love, mercy, and radical inclusion—and let go of the rest.

Whether you're a young person exploring your identity, a parent navigating unfamiliar territory, or someone who's been hurt by religion—you are welcome here. This episode is my love letter to you. 💜

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👇 In this episode, I share:

Why I call myself a Christian and an LGBTQ+ ally

How my church celebrates Pride (yes, we’re painting nails at Pride Palooza!)

What it means to truly offer safe, affirming space to others

The role of mercy in my work with teens, parents, and families

🌟 Next Week's Guest: Wendy Cole, a powerful transition mentor with a story you won’t want to miss.

✊ Let’s build a world where everyone feels seen, supported, and celebrated.

Find my podcast
Email me: ccoufal@cynthiacoufalcoaching.com
Text me: 785-380-2064
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Transcript

Hi everyone. I am so glad that I am talking to you by myself today. I've had so many wonderful guests over the last few months and more to come. Lots of people wanna be on the podcast and I love it. I am meeting so many beautiful people. And it's just important to not only let you know that there are so many people out there to support you, but it's just really fun for me to meet all these people.

But I also miss talking to just you, just telling you about me and what's going on and helping you with teen anxiety. And parenting stuff. So I wanted to, I'm gonna start doing some the solo episodes alongside, or start mixing it up again like I, I did before. But I wanted to just really give you a little bit of personal information about me that I don't talk about very often, just because I think it's [00:01:00] important for you to know about it.

And this June is Pride Month, and I don't talk about a lot of different types of, I guess, controversial topics because my podcast is for all people. But I want the Lgbtqiaa Plus community to know that I see you, I celebrate you, and I support you. You are deeply loved and are. A hundred percent lovable and worthy, and I totally believe that.

I've always believed that, and I just want you to know that that's where I stand. I am a gender affirming person and having been a school counselor for 25 years, I. I was definitely a counselor that provided a safe space for all of my students, no [00:02:00] matter where they were coming from, and I met them where they were and I loved them where they were and helped them with any questioning or.

Any fears and sadness and confusion. I was there just loving them. And I am still that person. And I've had many clients since then that are in all of those different spaces. I have been an ally since, before I knew what the word was, I just, I grew up in a conservative religion and. I never believed the rejection and the barriers and the, just the, the anger and I, I just didn't like any of it and I was cons, I was very vocal about that in my Sunday school class and my youth group to my parents, and.

I just never [00:03:00] got any of the answers I wanted to hear, and so when I became an adult, I. At, at one point I decided I didn't want to have anything to do with religion because I didn't. I did not. I just felt so opposite from what they were telling me, and so I just thought, well, I, I don't wanna be part of it.

I don't wanna do it. But in my early. It was really around age 19, but I didn't really start embracing it until early twenties, but I found a church that was much more welcoming and open. Now, it wasn't as welcoming and open as I as my church is now, but at that time, it's what I needed to stay in love with God in Jesus.

And also love all the people I wanted to love. And when I found that church, I went to my first protest and [00:04:00] it was a protest, Christians for choice. And it was it was a an abortion. Anti-abortion rally. I can't even remember exactly what it was called. But there were some people in my church that were like, well, Christians can't believe in women's rights.

And I was like, oh my gosh, I've never heard of this before. And so I was so excited to be able to be part of that. And I. I love that my faith is also grounded in love and care for all people, and my spiritual gift is mercy, and so it totally makes sense that it just further fuels my passion for this work of loving and giving safe spaces to teens to talk about anything and everything and many times anxiety.

Is heightened when they're having to hide from [00:05:00] their church, hide from people who don't understand them if they're confused. There's a lot of shame and anxiety in that, and I just wanna be the person where they can just really explore all of that and try to figure out, you know, what direction am I going?

What's the right answer for me? And I just, I have a love and care for all people who are marginalized and misunderstood. I feel like I was a very misunderstood teen and not not in the. Sexual orientation or gender confusion. I wasn't in any of that, but I was different and unique and people didn't understand that.

And so I do understand that, and I understand religious oppression and religious trauma because I have experienced that in my life and. I don't like to talk about [00:06:00] religion or I don't tell people regularly that I'm a Christian because Christianity has such a negative connotation to me. It is connected to so many things that I don't believe in so many things that I just feel sick in my stomach about, and so many times it's embarrassing for me to say that I identify as a Christian, but then I go to my church and.

It is so beautiful and loving and we care for everyone. And I, I just love that I can be spiritual and religious and love God in Jesus, and love all the people and stand up for the rights of all people, and that is beautiful to me, and I just want people to know that. I, I'm for everyone. If you are an atheist, agnostic, if you're a completely different [00:07:00] religion, if you know anything, I, I can talk to you and I can love you and I can give you a safe space.

I don't have any agenda about what people should be or what they should do. I just want to meet people where they are, and I want to love them into feeling better and. Getting, finding answers for themselves that make sense for themselves, that have nothing to do with what I think people should do or not do.

I don't care about any of that. I just want people to feel better based on their own decisions. And this weekend. My church will be at our town's pride palooza, and we're gonna have I think we're gonna have, well, we may be, we'll have more than two booths, but one of our booths is just hugging people, just giving people hugs and letting them know that they are loved and seen and worthy.

And I love that so much. And [00:08:00] we're doing a nail painting. Booth and I did it last year and it was, it was so amazing. I loved it so much. It's kind of our version of Jesus washing feet. We paint people's nails and. It's just a way to just show people love and care and it's, it's just so fun to meet the different people.

And I don't have very much time with each person that comes by, but I get to talk to them about whatever they wanna talk about and just show them love. And it's it's beautiful and I'm so glad that my church is involved in that. So today I just wanted to let you know. Where I stand and that I deeply care about each and every person who listens to this podcast.

And even if you have a different belief or view or idea, I love you too. Like I, I don't have, I don't have [00:09:00] hatred towards people just because they think or seem different. I, the only thing that that is, that hurts me is when people tell me that I'm wrong. Like I can think this way and you can think your way and I don't, I don't want to change your mind and I don't want you to change my mind 'cause I am.

Almost 57 years old. And I believe this to my core and my heart, and I know that I am saving teens lives by loving them in this way, and I would never change that. So I just, I want everyone to know that's listening, that you are loved and cared for. And next week my guest is Wendy Cole, and she is a transition coach, and you'll have to listen to her whole story to just see how amazing that is.

But she's a perfect guest for the end [00:10:00] of pride month, so that you can just see a different perspective and hear from someone who. Maybe you, you don't know anyone in the L-G-B-T-Q-I-A community, and so it will be a way for you to listen and hear about someone's journey. And I just wanted to tell you that I love you and you're not alone in this world.

There are people who love you and care for you, and you are 100% worthy and lovable.