Last year, a woman priest married two of my good friends. One friend is a cisgendered lesbian and her partner is a transmac man. Yes, they’re both Catholic — and the priest is, too.

Conversations surrounding Pope Francis’ approval for priests to bless same-sex couples may have simmered down for now since he made a historic change to Vatican policy in December, allowing priests to bless queer couples.

But a swath of LGBTQ Catholics pushing for inclusion in the Church see the historic moment as an opportunity to advance the advocacy they’ve done for decades. Still, online discourse has ranged from outrage to calling the  new measure performative or unsubstantial, as explained by trans Christian writer Charlotte Clymer. 

“There will be no shortage of critical takes on this, both from conservatives who feel it’s a betrayal of Scripture (it is not) and progressives who believe it doesn’t go far enough, the latter of which would be similar to finding suitable water in the middle of a desert and whining that it doesn’t come with ice.”

For queer Catholics like me and my friends, our stance is more complex, and echoes beyond the walls of the institutional church.

There’s an underlying double stigma familiar to queer Catholics that downplays the significance of blessing same-sex marriage —  if you’re religious, you’re not progressive enough. If you’re too progressive, you’re not religious enough.

With the heightened intensity of the religious right during this election year, queer Catholics are imperative to building a more inclusive and intersectional movement for gay rights. One hundred thirty bills targeting transgender rights have been filed so far this year and 325 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed as of late January. The stakes for gay rights are too high to force queer religious folks to choose between two parts that make them whole.

The tension between sexual identity and faith is also much more nuanced for queer Catholics of color. A recent study published by The Williams Institute at UCLA and the University of Utah show that almost two-thirds of LGBTQ people who were raised Christian have left their faith. Still, over half of the 87% of Black LGBTQ Christians surveyed continued to stay because “despite minority stressors…the social, cultural, and religious support outweighs the negative experiences,” explained Ilan Meyer, co-author of the study, to the 19th news.

Ignoring progress made by queer Catholic advocacy also invisibilizes an already little-known  history of resistance and counterculture within the Church. The Danube Seven, for example, made way for ordained women priests to celebrate mass for gay Catholics.

Dignity USA is a national organization for gay Catholics who attend mass together in a more inclusive ceremony. What’s more, is that this space also intersects with more progressive beliefs like pro-choice Catholics. If anyone can organize, it’s the church gays. And they’re doing it despite the double-stigma.

In this election season and beyond there is a call to embrace opposing truths as a way to better mobilize. This is not a way to dismiss the harm caused by the Church or other religious institutions. Rather as a way to live without restraint. That is what is truly being fought for.

Kristine Villanueva is an award-winning independent journalist and editor passionate about harnessing people-powered media to strengthen and expand community-based information networks. She leads the Phillypinos oral history project focused on Filipino immigrants in Philadelphia in collaboration with the city’s public library system. She has worked in news organizations such as ProPublica, Resolve Philly, POLITICO, The Center for Public Integrity, and more.