A Regina family is speaking out against a church they say ambushed their LGBTQ+ 15-year-old daughter.
Sierra Dickson, who identifies as queer, had been attending the Evangelical Free Church Regina kids club along with her three siblings since she was a little girl. When she aged out of the program, Sierra became a volunteer leader of the club.
She said she loved working with the children and enjoyed her time there.
But on Sept. 17 Dickson, who was just 14 at the time, was called into a meeting with the group leader and confronted about her sexuality.
Dickson said the leader used the term “demonic” and read her bible verses about “sinners.”
“She didn’t outright call me demonic, but she sort of implied it because she thinks she can pray the gay out of me,” Dickson said.
“So of course I can’t be demonic. But when you ask to meet with me specifically and ask me if I’m part of the LGBTQ+ community and say that community is demonic, it is 100 per cent at me.”
A Regina family is calling out a local church for acting inappropriately when confronting their daughter about her sexuality. Sierra Dickson, who identifies as queer, volunteers with the kids club at the Evangelical Free Church Regina. Dickson says she was called into a meeting with the group’s leader, who called the LGBTQ+ community ‘demonic’ and told her she wasn’t welcome there unless she, as a sinner, returned to God.
Dickson thinks her water bottle adorned with LGBTQ+ stickers triggered the meeting.
“Instant regret as soon as I walked into the church and my leader was staring at my water bottle.”
Dickson said the meeting was devastating.
“She came running up the driveway, crying her eyes out, absolutely distraught,” said Sierra’s father Ian Dickson.
“She said, ‘she called me demonic, dad. She told me I was demonic and that I wasn’t welcome anymore.’ So they told her that she was no longer allowed at the kids club,” he said.
Sierra’s mother said her first instinct was to comfort her daughter and tell her that the person who said those things to her was elderly, and that she shouldn’t take any stock in what she said about the LGBTQ+ community.
“But as time went on, it just made me more angry. And I’m like … no. Being older isn’t an excuse for bigotry,” said Rachael Dickson.
In the following weeks, Rachael watched her daughter decline.
“She would just be crying at night. It was really hard to deal with as a mom, to see your daughter be upset. Someone that was always happy and outgoing and friendly, and then it just really changed because of that incident. It was so hard,” said Rachael.
Sierra’s grandfather reached out to the church to voice his outrage and received a written response signed by the church board.
“We want you to know that the church board is in complete agreement that LGBT persons are certainly welcome to come into this church,” the letter said. “Actually, welcoming LGBT persons is nothing new for us. However, the organization of the church does require that a person in a position of leadership be a servant of Jesus Christ and of nothing else.”
The letter said “the word ‘demonic’ was used to explain that everything that is not from the Lord is ‘demonic’ and we need to test the spirits as stated in 1 John 4:1-16.”
Ian called the letter “a slap in the face.”
Following the meeting, Sierra had trouble sleeping, would cry a lot and then had a panic attack when she attended mass at her Catholic School.
“I couldn’t breathe and I couldn’t feel my hands or move them very much and it was just, I was really scared,” she said.
When she managed to leave mass, teachers came to help her and asked what was wrong.
“All I got out was that I had some religious trauma that was really new and I just like, I could barely even breathe at that point.”
Sierra and her teachers have agreed that she will no longer be attending mass. Rachael said her daughter now doesn’t know who to trust.
“She’s just getting depressed and not sure who’s safe to reach out to because she’s at a Catholic school. She has people that she trusts, but she doesn’t even want to go to the counselor because she’s like, ‘oh, they’re not going to understand,'” said Rachael.
Sierra said she’ll never forget what happened to her and she never wants anyone to experience what she has gone through at the church.
“All the time like almost constantly. It’s like on my mind pretty much 24/7.”
CBC reached out to Evangelical Free Church Regina, but were told it would not comment at this time.
Sierra’s parents said they want to see changes at the church.
“The people aren’t bad there, they’re good people. But with these mindsets that’s just wrong,” said Rachael. “I don’t have anything against this person. I’m hurt they did this to my daughter. But in their mind, they were doing it out of love, and that’s the scary thing.”
In the meantime, the Dicksons have informed the church that none of their children will attend the kids club again.
“They do not need to have my kids there anymore if they’re going to be treated that way. That is unacceptable in this day and age,” said Ian.
Aside from the letter directed to Sierra’s grandfather, the family has had no correspondence with the church, and have not received an apology.