Hello! I am the Instagram user who raised the original, initial concerns about the church that Liah Yoo attends and is an active member of. I was encouraged to make a post about this here a few weeks ago at the suggestion of some other supportive Instagram users but was hesitant because my aim was never to try and "cancel" her--just for her to finally stop dodging the question and give a direct, straightforward answer about her stance on marriage equality. However, given that this has been picked up by some bigger Instagram accounts and people are already posting about this on reddit, I felt obligated to come to reddit and clear the air as well as answer any questions you all might have on this.

Timeline

Please see the images/captions I've included of my initial correspondence with Liah Yoo on Feb 28, 2021, as well as her response to me on March 1, 2021:

https://imgur.com/a/xmxFart

Note how she purposefully evades the question and refuses to directly answer it, using coded language like "same sex unions" and unrelated statements about what she believes modern churches should be like. After my last response to her, she left me on read.

On March 26, 2021, Instagram account @theholyglosspel posted this survey about skincare brands that weren't worth the $$ that I responded to anonymously as it had been 25 days with no response from Liah:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CM5iNJ4HzH4/

My comment is on the top right hand corner of the third image in this post and you can also see in the comments where I respond to people about DMing me for receipts, including the main one that was heavily screenshotted and disseminated.].

On April 11, 2021, Instagram account @skinbyhelen posted the following post, which raises two concerns about Krave's treatment of BIPOC creators as well as Liah's homophobic church which she learned about through @theholyglosspel's post:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNiZZgPnPmF/

On the morning of April 12, 2021, Liah Yoo goes back into our DMs, accidentally likes my first message to her, then unlikes it immediately. I got the notification and thought oh cool, maybe after more than a month she is finally going to send me an earnest response that directly answers the questions that I posed. Nope. What she does instead is she copies her original response to me, edits it a little, and then pastes it into the thread on @skinbyhelen's post. You can read my and many others' subsequent responses to her, yet again, dodging a very basic yes or no question.

After fielding questions, DMs, and responses to that thread the entire day, I discover and tag an instagram account @c3churchwatch which is an account that documents the abusive trauma many queer people have been subjected to by C3NYC as well as C3 Global as a denomination. The last slide documents what has been going on at this church.

More links to C3's stances and treatment of queer people:

https://www.instagram.com/c3churchwatch/

https://c3churchglobal.com/c3-forum-considerations-on-same-sex-marriage-simon-mcintyre/

https://www.flare.com/identity/c3-church-anti-gay/

Here are the facts:

Liah Yoo is an active member of an explicitly homophobic church with a rich and well documented history of subjecting their queer congregants to vitriol, hate, and trauma.

Liah Yoo has continually refused to directly answer the question that has been posed to her multiple times in the past month: Do you believe gay people deserve and should be allowed to participate in the institution of marriage in the same way that straight people do?

Why does this matter?

Krave Beauty constantly gives off the air of being a progressive company. It also leverages queer and BIPOC voices as a part of their brand PR in order to sell more products:

Here is an example of some of the content they run:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLSarNeAVVs/

Here is an example of how they tokenize PoC content creators and do not compensate them for their labor from Instagram account @simplyhappyskin

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNlhhTKHdrL/

Conclusion:

Liah Yoo and Krave Beauty can't have it both ways. They can't use the voices and oppression of queer trans people of color as PR for their brand image in order to sell more products, while the CEO and founder still actively attends and monetarily supports/tithes to an explicitly homophobic, anti-gay church that has caused widespread pain and trauma to members of the queer community. Liah Yoo needs to directly clarify her stance on marriage equality instead of giving us this same vague PR speak she also used to avoid addressing the fact that they knew about Krave's SPF not meeting the stated SPF months ago but gave "transparency updates" that said absolutely nothing and played it off as a "restock issue" (even though vendors like Stylevana were notified to pull the product due to an "uncontrollable quality issue" almost a month before their statement). She also needs to at the very least acknowledge and address the widespread harm her church has inflicted on the queer community if she insists on still being a member.

Postscript: Who am I and what are my motivations for posting this?

I am not an influencer. I am not looking for clout or followers. I sat on this for weeks and initially tried to keep this anonymous. I responded to all of this using my personal Instagram account which has less than 300 followers most of which are my friends and family. I am a queer and trans person of color who is tired of being gaslighted. I have had friends and loved ones subjected to deportation violence by the state because they were not allowed to marry their partners directly as a result of the evangelical lobbying that churches like the one Liah Yoo is a member of participated in and still do. I strongly believe that our lived experiences of oppression aren't here for companies to tokenize and profit off of especially if the founder and CEO of said company is still actively and willfully supporting a church that has explicitly singled out and codified anti-gay homophobia in their statement of faith as well as subjected their queer congregants to ostracization, trauma, discrimination, and bigotry.

I have no interest in "cancelling" Liah Yoo or Krave, I just want this hypocrisy and this tokenization to stop and I believe as consumers we have a right to demand answers to these very valid concerns. I have no interest in and am not "attacking" her like others have already accused me of. I'm just trying to get her to clarify her stance on an issue that she invited scrutiny on by making her church affiliation public. I believe we should all pressure Liah Yoo and Krave to actually directly address what her personal stance is on LGBTQ rights and equality because her actions are definitely not matching up with her brand's ethos. I posted this in the hopes that I could provide pertinent information/resources to other queer people and allies of the queer community who might not fully understand the context of this situation. I also hope this inspires more of us to put pressure on them and hold them accountable.

Please let me know if you have any questions. This took quite some time for me to compile and draft, but I will try to respond to you all when I get the chance.

EDIT: Just got a DM from c3churchwatch which may provide a bit more insight into Liah's responses to this. I added the screenshot into the original Imgur link but will quote their message to me here as follows:

"Hey, saw your Reddit just now and a few things jumped out. Feel free to share. If Liah is any kind of church leader at NYC, she signed a document stating she will only promote traditional marriage. She is also supposed to use her social media to promote the church. This might explain a few things, and it is interesting how her behavior to questions resembles that of C3 staff.

We also find it unacceptable for people to brush off discrimination citing “no church is perfect.” Asking to not be subjected to hate is not asking for perfection. We find issue with Liah advocating for hate crimes to end while dismissing those most vulnerable to them."

EDIT 2: Liah Yoo has finally come out with the following response: "My stance: There have been allegations made about me regarding my support of the LGBTQ community and I want to clarify my values here. I firmly believe that all gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations are valid, and I fully support LGBTQ rights, including the right to marry. It hurts me that my personal beliefs were questioned because of my faith and the institution I attend. Being a member of a church doesn't mean you share every belief of it. And I'm sure many of you share the same struggle of reconciling their faith with their allyship. To my close friends who were dragged in this, being forced to make comment on this, I'm so sorry for what this has become. If you know me in person, you know where I stand."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNoBaAnH5_n/

My response: In the conclusion section of this post, I asked for two things, for Liah to clarify her stance and for Liah to directly address the harm. While I am glad that Liah has finally decided to clarify her stance on marriage equality and make the decision to leave C3, I'm disappointed and confused as to why it took more than a month of an entire community organizing around putting pressure on her before she finally said something. That said I am also quite shocked at the statement she put out, where she essentially tries to portray herself as the victim in this scenario and does nothing to center the queer and marginalized voices or even acknowledge/empathize with the harm she has caused to many queer people in this community due to her affiliation with this church. It's weird to hear that she's only "sorry for what this has become" because her friends got involved or that she's hurt that her beliefs were questioned, when this entire exercise could have been avoided had she actually been transparent and directly answered the question the first time it was asked. While this is a clear example of how solidarity and direct action organizing gets the goods, this still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Nonetheless, it's encouraging to have this tangible reminder of how much power we yield. Thank you, to each and every one of you for the kind messages and support. We couldn't have achieved this without you.

Lastly, if you are interested in getting more context about C3 and what makes this essentially a non-apology, we discuss in more detail in this live https://www.instagram.com/p/CNoVPo2nfrI/

That said, I still do look forward to if and how Liah will continue to grow and learn from this.

(I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond to too many comments, it got very quickly overwhelming. Again, thank you all for your time and for taking this seriously.)

EDIT 3:

Liah Yoo's second response:

"Hey everyone,

First and foremost, I do want to start this message with a sincere apology to the LGBTQ community that was hurt by my affiliation with C3NYC I attended. In the previous video, I was centering my own emotions after getting a lot of hateful messages and almost death threats; I wasn’t able to see others other than myself at the time and I realize how that came across as being uncaring toward the harm the queer community has faced even though I meant to convey the opposite.

Today, I'd like to share more of my faith journey with the hope that this context will help you better understand the bigger picture that I failed to convey in my original video. I tell this story not to seek empathy but to apologize to my queer followers. I wanted to provide you the full context as I acknowledge the harm that has been caused to the LGBTQ community as a result of my affiliation with the church and that is more deeply rooted and triggering to many of your past experiences of experiencing homophobia.

I grew up in Korea without a religion. Growing up, I had many friends who went to church to make new friends without having a real connection to God, and it was common to see many megachurches being involved in financial crimes and scandals. If anything, I had a bad taste toward Christianity as a whole as it looked hypocritical. God tells you to love people equally but my Christian friends at the time always hung out with their Christian friends, excluding non-Christians. God designed everyone purposefully with intent, but the bible does not acknowledge basic rights for LGBTQ which goes against its word. To me, the concept of Christianity was so confusing and almost ironic. I didn't care much about religion then, but my friends' right in the LGBTQ community is what I cared so much about from early on.

Korea is an extremely conservative place that doesn't legally recognize marriage equality and protections from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Therefore, I have personally witnessed and cared about my personal friends struggling to mask or even deny their own sexual orientation and identity to mold themselves into what's "right" by society’s ignorant definition. I and a group of friends had to constantly validate my friend's identity for years, encourage and support him for years before he was able to finally be comfortable to go under gender affirmation surgery at 40 and fully become who he's meant to be. I often have serious conversations with my partner about our future kid, one day if they turn out to be gay or trans, we want to be prepared and be supportive of her/his/their decision.

When I moved to New York in 2018, the religion of Christianity looked pretty progressive unlike what I was used to in Korea. The sermons didn't seem to be so boring, the pastors are young, the worship scene is like a broadway concert--I was still not a Christian but I wanted to give the religion itself a fair shot before crossing it out completely. The church I attended is very much like this: cool and hip.

When I first affiliated myself with this church in 2019, I didn't have` a due diligence process that I went through to check which theology this church is, what its statement of beliefs is, and what the pastor's beliefs are. I wasn't a Christian then so it's hard for me to confidently say what I looked for in a church when joining. They don't let you sign a contract or have you read through the entire core values or beliefs for you to come and worship. To my knowledge, the sermons never raised any points about being anti LGBTQ openly. I enjoyed learning bible verses and applying lessons from scriptures like surrendering and leaving it up to God's plan that positively changed my life for the better. That's when I first identified myself to call a daughter of God.

It’s until only recently I found out about their stance in not supporting LGBTQ after an Instagram DM from poissonsd0r which included a screenshot of my church beliefs and a pretty direct question about my stance on LGBTQ equality. It was pretty surprising but I also had no context to this nor did I feel comfortable to speak on behalf of the church at that point. So I simply replied to Zac that no institution is perfect and I believe modern churches should let us have our own views about same-sex marriages. I wasn't confident in how to address this situation which is why I chose not to respond even though I agree that the questions they posed about my response not being direct enough were completely valid.

I reached out to the church leaders to confirm if this was in fact their stance and if there’s any way they could remove these two clearly homophobic points in their statement of faith. But I didn’t receive the adequate response that I had hoped for which was more heart-breaking as this is the institution where I found my faith and I was more confused about Christianity all over again. This is what I'm still processing. But after talking to Zac, I fully acknowledge that I should have been more transparent and provided an actively and directly affirmative response with respect to my commitment to LGBTQ equality instead of having this uncertainty about my beliefs float around on the web. During my conversations with Zac, they helped me understand why and how my actions came across to the queer community as homophobic, even though that was never message that I meant to convey. I want to apologize for not adequately addressing this situation sooner. That said, I truly believe thatGod has somehow connected me to Zac for a reason and look forward to continue to grow and learn from their unique perspective as a queer, trans person of color. I'm also excited to explore my Christianity from a fresh perspective and finding a church that truly represents and aligns with my values.

I have never questioned my stance with my allyship to LGBTQ community and its right to marry. And I'm sorry that the past few days, you had to. And to my personal friends, I'm sorry if my actions over this past month have led you to question the integrity of our relationship.

Additionally, I want to come forward and be fully transparent with what I financially donated to the church. In 2020, I have given a total of $3,550. So I want to match the amount to organizations that support LGBTQ rights, especially in the AAPI community. The organizations will be chosen carefully with a focus on marginalized queer AAPI advocacy and will be posted on my Instagram stories soon. In the future, I do want to openly have a discussion and round tables with others to explore what it means to be a Christian and a true ally to LGBTQ .

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this."

Closing response: I had a phone conversation that lasted 1.5 hours today (04/14/21) with Liah. After seeing our live, she finally reached out to apologize to me personally and acknowledged that we were 100% valid in our concerns, directly via DM. She also asked if I would be interested in speaking with her on the phone. When we finally connected that afternoon, we were able to cover a lot of productive ground, culminating with the release of the second statement above which is something I provided extensive guidance on drafting. Please remember this statement which is a result of all of the hard work and organizing the skincare community has done in bringing attention to this issue.

I will just say this: I know some of you are still angry, and hurt, and mistrustful and that is 100% valid. I am not going to try to convince anyone what to believe. I can't tell anyone what to believe because it's not my place. Every queer person who was harmed by this has every right to feel angry and every right to accept or reject her apology. I also don't want to be used as cover to pinkwash harm, and I believe her words should speak for themselves. We can only evaluate the integrity and honesty of this statement based her actions in the coming weeks and months. Like I said, I never wanted to cancel anyone, all I ever wanted was a direct clarification of her stance and an acknowledgment of harm and we finally got that. I look forward to seeing how she will continue to grow as an ally.

I just wanted to thank you all one last time for your support. I never thought this would blow up like this and I just want all of my queer people reading this to know that I value, love, and support you. Our concerns are and always will be valid.