Posts by Believe Out Loud
New Mormon Policy Puts LGBT Youth At Risk
I met up with a friend of mine the other day—I’ll call her Alice. She wanted to talk about Mormon LGBT youth suicide and the new policy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), that many have considered a frontal attack on the LGBT community. It’s a subject and a controversy she…
Read MoreWelcoming The All-Gender Restroom “Revolution”
TIME Magazine recently declared that “The Gender-Neutral Bathroom Revolution is Growing.” Earlier this month, San Francisco joined cities like Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Austin, Seattle, Santa Fe, and New York City in requiring all businesses and city buildings to designate single-stall restrooms as all-gender. The new legislation introduced by San Francisco Supervisor David Campos and crafted…
Read MoreRecord Number Of Transgender Nominees For 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards
Today, GLAAD announced the nominees for its 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards, and for the first time over half of the nominees include transgender people or characters – 75 of the 147 nominees are trans-inclusive, (53 nominees in English, and 22 nominees in Spanish.) In the Outstanding Film – Limited Release category, four of the…
Read MoreWin for LGBT Equality: Court Says No To Religious Exemption
On January 14, 2016 a New York appeals court ruled that an upstate farm that rents out its premises for weddings illegally discriminated against a same-sex couple when it refused to host their wedding ceremony. The court rejected the farm’s claim that the owners’ religious beliefs exempted them from New York’s long-standing equality law. Melisa…
Read MoreDignity Members Take Action On Employment Non-Discrimination
Employment non-discrimination protections for LGBT people are among the final obstacles to full legal equality in the United States. Such legislation is hotly disputed locally, while federal action has stalemated until at least after the 2016 elections. Below are three recent news stories about Catholic involvement in LGBT nondiscrimination issues. Two of these stories highlight…
Read MoreFor God Is Love
“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8 Do we really believe that scripture? I believe this verse would serve us well to consider in its literal…
Read MoreHow I Came Out To My Church As HIV-Positive
Wrap yourself in the comforter and you will sweat that fever out. I can hear these exact words echoing in my ears as an adult whenever I get sick. As a child, my mother and grandmother would offer me these words of advice to combat whatever sickness had crept up on me. They would give…
Read MoreIf Dr. King’s Dream Had Come True
When I was in the fourth grade, I saw a video of Martin Luther King, Jr. delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time. As I was nine and we were watching it on a blurry box TV, I didn’t pay much attention to it. That was unfortunate because, as an adult,…
Read MoreHow Breaking Bread With Queer Christians Helped Me Rediscover Radical Love
On Sunday I took communion for the first time in more than a year. I hadn’t been avoiding it deliberately, but I realized just how long it had been as I approached the line to receive bread and wine (juice). I’ve heard the phrases “The body of Christ broken for you;” “The blood of Christ shed…
Read MoreThe Man Who Buried Them Remembers
When he conducted the funerals, Tom Bonderenko tells me, he always wore his priestly garments and white stole. Even when no one showed up for the graveside service. “It was important to show dignity and respect,” Tom says. He taps the coffee cup in his lap nervously. “I’m sorry,” he says. He clears his throat…
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