Posts Tagged ‘Advocacy’
Pride Beyond Possibility
Living today in New York City, my hometown of Calhoun, Georgia, often feels far away. But when I go home for the holidays and spend time with my friends and family, I’m easily transported back to my childhood, revisiting the house and the town where I spent my most awkward teenaged years willfully ignoring my…
Read MoreQueerly Becoming: Celebrating Our Evolving Identities
Two years ago, I sat at a trendy coffee shop in Austin, TX meeting with the manager of the It Gets Better Tour: a traveling anti-bullying stage show spun off from the popular LGBTQ video website. The manager had reached out to me a few days earlier and explained that at every stop on their…
Read MoreWhat Are We To Make Of Pope Francis’ Inclusive Prison Visit?
Pope Francis joined 90 prison inmates for lunch during his visit to Naples last Saturday, including 10 from the ward which houses those who are gay, transgender, or have HIV/AIDS. They were among the 1,900 inmates who participated in the lottery for a chance to eat with the Pope. The pope did not address LGBT…
Read MoreHistoric Day For LGBT Elders? We’ll See!
Walking into the Eisenhower Office Building in the White House complex on February 10, I realized that I was crossing what has the potential to be a historic threshold for the LGBT community. I was entering a full day meeting with Obama administration officials around the issue of LGBT aging and, more specifically, affordable housing…
Read MoreHow To Spread The Gospel After Marriage Equality
A year and a half ago, I was asked by a couple from Alabama to perform their wedding. These two women had been together for 26 years, but never foresaw the opportunity have their state recognize their marriage. They were Sacred Harp singers who were going to come to Minnesota for our September singing convention.…
Read MoreLGBTQ Christian Movement Leaders Stand In Solidarity With North Carolina Muslim Community
As Christians blessed to do the work of advocating for the inclusion and needs of LGBTQ people, we wish to express our deep grief over the killings this week in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We offer the North Carolina Muslim community our love and solidarity. Chapel Hill is a city built on a hill, on the dream of tolerance and…
Read MoreLGBT Catholic Pilgrims Get VIP Seats At Papal Audience
In what is surely the most official welcome from Church officials that New Ways Ministry has received in its 38-year history, and one of the warmest welcomes the LGBT community has received, a pilgrimage group of 48 LGBT Catholics and supporters led by our co-founder, Sister Jeannine Gramick, SL, received VIP seating at the papal…
Read MoreLeading By Example
It took me a while to get here. Not to the point of LGBT acceptance but to the point of not worrying about what other folks may think of me as the pastor of Exodus Missionary Outreach Church in Hickory, North Carolina. I never had a problem affirming LGBT people. When I was a kid,…
Read MoreChristians Care About Ending Discrimination
As the Faith Organizer for Equality Pennsylvania, I work with about 600 diverse clergy and over 1000 people of faith across the state of Pennsylvania who are working for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. On May 20, 2014, we celebrated a new reality in Pennsylvania—marriage equality came to our state! There…
Read MoreSaying “Yes” To Life
Etched in my memory on a daily basis these days are the Black men who have been killed over the last several months by people whose task it was to protect and serve them. As a black, queer trans-identified male, who is also aware of the violence too often inflicted upon queer and Trans bodies…
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