Posts Tagged ‘LGBT equality and inclusion’
God Made Me Transgender, And God Does Not Make Mistakes
It is always a tragedy when anybody takes their own life, doubly so when they are so young. This week Leelah Alcorn took her own life. In her note, she mentioned various reasons for her course of actions, from not thinking she would be able to pass as female to the lack of acceptance from…
Read MoreBelieve Out Loud’s 10 Most Popular Blogs Of 2014
Donate today to support the movement for Christian faith and LGBTQ equality! As we bring 2014 to a close, we are proud to present the 10 most popular blogs published at Believe Out Loud during 2014! From examining the impact of spiritual abuse to proclaiming that discrimination is not a Christian value, this list represents…
Read MoreFrom The Pulpit: The Names We Must Speak In Church
A few weeks ago, I had the honor of preaching at my home congregation in Pittsburgh, PA. As it was the first Sunday in Advent, I knew that my topic would have something to do with looking to what the Biblical text said about the return of Jesus to inform us about waiting for His…
Read MoreThe Best Christmas Gift Of All
2012 was the worst Christmas I could ever remember. I had just begun what would become an arduous and painful journey into coming out as a transgender woman. I had lost my job six months prior to a start-up web company. I was barely making ends meet and renting a one-room flat with an air…
Read MoreSeason Of Waiting: A Queer Catholic Advent
Advent for, many Catholics, is a time of patience and reflection, a time of wonder and amazement. This Advent for me is a lot different than the last. Last Advent I was struggling to tell my family that I was transgender, struggling to voice how unhappy I had been. But since that last Advent I…
Read MoreFinding Home For The Holidays
The Christmas season is a difficult time of year for me. I am always bothered by our culture’s egregious forms of commercialism—and its either lack of or its anemic recognition of other forms for religious holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, and the celebration of the winter solstice during this season. Over the years, as I…
Read MoreA Response To Non-Affirming Christians
Several weeks ago I was interviewed for a piece in the Huffington Post about LGBT Christians. While I’m no stranger to the push-back that being both gay and a drag queen elicits from many religious folks, I was struck by the hateful manner in which many people attempted to mask their bigoted thoughts in pseudo-Christian comments as…
Read MoreCelebrating International Human Rights Day & The Jakarta Declaration
It was an idea whose time had come. For two decades, Rev. Dr. Stephen Suleeman, lecturer at Jakarta Theological Seminary, held fast to a dream for an LGBT-affirming faith conference in Indonesia. His dream was realized with the International Consultation on the Church and Homophobia, November 23 – 26 at Jakarta Theological Seminary. When Stephen…
Read MoreWhy Racial Justice Matters To Believe Out Loud
On November 24, a grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown. Believe Out Loud laments this decision and the continued devaluation of black lives in the United States of America. Unfortunately, our community’s response to two posts we shared about the verdict in Ferguson…
Read MoreLove-Based Activism
If my purpose is to create change, to help bring about the end of legalized discrimination against LGBT people, my actions should be such that they are effective at bringing about that change. If I want to help people understand what it is like to be transgender, I need to present a message that more…
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