Join Our Pride Community Padlet!

Handwritten post-it notes on corkboard

For Pride this year, we’re focused on building community and sharing resources on our very own padlet! Here you will find a space to share Pride celebrations, with helpful resources, affirming graphics to download, information about our partners and an invitation to share your thoughts about how you identify. Curated by the Believe Out Team,…

Read More

Only For A Moment

A quilt with a rainbow heart on it.

Only for a moment, was it an unmatched statistic. 

When 49 people were gunned to death in what was for some – the only safe space where they could be themselves; we watched, cried, and prayed in horror. But only for a moment did that stand as the largest mass slaying of Americans targeted by an “active shooter” actively engaged in unleashing a fusillade of bullets into a crowd of people in a confined space. Only for a moment.

Read More

Tips For Getting Through The Hard Holidays

A blurry image of a christmas tree in a living room.

The holiday season is rough for many people in the LGBTQ community. Extra expectations, financial strains, and social isolation cause depression rates to rise. Many people have tensions with their loved ones over their sexuality and gender expression. When that’s coupled with the extra religious observances that take place in the holiday season, it can…

Read More

Bearing the Light of Advent with Holy Women Icons

The holy women icons project presents advent bearing the light.

As much as we want to share gratitude during the season of Thanksgiving, prepare for the hope of Advent, or celebrate Christmas, it’s difficult because the holiday season can be tough for queer folks. Disproportionately estranged from family means we often must create our own family. While these chosen families can be tremendously life-giving, it’s…

Read More

Coming Out As A Pansexual Christian: Because They First Loved Me

Two women holding up a sign that says black queer feminist christian.

Over the last few years, I’ve been deeply engaged in work and research that centers on cultivating space where people of all faiths, sexualities, and gender identities can seek to both know and be known. I’ve seen so many people experience spiritual, systemic, and interpersonal harm and sincerely believe that fostering inclusive, equitable communities can…

Read More

Lost Adrift, Or Deeply Rooted?

A group of people on a beach near a body of water.

The annual conference I attended last week with Reconciling Ministries Network was like other trips to annual conferences in many ways—except for one small feature. It was at the beach, Jekyll Island specifically. By recommendation of a friend, on my last night there, I went over to driftwood beach. This section of the island can…

Read More

Largest-Ever Gathering of Trans Unitarian Universalist Leaders

From April 10-13, the second-ever retreat was held of TRUUsT, Transgender Religious professional Unitarian Universalists Together, in Palm Harbor, Florida. Twenty-seven trans leaders and two allied Unitarian Universalist Association staff gathered together for community, worship, and organizing to support the many varied ministries of trans people within Unitarian Universalism. Attendees were directors of religious education,…

Read More

Loves Makes A Family: IDAHOT 2017

Celebrate the power of love.

May 17 is International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT). It is a worldwide celebration of sexual and gender diversities. IDAHOT was founded in 2004 to draw the attention of policymakers, opinion leaders, social movements, the public and media to the violence and discrimination experienced by LGBTI people around the world. This year IDAHOT…

Read More

Raising A Banner For Title IX: Our Message to the NCAA

Three women in pink shirts holding a banner in front of a building.

Though I had my mom with me on our crew of activists, Soulforce’s action at the women’s Final Four basketball game this weekend was one of the more daunting in my dozen years of direct action organizing. From the moment we entered the arena, police crowded us, grilled us with questions, monitored us from above,…

Read More