Happy Pride Month!!!
Here is the piece I helped write for Episcopal Church of the Ascension’s monthly newsletter The Ascendant -- click here for the June issue:
“June is LGBT Pride Month!
Among its many other meanings, June is LGBT Pride Month; locally, nationally and internationally. In June of 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people at the Stonewall Inn in New York City fought back against a police raid – a watershed moment in the struggle for LGBTQ equality. Every June since, there have been more Pride observances in more secular and faith communities -- marches, festivals, worship services and much more -- including here in the ‘DMV’ (DC/MD/VA). Over the years, the LGBTQ community’s annual calendar has also grown to include other special days, such as the international Transgender Day of Remembrance each November, where we remember those who have lost their lives to transphobia.
The Episcopal Church has been a leader in the journey towards LGBTQ social justice since at least the 1970s, within the Church and the larger faith community as well as in the secular world. We in the EC are blessed with our own LGBT organization, Integrity USA, and its transgender-focused partner TransEpiscopal. Part of Integrity’s ministry is inviting Episcopal communities to become Believe Out Loud congregations, who publicly welcome and affirm LGBT people and have completed a six-step process. Ascension is proud to be a BOL church -- see http://www.ascensionmd.org/about-us/believe-out-loud/.
One of the ways we believe out loud is our ongoing Connection Hour conversation series Experiencing Diversity At Ascension, which includes LGBTQ issues along with race, class, gender, ability, health, age and more. We encourage you to join us for the next part, on Sunday June 8th at 10:15 a.m. in Room 1; please see the full ED@A update in this issue and/or our other communications.
For more information about LGBT people in the Church, we invite you to visit http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/lgbt-church."
Monday, June 2, 2014
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