This week is the 50th anniversary of The StoneWall Riot at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, against the police brutality towards the gay, lesbian, trans and queer community and a year later on June 28th 1970, to commemorate and remember the Stonewall riots, Pride Marches were organized in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Marsha ‘Pay It No Mind’ Johnson, was one of the activists who refused to allow the police brutality and stood for the rights of trans person and others. Since then a lot has changed and yet nothing seems to be different.
Psychiatry does not claim homosexuality to be a ‘mental condition’ as it once did, but gay, lesbian, trans and queer persons are still treated as mentally sick,
Medical science has busted the myth that being lesbian or gay, trans or queer is a choice, and yet queer people are still not fully free to live out their truth,
It is now legal for queer persons to get married and yet our queer siblings continue to experience discrimination,
most communities are welcoming or perhaps tolerant of our queer siblings, and yet police brutality is still a reality.
And for these reasons -- we need to stay involved and speak up. We need to participate as human beings but more importantly as people of faith! We need to let the world know that non-binary expressions of being a human are not against the will of God! God’s love is not selective! All persons are beautifully and wonderfully created in the image of God and deserve that same acceptance from the church! For this reason, it is important that we show up at the Pride Parade again this year -- to support our siblings, to proclaim God’s love for all people and to remind people that our United Methodist Church is not homophobic.
Please let us know if you plan on marching in the parade. The Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches will have a float this year that will have some sitting possibility for a few persons. I hope to see many of you at the parade. We will have a shorter worship service on June 30th so we can make it to our location in time.
Friends, let us work towards becoming a church where all can feel welcome, all can feel accepted and all feel loved. And remember, I am always your partner in justice!
