Tags: lgbt
Rev. Bernice King Named New President of SCLC. Really?

Jonathan L. Walton.

Is the house that King built trying to end it all?

Hate Crimes Bill—At What Cost?

David Gillespie.

I would hope that as thousands of my fellow GLBTQ citizens celebrate this day for which they have so long worked, and so hard, that they not lose sight of the cost which has come with it.

Will Hate Crime Laws Redeem Us All?

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

If adding sexual orientation to the hate crimes law saves just one life, it brings redemption (and safety) to us all. 

Homophobic Uganda a “Purpose-Driven Nation”?

Nick Street.

An experiment in right-wing Christian social thought, Uganda is poised to pass anti-gay legislation. Will the US Senate leverage its weight in opposition?

Mormonism’s Black Issues

Joanna Brooks.

While many Mormons would like to forget the Church’s history of discrimination against blacks, an Apostle’s recent statements comparing the post-Proposition 8 Mormon backlash to the Civil Rights-era harassment of black voters have brought that painful past back into the spotlight.

Vatican’s Come-Hither to Anglicans: A Theological Scandal

Mary E. Hunt.

While the Catholic Church is touting its warm welcome to conservative Anglicans, it’s also a simple union of those who reject gay and women’s ordination.   

Obama’s Speech a Right Hook to the Right

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

Here’s hoping the president will do the right thing in the wake of this week’s promises to LGBT Americans.

Gays Losing Value to “Value Voters”?

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

This weekend’s premier religious right gathering saw same-sex marriage score low in a poll. Has something significant happened?

Black Episcopal Congregation Celebrates Lesbian Marriage

Rev. Irene Monroe.

In what is likely a first, an Episcopal church in Cambridge that serves a primarily African-American community has blessed the union of two women—one of whom is the mayor of the city. Our correspondent was one of the officiants.

Transgender and Christian: Finding Identity

Jori Lewis.

The idea of transgender Christianity shocks people on both sides of the divide: conservative religious reject any kind of gender variance and the LGBT community can be suspicious of organized religion. In all of this, trans-Christians are forging a new spirituality.

Senator Ted Kennedy: A Catholic We Could Canonize

Frances Kissling.

Though he was never one to wear his religion on his sleeve, Sen. Kennedy’s liberal record of working for social justice falls squarely within the Catholic tradition.

On the ELCA’s Historic Shift to Include Gay Clergy: Reflections of a Self-Exiled Lutheran

Eric Reitan.

Reflecting with mixed emotions his decision to leave the church of his childhood over its inability to accept gays, the author recalls his own words, that “Scripture calls us to look beyond Scripture, to God and to our neighbor,” and wonders whether he should return to the church; indeed, whether such a thing is possible.

Bless Your Heart! The Religious Right Tries to Be Civil

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

A new campaign from the religious right, “The Civility Project,” aims to solve difficult social issues with politeness. What’s the real agenda here?

Episcopal Church Walks with American Clergy on Gay and Lesbian Equality

Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox.

Despite worldwide calls from conservative Anglicans that the American church is choosing to “walk apart” from the wider community, the numbers don't agree—at least not in America.

Fact Check: Are Gay-Friendly Churches in Decline?

Daniel Schultz.

A recent US News & World Report piece claims that “the churches most open to homosexuality are shrinking fastest.” A closer look at the numbers reveals a different picture.

MLK’s SCLC Threatens Leader Who Joins LGBT Civil Rights Protest

Jonathan L. Walton.

How sad and ironic that the revocation of citizen’s rights via Constitutional bans, is not on the SCLC’s radar. Is it a Movement or Museum?

Bishop Sends Shockwave, Slaying the Sacred Cow of Individual Salvation [Includes an online comic]

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

While many expected LGBT issues to be at the forefront of controversy at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stunned some participants by taking aim at narrow notions of salvation.

RDPulpit: Is Barack Obama a “Fierce Advocate” For Gays or Just Pragmatist-in-Chief?

Paul Gorrell.

The Obama administration has gone from indifference to actively promoting religious opposition to the civil rights of gay Americans, comparing same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia. Only when “pink dollars” were pulled did the president approach the LGBT community. A former priest suggests how to make Obama listen.

Obama Threaded the Moral Needle of Latino Evangelicals in ’08

Gastón Espinosa.

Obama won, in part, by flipping the vote of Latino evangelicals back from their support of Republicans in ’00 and ’04. This switch, argues Prof. Gastón Espinosa, is due to a combination of targeted and aggressive outreach to evangelicals, the candidate’s ability to talk about his faith, and a compromise on the abortion and gay rights issues.

Respectability and Its Discontents: Missing the Louche, Loud, and Lovely World of Sexual Outlawry

Peter Laarman.

In this meditation on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots an ordained minister, while eulogizing his own outlawry, notes that God’s goodness is evident in the way in which new and seriously maladjusted queer youth are still rising up to bring new energy and edge to the movement.

Stonewall of the “Nones”: The Revolution Won't be Homogenized

Nick Street.

What would “a tranny hustler,” peeking through a rip in the stocking of space-time, think of our world 40 years later? What will the next Consciousness Revolution look like?

Stonewall, 40 Years Later, What Has Been Achieved?

Louis A. Ruprecht.

Over the past few decades a form of “tolerance” has been achieved in many parts of American life. What sort of achievement is this?

Gay Ain’t the New Black, But…

Jonathan L. Walton.

With a new essay on black, gay civil rights giant, Bayard Rustin, Rev. Sekou makes the case for comparisons between the gay rights and Civil Rights movements.

New Poll Shows Gays and Lesbians Believe in God

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

In another stunner from the right wing, a best-selling conservative author discovers that gays can be Christians too.