Religious People Celebrate LGBT Pride

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/religious-people-celebrate-lgbt-pride_b_1615950.html

Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
Senior Religion Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 06/21/2012 1:20 pm

Millions of people around the world are celebrating at LGBT Pride parades this month. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and straight folks are dancing on pulsating floats, riding on roaring motorcycles, sharing activist messages, and showcasing their most flamboyant finery. And many, many of these people are religious.

At the heart of most Pride parades in America, you will see religious congregations marching. Jews, Christians, Pagans, Buddhists, and others share in the spirit of the original Stonewall uprising of '69 by proclaiming that they have a right to be who they really are meant to be, which, in our case, is both LGBT and religious. Unfortunately, like many of my sisters and brothers who identify as both LGBT and religious, I find that sometimes I am asked to choose between my identities.

Sadly, many religious organizations continue to hold on to cultural prejudices and lazy scriptural reading and categorically reject the fact that people can be fully religious and LGBT. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a good and timely example. The SBC has been congratulating itself mightily this week for having elected its first African-American president. Formed in 1845 as a breakaway denomination that insisted that slavery was mandated by the Bible, it took them only about 150 years to reverse their thinking on the basic humanity of black folks.

But they were quick to restrict that dignity from being extended to LGBT people. The SBC passed a resolution that states, "It is regrettable that homosexual rights activists and those who are promoting the recognition of 'same-sex marriage' have misappropriated the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement." It is funny that the SBC is now so invested in the civil-rights movement, as it certainly was not supportive when it was happening in the '60s.


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