by Rev. Dr. Robin Gorsline, President, POFEV

That's what the General Laws and Technology Committee of the Virginia State Senate took on January 27 when they reported out Senate Bill 66, a bill to prohibit discrimination in state employment, including any discrimination based on "sexual orientation."

In the bill, sexual orientation is described as a person's actual or perceived heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality, or gender identity or expression. In other words, it is an inclusive definition and a good bill.

Thanks are due to Senator Donald McEachin (pictured left) who introduced the bill and is working to get it passed.

Alas, the vote in committee was 8 yea, 7 nay, so there is work to be done. It may come up as soon as next Tuesday, February 2, in the full Senate. It is important that LGBT people and their allies contact their Senators to urge passage.

Governor McDonnell, and President Obama, are making new jobs the focus of the year. This is good. But let us also save the jobs people have, and give them assurance that it is their performance, not their sexuality or any other extraneous factor, that counts in keeping their jobs.

You can contact your State Senator here.

Don't know who your State Senator is?  Find out here.

 

 

by Rev. Dr. Robin H. Gorsline

Richmond LGBT folks and their friends are gearing up for the annual Witness for Marriage Equality at noon on Friday, February 12 at the City Marriage License Bureau.  This annual event includes testimonies by marriage equality supporters, a blessing of couples, prayers, and a public commitment to return each year until legal marriage is available to all Virginians.

Why do we do this? Please be clear we are not asking for the right to marry. Indeed, the couples and our families and friends know we are already married. Instead, we are telling local and state authorities that we want them to catch up and fix their laws. Our laws.

This witness harks back to other times in U.S. history when people have confronted their public officials to insist that repressive laws be changed, such as when African Americans went to courthouses to register to vote. We continue a long and honorable tradition of talking back to authority.

As the trial over marriage equality continues in federal court in San Francisco, and as we have experienced some losses in several states – but the law has been changed in Washington, D.C.! – now is the time to stand up. Let no one think we are not determined to see this cause through to success. Everywhere.

The witness will be held at the Richmond City Marriage License Bureau, in the John Marshall Courts Building, 400 North 9^th Street (just north of Marshall Street, pictured right). People will begin gathering at 11:30 am and the official witness begins at noon.

If you want to participate, help organize, or help publicize this important civil rights event, please contact me at RevRobinG@MCCRichmond.org or call me at 804/519-3196.

Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond (MCC), the Gay Community Center of Richmond (GCCR), People of Faith for Equality in Virginia (POFEV) and First Unitarian Church of Richmond are co-sponsors of the Witness for Marriage Equality.  Dr. Gorsline is President, People of Faith for Equality in Virginia and Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond.

by Rev. Dr. Robin Gorsline, President of People of Faith for Equality in Virginia

It is time for the Virginia General Assembly to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination in government employment against LGBT people.  There are LGBT state employees, some of them long-time workers. Many of them fear being too open about their lives because the only protection they have is a boss who values their work. If the boss should change, who knows?

The Richmond Times-Dispatch says it is time for legal protection. And that gives some of us hope that there is a chance, even in an assembly that would seem unfriendly, to achieve this long-sought goal.  The T-D couched its endorsement in terms of a challenge to incoming Governor Bob McDonnell. While Attorney General, McDonnell opposed an executive order by outgoing Governor Tim Kaine doing this very thing, because he said only the legislative branch can make such policy. The newspaper said it was time to test McDonnell (pictured below), to see if he would sign such a law that he has not opposed.

In some ways, that is a cute political argument. But in another, it is       simply holding public officials accountable for things they say.

And when it comes to matters of equality and justice, this is vital. So often, candidates, and officials, make pronouncements about these matters, but then nothing seems to happen. Many are feeling this way about promises made by Congressional Democrats and President Obama to LGBT folks for real change on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Employment Non-Discrimation Act. National efforts continue to press for these promises to be made real.

Now, in Virginia, as the General Assembly convenes for 60 days, it is time for us to press our legislators, and the new Governor, to end the threat of discrimination against employees who do their jobs but whose sexual orientation—which really has nothing to do with their competence or dedication—differs from the majority. Indeed, an argument can be made that their productivity would increase due to greater feelings of stability and acceptance.

Equality Virginia and People of Faith for Equality in Virginia are working together to promote this cause. EV’s Lobby Day on Tuesday, February 2, offers us a great chance to speak directly to our elected representatives. If you want to participate, please go to www.equalityvirginia.org And if you can’t participate in person, you can join the EV Virtual Lobby Day.

In the next weeks, we plan to offer reasons to support this protection based on spiritual values. I invite you to think about how your faith helps you believe in equality, especially equality in employment.

When Proposition 8–overturning marriage equality–passed in California, many of us felt crushed. We were further crushed when the California Supreme Court basically let the vote stand.

Now, there is a federal court challenge to California’s action, on the basis of the constitutional right to equal protection. It is being argued by two leading lawyers, Ted Olsen, a prominent conservative and David Boies, a prominent liberal (they opposed each other in 2000 in Bush v. Gore).

Federal Circuit Judge Vaughn Walker is going to decide if the proceedings should be televised. He has invited the public to comment.

Wouldn’t it be great if this important argument could be seen by all?

You can add your voice to those seeking an open courtroom. But you only have until Friday at 9:00 a.m. Go to http://www.couragecampaign.org/TeleviseTheTrial and add your name to those who want the world to know the truth about equality.

 

by Rev. Dr. Robin H. Gorsline

               Much of the world has condemned a proposed law in Uganda that would impose the death penalty on some LGBT folks, while many others would face 7-year prison sentences, just for being.

One who has spoken out is the Archbishop of York, the Rt. Rev. John Sentamu, born in Uganda. "People may have very clear traditional views about sexuality. But we as a communion are committed to listening to the experiences of homosexual people," he said on the Today programme.

"You can't do that on the one hand and on the other suggest they are not children of God. They're valued by God, they deserve the best in pastoral care and friendship."

But probably they don’t deserve ordination or full inclusion in the church. Bishop Sentamu is a leader in the worldwide Anglican Communion, the group headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, which so far is unable to accept a gay bishop (and is hoping the U.S. church won’t consecrate a second one next summer).

One wonders if the failure of the global church to do more than listen to the “experiences” of homosexual people might have something to do with the proposed law in Uganda.

And Rick Warren, leading U.S. pastor, has so far declined to take sides in the matter. He uses the diplomatic dodge of claiming it is an internal matter for Uganda.  He and other U.S. Christian groups and leaders have been accused of using U.S. funds designed to fight HIV/AIDS to proselytize Africans to become Christians of a particular stripe—ultra-conservative, gay-hating believers.

Uganda may have a particularly egregious law under consideration, but it is only the tip of an ugly iceberg of religious bigotry.

There is a great need to speak up against these activities, and to demand that our government speak out forcefully against the proposed law, and investigate the use of government funds to promote religiously-based homophobic bigotry.

 

Rev. Dr. Robin Gorsline serves as President of People of Faith for Equality in Virginia and as Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond. He can be contacted at RevRobinG@MCCRichmond.org

by Rev. Robin Gorsline, President of POFEV

Latin America is becoming a hotbed of progress for LGBT equality.

Mexico City is the latest, voting to allow same-gender unions and adoptions by same-gender couples. Argentina and Colombia have made recent moves towards liberalization and Uruguay already allows same-gender civil unions.

Yes, Uruguay.

Buenos Aires legalized same-sex civil unions in 2002 but conflicting judicial rulings have stymied them. Several other Argentine cities, as well as Mexican and Brazilian states, also permit same-sex unions. Colombia has granted social security rights to gay couples; Venezuela is considering same-sex civil unions.

Of course, discrimination continues in many places. Walter Orlando Trochez, 27, a prominent gay and anti-coup activist in Honduras, was shot dead last week.

But the trend is beginning to feel like a powerful wave, even as the inevitable push-back from conservative political groups and the Roman Catholic Church heats up.

The shifts are hard to analyze, especially because traditional machismo attitudes toward women don't seem to be softening, and abortion is still widely condemned. What seems clear is that religious bodies are not able to stop political change when the political leaders decide to act.

Just think what would happen here if religious leaders led the way--since most of our political leaders seem afraid to do so.

Can we gain inspiration from Latin America?

Dr. Gorsline is the President of People of Faith for Equality in Virginia, and Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond. He can be contacted at RevRobinG@MCCRichmond.org

by Rev. Dr. Robin H. Gorsline, President, People of Faith for Equality in Virginia

I try to focus more on God, Advent, the inspiration of Hanukkah lights, and the birth of Jesus, and less on presents at this time of year.

But the good people of Houston and Washington, D.C. have presented LGBTQ folks and their allies in the struggle for justice with two wonderful gifts: the election of Annise Parker as the new mayor of Houston, TX (TEXAS!!!!!!), and the approval of full same-gender marriage in the District. Wow!

After high-profile defeats on marriage in Maine and New York State earlier, these events bring joy, and can cause us in Virginia to feel a surge of hope.

Of course, the opponents of marriage equality will try to derail the new law--either through a Congressional vote to block it or through ongoing harassment by Congress through the appropriations process. Congress always has the last word on life in the District.

And, as usual, the Roman Catholic hierarchy is trying to block marriage equality, even threatening to suspend social service contracts with the city government. One wonders if they remember the Great Commandment.  

But let us not focus on the negative. The mayor of the nation's fourth-largest city (the home of the 41st president and Mrs. Bush) is an out and proud lesbian with a long-time partner.

God is in this. Make not mistake. God is on the road ahead, as Emmet Fox said long ago, so let's keep marching, and celebrating.

Rev. Dr. Robin H. Gorsline also serves as Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of Richmond; he may be reached at RevRobinG@MCCRichmond.org

 

Churches keep struggling with how much LGBT people can participate in their daily life and in their leadership.

The most recent positive development is the election of Rev. Mary Glasspool as Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles in the Episcopal Church. If her election is confirmed by a majority of other dioceses, she will be consecrated next May.

However, the Archbishop of Canterbury seems to be hoping that enough other dioceses of the Episcopal Church will reject her consecration so that the election will be null. In the Episcopal system, a local diocese elects its own bishops, but they can be rejected by the larger church. This very rarely happens.

                                           

To do so in this case would be shameful. I know Mary Glasspool. She is a fine priest, and has been one for almost 30 years. She is faithful, wise, and very intelligent.

We can be grateful that the Episcopal delegates in Los Angeles did not give in to the ecclesiastical extortion being practiced by the Archbishop and the other leaders of the Anglican Communion who are stuck on what they obviously think is the most important qualification for a bishop: who you sleep with.

I do not wish the Episcopal Church or the wider Anglican Communion of which it is part any more grief. Thus, I pray that those who stand in the way of the clear movement of the Holy Spirit will soon repent -- as John the Baptizer urges us in these Advent days.

 

 

 

 Another gay man has been brutally murdered in Jamaica. John Terry, 65, (pictured right) was a British diplomat living in Jamaica.

His crime? Being gay, and being active in helping the local LGBT movement gain strength. For that, he was severely beaten and a cord was tied around his neck.

This is why we call attention to the singing of Buju Banton, the reggae singer who spouts homophobic lyrics that include death threats against "batty boys" (Jamaican slang for gay men), and oppose his singing in Richmond and Norfolk.

The National cancelled his appearance in Richmond, but now he is scheduled to appear at The Hat Factory (formerly Toad's Place) in Shockoe Slip in Richmond.  You can call them to register your request that they cancel the show, 804/788-4281. 

After more public and private pressure from the LGBT community and allies, including POFEV, it appears that The Hat Factory (formerly Toad's Place in Shockoe Slip) has also cancelled the show.  This is good news.  But it does not lessen the need for us to link hearts and arms with our LGBT siblings in Jamaica.

Check out this video from Sunshine Cathedral MCC in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where the pastor, Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins asks for prayers for the LGBT folks of Jamaica. The global MCC movement, through staff from Sunshine Cathedral, provides ongoing financial, spiritual, and leadership support to the LGBT rights movement in Jamaica. 

Watch the video here.

God calls upon all people, and certainly people of faith, to speak up against hate—and to pray for all kinds of love.

 

 Six years ago this week, the Episcopal Church consented to the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire. He was the first "out" gay men elected and confirmed as a bishop in that church (though not the first gay man -- not by a long way!).

Most of the attention then and now focuses on Bishop Robinson.

But actually, it is the delegates to the convention of the Diocese of New Hampshire who made it happen. They knew Gene Robinson—they had worked with him, listened to him preach, felt his care—and so, deciding he was the best person for the job, they voted for him.

Now comes word that two more U.S. dioceses--Los Angeles and Minnesota--have nominated formerly excluded LGBT people for episcopal ofice (bishops or assistant bishops). They are not elected and may never be, but they are on the list of those to be considered at conventions.

We do not know how the faithful people of those dioceses will vote. But we do know that it is they who will make the decision.

Bishops and others in the U.S. and in faraway places—who see the work of the devil in these developments and charge “heresy”—may rage against what they see as an unacceptable concession to postmodernity. But it is the faithful people, examining their own hearts and minds through the power of the Holy Spirit, who are invested with the authority.

What is happening is as old as the church itself. In fact, it predates the church.

The people flocked to Jesus because they saw in him someone who had little interest in old, dried up rules that denied the moving presence of God in their real lives.

This time, our time, is yet another kairos moment in faith communities far and wide. Thanks be to God!

 

Recently, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran an article about an openly gay rabbi, Aaron Katz, in Poland.

Reading about this 53-year-old man of faith, born in Argentina to parents who fled Poland before the worst of the Nazi extermination—and his partner, Kevin Gleason, a former Hollywood producer (“The Bachelor” and Nanny 911”) who was born Catholic (and converted to Judaism for his husband)—reminds us that religion can be a vehicle for breaking down walls.

It was great to read about how his congregation generally, although not unanimously, is comfortable with their rabbi and his husband. It was also great to read that the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Hungary—but not Poland—now recognize same-gender partnerships. Now, Virginia and most of the U.S. lags behind parts of Eastern Europe!

But perhaps most moving of all was his story, both the personal and the religious.

In the 1980s and early 90s, Katz was Sweden’s Chief Orthodox Rabbi, married to a woman with whom he had five children. Later, he worked in Berlin and Los Angeles. His children fully accept, indeed bless, their dad and Gleason.

Katz is the second rabbi to serve Beit Warszawa, a Reform community of 250 members founded in Warsaw ten years ago. Reform Judaism ordains gay rabbis.

In “coming out,” he began a move from Orthodox to Reform Judaism. But he also, moved in that direction because he realized that much of Orthodox ritual turned off his children and other young people. It is important to him that there be a growing Jewish movement in Poland due to the decimation of the Jewish population in that country during WWII. He wants a vibrant community where there once was one.

Rabbi Katz wants more people to connect with God, and to worry less about categories. But Rabbi Katz also loves tradition. So, he keeps a kosher home, and observes other traditions as well. Rabbi Katz's life shows us that faith does not work in a straight line, nor does it need to. As People of Faith for Equality in Virginia declares, “Family, like faith, comes in many different shapes.”

And for that we say, with Rabbi Katz, Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha olam...Blessed are You, LORD, our God, King of the universe.

 This post from Harry Knox (pictured right) – director of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Religion and Faith Program — reflects on the White House event marking the 40th anniversary of Stonewall and LGBT pride month.

My husband, Michael Bozeman, and I were privileged to attend the reception at the White House in honor of the 40^th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

Having felt for so many years as if the White House was not safe space for me and mine, it felt good to be in the People’s House surrounded by so many people that I consider heroes – Frank Kameny, Bishop Yvette Flunder and her wife, Shirley Miller, Bishop Gene Robinson and his husband Mark Andrew, Rev. Darlene Garner, Rev. Candy Holmes, Rev. Elder Troy Perry and his husband, Philip De Blieck…

It was very nice to hold Mike’s hand while listening to President Obama honor the courage of the transgender people of color who were the catalysts for change at the Stonewall Inn 40 years ago.  If the event was largely symbolic, it was a potent symbol of how far we have come since the days when I hid in the stacks of the university library reading Troy Perry’s  and Fr. John McNeil’s books as fast as I could because I was afraid to actually check them out.

I had very much in my mind, though, the folks I met with after church last Sunday in Elwyn, PA.  They knew I was going to the event at the White House and wanted me to tell the President they need hate crimes and employment protections now, not later.  With more than 250 people in the room yesterday, I wasn’t invited to interact with the President, but I and many others bent the ears of all the administration staff and Democratic Party operatives we could find to tell them that 40 years is too long for a community to organize, work, and give of its blood, sweat, tears and dollars only to have token gains to show for it.  I was heartened by the President’s remarks as he made clear that he and his administration are aware of our collective frustration with the pace of change on behalf of LGBT justice.

Translating that awareness into action is the hard work of advocating consistently in community.  I left the White House not giddy with excitement, but more determined than ever to keep doing what I can to help the President keep his promises to us.  That doesn’t mean making excuses for him or accepting excuses from him.  It means continuing to mobilize everyone I can find to urge them to write or call him to tell their own stories and explain how our families are as good as anyone else’s and why we need the protections and supports that should go along with the responsibilities we willingly embrace.  It means asking everyone who believes in equality for LGBT people to contact their members of Congress and ask them, not just to support pro-LGBT legislation when it finally comes to a vote, but to report on how those senators and representatives are giving leadership to make that legislation successful.

There’s a powerful story about President Franklin Roosevelt that I find instructive.  It is said that a group of labor leaders met with him and laid out a list of things they wanted from him.  President Roosevelt is said to have ended the meeting by uttering something like this – “Fellows, I agree with everything you’ve said.  Now get out there and make me do it!”

It is time for us LGBT and allied folk to set aside any sense that justice work is ever as easy as voting for one candidate or another, pick up our phones, fire up our keyboards, lift our picket signs and do whatever we can, as often as we can, in every venue we can, to demand the respect we are due as human beings.  We don’t have the luxury of being disappointed that just voting right last fall wasn’t enough.  We have to help our friends in government keep their promises to us.

Community organizers seem to be a special breed.  Last week, two of them met at the White House.

President Barack Obama, former community organizer, honored Frank Kameny (pictured right), former LGBT community organizer, at a White House reception honoring Gay Pride Month and Stonewall.

Who is Frank Kameny?

In 1961, he organized the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. and began aggressively asserting gay rights. He was an astronomer who had been dismissed from the federal Civil Service in 1957—as a “security risk” under McCarthyite rules. Beginning in 1962, Frank and some cohorts made the rounds of federal agencies, filing complaints against discrimination by the Civil Service Commission.

By 1964, he was asserting, “Gay is Good,” and helped lead an effort to overturn more conservative leadership among “homophile” organizations. He remains active in the queer rights movement today.

I don’t know Frank Kameny’s religious beliefs, if any, but I do know that President Obama connects his faith to his sense of community and the need to organize.

 Community organizers are people who bring people together to create change, for the good of the community, especially those usually ignored and left out.  The three Abrahamic faiths would be nowhere without community organizers. Moses surely was one, and you could make a strong case for Abraham and many of his offspring (Joseph of the famous coat may be the forerunner of our current president).  Mohammed clearly was one of the best. And Jesus gets pretty high marks, as does Paul.

Those of us who ground our commitment to LGBT equality in our faith—are we not called upon to be community organizers? We do that through our congregations, through our neighbors and friends and family, through POFEV (People of Faith for Equality in Virginia).

Let us honor all those who have come before, including Frank Kameny and all the early leaders for gay liberation, and let us honor the community organizers of our faith traditions—by organizing Virginia, block by block, town by town, county by county, from Danville to Arlington, from Virginia Beach to Bristol.

 

Yes, we can!

Many of us observe Juneteenth, the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.

It can seem odd to us--in this age of instant communication--that it was not until June 19, 1865 that those held in abject bondage in Texas did not know they had been freed by Presidential Proclamation on January 1, 1863. That was the day that Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston with the news the war had ended and the enslaved were now free.

Texas slaveowners, like oppressors everywhere, were not eager to let go of control, and certainly not to share the good news of liberation.

But our God—by whatever name—is a God of liberation. God's word, God's love, God's activity in the world, frees us every day. We do not have to wait for the oppressor to tell us we are free (remember Stonewall, which we celebrate next week).

God frees us from all that holds us down. God long ago proclaimed the end of all oppressions--whether they are social forces like racism and homophobia, or personal, internalized forces like shame or guilt or fear.

We celebrate the freeing of slaves on Juneteenth.

And each time we come together in worship, each time we come together to stand up for freedom, each time we say “No!” to injustice, each time we pray for ourselves and others, we participate in the struggle to claim the freedom God has already given us.

 

 

 

This is turning into a banner year for LGBT activists and our straight allies—same-gender-loving marriage has been approved in Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire. Polls show ever-growing support across the country for equality, and not just in marriage rights.

It seems fitting that 2009 should be the year of so many gains—because it was just 40 years ago, in late June, that the modern Gay Liberation Movement was born, at The Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar frequented by drag queens (many of them Puerto Rican) and their admirers.

It was June 27, 1969. Judy Garland had died. Much of gay Manhattan was in mourning. New York’s finest were on routine gay-bashing patrol.

Their timing was not good.

The drag queens decided they had had enough. Instead of letting the police cart them away, they turned the tables, blockading the police inside the bar, using parking meters to bash police cars and breaking into impromptu taunts of the cops (who badly underestimated the crowds of supporters who began to gather).

The underground network spread the word, as did the newspapers which ran a small item the next day. So, over the next several nights more LGBT folks turned out, and over the next few months, groups formed—everything from Gay Academics to Radical Lesbians—and by the next year there were Pride Marches in Manhattan and Los Angeles.

This history clearly matters to LGBT folks—which is why there will be a massive Pride march in New York on June 28, and why Virginia activists are planning activities for the entire weekend.

But this liberation history matters to everyone. Margaret Mead’s caution not to underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world always touches people of faith—because no matter our faith, we know it is true.

We know God is at work in everyday life, and in those extraordinary moments when once subjugated people throw off their chains.

The world, not just LGBT folks, but the entire world, is a better place because of fed-up drag queens at Stonewall.

Praise God!

 

As a pastor, I am accustomed to seeing how fear governs so many lives.

And as I continue advocating for LGBT equality, I note how much the arguments offered by our opponents are also based in fear.

One example is the controversy in New Hampshire, where the Governor is conditioning his signing the Marriage Equality bill on whether the legislature will grant an exemption to religious agencies and programs so they won’t have to perform, permit, facilitate, recognize or accept a same-sex marriage (or any other marriage to which they object). This also would apply to religiously-affiliated schools and health-care facilities.

As a pastor, I certainly do not favor forcing any religious authority to perform a ceremony which denies fundamental beliefs. This is religious liberty and it is foundational to our nation.

Of course, I am entitled to my religious liberty as well, to perform marriages that are honored by my faith and religious tradition. That is equally foundational—a point the other side does not accept.

So, protect clergy, yes. But I wonder at the justification for allowing institutions not to “recognize or accept” legal marriages.

This New Hampshire provision, and ones like it in other states, seems to be grounded in an elemental fear of contamination with “the unholy.” The law allows people to avoid bodily contact with “the other.” They do not have to face the reality that same-gender marriages exist. Are we allowing fear to govern the public sphere?

That reminds me that Emmet Fox–the pastor/preacher who in the 1930s had a profound impact on New York City, and especially the founders of AA–says: “Really there are only two feelings a human being can have, namely love and fear.”

Fox is making a spiritual observation, not a clinical one. From a spiritual perspective, we are either engaging in love or in fear.

Fox also says, “Love is always creative, and fear is always destructive.” The “always” in that statement may feel forced.

And yet, it does seem true that when we love, we engage in making something more and better than it was. And when we fear, we participate in making something smaller and less God-like.

Let us love, my dear ones, and grow the world in God’s image. And let us heal fear with love.

Rev. Robin

  Last week, I joined more than 300 clergy from around the country in Washington, D.C. to speak to Congress for LGBT equality.

We were part of Clergy Call, a program of the Human Rights Campaign Religion & Faith Program. There were talks by leaders--Jewish, Christian, Muslim--and break-out groups organized by state--we had about 20 folks from Virginia in attendance.  (Pictured on the left is the Rev. Dr. Cindi Love, Execustive Director of MCC Worldwide and pictured on the right below is the Rev. Pat Bumgardner and Rev. Karla Fleishman.)

We represented many different understandings of God, and we felt not only safe with one another but blessed by each other. At a two-hour inter-faith service, we received incredible gifts. 

So much passion, so much spiritual power, in one place. I have been on a high ever since.

But it may have been the visits to Capitol Hill on Tuesday that filled my heart the most.  Visiting Senate and House offices--mostly seeing staff--can be a mixed bag. You can feel like a beggar, asking for a crumb of justice.

However, this time, there was something extraordinarily powerful going on for me. As we went from office to office, and ran into colleagues visiting their states' representatives and senators, I felt the air changing.

We are going to win this, I thought. There is no stopping us.

We are not begging. We are giving our elected leaders a chance to join the juggernaut of justice that will sweep them up in its wake.

There will be another HRC Clergy Call in two years. I can taste the joy already.