People of Faith for Equality in Virginia

Presbyterians Take a Big Step Forward

rainbow_cross_crop This week, the Presbyterian Church (USA) became the latest Christian denomination to lower barriers against LGBT people in their midst. A new rule—passed in May and taking effect July 10—allows “presbyteries,” regional bodies of the church, and local congregations to decide whether to allow the ordination of openly LGBT persons. Presbyterian equality activists—there are many, including Covenant Network of Presbyterians and More Light Presbyterians—are ecstatic. Theirs has been a long struggle.

DavidSindt The battle has been waging since at least 1974, when a delegate to that year’s denominational General Assembly held up a sign, “Is anyone else out there gay?” That brave act by David Bailey Sindt (pictured right) triggered response, positive and negative, and the contest for the soul of the church has been engaged ever since. This is a reminder that some times it only takes one of us to speak up, or stand up, to create what ultimately is a large wave of change.

It also is a reminder that sometimes victories are not pure and total. This action creates what in essence is “local option,” meaning that there well could be places where openly LGBT people will not be ordained, or even accepted. So, Presbyterians have not ended discrimination outright.

Two Americas Side by Side

DOMA_0 The distance from Virginia to New York is 472.6 miles. Eight and a half hours by car, barring the inevitable traffic jams and road work. It is only eight and a half hours from the austere columns of the Virginia Capitol building to the high romanesque roofs of the building in Albany where just over a week ago they passed a bill to legalize same-gender marriage in Americas third largest state.

Somehow that distance seems farther today. It seems like just under 500 miles from here, is another America.

But let us travel even further away--not in location but in time--to when my mother was a little girl in the 1950s, living in a cramped apartment with her single mother and grandparents in Brooklyn. She didn't know it yet, but her future husband was 757 miles away in Louisville, Kentucky and their lives could not have been more different.

Reasons to Be Proud

Pride_flag It's been a month of flags, parades, tables, new opportunities, and new allies. It is pride month, the month we remember the past, dream of the future and revel in what we have now.

And what we have now, here in Virginia is a lot. This year People of Faith was out at the Hampton Roads/Norfolk Pride, we put on a prayer service in Northern Virginia, and tabled at Capitol Pride in DC, and at all these events we were blessed. We were blessed by the number of proud Virginians. We all know that there are LGBT people everywhere in Virginia, in every county, community and workplace--even the Federal Reserve Bank--but this year I was touched especially by the number of churches, synagogues, and faith communities that came out in support of our families and our humanity.

This year I saw not just the usual suspects of Unitarian Universalists, or Metropolitan Community Churches, or even Episcopal, UCC, Reform Jewish Congregations, or Presbyterians. This year I was touched by the words of a Baptist Minister when she spoke at the Pride Prayer Service and I was heartened by a quiet conversation with two Mormons, amidst the bustle of the Pride Festival. This year we had a half dozen faith groups in the Norfolk area showing their pride, and more than twice that in the DC area.