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2008 - Rev. Cedric Harmon, Co-Founded with Ann Thompson Cook, Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay and Transgender Justice.

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Title

2008 - Rev. Cedric Harmon, Co-Founded with Ann Thompson Cook, Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay and Transgender Justice.

Subject


Seeking to create radically inclusive churches that warmly welcome and fully integrate LGBTQ people, Harmon has worked from the pulpit, lectured at universities, published books, spoken at conferences, created podcasts, and produced videos. His work with other organizations has involved the Metropolitan Community Church of Corpus Christi, the Reconciling Ministries Network, the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Community Church of New York. Believing that faith can make one effective in changing the world, Harmon gave a speech called 'Becoming A Spiritual Force.' He has been a faith leadership trainer, such as in 2019 for the Unitarian Universalist Association and in 2020 when Harmon ran a seminar for the Applied Wisdom Institute at the Graduate School of Theology, University of the Redlands, in their program offering a Certificate in LGBTQ Leadership.

Most notable are two video campaigns Harmon's church launched. The one in 2014 was Black Southern Pastors' Call for LGBT Justice. It featured straight clergy
challenging the use of scripture to promote stereotypes from the pulpit in ways that encourage the community to remain hostile to LGBT people who should be welcomed into fellowship. Many Voices issued a second video campaign 2016 called ' My God Too: Black LGBTQ Students Speak OUT.' It raised awareness of the Christian background and aspirations of students at HBCUs.

Description

Raised in an African American Baptist family, Harmon was eight when he received a call to the ministry. Declaring himself gay in 1994 was an act that began his life work of helping Black Churches welcome their LGBT members.

Source

https://www.manyvoices.org/about/people/
https://www.manyvoices.org/about/background/
https://www.manyvoices.org/blog/contributor/ann-thompson-cook/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedric_Harmon

Citation

“2008 - Rev. Cedric Harmon, Co-Founded with Ann Thompson Cook, Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay and Transgender Justice.”, The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-Spiritual Leadership, LGBTQ Religious Archives Network, accessed November 14, 2024, https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/bipoc-trans-spiritual/item/2077.