56 20 2479 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/8e6a2b1cf8eacc8d021921602c75174b.jpg 28ad1cbaaf9dc92e583cadd463e9b1e6 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document The Rev. Charles Lewis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1931. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, leaving to spend two years in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955. He graduated from Gettysburg College and the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary in Maywood, Illinois. During seminary, he served as an intern with the Luther League of America and subsequently was elected to the staff as an Associate Secretary of that youth service agency. During a period of denominational merger, Lewis left the national church staff position to become the assistant pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1961. He resigned that position in 1963 and was assigned by the Lutheran Board of American Missions to develop a mission congregation in the North Beach area of San Francisco. The appearance of a Life magazine article about the Jumping Frog, a gay bar in San Francisco, prompted Lewis’ supervisor to suggest that he explore this ministry area further because the church had no relationships with homosexuals. Lewis arrived in San Francisco in early 1964 and initiated the North Beach Mission. Around this time, an ecumenical group of urban ministers in San Francisco, led by Bill Grace (Presbyterian) and Bill Black (Lutheran), were completing a study of services available to city residents during nighttime hours. Their conclusions that few such public services were available led to the formation of the Night Ministry. A pilot program, supported by seven denominational groups, was developed in 1963 and the Night Ministry was officially launched in the fall of 1964. Developing relationships with young homosexuals was a key element of this crisis ministry. Lewis became a part-time assistant to the first Night Minister, Don Stuart (United Church of Christ). After 12 years of part-time service, Lewis became the full-time Night Minister in 1976. Also in 1964, an early summer retreat, convened by the Rev. Ted McIlvenna (United Methodist) from the Glide Foundation Young Adult Project, brought together an ecumenical group of clergy and gay/lesbian persons for dialogue. Out of this retreat the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH) was organized. Although he was not present at the initial retreat, Lewis was asked to be a clergy representative on the constituting board of this organization and served on the board for 10 years. As one of the early leaders of CRH, Lewis was present at the Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall on January 1, 1965. The blatant police harassment of the homosexual participants in this gala event that was a benefit for CRH led Lewis and other CRH clergy to hold a press conference the following morning to express their outrage at the police and city officials. The widespread media coverage of their press conference and other reactions to this incident spurred the development of the gay and lesbian rights movement in the San Francisco Bay area. Lewis organized the San Francisco chapter of Lutherans Concerned at the North Beach Mission in 1974. Lewis was one of the more than 40 clergy who ordained openly gay and lesbian Lutheran ministerial candidates Jeff Johnson, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart in 1990. (This statement written by Mark Bowman from an interview with Chuck Lewis done by James Waller on October 2, 1994, with additional information provided by Chuck Lewis.) Biographical Text The Rev. Charles Lewis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1931. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, leaving to spend two years in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955. He graduated from Gettysburg College and the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary in Maywood, Illinois. During seminary, he served as an intern with the Luther League of America and subsequently was elected to the staff as an Associate Secretary of that youth service agency. During a period of denominational merger, Lewis left the national church staff position to become the assistant pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1961. He resigned that position in 1963 and was assigned by the Lutheran Board of American Missions to develop a mission congregation in the North Beach area of San Francisco. The appearance of a Life magazine article about the Jumping Frog, a gay bar in San Francisco, prompted Lewis’ supervisor to suggest that he explore this ministry area further because the church had no relationships with homosexuals. Lewis arrived in San Francisco in early 1964 and initiated the North Beach Mission. Around this time, an ecumenical group of urban ministers in San Francisco, led by Bill Grace (Presbyterian) and Bill Black (Lutheran), were completing a study of services available to city residents during nighttime hours. Their conclusions that few such public services were available led to the formation of the Night Ministry. A pilot program, supported by seven denominational groups, was developed in 1963 and the Night Ministry was officially launched in the fall of 1964. Developing relationships with young homosexuals was a key element of this crisis ministry. Lewis became a part-time assistant to the first Night Minister, Don Stuart (United Church of Christ). After 12 years of part-time service, Lewis became the full-time Night Minister in 1976. Also in 1964, an early summer retreat, convened by the Rev. Ted McIlvenna (United Methodist) from the Glide Foundation Young Adult Project, brought together an ecumenical group of clergy and gay/lesbian persons for dialogue. Out of this retreat the Council on Religion and the Homosexual (CRH) was organized. Although he was not present at the initial retreat, Lewis was asked to be a clergy representative on the constituting board of this organization and served on the board for 10 years. As one of the early leaders of CRH, Lewis was present at the Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall on January 1, 1965. The blatant police harassment of the homosexual participants in this gala event that was a benefit for CRH led Lewis and other CRH clergy to hold a press conference the following morning to express their outrage at the police and city officials. The widespread media coverage of their press conference and other reactions to this incident spurred the development of the gay and lesbian rights movement in the San Francisco Bay area. Lewis organized the San Francisco chapter of Lutherans Concerned at the North Beach Mission in 1974. Lewis was one of the more than 40 clergy who ordained openly gay and lesbian Lutheran ministerial candidates Jeff Johnson, Ruth Frost and Phyllis Zillhart in 1990. (This statement written by Mark Bowman from an interview with Chuck Lewis done by James Waller on October 2, 1994, with additional information provided by Chuck Lewis.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chuck Lewis Chuck Lewis Council on Religion and the Homosexual CRH Lutheran Lutherans Concerned https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a07baf78db3e392d6dabad392cc2e10f.jpg 7ae350789a52f7606cfe1081cc37187f Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Chris Paige is an OtherWise-identified transgender activist who seeks justice through work as a writer, organizer, and educator. Chris prefers pronouns they/them and has been involved in several kinds of LGBT faith-based organizing through the years, most prominently as executive director and co-founder of Transfaith. In 1999, Chris created a small website called Transfaith Online to gather information about transgender spirituality.  Chris came back to the Transfaith project in 2007, relaunching the website which resulted in deepening Chris's relationships among transgender spiritual/cultural workers over several years.  Chris was involved in the founding of transgender groups in the United Church of Christ (UCC GenderFold Action Alliance in 2010) and The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TransSaints in 2009), as well as ground-breaking multi-faith programming at the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. Chris went on to become was conference chair of the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference in 2011 as it emerged as the largest transgender conference in the world. In 2012, the once-small project of Transfaith (<a href="http://www.transfaithonline.org/">www.transfaithonline.org</a>) turned towards multi-faith, multi-racial, multi-gender organizational development, hiring Chris as executive director. Chris was named to the Trans 100 in 2014, was named an inaugural Arcus LGBT Leadership Initiative (ALLI) fellow in 2013,  received a "patron of humanity"award from the Philadelphia Metropolitan Community Church  in 2011, and received an achievement award from FTM International in 2010. Chris has long been engaged in ecumenical and multi-faith organizing. Chris served as coordinator of the YES! Coalition for several years, building relationships among diverse LGBT-affirming faith communities in the Philadelphia-area. Chris served on the council of CLOUT (Christian Lesbians Out Together), as communications coordinator for the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns (<a href="http://www.openandaffirming.org/">www.openandaffirming.org</a>), an advisor on the Witness Our Welcome 2003 conference, and has been a part of the National Religious Leaders Roundtable for many years. Chris was on the staff of the award-winning progressive, ecumenical Christian magazine The Other Side from 1994 to 2003. From 1999 to 2003, they served as publisher, and helped shape the magazine's May-June 2001 ground-breaking issue on transgender concerns. It was there that Chris met then-Methodist clergy, the Rev. Beth Stroud.  Their 15-year relationship included a nationally publicized church trial in 2004 that was eventually appealed to the Judicial Council, resulting in Rev. Stroud's credentials being defrocked due to the so-called "same sex" relationship. Baptized in a Christian Reformed Church in Lansing, Michigan, in 1971, Chris was confirmed and ordained an elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Chris graduated with a B.S. degree in Math, Computer Science, and Religion from Mary Washington College (now University of Mary Washington: <a href="http://www.umw.edu/">www.umw.edu</a>) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1994.  Chris has been a member at Tabernacle United Church <a href="http://www.tabunited.org/">www.tabunited.org</a> in Philadelphia for more than 20 years and is an associate member at Living Water United Church of Christ <a href="http://www.lwucc.org/">www.lwucc.org</a> also in Philadelphia. Chris is blessed with supportive family by birth and by adoption. (This biographical statement provided by Chris Paige.) Biographical Text Chris Paige is an OtherWise-identified transgender activist who seeks justice through work as a writer, organizer, and educator. Chris prefers pronouns they/them and has been involved in several kinds of LGBT faith-based organizing through the years, most prominently as executive director and co-founder of Transfaith. In 1999, Chris created a small website called Transfaith Online to gather information about transgender spirituality.  Chris came back to the Transfaith project in 2007, relaunching the website which resulted in deepening Chris's relationships among transgender spiritual/cultural workers over several years.  Chris was involved in the founding of transgender groups in the United Church of Christ (UCC GenderFold Action Alliance in 2010) and The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TransSaints in 2009), as well as ground-breaking multi-faith programming at the Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference. Chris went on to become was conference chair of the Philadelphia Trans Health Conference in 2011 as it emerged as the largest transgender conference in the world. In 2012, the once-small project of Transfaith (<a href="http://www.transfaithonline.org/">www.transfaithonline.org</a>) turned towards multi-faith, multi-racial, multi-gender organizational development, hiring Chris as executive director. Chris was named to the Trans 100 in 2014, was named an inaugural Arcus LGBT Leadership Initiative (ALLI) fellow in 2013,  received a "patron of humanity"award from the Philadelphia Metropolitan Community Church  in 2011, and received an achievement award from FTM International in 2010. Chris has long been engaged in ecumenical and multi-faith organizing. Chris served as coordinator of the YES! Coalition for several years, building relationships among diverse LGBT-affirming faith communities in the Philadelphia-area. Chris served on the council of CLOUT (Christian Lesbians Out Together), as communications coordinator for the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns (<a href="http://www.openandaffirming.org/">www.openandaffirming.org</a>), an advisor on the Witness Our Welcome 2003 conference, and has been a part of the National Religious Leaders Roundtable for many years. Chris was on the staff of the award-winning progressive, ecumenical Christian magazine The Other Side from 1994 to 2003. From 1999 to 2003, they served as publisher, and helped shape the magazine's May-June 2001 ground-breaking issue on transgender concerns. It was there that Chris met then-Methodist clergy, the Rev. Beth Stroud.  Their 15-year relationship included a nationally publicized church trial in 2004 that was eventually appealed to the Judicial Council, resulting in Rev. Stroud's credentials being defrocked due to the so-called "same sex" relationship. Baptized in a Christian Reformed Church in Lansing, Michigan, in 1971, Chris was confirmed and ordained an elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  Chris graduated with a B.S. degree in Math, Computer Science, and Religion from Mary Washington College (now University of Mary Washington: <a href="http://www.umw.edu/">www.umw.edu</a>) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1994.  Chris has been a member at Tabernacle United Church <a href="http://www.tabunited.org/">www.tabunited.org</a> in Philadelphia for more than 20 years and is an associate member at Living Water United Church of Christ <a href="http://www.lwucc.org/">www.lwucc.org</a> also in Philadelphia. Chris is blessed with supportive family by birth and by adoption. (This biographical statement provided by Chris Paige.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chris Paige Chris Paige CLOUT CLOUT (Christian Lesbians OUT Together) Fellowship of Affirming Ministries ONA Open and Affirming in the UCC TransFaith TransFaith Online UCC United Church of Christ https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/bc97b42eb399ea44f0b62457cec604ef.jpg 12b656e7ff4f790b8d8c0c899a654665 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Chris Glaser received his M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1977 and earlier, his B.A. in English Honors and Religious Studies from California State University, Northridge, in 1973. While in college he served as Director of Youth Ministry of the Congregational Church of Northridge (UCC) and was ordained an elder of his home congregation, First Presbyterian Church of Van Nuys. In 1974 Glaser founded what became the Gay/Lesbian/Straight Coalition at Yale Divinity School, and, in 1976, he founded the Gay/Lesbian Peer Counseling Service at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia while a campus ministry intern for the Christian Association (1975-1976). From 1977 to 1987, he served as founding Director of the Lazarus Project, a ministry of reconciliation between the church and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Los Angeles, funded by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) nationally and regionally. Shortly thereafter he served a year as an interim campus chaplain at the United Campus Ministry of the University of Southern California. Glaser was the openly gay member of the Presbyterian Task Force to Study Homosexuality which met from 1976-1978. When the denomination rejected the favorable recommendations of that committee and established a policy forbidding the ordination of gays and lesbians in 1978, he was refused ordination while remaining employed by the church as Lazarus Director. He ghostwrote and edited much of the denomination’s 1985 book, Breaking the Silence, Overcoming the Fear - Resources in Homophobia Education. He served as the second national coordinator and treasurer of Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns, overseeing its acquiring not-for-profit status with the IRS and writing the first annual report accepted by a Presbyterian General Assembly in 1979. As editor of its newsletter for three years, he gave the publication its name, More Light, now known as the More Light Update, from which More Light churches that are welcoming of LGBT people get their name. He continued to serve the More Light Update as columnist and guest editor and writer of semi-annual prayerbooks and collections of resource materials. He has also written two youth curricula for a consortium of churches, including the PC(USA), on worship and on racism, and edited two others on evangelism and 1 and 2 Samuel. Chris Glaser has published twelve books, including Uncommon Calling (1988), Come Home! (1990), and Coming Out as Sacrament (1998), and a series of devotional books: Coming Out to God (1991), The Word Is Out (1994), Communion of Life-Meditations for the New Millennium (1999), and Reformation of the Heart(2001). Collaborating with his golden Labrador retriever, Calvin, he "translated from the canine"Unleashed-The Wit and Wisdom of Calvin the Dog (1998). His book, Henri’s Mantle-100 Meditations on Nouwen’s Life and Writings (2002) reflects on the words and friendship of his spiritual mentor, prolific religious author Henri J. M. Nouwen. In 2005, Chris edited Troy Perry: Pastor and Prophet. His most recent books include As My Own Soul: The Blessing of Same-Gender Marriage (2009) and The Final Deadline: What Death Has Taught Me about Life (2010). The Word Is Out and Henri's Mantle are now available in Spanish language editions. He has also contributed to a score of other books, including, Prayers for the New Social Awakening (2008), Den Svenska Psalmboken [Hymnbook for the Church of Sweden] (2007), Remembering Henri: The Life and Legacy of Henri Nouwen (2006), Befriending Life—Encounters with Henri Nouwen (2001) and Body and Soul: Womanist, Feminist, Queer Theologians Rethink Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice (Fall, 2002). His writings have appeared in many publications, including Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The New York Times, The Advocate, Frontiers, Christianity and Crisis (for which he was a columnist), The Christian Century, and a range of church periodicals, including Church and Society and Presbyterians Today. For HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, he has authored and edited two curricula, one on the film For the Bible Tells Me So and one on Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities. For five years (1998-2002), Glaser was editor of Open Hands, a U.S./Canadian ecumenical quarterly magazine for one thousand congregations that are welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, sponsored by welcoming programs in seven denominations in the U.S. and Canada. Earlier he was news reporter and then news editor of Frontiers, a gay newsmagazine out of Los Angeles. Chris has served in a variety of parish, campus, and youth ministries and as a member of countless church committees. As a volunteer, he has chaired the Spiritual Advisory Committee of AIDS Project Los Angeles, has been a board member of the Southern Association for Gender Education, Inc., as an ally of transgender people, and is presently on the advisory board of The Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith. From 2001 to 2005, he served part-time as Spiritual Leader of the interfaith Midtown Spiritual Community. In 2005, MCC invited him to serve as an interim pastor of Christ Covenant MCC in Decatur, Georgia, ordaining him that October. He served as interim of MCC San Francisco and of Virginia Highland Church (UCC/Baptist) in Atlanta. Since 2011, Chris Glaser has written free weekly Progressive Christian Reflections under the auspices of the Office of Emerging Ministries of MCC. The blog may be found at <a href="http://www.chrisglaser.blogspot.com/">http://www.chrisglaser.blogspot.com</a>.  His posts may also be found on other blogs, such as The Huffington Post, ProgressiveChristianity.org, and Believe Out Loud. His awards include Yale Divinity School’s Alumni Award for Distinction in Lay Ministry (2004), the Inclusive Church Award from More Light Presbyterians (1998), and the Lazarus Award (1988). The Advocate named him one of the Advocate 500, leaders who have helped shape the LGBT movement. In honor of Hotlanta 2001 he was named one of 100 “hot” persons, places, and things in Atlanta (one of five “hot” writers), as chosen by readers and the editorial staff of Southern Voice, then the gay and lesbian newspaper of the South. He served as grand marshal of the Atlanta Pride parade in 2009. A native Californian, Chris has made his home in Atlanta since 1993. He is married to Wade Jones. (This biographical statement provided by Chris Glaser.) Biographical Text Chris Glaser received his M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1977 and earlier, his B.A. in English Honors and Religious Studies from California State University, Northridge, in 1973. While in college he served as Director of Youth Ministry of the Congregational Church of Northridge (UCC) and was ordained an elder of his home congregation, First Presbyterian Church of Van Nuys. In 1974 Glaser founded what became the Gay/Lesbian/Straight Coalition at Yale Divinity School, and, in 1976, he founded the Gay/Lesbian Peer Counseling Service at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia while a campus ministry intern for the Christian Association (1975-1976). From 1977 to 1987, he served as founding Director of the Lazarus Project, a ministry of reconciliation between the church and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in Los Angeles, funded by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) nationally and regionally. Shortly thereafter he served a year as an interim campus chaplain at the United Campus Ministry of the University of Southern California. Glaser was the openly gay member of the Presbyterian Task Force to Study Homosexuality which met from 1976-1978. When the denomination rejected the favorable recommendations of that committee and established a policy forbidding the ordination of gays and lesbians in 1978, he was refused ordination while remaining employed by the church as Lazarus Director. He ghostwrote and edited much of the denomination’s 1985 book, Breaking the Silence, Overcoming the Fear - Resources in Homophobia Education. He served as the second national coordinator and treasurer of Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns, overseeing its acquiring not-for-profit status with the IRS and writing the first annual report accepted by a Presbyterian General Assembly in 1979. As editor of its newsletter for three years, he gave the publication its name, More Light, now known as the More Light Update, from which More Light churches that are welcoming of LGBT people get their name. He continued to serve the More Light Update as columnist and guest editor and writer of semi-annual prayerbooks and collections of resource materials. He has also written two youth curricula for a consortium of churches, including the PC(USA), on worship and on racism, and edited two others on evangelism and 1 and 2 Samuel. Chris Glaser has published twelve books, including Uncommon Calling (1988), Come Home! (1990), and Coming Out as Sacrament (1998), and a series of devotional books: Coming Out to God (1991), The Word Is Out (1994), Communion of Life-Meditations for the New Millennium (1999), and Reformation of the Heart(2001). Collaborating with his golden Labrador retriever, Calvin, he "translated from the canine"Unleashed-The Wit and Wisdom of Calvin the Dog (1998). His book, Henri’s Mantle-100 Meditations on Nouwen’s Life and Writings (2002) reflects on the words and friendship of his spiritual mentor, prolific religious author Henri J. M. Nouwen. In 2005, Chris edited Troy Perry: Pastor and Prophet. His most recent books include As My Own Soul: The Blessing of Same-Gender Marriage (2009) and The Final Deadline: What Death Has Taught Me about Life (2010). The Word Is Out and Henri's Mantle are now available in Spanish language editions. He has also contributed to a score of other books, including, Prayers for the New Social Awakening (2008), Den Svenska Psalmboken [Hymnbook for the Church of Sweden] (2007), Remembering Henri: The Life and Legacy of Henri Nouwen (2006), Befriending Life—Encounters with Henri Nouwen (2001) and Body and Soul: Womanist, Feminist, Queer Theologians Rethink Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice (Fall, 2002). His writings have appeared in many publications, including Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, The New York Times, The Advocate, Frontiers, Christianity and Crisis (for which he was a columnist), The Christian Century, and a range of church periodicals, including Church and Society and Presbyterians Today. For HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, he has authored and edited two curricula, one on the film For the Bible Tells Me So and one on Gender Identity and Our Faith Communities. For five years (1998-2002), Glaser was editor of Open Hands, a U.S./Canadian ecumenical quarterly magazine for one thousand congregations that are welcoming of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons, sponsored by welcoming programs in seven denominations in the U.S. and Canada. Earlier he was news reporter and then news editor of Frontiers, a gay newsmagazine out of Los Angeles. Chris has served in a variety of parish, campus, and youth ministries and as a member of countless church committees. As a volunteer, he has chaired the Spiritual Advisory Committee of AIDS Project Los Angeles, has been a board member of the Southern Association for Gender Education, Inc., as an ally of transgender people, and is presently on the advisory board of The Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith. From 2001 to 2005, he served part-time as Spiritual Leader of the interfaith Midtown Spiritual Community. In 2005, MCC invited him to serve as an interim pastor of Christ Covenant MCC in Decatur, Georgia, ordaining him that October. He served as interim of MCC San Francisco and of Virginia Highland Church (UCC/Baptist) in Atlanta. Since 2011, Chris Glaser has written free weekly Progressive Christian Reflections under the auspices of the Office of Emerging Ministries of MCC. The blog may be found at <a href="http://www.chrisglaser.blogspot.com/">http://www.chrisglaser.blogspot.com</a>.  His posts may also be found on other blogs, such as The Huffington Post, ProgressiveChristianity.org, and Believe Out Loud. His awards include Yale Divinity School’s Alumni Award for Distinction in Lay Ministry (2004), the Inclusive Church Award from More Light Presbyterians (1998), and the Lazarus Award (1988). The Advocate named him one of the Advocate 500, leaders who have helped shape the LGBT movement. In honor of Hotlanta 2001 he was named one of 100 “hot” persons, places, and things in Atlanta (one of five “hot” writers), as chosen by readers and the editorial staff of Southern Voice, then the gay and lesbian newspaper of the South. He served as grand marshal of the Atlanta Pride parade in 2009. A native Californian, Chris has made his home in Atlanta since 1993. He is married to Wade Jones. (This biographical statement provided by Chris Glaser.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Chris Glaser Chris Glaser Lazarus Project MCC Metropolitan Community Church Presbyterian https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/9ac183bf77f2d01cc1f3918a06dda734.jpg fcfde72d52a0556c7e9a98584c02c508 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Cedric Harmon is a native Midwesterner with Southern and New England influences—a surprise last child to older parents who shared with him the gift of experience and wisdom. He was a precocious youth excelling academically and religiously at a very early age. In fact, he announced a calling to ministry at age 8 and has been active in church ministry most of his life. He is a licensed and ordained Baptist minister. His childhood familial and ministerial experiences taught him that religion is something that you discuss and explore over time. This sense of exploration led him to numerous religious communities while he was a student at Emerson College in Boston, Mass. Harmon had decided that he would delay going directly into seminary, and so he attended Emerson College and graduated with a BS in media management. After graduation and some time working for a Boston publishing company, he moved to Washington, D.C. which has been his home every since. Initially, he found a job within the non-profit sector and decided the non-profit arena nurtured him and mirrored his religious values of a meaningful life where equality and justice mattered. Concomitantly, he felt the pull back into ministry and entered Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C. While deciding to go to seminary he also began his first same gendered partnership. His time at Wesley also spurred him into religious activism. Cedric’s deep faith calls him to do the work of justice and equality and equip others to do the same. For thirteen years, he worked as the Associate Field Director for Religious Outreach at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, where he identified clergy, provided media training and brought them to Washington, D.C. for legislative testimony about issues of religion and government. Although he began his work with the organization in 1996, his portfolio expanded to include reproductive justice issues, welfare reform, public education, and LGBT equality. Harmon left Americans United for Separation of Church and State in 2008 and began volunteering to organize clergy to secure marriage equality in Washington, D.C. He was already known for his writing and television appearances on human rights and social justice issues, and he serves on several boards having to do with sexuality and religion. At the same time, he became involved in the founding of an affirming and inclusive congregation in Washington, D.C. He served as associate pastor and then interim senior pastor of the congregation. Harmon recognized his career trajectory as religious organizing and activism and sees his role as pastor as a function of this activism. While serving this “radically inclusive” congregation, he also became Minister of Welcoming Resources for Many Voices. He is immensely proud that their website (<a href="http://www.manyvoices.org/">www.manyvoices.org</a>) provides liturgical and educational resources for allies and partners in the work of inclusion. Cedric is now Executive Director of Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice. Recognizing the need for a balanced life, he delights in living simply and mindfully. He loves the arts seeing them as a way to break through discrimination and oppression. Cedric enjoys his longtime friendships, cooking, being near a peaceful body of water, and going to concerts and museums. His foundational values of equality and respect are lived out in his work and hopes that humanity finds ways to relate to each other from places of love and respect. (This biographical statement provided by Cedric Harmon.) Biographical Text Cedric Harmon is a native Midwesterner with Southern and New England influences—a surprise last child to older parents who shared with him the gift of experience and wisdom. He was a precocious youth excelling academically and religiously at a very early age. In fact, he announced a calling to ministry at age 8 and has been active in church ministry most of his life. He is a licensed and ordained Baptist minister. His childhood familial and ministerial experiences taught him that religion is something that you discuss and explore over time. This sense of exploration led him to numerous religious communities while he was a student at Emerson College in Boston, Mass. Harmon had decided that he would delay going directly into seminary, and so he attended Emerson College and graduated with a BS in media management. After graduation and some time working for a Boston publishing company, he moved to Washington, D.C. which has been his home every since. Initially, he found a job within the non-profit sector and decided the non-profit arena nurtured him and mirrored his religious values of a meaningful life where equality and justice mattered. Concomitantly, he felt the pull back into ministry and entered Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C. While deciding to go to seminary he also began his first same gendered partnership. His time at Wesley also spurred him into religious activism. Cedric’s deep faith calls him to do the work of justice and equality and equip others to do the same. For thirteen years, he worked as the Associate Field Director for Religious Outreach at Americans United for Separation of Church and State, where he identified clergy, provided media training and brought them to Washington, D.C. for legislative testimony about issues of religion and government. Although he began his work with the organization in 1996, his portfolio expanded to include reproductive justice issues, welfare reform, public education, and LGBT equality. Harmon left Americans United for Separation of Church and State in 2008 and began volunteering to organize clergy to secure marriage equality in Washington, D.C. He was already known for his writing and television appearances on human rights and social justice issues, and he serves on several boards having to do with sexuality and religion. At the same time, he became involved in the founding of an affirming and inclusive congregation in Washington, D.C. He served as associate pastor and then interim senior pastor of the congregation. Harmon recognized his career trajectory as religious organizing and activism and sees his role as pastor as a function of this activism. While serving this “radically inclusive” congregation, he also became Minister of Welcoming Resources for Many Voices. He is immensely proud that their website (<a href="http://www.manyvoices.org/">www.manyvoices.org</a>) provides liturgical and educational resources for allies and partners in the work of inclusion. Cedric is now Executive Director of Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice. Recognizing the need for a balanced life, he delights in living simply and mindfully. He loves the arts seeing them as a way to break through discrimination and oppression. Cedric enjoys his longtime friendships, cooking, being near a peaceful body of water, and going to concerts and museums. His foundational values of equality and respect are lived out in his work and hopes that humanity finds ways to relate to each other from places of love and respect. (This biographical statement provided by Cedric Harmon.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Cedric Harmon Baptist Cedric Harmon Many Voices https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e74a917b0274dd80ffdb45e66112c6d0.jpg c881afe023dab22501bc845b8e2c5478 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document The Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward is an Episcopal priest, professor, theologian, activist, and writer. A pioneer in the areas of feminist liberation theology and the theology of sexuality. Carter was born on August 22, 1945, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Robert Clarence Heyward, Jr. and Mary Ann Carter Heyward, the eldest of three children. Two years later, the family moved to Hendersonville where Carter spent her early years in the mountains of North Carolina. It was during these early, formative years that the energy in these ancient hills touched her soul and, decades later, drew her back to live there again. The family moved back to Charlotte in 1955 where Carter spent her teen years. She was elected Chair of Episcopal Young Churchmen (sic) in the Diocese of North Carolina when she was 16 and, along with other teenagers, helped push the Diocese toward the racial integration of its summer camp.   Heyward received an undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1967. She attended Union Theological Seminary in New York for one year, but moved back to Charlotte in 1968 to work in her home parish, St. Martin’s Church, for the next year and a half as a lay assistant. An activist for racial justice from her teen years--in church, high school and college--she became a young feminist in seminary, working on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment and, of course, women's ordination in the Episcopal Church. She became active for gay and lesbian justice (before either "Bi" or "Trans" were much on the radar) as the 1970's progressed. The key for her, as both theologian and lesbian, was in realizing the fundamental theological, political, historical, and psychological connections between gender and sexual oppressions and justice movements. In 1971, Heyward returned to New York and earned a Master of Arts in the Comparative Study of Religion from Columbia University (1971), a Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary (1973) and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Union (1980), At a time in which neither the Episcopal Church--nor any other part of the world-wide Anglican Communion--would  ordain women as priests, Heyward was ordained on July 29, 1974, along with ten other women: Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield Fleisher, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Martha Swanson, and Nancy Hatch Wittig. Bishops Daniel Corrigan, Robert L. DeWitt, and Edward R. Welles presided at this "extraordinary" ordination service at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, the House of Bishops held an emergency meeting to invalidate these ordinations and sanction the bishops participating.  At the General Convention of 1976, the Episcopal Church officially approved the ordination of women into the priesthood. In January 1975, Heyward and fellow priest Suzanne Hiatt were hired at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a professor, Heyward’s primary teaching concentrated on 19th century Anglican theology, feminist liberation theology and theology of sexuality. She transformed consciousness, proclaimed the possibilities for women to be priests, for lesbians to be theological, and made way for new approaches to connecting the divine to the erotic, justice, activism. Heyward has authored or edited a dozen books, most recently,  Keep Your Courage: A Radical Christian Voice (Church Publishing Co, 2010). She is currently working on a thirteenth. In so-called retirement, she is founder and board chair of Free Rein, a therapeutic horseback riding center in mountains of North Carolina, where she lives in an intentional community.  She is also active in the Democratic Party and is a fiddler in a women's old time string band, the Bold Gray Mares. Information for this biographical statement taken from the finding aid to the Carter Heyward Papers at the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship and information provided by Carter Heyward.) Biographical Text The Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward is an Episcopal priest, professor, theologian, activist, and writer. A pioneer in the areas of feminist liberation theology and the theology of sexuality. Carter was born on August 22, 1945, in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Robert Clarence Heyward, Jr. and Mary Ann Carter Heyward, the eldest of three children. Two years later, the family moved to Hendersonville where Carter spent her early years in the mountains of North Carolina. It was during these early, formative years that the energy in these ancient hills touched her soul and, decades later, drew her back to live there again. The family moved back to Charlotte in 1955 where Carter spent her teen years. She was elected Chair of Episcopal Young Churchmen (sic) in the Diocese of North Carolina when she was 16 and, along with other teenagers, helped push the Diocese toward the racial integration of its summer camp.   Heyward received an undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon Women’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1967. She attended Union Theological Seminary in New York for one year, but moved back to Charlotte in 1968 to work in her home parish, St. Martin’s Church, for the next year and a half as a lay assistant. An activist for racial justice from her teen years--in church, high school and college--she became a young feminist in seminary, working on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment and, of course, women's ordination in the Episcopal Church. She became active for gay and lesbian justice (before either "Bi" or "Trans" were much on the radar) as the 1970's progressed. The key for her, as both theologian and lesbian, was in realizing the fundamental theological, political, historical, and psychological connections between gender and sexual oppressions and justice movements. In 1971, Heyward returned to New York and earned a Master of Arts in the Comparative Study of Religion from Columbia University (1971), a Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary (1973) and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Union (1980), At a time in which neither the Episcopal Church--nor any other part of the world-wide Anglican Communion--would  ordain women as priests, Heyward was ordained on July 29, 1974, along with ten other women: Merrill Bittner, Alla Bozarth-Campbell, Alison Cheek, Emily Hewitt, Suzanne Hiatt, Marie Moorefield Fleisher, Jeannette Piccard, Betty Bone Schiess, Katrina Martha Swanson, and Nancy Hatch Wittig. Bishops Daniel Corrigan, Robert L. DeWitt, and Edward R. Welles presided at this "extraordinary" ordination service at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shortly thereafter, the House of Bishops held an emergency meeting to invalidate these ordinations and sanction the bishops participating.  At the General Convention of 1976, the Episcopal Church officially approved the ordination of women into the priesthood. In January 1975, Heyward and fellow priest Suzanne Hiatt were hired at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a professor, Heyward’s primary teaching concentrated on 19th century Anglican theology, feminist liberation theology and theology of sexuality. She transformed consciousness, proclaimed the possibilities for women to be priests, for lesbians to be theological, and made way for new approaches to connecting the divine to the erotic, justice, activism. Heyward has authored or edited a dozen books, most recently,  Keep Your Courage: A Radical Christian Voice (Church Publishing Co, 2010). She is currently working on a thirteenth. In so-called retirement, she is founder and board chair of Free Rein, a therapeutic horseback riding center in mountains of North Carolina, where she lives in an intentional community.  She is also active in the Democratic Party and is a fiddler in a women's old time string band, the Bold Gray Mares. Information for this biographical statement taken from the finding aid to the Carter Heyward Papers at the Archives of Women in Theological Scholarship and information provided by Carter Heyward.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Carter Heyward Carter Heyward https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c415354d84660d0f48320703b1dc703b.jpg ed7454b205b8e05b40d3cd8ff83365da Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Candy (Lorilyn) Holmes was born in 1956 in Washington D.C. into a family from Southern roots. Her grandparents had migrated to D.C. in the 1930s for economic opportunities. This was a second marriage for her parents—her mother was divorced and her father was a widower. Candy and her brother had three older brothers and a sister from the previous marriages. The family home (Salem) church was of Baptist background. While her parents were of a religious temperament, their lower-middle class status meant they spent most of their time working and raising the family. So they saw that Candy and her brother received religious instruction regularly. Named Lorilyn at birth, she was given the nickname Candy by her brothers because of her sweet temperament and appearance. During Candy’s formative years her uncle received a call to ministry and started a new congregation, New Image Baptist Church in southeast Washington, DC.. Candy’s parents and other relatives all became active in this congregation. Candy was the first child baptized there, when she was eight years old. Candy grew up in that church—ushering, singing in the choir, teaching other children. Her parents were prominent leaders in the congregation, so Candy was viewed as a Deacon’s kid. Seeing dysfunctions that happened behind the scenes in church led Candy to become disenchanted with the church life. Her interest in church was waning by the time she was in high school. Candy was active in athletics in school and competed in track and field and basketball. She was also musically gifted and sang in a number of different choirs and ensembles, ranging from classical to Gospel. She sang with the prestigious, citywide D.C. Youth Chorale, which traveled nationally and internationally. She joined the gospel choir at McKinley Technical High School because she was initially interested in the young man who played the piano. This choir sang in different churches in the metro area, giving Candy the opportunity to observe different religious expressions. The piano player was Seventh Day Apostolic and she enjoyed visiting his church. Candy’s parents supported her musical activities, making personal sacrifices so that she could have piano lessons, dance lessons and other training. They enrolled her in the Art Linkletter School of the Arts who provided training for young women in social graces and skills and the arts. Candy was aware that she had an affinity for women since she was 11 (junior high school) but didn’t know exactly what that meant. In the turbulent 1970s, her musical activities provided Candy with a diversity of experiences that cut across racial and religious boundaries. Her parents grew increasingly concerned about her interest in other religious experiences. They sat her down to insist that her religious practice would continue in the family Baptist church as long as she lived i. Their home. Candy realized she was a spiritual seeker so she had to secretly explore other religious experiences. A turning point Candy remembers vividly during a high school choir engagement at Antioch Baptist Church in D.C., she recalls being enveloped and embraced physically by the presence of the Holy Spirit during an altar call and prayers. She literally felt on fire. It was the most intense feeling of love she had ever experienced. She then felt a tap on the shoulder—her father had arrived to take her home. Though disappointed to have that experience eclipsed, she found that she was able to relive this experience through prayer -- the presence of the Spirit would return to her hands and the crown of her head. This experience led her to study more about the gifts of the Spirit. She began to realize that this was a gift of healing that God was bestowing upon her. She could not talk to her parents about this. As she was completing high school Candy started thinking of becoming a doctor, to use her gifts of healing. She received an academic scholarship to study at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., about 40 miles from Boston. Enrolling in all-women’s school that was predominately White was a huge culture shock from life in D.C. where she interacted mostly with Black persons. The school had 1,200 students of whom around 40 were persons of color. She quickly tried to identify other students with whom she could connect. Though painfully shy,Candy made friends with a group of 6-7 Black women who participated in a new church in Boston. In addition to the culture shock, Candy’s counselor had encouraged her to enroll in upper-level classes because of outstanding academic work in high school. This meant that her first two years there were very difficult academically. In the midst of this personal tumult, the church in Boston, Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic faith, became a comfortable and safe place. As Candy immersed herself in that faith community she discovered there were many rules and limitations for living, largely related to wardrobe and social interactions. She didn’t have money to buy new clothes, so borrowed clothes from friends. She also had to be rebaptized in the Apostolic tradition - in the name of Jesus. She was expected to “tarry” for the Holy Ghost, to weekly pray with others to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit. This took the form of chanting, calling on Jesus’ name again and again. The expectation was evidence of the indwelling Spirit would eventually be demonstrated with speaking in tongues. It took months for Candy to receive the Holy Ghost and this glossalalia experience. The Apostolic tradition was more orthodox and stricter than other black Pentecostal traditions, particularly related to gender roles. Im the Apostolic tradotion, women could not preach or teach. Women sat behind the men in church. Women were to marry and have children. The man was head of the household. Women were expected to date only men for short stints. Premarital sex, dancing, worldly music, playing cards, make up, jewelry, and movies were all off- limits so this severely limited the life opportunities for college students like Candy. Back in Washington, D.C. Candy’s mother was becoming quite ill with diabetes. She could no longer work outside the home, which put pressure on the family finances. Candy asked her parents if she should come home to help out. While they didn’t ask her to come, she felt it was her duty as the oldest daughter. So Candy left college after her second year and went back to D.C. to help out with the family. She got a job in the federal government and resumed college. She became active in an Apostolic Church in D.C - Newborn Church of God and True Holiness which was even more strict that the church in Boston. In addition to the dogma of the previous church tradition, this church's dogma expected members to keep a distance from family members who were not also “saved.” This led to strains in the family. Candy, always a passionate person, became a zealot in the faith, making life with her family even more challenging. She continually admonished other family members to “get saved” and to join her in the Apostolic church. Her family remained in the Baptist church. Through these years Candy seriously dated and was engaged to a number of men from the Apostolic tradition. She also had a strong affection for a woman in the Boston and DC church. This emotional attachment to a woman seemed “natural” for her and was not new. In D.C. a woman in the church who was a few years older became Candy’s friend and mentor. That emotional attachment deepened over time. Even though Candy had become indoctrinated in the Apostolic tradition, there remained an underlying conflict between the affirmations of her gifts and the values Candy received from her mother and the strict practice of the church to put women in subservient roles. So Candy started asking questions about that. Candy sang with the choir in the D.C. church and as her gifts emerged she became the choir director. The choir grew under her leadership. She found that singing melded her musical gifts with her spiritual gifts. It was when she was singing that she experienced the Holy Spirit coming down upon the congregation and bringing healing. It was also during this time that Candy started hearing preaching condemning homosexuality. She never imagined that it might apply to her, but thought it might be directed toward the piano player who was married, but had effeminate mannerisms. As her affinity with her friend and mentor grew even stronger, Candy was called into a meeting with all the church women from the church who “undressed” her to try to pressure and ostracize her. She was told that she was possessed with the devil, evil spirits, and needed exorcism. She was pressured to get married in order to overcome her unnatural inclinations. Candy was mystified and hurt by this talk. She couldn’t figure out what was “unnatural” about what who she was and how she was she…this was the way she had always been. She could not understand why the other church women were turning on her and tried to continue as best she coulid. But it was hard. The level of tension only increased. A national convocation of churches and choirs was happening in New York City. Candy had prepared her choir to sing there and travelled there. After arriving a group of church and choir leaders, some of whom were driends, intercepted her as she approached the venue to tell her that she was “unfaithful” and would not be directing the choir. Candy tried appealing to the bishop, but to no avail. Candy cried her heart out in the bathroom, and then went into the sanctuary and sat in the audience. The choir was not aware what was happening. Ironically, the woman who was Candy’s friend and mentor and with whom she had an affinity stood in as choir director in her place. She had bowed down to the pressure and expectations. Candy entered a very difficult period of her life. As she tried to discern what was happening with her sexuality, she began to push religion and spirituality out of her life. She got to know a lesbian who was from the Apostolic tradition. However Candy had been so totally immersed in the tradition that she could not divest herself of the understanding that as a lesbian she would go to hell. How could God allow this to happen to her? She ended up being estranged from church and God for seven years. During this time she tried going to interfaith places where she would not find God’s judgement. She had to hit bottom in order to rebuild her heart, her life and her spirit. As she came to terms that she was a lesbian, she could not integrate spirituality with that. In the late 1980s, Candy was part of a Black Lesbian Support Group in DC. Another woman there ( who would later become her best friend), learned of Candy’s musical background and invited her to come to her church which was seeking gospel choir members. It took Candy quite a while to get up the nerve to go. The congregation met in a house. For her first visit, she noted it was crowded with predominately white men, a few women and persons of color. However, Pastor Larry Uhrig’s sermon touched her heart deeply. Service after service, she was watched with amazement the deeply spiritual intimacy of Communion. She continued attending periodically and cried through the whole service each time. This Metropolitan Community Church of DC congregation slowly wooed her back into a life of faith and brought healing to her life. It was a while longer before she was able to bring her gifts of music. When the need emerged for a gospel choir director. And there she was again, agreeing to help out. Slowly, Candy began to learn that her spirituality and sexuality were intertwined and were indeed gifts of God. Candy proceeded to rebuild her life bit by bit. She entered her first real and somewhat out Lesbian relationship. She could not tell her family about her relationship and did not take her partner to the family home. Candy’s mother was becoming increasingly ill and asked questions trying to understand what was happening in Candy’s life—even encouraging her to “live her life.” Candy was still too scared to come out. Her mother died during the period when this first relationship broke up—her heart was broken in two ways. Candy’s father was in fairly good health, but getting older and still needed care, so she became his caretaker. Throughout this time Candy was thriving professionally in her work in the federal government, at the Government Accounting Offfice (GAO). She moved up in the management ranks. But she did not come out at work. Always careful to not talk about her personal life at work. The gospel choir at MCC-DC grew tremendously under Candy’s leadership. The choir was invited to sing at major public engagements: Human Rights Campaign Fund dinner, Washtington Vathedral, National March on Washington, as backup to national performers. Candy was finding healing through music and, in turn, discerned that she had gifts for healing ministry. As she pondered how to respond to this call to ministry, she decided to pursue vocational training in an interfaith setting—at The New Seminary for Interfaith Studies in New York. She became certified and ordained as an Interfaith Minister there in 2001. As her ministry developed and expanded she was ordained in MCC in 2008. She also received her M.Div. degree from Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachussetts, in 2011. Even with her growing ministry in MCC, Candy kept that separated from her professional life. Then Proposition 8 which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry passed in California in 2008. While Candy had never planned to get married because she thought she couldn't, this campaign pierced her heart. Not long thereafter it was Diversity Month at the GAO and the LGBTQI employees group decided to post pictures of their families in a photo display in the lobby to showcase our families. Candy talked with her partner, Rev Elder Darlene Garner, who agreed to have their photo displayed. When Candy first walked by the assembled display she saw their picture had been enlarged on a large scale and placed in the center of the display, surrounded by smaller pictures of white families. Candy felt a sense of pride for this witness. Almost immediately thereafter. she received a call at her office desk for “Rev. Holmes.” Wondering who would address her this way at work, she learned the call was from the White House. Where she was being invited to stand with President Obama as he signed the Presidential Memorandum granting federal benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees in 2009. Because of policies restricting employees of other federal departments from visiting the White House, she had to go through numerous procedures to get permission to do this. At the signing ceremony, the President took the time for conversations with each person present. Upon her turn Candy thanked the President for all he had done to support LGBTQ people and surprised herself by adding that there was more for him to do. She held his hand, looked sqarely in his eyes and asked for his help. He said he would and encouraged her to go back to her community and ask them to make him do support the LGBTQI community. And that is what Candy did. Candy had unexpectedly and perhaps reluctantly, moved into the role of public advocate. Gollowing on there would be ongoing requests. She was asked to give testimony on behalf of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia in July 2009. She became a spokesperson on behalf of marriage equality with the Human Rights Campaign. When the Civil Marriage Protection Act came before the Maryland state legislation in 2012 she testified in both the state Senate and House of Representatives. This legislative was defeated at the polls the first time. Candy and others noted that the campaign had not drawn upon faith leaders more openly and more broadly. When the proposed law was brought forward a second time, the campaign did put more faith leaders, allies and persons of color into the public spotlight—and it passed. Candy and her wife Rev Darlene were also part of the justice work for marriage equality in Washington DC. And were one of the first five couples and the first black clergy, same-gender couple to be married in Washington DC. (This biographical statement written by Mark Bowman from an interview with Candy Holmes and edited by Candy.) Biographical Text Candy (Lorilyn) Holmes was born in 1956 in Washington D.C. into a family from Southern roots. Her grandparents had migrated to D.C. in the 1930s for economic opportunities.  This was a second marriage for her parents—her mother was divorced and her father was a widower.  Candy and her brother had three older brothers and a sister from the previous marriages.  The family home (Salem) church was of Baptist background.  While her parents were of a religious temperament, their lower-middle class status meant they spent most of their time working and raising the family.  So they saw that Candy and her brother received religious instruction regularly. Named Lorilyn at birth, she was given the nickname Candy by her brothers because of her sweet temperament and appearance.        During Candy’s formative years her uncle received a call to ministry and started a new congregation, New Image Baptist Church in southeast Washington, DC..  Candy’s parents and other relatives all became active in this congregation.  Candy was the first child baptized there, when she was eight years old. Candy grew up in that church—ushering, singing in the choir, teaching other children.  Her parents were prominent leaders in the congregation, so Candy was viewed as a Deacon’s kid.  Seeing dysfunctions that happened behind the scenes in church led Candy to become disenchanted with the church life.  Her interest in church was waning by the time she was in high school.    Candy was active in athletics in school and competed in track and field and basketball.  She was also musically gifted and sang in a number of different choirs and ensembles, ranging from classical to Gospel.  She sang with the prestigious, citywide D.C. Youth Chorale, which traveled nationally and internationally.  She joined the gospel choir at McKinley Technical High School because she was initially interested in the young man who played the piano. This choir sang in different churches in the metro area, giving Candy the opportunity to observe different religious expressions.  The piano player was Seventh Day Apostolic and she enjoyed visiting his church.   Candy’s parents supported her musical activities, making personal sacrifices so that she could have piano lessons, dance lessons and other training. They enrolled her in the Art Linkletter School of the Arts who provided training for young women in social graces and skills and the arts.  Candy was aware that she had an affinity for women since she was 11 (junior high school) but didn’t know exactly what that meant.  In the turbulent 1970s, her musical activities provided Candy with a diversity of experiences that cut across racial and religious boundaries.  Her parents grew increasingly concerned about her interest in other religious experiences.  They sat her down to insist that her religious practice would continue in the family Baptist church as long as she lived in their home.  Candy realized she was a spiritual seeker so she had to secretly explore other religious experiences.  A turning point Candy remembers vividly during a high school choir engagement at Antioch Baptist Church in D.C., she recalls being enveloped and embraced physically by the presence of the Holy Spirit during an altar call and prayers.  She literally felt on fire.  It was the most intense feeling of love she had ever experienced.  She then felt a tap on the shoulder—her father had arrived to take her home.  Though disappointed to have that experience eclipsed, she found that she was able to relive this experience through prayer -- the presence of the Spirit would return to her hands and the crown of her head.  This experience led her to study more about the gifts of the Spirit.  She began to realize that this was a gift of healing that God was bestowing upon her.  She could not talk to her parents about this.  As she was completing high school Candy started thinking of becoming a doctor, to use her gifts of healing.  She received an academic scholarship to study at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., about 40 miles from Boston.  Enrolling in all-women’s school that was predominately White was a huge culture shock from life in D.C. where she interacted mostly with Black persons.  The school had 1,200 students of whom around 40 were persons of color.  She quickly tried to identify other students with whom she could connect.  Though painfully shy,Candy made friends with a group of 6-7 Black women who participated in a new church in Boston.  In addition to the culture shock, Candy’s counselor had encouraged her to enroll in upper-level classes because of outstanding academic work in high school.  This meant that her first two years there were very difficult academically.  In the midst of this personal tumult, the church in Boston, Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic faith, became a comfortable and safe place.  As Candy immersed herself in that faith community she discovered there were many rules and limitations for living, largely related to wardrobe and social interactions. She didn’t have money to buy new clothes, so borrowed clothes from friends.  She also had to be rebaptized in the Apostolic tradition - in the name of Jesus. She was expected to “tarry” for the Holy Ghost, to weekly pray with others to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit.  This took the form of chanting, calling on Jesus’ name again and again.  The expectation was evidence of the indwelling Spirit would eventually be demonstrated with speaking in tongues.  It took months for Candy to get recieve tje Holu Ghost and this glossalalia experience. The Apostolic tradition was more orthodox and stricter than other black Pentecostal traditions, particularly related to gender roles.  Im the Apostolic tradotion, women could not preach or teach. Women sat behind the men in church.   Women were to marry and have children.  The man was head of the household.   Women were expected to date only men for short stints.  Premarital sex, dancing, worldly music, playing cards, make up, jewelry, and movies were all off- limits so this severely limited the life opportunities for college students like Candy.    Back in Washington, D.C. Candy’s mother was becoming quite ill with diabetes.  She could no longer work outside the home, which put pressure on the family finances.  Candy asked her parents if she should come home to help out.  While they didn’t ask her to come, she felt it was her duty as the oldest daughter.  So Candy left college after her second year and went back to D.C. to help out with the family.  She got a job in the federal government and resumed college. She became active in an Apostolic Church in D.C - Newborn Church of God and True Holiness which was even more strict that the church in Boston.  In addition to the dogma of the previous church tradition, this church's dogma expected members to keep a distance from family members who were not also “saved.”  This led to strains in the family.   Candy, always a passionate person, became a zealot in the faith, making life with her family even more challenging.  She continually admonished other family members to “get saved” and to join her in the Apostolic church. Her family remained in the Baptist church. Through these years Candy seriously dated and was engaged to a number of men from the Apostolic tradition.  She also had a strong affection for a woman in the Boston and DC church.  This emotional attachment to a woman seemed “natural” for her and was not new.  In D.C. a woman in the church who was a few years older became Candy’s  friend and mentor. That emotional attachment deepened over time. Even though Candy had become indoctrinated in the Apostolic tradition, there remained an underlying conflict between the affirmations of her gifts and the values Candy received from her mother and the strict practice of the church to put women in subservient roles.  So Candy started asking questions about that.      Candy sang with the choir in the D.C. church and as her gifts emerged she became the choir director. The choir grew under her leadership.  She found that singing melded her musical gifts with her spiritual gifts.  It was when she was singing that she experienced the Holy Spirit coming down upon the congregation and bringing healing.   It was also during this time that Candy started hearing preaching condemning homosexuality.  She never imagined that it might apply to her, but thought it might be directed toward the piano player who was married, but had effeminate mannerisms.  As her affinity with her friend and mentor grew even stronger, Candy was called into a  meeting with all the church women from the church who “undressed” her to try to pressure and ostracize her.  She was told that she was possessed with the devil, evil spirits, and needed exorcism.  She was pressured to get married in order to overcome her unnatural inclinations.      Candy was mystified and hurt by this talk.  She couldn’t figure out what was “unnatural” about what who she was and how she was she…this was the way she had always been.  She could not understand why the other church women were turning on her and tried to continue as best she coulid. But it was hard.  The level of tension only increased.  A national convocation of churches and choirs was happening in New York City.  Candy had prepared her choir to sing there and travelled there.  After arriving a group of church and choir leaders, some of whom were driends, intercepted her as she approached the venue to tell her that she was “unfaithful” and would not be directing the choir.  Candy tried appealing to the bishop, but to no avail.  Candy cried her heart out in the bathroom, and then went into the sanctuary and sat in the audience. The choir was not aware what was happening.  Ironically, the woman who was Candy’s friend and mentor and with whom she had an affinity stood in as choir director in her place.  She had bowed down to the pressure and expectations. Candy entered a very difficult period of her life.  As she tried to discern what was happening with her sexuality, she began to push religion and spirituality out of her life.  She got to know a lesbian who was from the Apostolic tradition. However Candy had been so totally immersed in the tradition that she could not divest herself of the understanding that as a lesbian she would go to hell.  How could God allow this to happen to her?  She ended up being estranged from church and God  for seven years.  During this time she tried going to interfaith places where she would not find God’s judgement.  She had to hit bottom in order to rebuild her heart, her life and her spirit.   As she came to terms that she was a lesbian, she could not integrate spirituality with that. In the late 1980s, Candy was part of a Black Lesbian Support Group in DC.  Another woman there ( who would later become her best friend), learned of Candy’s musical background and invited her to come to her church which was seeking gospel choir members.  It took Candy quite a while to get up the nerve to go.  The congregation met in a house.  For her first visit, she noted it was crowded with predominately white men, a few women and persons of color.  However, Pastor Larry Uhrig’s sermon touched her heart deeply. Service after service, she was watched with amazement the deeply spiritual intimacy of Communion. She continued attending periodically and cried through the whole service each time.  This Metropolitan Community Church of DC congregation slowly wooed her back into a life of faith and brought healing to her life.  It was a while longer before she was able to bring her gifts of music.  When the need emerged for a gospel choir director. And there she was again, agreeing to help out.  Slowly, Candy began to learn that her spirituality and sexuality were intertwined and were indeed gifts of God.   Candy proceeded to rebuild her life bit by bit.  She entered her first real and somewhat out Lesbian relationship.  She could not tell her family about her relationship and did not take her partner to the family home.  Candy’s mother was becoming increasingly ill and asked questions trying to understand what was happening in Candy’s life—even encouraging her to “live her life.”  Candy was still too scared to come out.  Her mother died during the period when this first relationship broke up—her heart was broken in two ways.  Candy’s father was in fairly good health, but getting older and still needed care, so she became his caretaker.  Throughout this time Candy was thriving professionally in her work in the federal government, at the Government Accounting Offfice (GAO).  She moved up in the management ranks.   But she did not come out at work.   Always careful to not talk about her personal life at work. The gospel choir at MCC-DC grew tremendously under Candy’s leadership.  The choir was invited to sing at major public engagements: Human Rights Campaign Fund dinner, Washtington Vathedral, National March on Washington, as backup to national performers.  Candy was finding healing through music and, in turn, discerned that she had gifts for healing ministry.  As she pondered how to respond to this call to ministry, she decided to pursue vocational training in an interfaith setting—at The New Seminary for Interfaith Studies in New York. She became certified and ordained as an Interfaith Minister there in 2001.  As her ministry developed and expanded she was ordained in MCC in 2008.  She also received her  M.Div. degree from Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachissetts, in 2011.   Even with her growing ministry in MCC, Candy kept that separated from her professional life.  Then Proposition 8 which eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry passed in California in 2008.  While Candy had never planned to get married because she thought she couldn't, this campaign pierced her heart.  Not long thereafter it was Diversity Month at the GAO and the LGBTQI employees group decided to post pictures of their families in a photo display in the lobby to showcase our families. Candy talked with her partner, Rev Elder Darlene Garner, who agreed to have their photo displayed.  When Candy first walked by the assembled display she saw their picture had been enlarged on a large scale and placed in the center of the display, surrounded by smaller pictures of white families.  Candy felt a sense of pride for this witness.  Almost immediately thereafter. she received a call at her office desk for “Rev. Holmes.”  Wondering who would address her this way at work, she learned the call was from the White House.  Where she was being invited to stand with President Obama as he signed the Presidential Memorandum granting federal benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees in 2009.  Because of policies restricting employees of other federal departments from visiting the White House, she had to go through numerous procedures to get permission to do this.  At the signing ceremony, the President took the time for conversations with each person present.  Upon her turn Candy thanked the President for all he had done to support LGBTQ people and surprised herself by adding that there was more for him to do. She held his hand, looked sqarely in his eyes and asked for his help. He said he would and encouraged her to go back to her community and ask them to make him do support the LGBTQI community. And that is what Candy did.    Candy had unexpectedly and perhaps reluctantly, moved into the role of public advocate.  Gollowing on there would be ongoing requests. She was asked to give testimony on behalf of the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service and District of Columbia in July 2009.  She became a spokesperson on behalf of marriage equality with the Human Rights Campaign.  When the Civil Marriage Protection Act came before the Maryland state legislation in 2012 she testified in both the state Senate and House of Representatives.  This legislative was defeated at the polls the first time.  Candy and others noted that the campaign had not drawn upon faith leaders more openly and more broadly.  When the proposed law was brought forward a second  time, the campaign did put more faith leaders, allies and persons of color into the public spotlight—and it passed.   Candy and her wife <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1412">Rev Darlene</a> were also part of the justice work for marriage equality in Washington DC. And were one of the first five couples and the first black clergy, same-gender couple to be married in Washington DC. (This biographical statement written by Mark Bowman from an interview with Candy Holmes and edited by Candy.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Candy Holmes Apostolic Baptist Candy Holmes MCC Metropolitan Community Church https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d3dbf01f65d1d02325f91f0edc5ad0e9.jpg f280361bf66d1779b41947415ecd3c3c Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Brian McNaught is an award-winning writer and an internationally acclaimed corporate diversity trainer. His five books in print are used as college texts. He speaks globally to senior managers on gay and transgender issues. Brian is the middle child of seven Irish Catholics, born in Detroit, and raised in Flint, Grand Blanc, and Birmingham, Michigan. He is the product of sixteen years of Catholic education, having graduated from Brother Rice High School in Birmingham and Marquette University in Milwaukee. Wisconsin. His degree is in journalism. Brian was an altar boy, patrol boy, and Boy Scout. He studied briefly as a postulant with the Christian Brothers of Ireland. As a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam, Brian began his alternative service in 1970 at The Michigan Catholic, weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He worked there as a reporter, columnist, and as an occasional television talk show host. His popular, award-winning, youth-oriented column prompted speaking engagements at local Catholic high schools. When he came out in 1974 after founding the Detroit chapter of Dignity, the organization of gay Catholics, his column was immediately dropped by the newspaper. This resulted in a nationally-covered civil rights battle during which Brian engaged in a hunger fast to call attention to the plight of gay Catholics. The water fast ended after seventeen days when two bishops in Detroit publicly pledged to work to educate the clergy on gay issues. “…we have a serious obligation to root out structures and attitudes that discriminate against the homosexual as a person,” Bishops Thomas Gumbleton and Joseph Imesch wrote in a letter to Brian. Yet, he was nevertheless fired by the newspaper for his public protest. A twelve-year syndicated column in the gay press led to the publication by Dignity Inc. of Brian’s first book, A Disturbed Peace - Selected Writings of an Irish Catholic Homosexual. This early primer on reconciling sexual orientation and spirituality became a popular coming out book, and evolved into On Being Gay, (St. Martin’s Press) which is still in print and is used as a college text. Both titles contain the essay, “The Sad Dilemma of the Gay Catholic,” which won “Best Magazine Article of the Year” from the Catholic Press Association. The newer edition includes “Dear Anita, Late Night Thoughts of an Irish Catholic Homosexual.” This open letter to the well-known leader of the anti-gay movement in the late 1970s prompted a television debate between Brian and Anita Bryant Ministries in 1978. In 1976, Brian moved from Detroit to Boston where he joined the national office of Dignity and served as the organization’s director of social action. In that capacity, he represented gay Catholics at the historic Call to Action Conference, a bicentennial hearing of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on social justice. He successfully lobbied there for passage by the 1300 delegates of a variety of pro-gay measures that were later dismissed by the bishops. In 1982, Brian was hired as the Mayor of Boston’s liaison to the gay and lesbian community. In that capacity, he initiated and coordinated the city’s response to the AIDS epidemic, conducted a citywide study of LGBT citizens needs, and trained police, health, and other service providers. He served in that groundbreaking position for two years. Named “The godfather of gay sensitivity training” by The New York Times, Brian is now considered the world’s leading corporate diversity consultant dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues in the workplace. Certified as a sexuality educator, he has addressed hundreds of corporate and university audiences throughout North American, Europe, and Asia. Brian is the author of six books, including Gay Issues in the Workplace and Now That I’m Out, What Do I Do? (St. Martin’s Press,) “Sex Camp,” and “Are You Guys Brothers?” (Author House.) He is featured in seven educational videos/DVDs, three of which have been aired regularly by PBS stations. His most recent training film is “Anyone can be an Ally: Speaking Up for an LGBT Inclusive Workplace.” All of the DVDs are used extensively in corporations, schools, and other professional settings. In 2012, Out and Equal Workplace Advocates gave Brian a lifetime achievement award for his pioneering work as an educator on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. Brian and his spouse Ray Struble have been partners since 1976. They were married in Ottawa, Ontario on June 30, 2003. Brian McNaught’s papers are held by Cornell University’s Human Sexuality Archive. (This biographical statement provided by Brian McNaught.)   Biographical Text Brian McNaught is an award-winning writer and an internationally acclaimed corporate diversity trainer. His five books in print are used as college texts. He speaks globally to senior managers on gay and transgender issues. Brian is the middle child of seven Irish Catholics, born in Detroit, and raised in Flint, Grand Blanc, and Birmingham, Michigan. He is the product of sixteen years of Catholic education, having graduated from Brother Rice High School in Birmingham and Marquette University in Milwaukee. Wisconsin. His degree is in journalism. Brian was an altar boy, patrol boy, and Boy Scout. He studied briefly as a postulant with the Christian Brothers of Ireland. As a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam, Brian began his alternative service in 1970 at The Michigan Catholic, weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He worked there as a reporter, columnist, and as an occasional television talk show host. His popular, award-winning, youth-oriented column prompted speaking engagements at local Catholic high schools. When he came out in 1974 after founding the Detroit chapter of Dignity, the organization of gay Catholics, his column was immediately dropped by the newspaper. This resulted in a nationally-covered civil rights battle during which Brian engaged in a hunger fast to call attention to the plight of gay Catholics. The water fast ended after seventeen days when two bishops in Detroit publicly pledged to work to educate the clergy on gay issues. “…we have a serious obligation to root out structures and attitudes that discriminate against the homosexual as a person,” Bishops Thomas Gumbleton and Joseph Imesch wrote in a letter to Brian. Yet, he was nevertheless fired by the newspaper for his public protest. A twelve-year syndicated column in the gay press led to the publication by Dignity Inc. of Brian’s first book, A Disturbed Peace - Selected Writings of an Irish Catholic Homosexual. This early primer on reconciling sexual orientation and spirituality became a popular coming out book, and evolved into On Being Gay, (St. Martin’s Press) which is still in print and is used as a college text. Both titles contain the essay, “The Sad Dilemma of the Gay Catholic,” which won “Best Magazine Article of the Year” from the Catholic Press Association. The newer edition includes “Dear Anita, Late Night Thoughts of an Irish Catholic Homosexual.” This open letter to the well-known leader of the anti-gay movement in the late 1970s prompted a television debate between Brian and Anita Bryant Ministries in 1978. In 1976, Brian moved from Detroit to Boston where he joined the national office of Dignity and served as the organization’s director of social action. In that capacity, he represented gay Catholics at the historic Call to Action Conference, a bicentennial hearing of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on social justice. He successfully lobbied there for passage by the 1300 delegates of a variety of pro-gay measures that were later dismissed by the bishops. In 1982, Brian was hired as the Mayor of Boston’s liaison to the gay and lesbian community. In that capacity, he initiated and coordinated the city’s response to the AIDS epidemic, conducted a citywide study of LGBT citizens needs, and trained police, health, and other service providers. He served in that groundbreaking position for two years. Named “The godfather of gay sensitivity training” by The New York Times, Brian is now considered the world’s leading corporate diversity consultant dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues in the workplace. Certified as a sexuality educator, he has addressed hundreds of corporate and university audiences throughout North American, Europe, and Asia. Brian is the author of six books, including Gay Issues in the Workplace and Now That I’m Out, What Do I Do? (St. Martin’s Press,) “Sex Camp,” and “Are You Guys Brothers?” (Author House.) He is featured in seven educational videos/DVDs, three of which have been aired regularly by PBS stations. His most recent training film is “Anyone can be an Ally: Speaking Up for an LGBT Inclusive Workplace.” All of the DVDs are used extensively in corporations, schools, and other professional settings. In 2012, Out and Equal Workplace Advocates gave Brian a lifetime achievement award for his pioneering work as an educator on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues. Brian and his spouse Ray Struble have been partners since 1976. They were married in Ottawa, Ontario on June 30, 2003. Brian McNaught’s papers are held by Cornell University’s Human Sexuality Archive. (This biographical statement provided by Brian McNaught.)   Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Brian McNaught Brian McNaught Catholic Dignity DignityUSA Roman Catholic https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e867e58cc998560a50a8ddfa3f7d40ec.jpg 2cd796415328f1b2d49ab32373e0434d Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document The Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson (born June 12, 1946 in Houston, Texas) was the first openly gay person ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the first such person ordained in the history of Christianity. His ordination took place on June 25, 1972 at the Community UCC in San Carlos, California, authorized by the Golden Gate Association of the Northern California/Nevada Conference UCC. His ordination is the subject of the Michael Rhodes documentary film, A Position of Faith (1973; released on video in 2005). Throughout his career, Bill provided counsel and support to hundreds of LGBT seminarians and clergypersons in the UCC and ecumenically. Bill was the primary author of the extensive body of social justice policies regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons adopted by UCC General Synods and the UCC Executive Council dating back to 1973. After graduating from Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL in May 1968 (BA, English), Bill served a summer as student pastor at St. Paul UCC in Donnellson, IA and St. Peter UCC, Franklin, IA. That fall, he began his seminary studies at the Pacific School of Religion (PSR), Berkeley, CA. During his seminary years (1968-1971) Bill served as youth minister at Community UCC, San Carlos, CA; student pastor at St. Andrew UCC, Kent, WA (now United Christian Church, Renton, WA); and as interim associate pastor at Community UCC, San Carlos, CA. He also completed an industrial chaplaincy internship at the Wells Gardner Electronics factory in Chicago, IL (under the auspices of the Presbyterian Institute for Industrial Relations) and was a chaplaincy intern at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, CA. Bill received his Master of Divinity degree from PSR in May 1971. In the fall of 1970, students and faculty at Graduate Theological Union (GTU) seminaries in Berkeley organized a “Gay Seminarians” support group. Having embraced his gay identity that summer, Bill became active in the new group. On November 11, 1970, the Gay Seminarians hosted a public forum on homosexuality and the church for the GTU community, attracting some 400 attendees. During the event, Bill came out publicly as a gay Christian and affirmed his intention to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. In the UCC, Bill could not pursue ordination until he received a call to a specific ministry of the church. In January 1971, Bill was called to coordinate a house church development ministry in greater Los Angeles initiated by the Southern California/Nevada Conference, UCC. He led a team of UCC lay leaders who provided guidance to a number of house church starts. Bill was in this position when he was ordained in San Carlos. The house church program ended in October 1972 when funding ceased. Bill Johnson founded the UCC Gay Caucus in 1972 (now the UCC Open & Affirming), aka “The Coalition.” He served as national coordinator for the Gay Caucus/Coalition from 1972-77. He traveled widely as a community organizer advocating the full inclusion of LGBT people in the UCC. In the late 1970s, he proposed that The Coalition hold an annual "National Gathering" of Coalition members, the first of which was held in 1981. In the 1980s, as editor of The Coalition newsletter, WAVES . Back in the Bay Area, Bill served as executive director of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual from 1973-76 and taught a “Men’s Liberation” class in the Women's Studies Program at San Francisco State University during the 1976-77 academic year. In 1974, Bill co-edited/authored (with Sally Miller Gearhart) Loving Women/Loving Men: Gay Liberation and the Church. In 1976, he and revered lesbian activist, Phyllis Lyon, organized and facilitated the first gatherings of parents of lesbians and gays in San Francisco, a group that evolved into P-FLAG/San Francisco. In May, 1977, Bill complete requirements for the degree Doctor of Education at the Institute for Advance Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. That summer, Bill moved to New York City to live with Vito Russo, author of The Celluloid Closet, whom he had met at a Gay Academic Union conference in Long Beach, CA. Their coupling ended but they remained neighbors and good friends. In NYC, Bill worked briefly for the Lutheran Church in America and the United Presbyterian Church before becoming the office secretary at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church, a block away from the UCC national office. In the Spring of 1978, Bill founded Maranatha: Riversiders for Lesbian/Gay Concerns at The Riverside Church in New York City, the first parish-based LGBT ministry in the United Church of Christ. Maranatha remains a vital presence in the life of Riverside Church. In 1979, he was a contributing author to Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life , edited by Betty Berzon (revised and updated in 1992 and 2001). In January 1981, the UCC Office for Church in Society created a “staff associate” job for Bill at $500/month with no benefits. By 1983, OCIS could no longer fund the position so Bill worked for a year as a temporary employee with a number of corporate offices in Manhattan, referring to himself as a “duly ordained word processor.” In the fall of 1984, he joined the law firm of Stuart, Zavin, Sinnreich and Wasserman as a legal secretary. The liberal law partners supported Bill’s continuing justice activism and provided paid time off to attend UCC General Synods and Coalition and other LGBT events. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic grew in NYC in the early 1980s, Bill became a caregiver for numerous friends. His friend and colleague, Rev. Michael Collins, was among the first people in New York to be stricken with the new, mysterious and unnamed disease. As the epidemic grew, Bill offered his services as a pastoral counselor, sex educator, care partner and volunteer on the National AIDS Hotline. In 1988, the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries sought a part-time consultant in HIV/AIDS ministry. Bill successfully applied for the job. In 1989, UCC Christians for Justice Action gave Bill its Burning Bush Award in recognition of his activist leadership in church and society. In 1990, Bill was elected to the UCC national staff as a Program Minister of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, Division of the American Missionary Association, and served as Minister for HIV/AIDS Ministries and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns for 11 years. In that position he helped establish the AIDS National Interfaith Network, which he served as Program Officer and as Interim Executive Director; established the United Church HIV/AIDS Network; and co-authored, with Cindy Bowman, the multi-generational UCC AIDS prevention curriculum, Affirming Persons-Saving Lives, the first such curriculum designed for use in Christian education settings (1993). The curriculum includes two videos – “In the Time of Adversity” and “Living with AIDS” for which Bill served as Executive Producer. With Rev. Loey Powell, he advocated for domestic partner benefits for LGBT employees of the UCC national setting, which were put into place by the UCC Pension Boards in 1996. He provided leadership for the UCC on issues ranging from discrimination in the Boy Scouts of America, to equal marital rights for same gender couples, bullying and harassment in public schools, and ending hate-related violence. He created a variety of resources for UCC congregations including Open and Affirming: A Journey of Faith (a welcoming congregation video and resource book); Circle of Grace (nine Bible study lesson plans); and two volumes of Preach Out!, compilations of LGBT affirming sermons by UCC pastors. In 1999, Bill hosted “Called Out for Good,” a consultation with openly gay, lesbian and bisexual UCC pastors focused on the special challenges and concerns of being out in parish ministry. That same year, he organized a national consultation of UCC bisexual members in 1999 and created a task group on transgender concerns in the church. In 2001 he hosted a national consultation at the UCC national offices with transgender UCC members. Bill also served as executive producer of the documentary video, Bisex-u-al (28 min.; 2001) and of the feature length documentary, Call Me Malcolm (2005). While on the UCC national staff, he supervised three UCC seminary interns: Sean Murray, Kate Huey and Darryl Kistler, now UCC clergy; and one UCC college student, Eric C. Smith. In 1999, the Board of Directors of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries committed $500,000 to create the William R. Johnson Scholarship Fund for openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender UCC seminarians studying to be parish ministers. Beginning in 2001, an average of 8 to 10 scholarships have been awarded annually from the endowment income, which has grown with additional contributions to more than $1 million. When the UCC national setting was reorganized beginning in 2000, Bill became Executive for Health and Wholeness Advocacy and Minister for HIV/AIDS and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Concerns in Wider Church Ministries (WCM) of the UCC. In January 2002, Bill was called to serve as Executive Associate to the Executive Minister of Wider Church Ministries (WCM), serving two WCM executives in three years, Dale Bishop and Olivia Masih White, and overseeing a 28-person staff. Bill served on the founding National Advisory Board of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion. He also served on the founding national Advisory Committee of the LGBT Religious Archives Network. He founded and serves as coordinator for Elmhurst College Gay and Lesbian Alumni. In 1992, he received the Elmhurst College Alumni Merit Award and was the subject of a profile in the Elmhurst College magazine, Prospect, in the summer of 2010. On National Coming Out Day in 2011, the college named its annual LGBT lecture in his honor, the William R. Johnson Intercultural Lecture. In January 2005, Johnson was called to serve as Vice President for Member Relations with the UCC Council for Health and Human Service Ministries (CHHSM), an association of 80 UCC-related corporations operating more than 360 facilities and programs. CHHSM members provide primary and acute health care services, services to persons with disabilities, services to children, youth and families, and services to the aging. In 2010, his title was changed to Vice President as he assumed new responsibilities. Bill served in that position until April 1, 2013. In July 2012, the Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas, TX presented Bill with its annual Hero of Hope Award, in recognition of a lifetime of service to the LGBT and ecumenical communities. In the fall of 2012 his ordination robe and stole were featured in an exhibit curated by Brian McNaught at the Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Fort Lauderdale, FL. His ordination robe and stole are in the museum's permanent collection of LGBT artifacts. Bill Johnson retired from active ministry on July 1, 2013 at the 29th UCC General Synod in Long Beach, CA, having served in ministry for 41 years. In New York City, Bill was a member of The Riverside Church and, later, of Judson Memorial Church. After moving to Cleveland, OH in 1991, he was a founding member of Liberation UCC in 1993, where he sang in the church choir and served in a variety of roles over 19 years, including treasurer and moderator of the congregation. In October 2012, Bill moved to Pilgrim Place, a not-for-profit continuing care retirement community in Claremont, California, founded in 1915. He is a member of Claremont UCC, an open and affirming church. (This biographical statement provided by William R. Johnson.) Biographical Text The Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson (born June 12, 1946 in Houston, Texas) was the first openly gay person ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the first such person ordained in the history of Christianity. His ordination took place on June 25, 1972 at the Community UCC in San Carlos, California, authorized by the Golden Gate Association of the Northern California/Nevada Conference UCC. His ordination is the subject of the Michael Rhodes documentary film, A Position of Faith (1973; released on video in 2005). Throughout his career, Bill provided counsel and support to hundreds of LGBT seminarians and clergypersons in the UCC and ecumenically. Bill was the primary author of the extensive body of social justice policies regarding lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons adopted by UCC General Synods and the UCC Executive Council dating back to 1973. After graduating from Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL in May 1968 (BA, English), Bill served a summer as student pastor at St. Paul UCC in Donnellson, IA and St. Peter UCC, Franklin, IA. That fall, he began his seminary studies at the Pacific School of Religion (PSR), Berkeley, CA. During his seminary years (1968-1971) Bill served as youth minister at Community UCC, San Carlos, CA; student pastor at St. Andrew UCC, Kent, WA (now United Christian Church, Renton, WA); and as interim associate pastor at Community UCC, San Carlos, CA. He also completed an industrial chaplaincy internship at the Wells Gardner Electronics factory in Chicago, IL (under the auspices of the Presbyterian Institute for Industrial Relations) and was a chaplaincy intern at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, CA. Bill received his Master of Divinity degree from PSR in May 1971. In the fall of 1970, students and faculty at Graduate Theological Union (GTU) seminaries in Berkeley organized a “Gay Seminarians” support group. Having embraced his gay identity that summer, Bill became active in the new group. On November 11, 1970, the Gay Seminarians hosted a public forum on homosexuality and the church for the GTU community, attracting some 400 attendees. During the event, Bill came out publicly as a gay Christian and affirmed his intention to be ordained in the United Church of Christ. In the UCC, Bill could not pursue ordination until he received a call to a specific ministry of the church. In January 1971, Bill was called to coordinate a house church development ministry in greater Los Angeles initiated by the Southern California/Nevada Conference, UCC. He led a team of UCC lay leaders who provided guidance to a number of house church starts. Bill was in this position when he was ordained in San Carlos. The house church program ended in October 1972 when funding ceased. Bill Johnson founded the UCC Gay Caucus in 1972 (now the UCC Open & Affirming), aka “The Coalition.” He served as national coordinator for the Gay Caucus/Coalition from 1972-77. He traveled widely as a community organizer advocating the full inclusion of LGBT people in the UCC. In the late 1970s, he proposed that The Coalition hold an annual "National Gathering" of Coalition members, the first of which was held in 1981. In the 1980s, as editor of The Coalition newsletter, WAVES . Back in the Bay Area, Bill served as executive director of the Council on Religion and the Homosexual from 1973-76 and taught a “Men’s Liberation” class in the Women's Studies Program at San Francisco State University during the 1976-77 academic year. In 1974, Bill co-edited/authored (with Sally Miller Gearhart) Loving Women/Loving Men: Gay Liberation and the Church. In 1976, he and revered lesbian activist, Phyllis Lyon, organized and facilitated the first gatherings of parents of lesbians and gays in San Francisco, a group that evolved into P-FLAG/San Francisco. In May, 1977, Bill complete requirements for the degree Doctor of Education at the Institute for Advance Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. That summer, Bill moved to New York City to live with Vito Russo, author of The Celluloid Closet, whom he had met at a Gay Academic Union conference in Long Beach, CA. Their coupling ended but they remained neighbors and good friends. In NYC, Bill worked briefly for the Lutheran Church in America and the United Presbyterian Church before becoming the office secretary at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church, a block away from the UCC national office. In the Spring of 1978, Bill founded Maranatha: Riversiders for Lesbian/Gay Concerns at The Riverside Church in New York City, the first parish-based LGBT ministry in the United Church of Christ. Maranatha remains a vital presence in the life of Riverside Church. In 1979, he was a contributing author to Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life , edited by Betty Berzon (revised and updated in 1992 and 2001). In January 1981, the UCC Office for Church in Society created a “staff associate” job for Bill at $500/month with no benefits. By 1983, OCIS could no longer fund the position so Bill worked for a year as a temporary employee with a number of corporate offices in Manhattan, referring to himself as a “duly ordained word processor.” In the fall of 1984, he joined the law firm of Stuart, Zavin, Sinnreich and Wasserman as a legal secretary. The liberal law partners supported Bill’s continuing justice activism and provided paid time off to attend UCC General Synods and Coalition and other LGBT events. As the HIV/AIDS epidemic grew in NYC in the early 1980s, Bill became a caregiver for numerous friends. His friend and colleague, Rev. Michael Collins, was among the first people in New York to be stricken with the new, mysterious and unnamed disease. As the epidemic grew, Bill offered his services as a pastoral counselor, sex educator, care partner and volunteer on the National AIDS Hotline. In 1988, the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries sought a part-time consultant in HIV/AIDS ministry. Bill successfully applied for the job. In 1989, UCC Christians for Justice Action gave Bill its Burning Bush Award in recognition of his activist leadership in church and society. In 1990, Bill was elected to the UCC national staff as a Program Minister of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, Division of the American Missionary Association, and served as Minister for HIV/AIDS Ministries and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns for 11 years. In that position he helped establish the AIDS National Interfaith Network, which he served as Program Officer and as Interim Executive Director; established the United Church HIV/AIDS Network; and co-authored, with Cindy Bowman, the multi-generational UCC AIDS prevention curriculum, Affirming Persons-Saving Lives, the first such curriculum designed for use in Christian education settings (1993). The curriculum includes two videos – “In the Time of Adversity” and “Living with AIDS” for which Bill served as Executive Producer. With <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1435">Rev. Loey Powell</a>, he advocated for domestic partner benefits for LGBT employees of the UCC national setting, which were put into place by the UCC Pension Boards in 1996. He provided leadership for the UCC on issues ranging from discrimination in the Boy Scouts of America, to equal marital rights for same gender couples, bullying and harassment in public schools, and ending hate-related violence. He created a variety of resources for UCC congregations including Open and Affirming: A Journey of Faith (a welcoming congregation video and resource book); Circle of Grace (nine Bible study lesson plans); and two volumes of Preach Out!, compilations of LGBT affirming sermons by UCC pastors. In 1999, Bill hosted “Called Out for Good,” a consultation with openly gay, lesbian and bisexual UCC pastors focused on the special challenges and concerns of being out in parish ministry. That same year, he organized a national consultation of UCC bisexual members in 1999 and created a task group on transgender concerns in the church. In 2001 he hosted a national consultation at the UCC national offices with transgender UCC members. Bill also served as executive producer of the documentary video, Bisex-u-al (28 min.; 2001) and of the feature length documentary, Call Me Malcolm (2005). While on the UCC national staff, he supervised three UCC seminary interns: Sean Murray, Kate Huey and Darryl Kistler, now UCC clergy; and one UCC college student, Eric C. Smith. In 1999, the Board of Directors of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries committed $500,000 to create the William R. Johnson Scholarship Fund for openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender UCC seminarians studying to be parish ministers. Beginning in 2001, an average of 8 to 10 scholarships have been awarded annually from the endowment income, which has grown with additional contributions to more than $1 million. When the UCC national setting was reorganized beginning in 2000, Bill became Executive for Health and Wholeness Advocacy and Minister for HIV/AIDS and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Concerns in Wider Church Ministries (WCM) of the UCC. In January 2002, Bill was called to serve as Executive Associate to the Executive Minister of Wider Church Ministries (WCM), serving two WCM executives in three years, Dale Bishop and Olivia Masih White, and overseeing a 28-person staff. Bill served on the founding National Advisory Board of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at the Pacific School of Religion. He also served on the founding national Advisory Committee of the LGBT Religious Archives Network. He founded and serves as coordinator for Elmhurst College Gay and Lesbian Alumni. In 1992, he received the Elmhurst College Alumni Merit Award and was the subject of a profile in the Elmhurst College magazine, Prospect, in the summer of 2010. On National Coming Out Day in 2011, the college named its annual LGBT lecture in his honor, the William R. Johnson Intercultural Lecture. In January 2005, Johnson was called to serve as Vice President for Member Relations with the UCC Council for Health and Human Service Ministries (CHHSM), an association of 80 UCC-related corporations operating more than 360 facilities and programs. CHHSM members provide primary and acute health care services, services to persons with disabilities, services to children, youth and families, and services to the aging. In 2010, his title was changed to Vice President as he assumed new responsibilities. Bill served in that position until April 1, 2013. In July 2012, the Cathedral of Hope UCC in Dallas, TX presented Bill with its annual Hero of Hope Award, in recognition of a lifetime of service to the LGBT and ecumenical communities. In the fall of 2012 his ordination robe and stole were featured in an exhibit curated by <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1404">Brian McNaught</a> at the Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Fort Lauderdale, FL. His ordination robe and stole are in the museum's permanent collection of LGBT artifacts. Bill Johnson retired from active ministry on July 1, 2013 at the 29th UCC General Synod in Long Beach, CA, having served in ministry for 41 years. In New York City, Bill was a member of The Riverside Church and, later, of Judson Memorial Church. After moving to Cleveland, OH in 1991, he was a founding member of Liberation UCC in 1993, where he sang in the church choir and served in a variety of roles over 19 years, including treasurer and moderator of the congregation. In October 2012, Bill moved to Pilgrim Place, a not-for-profit continuing care retirement community in Claremont, California, founded in 1915. He is a member of Claremont UCC, an open and affirming church. (This biographical statement provided by William R. Johnson.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bill Johnson Bill Johnson UCC United Church of Christ William R. Johnson https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ab5fcaa8083f09d44c137a1fcde0f320.jpg 329b92c7089775447ca59456a4753b5c Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Barbara Satin, a transgender activist around issues of aging, faith and gender justice, was born in 1934 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father died a year-and-a-half later, leaving her mother to raise four children with the help of supportive relatives. Roman Catholicism was deeply engrained in the family; all children went to Catholic schools and the church was an important part of their daily lives. Raised as a boy, Barbara was aware of her gender difference at an early age but had no vocabulary or ideas with which to understand and address it. She only knew that she needed to hide her differences in order to survive. After two years living away from home as a young teenage seminarian, Barbara realized a call to priestly ministry wasn’t going to work because of her gender issues, so she left the seminary and finished up at a local Catholic high school. After high school, Barbara studied at a local Catholic college, focusing first on philosophy, then graduating with a degree in sociology. One vivid memory of those college years was the national media attention in late 1952 around Christine Jorgensen who had sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark. This was Barbara’s first awareness that there were other people like her. When Barbara graduated from college, she received a commission as an officer in the U. S. Air Force. It was a macho way of distracting any attention from her gender dilemma. She was in pilot training in Texas for a year before a kidney infection ended her flying career and she was given a medical discharge. When she returned to St. Paul, where she fell in love and hoped that marriage would bring an end to her gender issues. The marriage was blessed with three wonderful children. Barbara (still living as a man) had a successful business career as director of public relations for a major international firm and was also a prominent leader in the Roman Catholic Diocese as well as a well-respected civic activist. While issues of gender identity were present throughout these years, Barbara was committed to the responsibilities of raising a family as well as being a successful provider. At age 54, Barbara took early retirement and then began to explore more fully her transgender identity. With the support of her children and a knowledgeable therapist, Barbara came to understand that her transgender identity was how God had made her and rather than being a curse it could be a blessing in her life. As a way to more fully explore her identity, she moved out of the family home to live full-time as Barbara. (she since has returned). She also left the Catholic Church at that time, feeling that there was no place for a trans women to be of service in that denomination. After a period of trying to be spiritual on her own, Barbara found that she missed being part of a faith community, so she decided to visit Spirit of the Lakes Church in Minneapolis. The congregation was made up primarily of LGBT persons and was the first LGBT church in a major Christian denomination. Barbara quickly found a spiritual home there and became a leader in the congregation. Through Spirit of the Lakes she became part of the United Church Coalition for LGBT Concerns (now the Open and Affirming Coalition of the UCC). As an active member of the United Church of Christ and the leader of the Coalition, she served on the denomination’s Executive Council as its first openly transgender member; she was involved in the church’s 2003 decision to affirm the inclusion of transgender people in the full life and ministry of the church. Barbara also provided leadership for the development of Spirit on Lake, a LGBTQ senior housing project in Minneapolis. The housing project had its genesis in the work on LGBTQ aging issues started by Barbara and members and pastoral leadership of Spirit of the Lakes Church. The 46-unit, affordable rental facility opened in September 2013. At the time it was only the second such project in the U.S. In February 2015, Barbara was invited to the White House to talk to the Administration about housing concerns for LGBTQ seniors and in July 2015 she was one of three LGBTQ people invited to participate for the first time in the White House Conference on Aging. Barbara also sits on the boards of a number of non-profits that serve LGBTQ people in the areas of philanthropy, training of senior care providers and HIV/AIDS services. Barbara serves as Assistant Faith Work Director for The National LGBTQ Task Force where her responsibilities include working for the full inclusion of trans persons in communities of faith. (This biographical statement drafted by Mark Bowman from an interview with Barbara Satin and edited by Barbara.) Biographical Text Barbara Satin, a transgender activist around issues of aging, faith and gender justice, was born in 1934 in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her father died a year-and-a-half later, leaving her mother to raise four children with the help of supportive relatives. Roman Catholicism was deeply engrained in the family; all children went to Catholic schools and the church was an important part of their daily lives. Raised as a boy, Barbara was aware of her gender difference at an early age but had no vocabulary or ideas with which to understand and address it. She only knew that she needed to hide her differences in order to survive. After two years living away from home as a young teenage seminarian, Barbara realized a call to priestly ministry wasn’t going to work because of her gender issues, so she left the seminary and finished up at a local Catholic high school. After high school, Barbara studied at a local Catholic college, focusing first on philosophy, then graduating with a degree in sociology. One vivid memory of those college years was the national media attention in late 1952 around Christine Jorgensen who had sexual reassignment surgery in Denmark. This was Barbara’s first awareness that there were other people like her. When Barbara graduated from college, she received a commission as an officer in the U. S. Air Force. It was a macho way of distracting any attention from her gender dilemma. She was in pilot training in Texas for a year before a kidney infection ended her flying career and she was given a medical discharge. When she returned to St. Paul, where she fell in love and hoped that marriage would bring an end to her gender issues. The marriage was blessed with three wonderful children. Barbara (still living as a man) had a successful business career as director of public relations for a major international firm and was also a prominent leader in the Roman Catholic Diocese as well as a well-respected civic activist. While issues of gender identity were present throughout these years, Barbara was committed to the responsibilities of raising a family as well as being a successful provider. At age 54, Barbara took early retirement and then began to explore more fully her transgender identity. With the support of her children and a knowledgeable therapist, Barbara came to understand that her transgender identity was how God had made her and rather than being a curse it could be a blessing in her life. As a way to more fully explore her identity, she moved out of the family home to live full-time as Barbara. (she since has returned). She also left the Catholic Church at that time, feeling that there was no place for a trans women to be of service in that denomination. After a period of trying to be spiritual on her own, Barbara found that she missed being part of a faith community, so she decided to visit Spirit of the Lakes Church in Minneapolis. The congregation was made up primarily of LGBT persons and was the first LGBT church in a major Christian denomination. Barbara quickly found a spiritual home there and became a leader in the congregation. Through Spirit of the Lakes she became part of the United Church Coalition for LGBT Concerns (now the Open and Affirming Coalition of the UCC). As an active member of the United Church of Christ and the leader of the Coalition, she served on the denomination’s Executive Council as its first openly transgender member; she was involved in the church’s 2003 decision to affirm the inclusion of transgender people in the full life and ministry of the church. Barbara also provided leadership for the development of Spirit on Lake, a LGBTQ senior housing project in Minneapolis. The housing project had its genesis in the work on LGBTQ aging issues started by Barbara and members and pastoral leadership of Spirit of the Lakes Church. The 46-unit, affordable rental facility opened in September 2013. At the time it was only the second such project in the U.S. In February 2015, Barbara was invited to the White House to talk to the Administration about housing concerns for LGBTQ seniors and in July 2015 she was one of three LGBTQ people invited to participate for the first time in the White House Conference on Aging. Barbara also sits on the boards of a number of non-profits that serve LGBTQ people in the areas of philanthropy, training of senior care providers and HIV/AIDS services. Barbara serves as Assistant Faith Work Director for The National LGBTQ Task Force where her responsibilities include working for the full inclusion of trans persons in communities of faith. (This biographical statement drafted by Mark Bowman from an interview with Barbara Satin and edited by Barbara.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Barbara Satin Barbara Satin Catholic ONA Open and Affirming in the UCC Roman Catholic UCC United Church of Christ https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/8e500804464c6de8471121c83bc0128e.jpg 589ebc4bb5e6500a57a025cba94f5cf4 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Avery Belyeu, a lover of beloved community and brave spaces, is a trans-femme and queer educator, activist, and student pastor and theologian. A native of St. Augustine, Florida she was born and raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She gave her first public sermon at 8 years old, was appointed as a Ministerial Servant at 18, and began giving Sunday sermons in her congregation and as a traveling preacher soon thereafter. After coming out as queer at age 23. Avery was removed from her appointed church positions, rejected by her church community and disowned by her family. After some time struggling with how to reconcile her identity and her faith, Avery found her way to an Episcopal Church in Greensboro, North Carolina where she was attending graduate school. During her time there she was baptized and confirmed into the Episcopal Church, USA. From 2011-2014 Avery worked at the New York City office of The Trevor Project where she held several different positions including serving as the Education Director. She continues to work in suicide prevention for a federally funded agency and works at the intersections of suicide prevention, faith, and LGBTQIA identities. In addition she serves on the Advisory Board for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center, and the Advisory Board of Trans Lifeline, a suicide prevention lifeline serving the United States and Canada. She speaks across the United States on the topics of hope, belonging, and resilience with the specific goal of acknowledging and celebrating the resilience and courage of LGBTQ survivors of religious trauma and family and community rejection. In 2015, Avery moved from Boston to Fort Worth to begin studying at Brite Divinity School where she currently is a Haggard Legacy Fellow and 3rd year Master in Divinity Student. In 2016, Avery was selected as one of 25 Millennial Leaders by Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Her writing and research focus on queer and transgender theologies with a special interest in developing pastoral care approaches to polyamorous people of faith. Starting this fall she will serve as a student pastor at the New Church, United Church of Christ (UCC) in Dallas Texas. Avery lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her partner Nathaniel, and their two mischievous cats Lilo and Percy. (This biographical statement provided by Avery Belyeu.) Biographical Text Avery Belyeu, a lover of beloved community and brave spaces, is a trans-femme and queer educator, activist, and student pastor and theologian. A native of St. Augustine, Florida she was born and raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. She gave her first public sermon at 8 years old, was appointed as a Ministerial Servant at 18, and began giving Sunday sermons in her congregation and as a traveling preacher soon thereafter. After coming out as queer at age 23. Avery was removed from her appointed church positions, rejected by her church community and disowned by her family. After some time struggling with how to reconcile her identity and her faith, Avery found her way to an Episcopal Church in Greensboro, North Carolina where she was attending graduate school. During her time there she was baptized and confirmed into the Episcopal Church, USA. From 2011-2014 Avery worked at the New York City office of The Trevor Project where she held several different positions including serving as the Education Director. She continues to work in suicide prevention for a federally funded agency and works at the intersections of suicide prevention, faith, and LGBTQIA identities. In addition she serves on the Advisory Board for the Runaway and Homeless Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center, and the Advisory Board of Trans Lifeline, a suicide prevention lifeline serving the United States and Canada. She speaks across the United States on the topics of hope, belonging, and resilience with the specific goal of acknowledging and celebrating the resilience and courage of LGBTQ survivors of religious trauma and family and community rejection. In 2015, Avery moved from Boston to Fort Worth to begin studying at Brite Divinity School where she currently is a Haggard Legacy Fellow and 3rd year Master in Divinity Student. In 2016, Avery was selected as one of 25 Millennial Leaders by Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Her writing and research focus on queer and transgender theologies with a special interest in developing pastoral care approaches to polyamorous people of faith. Starting this fall she will serve as a student pastor at the New Church, United Church of Christ (UCC) in Dallas Texas. Avery lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her partner Nathaniel, and their two mischievous cats Lilo and Percy. (This biographical statement provided by Avery Belyeu.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Avery Belyeu Avery Belyeu Episcopal Episcopal Church UCC United Church of Christ https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/d6e83bf8e6367b4967c37a94ed111c95.jpg 927020d7d72f966c48cbdd98b7e70310 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Ann Thompson Cook has provided visionary leadership in movements promoting social justice. for nearly five decades. Through her advocacy in religious communities, she has continually found ways to expand thinking, reduce divisiveness, and create openings for respectful dialogue about sexuality, gender, and reproductive choice. Beginning in the late 1980s, she created English and Spanish versions of And God Loves Each One, a guide to dialogue about sexual orientation. Her approach contributed to the strategy for the new movement to promote acceptance within the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, UCC, and other Protestant denominations. She was an early advocate for incorporating the concerns of transgender people in the gay rights movement and produced Made in God’s Image, a guide to gender differences. In the 1990s Ann served as President/CEO of the national, interfaith Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, where she led the organization’s transformation from historically white to multicultural leadership and initiated the National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality, which held annual conferences for 15 years. <img src="http://rollingthestoneaway.org/media/profile/ann-thompson-cook/Pic%201979-1.jpg" />with husband David & sons 1979 In 2010 Ann and Rev. Cedric Harmon co-founded and co-directed <a href="http://www.manyvoices.org/">Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice</a>. Together they published Black church versions of her acclaimed guides to sexual orientation and gender difference, as well as other impactful resources such as How to respond to negative claims about the Bible and LGBT, Questions you may have about God and LGBT, Rethinking the thorny issue of sin and LGBT, and more. In her writings, she demonstrates an effective balance of clear, contemporary information combined with illuminating personal narratives that make her resources so accessible. <img src="http://rollingthestoneaway.org/media/profile/ann-thompson-cook/Pic%201993.jpg" />with Rev. Mary Jane Patterson speaking for Religious Coalition Ann’s work, including the creation of these resources, has fostered dialogue and understanding about sexual orientation and gender identity, building bridges across racial, religious, orientation and gender divides.  Her work frames the complex and essential issues of spirituality, gender and sexuality in a thoughtful, supportive manner while offering opportunities to launch personal reflection, church and family dialogue, and community education. Her publications are used by colleagues, congregations, students, parents, and faith leaders throughout the U.S. and beyond. Advocates report that her writings have saved lives and reunited families. In addition to facilitating dialogue about sensitive topics, Ann has provided strategic consultation and executive coaching to scores of leaders in national LGBT and other nonprofit organizations. Through her support and coaching, others have grown and thrived as leaders in their own organizations and communities. Ann attended Grinnell College and received a B.A. cum laude from the University of Kansas, and an M.A. from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. In 2017 Ithaca College presented her with an honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of her bridge-building work over the years. (This biographical statement provided by Ann Thompson Cook.) Biographical Text Ann Thompson Cook has provided visionary leadership in movements promoting social justice. for nearly five decades. Through her advocacy in religious communities, she has continually found ways to expand thinking, reduce divisiveness, and create openings for respectful dialogue about sexuality, gender, and reproductive choice. Beginning in the late 1980s, she created English and Spanish versions of And God Loves Each One, a guide to dialogue about sexual orientation. Her approach contributed to the strategy for the new movement to promote acceptance within the Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, UCC, and other Protestant denominations. She was an early advocate for incorporating the concerns of transgender people in the gay rights movement and produced Made in God’s Image, a guide to gender differences. In the 1990s Ann served as President/CEO of the national, interfaith Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, where she led the organization’s transformation from historically white to multicultural leadership and initiated the National Black Religious Summit on Sexuality, which held annual conferences for 15 years. In 2010 Ann and <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1407">Rev. Cedric Harmon</a> co-founded and co-directed <a href="http://www.manyvoices.org/">Many Voices: A Black Church Movement for Gay & Transgender Justice</a>. Together they published Black church versions of her acclaimed guides to sexual orientation and gender difference, as well as other impactful resources such as How to respond to negative claims about the Bible and LGBT, Questions you may have about God and LGBT, Rethinking the thorny issue of sin and LGBT, and more. In her writings, she demonstrates an effective balance of clear, contemporary information combined with illuminating personal narratives that make her resources so accessible. Ann’s work, including the creation of these resources, has fostered dialogue and understanding about sexual orientation and gender identity, building bridges across racial, religious, orientation and gender divides.  Her work frames the complex and essential issues of spirituality, gender and sexuality in a thoughtful, supportive manner while offering opportunities to launch personal reflection, church and family dialogue, and community education. Her publications are used by colleagues, congregations, students, parents, and faith leaders throughout the U.S. and beyond. Advocates report that her writings have saved lives and reunited families. In addition to facilitating dialogue about sensitive topics, Ann has provided strategic consultation and executive coaching to scores of leaders in national LGBT and other nonprofit organizations. Through her support and coaching, others have grown and thrived as leaders in their own organizations and communities. Ann attended Grinnell College and received a B.A. cum laude from the University of Kansas, and an M.A. from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. In 2017 Ithaca College presented her with an honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of her bridge-building work over the years. (This biographical statement provided by Ann Thompson Cook.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ann Thompson Cook Ann Thompson Cook https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/ca478214acbdde798ab8fb7edb9e6aff.jpg 835110c47a3eaa1d380bba37855dded4 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Baptized in the United Methodist Church, influenced by the Church of the Brethren, and raised in the Southern Presbyterian Church, it is little wonder that the Rev. Ann B. Day found a spiritual home in the ecumenically-committed United Church of Christ (UCC). Equally drawn by its Christ-centered life and commitment to social justice, she was ordained in the UCC after completing her Master of Divinity degree at Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1978. While in seminary, she served as the first coordinator of the Women’s Office at the Divinity School. After seminary, Ann served as associate pastor at First Congregational Church UCC in Holden, Massachusetts until 1981. In the years following, she discovered and became increasingly involved with the United Church Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns (now the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns). In 1987, she became its Open and Affirming (ONA) Program coordinator, assisting UCC settings in becoming and being ONA (publicly welcoming to LGBT persons). The ONA work of the Coalition includes maintaining the listings of ONA settings in the UCC and, in cooperation with national UCC staff and others, provides the primary leadership for assisting settings with an ongoing process of ONA study and witness. For twenty years, Ann's ministry involved writing, preaching, developing resources, providing pastoral support to clergy and laypersons, and offering educational programs. During this time, her partner, Donna Enberg, served as ONA Administrative Assistant, doing invaluable work to keep the database and finances of the program in order and see that resources were sent on their way promptly. As Coalition staff, Ann and Donna were also actively involved in the ecumenical Welcoming Church Movement. With deep gratitude for the opportunity to provide ONA leadership and for many, wonderful Welcoming friends and colleagues, they retired from this ministry in 2007. Ann has long had an interest in worship and liturgy, serving for many years on the Annual Meeting Worship Committee of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC. Her prayers, litanies, and other worship materials have been published in collections including, Flames of the Spirit, Women Pray, Touch Holiness, and Shaping Sanctuary. In 2009, Ann moved to "retired" clergy standing in the UCC in order to focus more on her work as President of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation which has among its guidelines projects which increase understanding and inclusion of LGBT persons in religious traditions. In 2004, Donna and Ann were legally wed at their church, United Congregational Church (UCC) in Worcester, Mass. They enjoy their home where one likes things tidy and the other favors the cluttered look. (Fortunately, they do not share an office.) TV-compatible, they do not (often) fight over the remote control. They like to read, enjoy the beauty of Maine, and eat brownies on holidays. Their family includes two grown children and seven grandchildren (who also like brownies). (This biographical statement provided by Ann B. Day.) Biographical Text Baptized in the United Methodist Church, influenced by the Church of the Brethren, and raised in the Southern Presbyterian Church, it is little wonder that the Rev. Ann B. Day found a spiritual home in the ecumenically-committed United Church of Christ (UCC). Equally drawn by its Christ-centered life and commitment to social justice, she was ordained in the UCC after completing her Master of Divinity degree at Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1978. While in seminary, she served as the first coordinator of the Women’s Office at the Divinity School. After seminary, Ann served as associate pastor at First Congregational Church UCC in Holden, Massachusetts until 1981. In the years following, she discovered and became increasingly involved with the United Church Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns (now the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns). In 1987, she became its Open and Affirming (ONA) Program coordinator, assisting UCC settings in becoming and being ONA (publicly welcoming to LGBT persons). The ONA work of the Coalition includes maintaining the listings of ONA settings in the UCC and, in cooperation with national UCC staff and others, provides the primary leadership for assisting settings with an ongoing process of ONA study and witness. For twenty years, Ann's ministry involved writing, preaching, developing resources, providing pastoral support to clergy and laypersons, and offering educational programs. During this time, her partner, <a href="http://exhibits.lgbtran.org/exhibits/show/rolling-the-stone-away/item/1417">Donna Enberg</a>, served as ONA Administrative Assistant, doing invaluable work to keep the database and finances of the program in order and see that resources were sent on their way promptly. As Coalition staff, Ann and Donna were also actively involved in the ecumenical Welcoming Church Movement. With deep gratitude for the opportunity to provide ONA leadership and for many, wonderful Welcoming friends and colleagues, they retired from this ministry in 2007. Ann has long had an interest in worship and liturgy, serving for many years on the Annual Meeting Worship Committee of the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC. Her prayers, litanies, and other worship materials have been published in collections including, Flames of the Spirit, Women Pray, Touch Holiness, and Shaping Sanctuary. In 2009, Ann moved to "retired" clergy standing in the UCC in order to focus more on her work as President of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation which has among its guidelines projects which increase understanding and inclusion of LGBT persons in religious traditions. In 2004, Donna and Ann were legally wed at their church, United Congregational Church (UCC) in Worcester, Mass. They enjoy their home where one likes things tidy and the other favors the cluttered look. (Fortunately, they do not share an office.) TV-compatible, they do not (often) fight over the remote control. They like to read, enjoy the beauty of Maine, and eat brownies on holidays. Their family includes two grown children and seven grandchildren (who also like brownies). (This biographical statement provided by Ann B. Day.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ann Day Ann Day ONA Open and Affirming in the UCC UCC UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns United Church of Christ https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/b67f5673df0aee68270999894237e8cd.jpg d95ffa0abcf2ff09d15cb852806d70bc Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Allen V. Harris is guided by prayerful discernment, passionate play, and prophetic witness. He finds much of his spiritual wisdom in scripture (particularly Isaiah 56:1-8, Luke 4:14-21, and Romans 12), conversations with friends, colleagues, and strangers on the street, as well as in the writings of many, especially Rumi, James Baldwin, Rev. Howard Thurman, Anne Lamott, and Walter Brueggemann. He loves to sing, to jog, to drink coffee and wine (not at the same time, however), and to listen intently, especially to children. The Rev. Allen V. Harris currently serves as the Regional Minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Capital Area, one of 32 Regions in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. He began his ministry in the Capital Area June 15, 2015. He previously served as Senior Pastor of Franklin Circle Christian Church in Cleveland, Ohio for 14 years where he helped to transform that congregation's ministry within its richly diverse urban neighborhood just west of downtown Cleveland. Prior to that he served as Associate Pastor/Transitional Senior Pastor of the Park Avenue Christian Church of New York City for a decade, the congregation in which he was ordained into ministry in 1991. Allen has gifts and graces in many areas, but is especially experienced in leading congregations and individuals through Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation, Open & Affirming, and Accessible Congregational processes. He delights in and seeks to grow in transformational leadership, using social media for mission and advocacy, and in mentoring new clergy. From 2000 to 2015 Allen was the Senior Pastor of Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Cleveland, Ohio. He was called there as a “Redevelopment Pastor” for a three-year term, offered as a carefully selected candidate by the Ohio Regional staff specifically to complement the needs of the Near West Side neighborhood which is racially diverse, politically active, with a growing LGBTQ population. His call to the historic, diverse, urban congregation in the spring of 2001 grew out of heartfelt hopes of helping the congregation to reclaim a clear sense of its identity and to renew its mission to the community. In April of 2004 the Region of Ohio and the congregation affirmed the work and he continued as their fully settled Senior Pastor. Allen and the congregation successfully revitalized the congregation and it became a prophetic witness and compassionate center for those who participated in the congregation, for the community around it, and for many near and far. Within the Christian Church of Ohio (Disciples of Christ) in Ohio Allen served on the Commission on the Ministry, served as Co-Director of Advance Conference along with the Rev. Margot Connor, and as President of the Adult Conference of 2011. Allen has served on several non-profit boards, including the Community Advisory Board of Lutheran Hospital, Interfaith Partners In Action of Cleveland (InterAct Cleveland) where he served as Board President. He is a proud graduate of the Neighborhood Leadership Institute (Class 17), all in Cleveland, Ohio. Allen had moved to Cleveland from New York City with his partner (now husband), the Rev. Craig Hoffman, in 2000 after a 10-year pastorate at Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan. Allen was privileged to serve as Associate Pastor with the Rev. John Wade Payne, Senior Pastor, for nine of those ten years. While serving as Associate Pastor at Park Avenue Christian Allen was ordained into ministry on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1991. His journey to be ordained was one of both exquisite beauty and profound pain. It also paralleled in chronology the events surrounding the contested nomination of the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon as General Minister and President of the denomination, whose candidacy was defeated at the General Assembly in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1991 in large part because of an orchestrated campaign of homophobia because Rev. Kinnamon and his (then) wife, Katherine Kinnamon were supporters of GLAD Alliance. While Allen was not the “first” in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to be ordained openly LGBTQ, nor was he the “first” to be hired in a first parish setting as openly LGBTQ, he does appear to be the first to do both, and has been out as a fully-embodied queer man in all of his ministerial settings since graduating seminary. Allen has a deep dedication to both the Regional and General expressions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). As a youth he served on the Youth Commission for the Tres Rios Area (1978-81), then the Regional Youth Council for the Southwest Region (1981-1982), and then on the General Youth Council (1980-1982), a position that allowed him to join in the planning for the Youth Ministry Congress at Texas Christian University (Ft. Worth) in the summer of 1981. As an adult, Allen has also served on the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), being chosen and elected to be on both the Administrative Committee and on the Executive Committee. Allen has attended every biennial General Assembly of the Christian Church since 1979 (St. Louis), having offered Resource Groups and having been in leadership for Assembly worship services there. In his ministry at Park Avenue Christian Church Allen spent time studying and developing skills in working with multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, economically-diverse congregations. He continues to use these gifts and graces in ministry. He also developed in New York City his deep commitment to ecumenical and interfaith work, serving on both the local Yorkville Interfaith Council and the Spiritual Rainbow, a coalition of interfaith LGBTQ leaders. He would also later be a part of a similar group in Cleveland, Ohio, the Spiritual Leaders Group of the LBGT Center of Cleveland. Prior to being called to Park Avenue Christian Church, Allen became an early leader in the the Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples Alliance (now the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance). He served on the GLAD Alliance Council for several terms and was founding co-editor of the GLAD Alliance Crossbeams newsletter with the Rev. Michael Schloff (later serving in that role with the Rev. Jon Lacey). Along with the Rev. Laurie Rudel of Seattle, Washington, Allen was one of the founding “Developers” of the Open & Affirming Ministries Program of GLAD Alliance. He served for almost ten years as the one of its Developers. Using this wisdom and experience, Allen helped to guide both Park Avenue Christian Church and Franklin Circle Christian Church and now offers himself as a resource to congregations and institutions in the Christian Church Capital Area. Allen was born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico to Sara Vernon Harris, a lifelong nurse, and Lt. Col. Wesley Dalton Harris, a career soldier in the U.S. Army. He received his B.S. in Religious Education at Phillips University, Enid, Oklahoma and his M.Div., with a concentration in Religious Education, from Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, in Ft. Worth, Texas. While at Brite he served for over three years as Assistant to the Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Grapevine, Texas under the mentorship of Rev. Eleanor Cozad Cherryholmes. He has authored articles in several journals, including DisciplesWorld, Homily, and Open Hands. He also has numerous liturgies publishes in Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God's Grace in an Inclusive Church, edited by Kelly Turney [Chicago: Welcoming Church Movement, 2000; 424 pp., ISBN 0970156804]. Allen has had a sermon selected for an upcoming issue of The Living Pulpit. Allen and his husband, Craig, remodeled a historic 1880's "folk Victorian" home on Cleveland’s Near West Side using environmentally-friendly and sustainable techniques and building materials. Both are committed to sustainability and creation care lifestyles. Craig serves as the Executive Assistant to the Senior Pastor at Old Stone Presbyterian Church in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The Rev. Dr. Mary Kay Totty, Allen’s best friend from seminary days, serves as Senior Pastor of Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. She and Allen enjoy weekly Sunday night dinners together now that he lives nearby. (This biographical statement provided by Allen V. Harris.) Biographical Text Allen V. Harris is guided by prayerful discernment, passionate play, and prophetic witness. He finds much of his spiritual wisdom in scripture (particularly Isaiah 56:1-8, Luke 4:14-21, and Romans 12), conversations with friends, colleagues, and strangers on the street, as well as in the writings of many, especially Rumi, James Baldwin, Rev. Howard Thurman, Anne Lamott, and Walter Brueggemann. He loves to sing, to jog, to drink coffee and wine (not at the same time, however), and to listen intently, especially to children. The Rev. Allen V. Harris currently serves as the Regional Minister for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Capital Area, one of 32 Regions in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. He began his ministry in the Capital Area June 15, 2015. He previously served as Senior Pastor of Franklin Circle Christian Church in Cleveland, Ohio for 14 years where he helped to transform that congregation's ministry within its richly diverse urban neighborhood just west of downtown Cleveland. Prior to that he served as Associate Pastor/Transitional Senior Pastor of the Park Avenue Christian Church of New York City for a decade, the congregation in which he was ordained into ministry in 1991. Allen has gifts and graces in many areas, but is especially experienced in leading congregations and individuals through Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation, Open & Affirming, and Accessible Congregational processes. He delights in and seeks to grow in transformational leadership, using social media for mission and advocacy, and in mentoring new clergy. From 2000 to 2015 Allen was the Senior Pastor of Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Cleveland, Ohio. He was called there as a “Redevelopment Pastor” for a three-year term, offered as a carefully selected candidate by the Ohio Regional staff specifically to complement the needs of the Near West Side neighborhood which is racially diverse, politically active, with a growing LGBTQ population. His call to the historic, diverse, urban congregation in the spring of 2001 grew out of heartfelt hopes of helping the congregation to reclaim a clear sense of its identity and to renew its mission to the community. In April of 2004 the Region of Ohio and the congregation affirmed the work and he continued as their fully settled Senior Pastor. Allen and the congregation successfully revitalized the congregation and it became a prophetic witness and compassionate center for those who participated in the congregation, for the community around it, and for many near and far. Within the Christian Church of Ohio (Disciples of Christ) in Ohio Allen served on the Commission on the Ministry, served as Co-Director of Advance Conference along with the Rev. Margot Connor, and as President of the Adult Conference of 2011. Allen has served on several non-profit boards, including the Community Advisory Board of Lutheran Hospital, Interfaith Partners In Action of Cleveland (InterAct Cleveland) where he served as Board President. He is a proud graduate of the Neighborhood Leadership Institute (Class 17), all in Cleveland, Ohio. Allen had moved to Cleveland from New York City with his partner (now husband), the Rev. Craig Hoffman, in 2000 after a 10-year pastorate at Park Avenue Christian Church in Manhattan. Allen was privileged to serve as Associate Pastor with the Rev. John Wade Payne, Senior Pastor, for nine of those ten years. While serving as Associate Pastor at Park Avenue Christian Allen was ordained into ministry on Pentecost Sunday, May 19, 1991. His journey to be ordained was one of both exquisite beauty and profound pain. It also paralleled in chronology the events surrounding the contested nomination of the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon as General Minister and President of the denomination, whose candidacy was defeated at the General Assembly in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1991 in large part because of an orchestrated campaign of homophobia because Rev. Kinnamon and his (then) wife, Katherine Kinnamon were supporters of GLAD Alliance. While Allen was not the “first” in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to be ordained openly LGBTQ, nor was he the “first” to be hired in a first parish setting as openly LGBTQ, he does appear to be the first to do both, and has been out as a fully-embodied queer man in all of his ministerial settings since graduating seminary. Allen has a deep dedication to both the Regional and General expressions of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). As a youth he served on the Youth Commission for the Tres Rios Area (1978-81), then the Regional Youth Council for the Southwest Region (1981-1982), and then on the General Youth Council (1980-1982), a position that allowed him to join in the planning for the Youth Ministry Congress at Texas Christian University (Ft. Worth) in the summer of 1981. As an adult, Allen has also served on the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), being chosen and elected to be on both the Administrative Committee and on the Executive Committee. Allen has attended every biennial General Assembly of the Christian Church since 1979 (St. Louis), having offered Resource Groups and having been in leadership for Assembly worship services there. In his ministry at Park Avenue Christian Church Allen spent time studying and developing skills in working with multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, economically-diverse congregations. He continues to use these gifts and graces in ministry. He also developed in New York City his deep commitment to ecumenical and interfaith work, serving on both the local Yorkville Interfaith Council and the Spiritual Rainbow, a coalition of interfaith LGBTQ leaders. He would also later be a part of a similar group in Cleveland, Ohio, the Spiritual Leaders Group of the LBGT Center of Cleveland. Prior to being called to Park Avenue Christian Church, Allen became an early leader in the the Gay, Lesbian, and Affirming Disciples Alliance (now the Disciples LGBTQ+ Alliance). He served on the GLAD Alliance Council for several terms and was founding co-editor of the GLAD Alliance Crossbeams newsletter with the Rev. Michael Schloff (later serving in that role with the Rev. Jon Lacey). Along with the Rev. Laurie Rudel of Seattle, Washington, Allen was one of the founding “Developers” of the Open & Affirming Ministries Program of GLAD Alliance. He served for almost ten years as the one of its Developers. Using this wisdom and experience, Allen helped to guide both Park Avenue Christian Church and Franklin Circle Christian Church and now offers himself as a resource to congregations and institutions in the Christian Church Capital Area. Allen was born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico to Sara Vernon Harris, a lifelong nurse, and Lt. Col. Wesley Dalton Harris, a career soldier in the U.S. Army. He received his B.S. in Religious Education at Phillips University, Enid, Oklahoma and his M.Div., with a concentration in Religious Education, from Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, in Ft. Worth, Texas. While at Brite he served for over three years as Assistant to the Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Grapevine, Texas under the mentorship of Rev. Eleanor Cozad Cherryholmes. He has authored articles in several journals, including DisciplesWorld, Homily, and Open Hands. He also has numerous liturgies publishes in Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God's Grace in an Inclusive Church, edited by Kelly Turney [Chicago: Welcoming Church Movement, 2000; 424 pp., ISBN 0970156804]. Allen has had a sermon selected for an upcoming issue of The Living Pulpit. Allen and his husband, Craig, remodeled a historic 1880's "folk Victorian" home on Cleveland’s Near West Side using environmentally-friendly and sustainable techniques and building materials. Both are committed to sustainability and creation care lifestyles. Craig serves as the Executive Assistant to the Senior Pastor at Old Stone Presbyterian Church in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The Rev. Dr. Mary Kay Totty, Allen’s best friend from seminary days, serves as Senior Pastor of Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. She and Allen enjoy weekly Sunday night dinners together now that he lives nearby. (This biographical statement provided by Allen V. Harris.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Allen Harris Allen Harris https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1f107e4251188b3cb968a80002716fb2.jpg e2818676d0048715351bb3a027ab05e5 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Alison Amyx, as Believe Out Loud's senior communications strategist, works diligently to foster healthy, authentic, and challenging conversations on justice for all LGBTQIA people. Alison was raised Southern Baptist in northwest Georgia. She accepted Jesus into her heart at the age of seven. Over the course of her childhood, she developed deep doubts about whether she was worthy of God’s love. These doubts were strong enough to lead her toward every altar call in walking distance, and eventually, these doubts led to her second baptism at the age of seventeen. By college, these doubts grew as wide as the distance between the two images of God she was presented as a child—the angry, vengeful God who sent people to Hell, and the God of Love beyond understanding. While pursuing an undergraduate degree in sociology at Mercer University, a historically Baptist school in Georgia, Alison took a required Christianity course that changed the way she read the Bible. She was hooked. By her senior year, she narrowed her focus on the sociology of religion, and her undergraduate studies culminated in project on the social factors that influence perceptions of an authoritarian God. This project, along with a growing interest in conflict transformation, led Alison to pursue a Master of Theological Studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Though Alison embarked on religious study as purely an “academic pursuit,” the existential angst of her childhood persisted throughout seminary. After five years of studying many types of faith (and meeting many, many Methodists), Alison found herself leaning back into her roots—the Baptist tradition. During her last semester of seminary, she realized that she was, in fact, a person of faith, and her faith was rooted in a love beyond understanding. Just one week later, she realized she was gay. Alison began her communications work in seminary—first at the Religion and Public Health Collaborative at Emory University, and then at Interfaith Power & Light, a national organization mobilizing a religious response to global warming. From the intersections of faith and doubt, to religion and environmental work, and faith and sexuality—Alison’s is called to work in spaces where gaps are bridged and conflicts are transformed. In 2012, Alison joined the staff of Believe Out Loud as the senior editor, where she was tasked with creating and curating content for the largest online network of LGBT Christians and allies. In this position, she has curated extensive conversations about mental health, race, sexuality, and gender in the LGBTQIA community. In 2016, Alison created and launched Believe Out Loud’s Blogger Payment Program to ensure the individuals who write for Believe Out Loud receive compensation for their work. This program prioritizes individuals who write about identities and experiences that are underrepresented in the wider LGBTQIA movement. From the individuals who write for Believe Out Loud, to the members of the Believe Out Loud who hold the community accountable, Alison has grown tremendously in relationship with a community of LGBTQIA believers—including the elders who bridge the gaps between generations in our movement. Alison currently lives in New Jersey with her partner Reese Rathjen. In her spare time, she visits cats, sings in choirs, and serves on the board of <a href="http://www.bpfna.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz</a>, la red más grande de Bautistas por la paz en el mundo, the largest network of Baptist peacemakers in the world. Alison believes in evolving identities and currently holds the following labels close to heart: Southerner, person of faith, trans partner, Baptist, and queer femme. (This biographical statement provided by Alison Amyx.) Biographical Text Alison Amyx, as Believe Out Loud's senior communications strategist, works diligently to foster healthy, authentic, and challenging conversations on justice for all LGBTQIA people. Alison was raised Southern Baptist in northwest Georgia. She accepted Jesus into her heart at the age of seven. Over the course of her childhood, she developed deep doubts about whether she was worthy of God’s love. These doubts were strong enough to lead her toward every altar call in walking distance, and eventually, these doubts led to her second baptism at the age of seventeen. By college, these doubts grew as wide as the distance between the two images of God she was presented as a child—the angry, vengeful God who sent people to Hell, and the God of Love beyond understanding. While pursuing an undergraduate degree in sociology at Mercer University, a historically Baptist school in Georgia, Alison took a required Christianity course that changed the way she read the Bible. She was hooked. By her senior year, she narrowed her focus on the sociology of religion, and her undergraduate studies culminated in project on the social factors that influence perceptions of an authoritarian God. This project, along with a growing interest in conflict transformation, led Alison to pursue a Master of Theological Studies at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Though Alison embarked on religious study as purely an “academic pursuit,” the existential angst of her childhood persisted throughout seminary. After five years of studying many types of faith (and meeting many, many Methodists), Alison found herself leaning back into her roots—the Baptist tradition. During her last semester of seminary, she realized that she was, in fact, a person of faith, and her faith was rooted in a love beyond understanding. Just one week later, she realized she was gay. Alison began her communications work in seminary—first at the Religion and Public Health Collaborative at Emory University, and then at Interfaith Power & Light, a national organization mobilizing a religious response to global warming. From the intersections of faith and doubt, to religion and environmental work, and faith and sexuality—Alison’s is called to work in spaces where gaps are bridged and conflicts are transformed. In 2012, Alison joined the staff of Believe Out Loud as the senior editor, where she was tasked with creating and curating content for the largest online network of LGBT Christians and allies. In this position, she has curated extensive conversations about mental health, race, sexuality, and gender in the LGBTQIA community. In 2016, Alison created and launched Believe Out Loud’s Blogger Payment Program to ensure the individuals who write for Believe Out Loud receive compensation for their work. This program prioritizes individuals who write about identities and experiences that are underrepresented in the wider LGBTQIA movement. From the individuals who write for Believe Out Loud, to the members of the Believe Out Loud who hold the community accountable, Alison has grown tremendously in relationship with a community of LGBTQIA believers—including the elders who bridge the gaps between generations in our movement. Alison currently lives in New Jersey with her partner Reese Rathjen. In her spare time, she visits cats, sings in choirs, and serves on the board of <a href="http://www.bpfna.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BPFNA ~ Bautistas por la Paz</a>, la red más grande de Bautistas por la paz en el mundo, the largest network of Baptist peacemakers in the world. Alison believes in evolving identities and currently holds the following labels close to heart: Southerner, person of faith, trans partner, Baptist, and queer femme. (This biographical statement provided by Alison Amyx.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alison Amyx Alison Amyx Baptist Believe Out Loud https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/3603e2555806f59c1fa08417e8020d22.jpg c404a7525a27dbcd24e16cd6ec3a51d3 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Alex Patchin McNeill is the first openly transgender person to head a mainline Protestant organization. He is an openly transgender man, a life-long Presbyterian, and a nationally known educator and advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Christians. Alex spent most of his childhood in the mountains of West Virginia and western North Carolina. Before heading off to college at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Alex came out to his parents about two things: that he identified as queer and that he felt called to go to be a Presbyterian minister. However the prohibitive amendment G-6.0106b excluding openly gay and lesbian people from ordination had been put into the Presbyterian Book of Order in 1997. As the amendment became law, Alex was in high school and just beginning to understand his sense of call. Alex became an activist during college for LGBTQ inclusive polices and programs at UNC while pursuing his bachelor of religious studies and a minor in sexuality and gender studies. He attended seminary at Harvard Divinity School and concentrated his M.Div. studies on gender, sexuality and religion. He wrote his masters thesis on how Christian ethics could inform a sex-positive way to teach sex education. After graduating from Harvard in 2008, Alex moved to Washington, D.C. with his partner. The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) was in the midst of making another attempt to repeal G-6.0106b. While waiting for the PCUSA to change it’s policies on ordination, Alex began working at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. While fighting the growing roll-back of reproductive rights and health care, Alex also began volunteering for organizations and projects working at the LGBTQ and faith intersection. In 2010, he served as a lead trainer for the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Believe Out Loud Power Summit in Orlando, Florida. The Power Summit had a bold agenda to help move people of faith out of the pews and into action for LGBTQ equality. It was at this event that Alex met Rev. Deb Peevey who had just been contracted to work with More Light Presbyterians on another attempt to repeal G-6.0106b and replace it with amendment 10A. In 2010, the PCUSA was undergoing another national vote that would hopefully remove the barriers to ordination for LGB people. Alex vowed that he couldn’t sit on the sidelines for another PCUSA ratification vote on ordination if he wanted to continue to call himself a Presbyterian. Alex became Deb’s ‘right hand man’ volunteering over 20 hours a week during the height of the campaign while working full time at RCRC. After Amendment 10A was ratified and put into the Book of Order, the question everyone asked Alex shifted from "what are you going to do since you can’t be ordained?," to “when are you going to finally be ordained!” The shift in possibility of ordination was a wake-up call to Alex that to best serve the church he needed to face up to the growing sense that he is transgender and needed to begin a gender transition. In the fall of 2012 he ended his full time job at RCRC and began working on the marriage campaign in Maryland through the National LGBTQ Task Force, and on the documentary Out of Order. At the same time, he also began his medical gender transition. After marriage became the law of the land in Maryland, he worked with Equality Maryland to pass a state-wide non-discrimination ordinance and as a lead trainer for the Building an Inclusive Church curriculum. In the summer of 2013, he was called to serve as the Executive Director of More Light Presbyterians. Over the past four years while serving as the ED of More Light Presbyterians (MLP), Alex has led the organization through a marriage campaign and nationwide voting effort to remove discriminatory language in the Book of Order and secure marriage equality in the denomination. He has also led MLP through a visioning process for what is next after marriage equality and developed new programs to help congregations and members live into LGBTQ inclusion in their churches and advocate for further equity and welcome in their communities. His journey to ordination is chronicled in the documentary, Out of Order. He currently lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife and three dogs. (This biographical statement provided by Alex McNeill.) Biographical Text Alex Patchin McNeill is the first openly transgender person to head a mainline Protestant organization. He is an openly transgender man, a life-long Presbyterian, and a nationally known educator and advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) Christians. Alex spent most of his childhood in the mountains of West Virginia and western North Carolina. Before heading off to college at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Alex came out to his parents about two things: that he identified as queer and that he felt called to go to be a Presbyterian minister. However the prohibitive amendment G-6.0106b excluding openly gay and lesbian people from ordination had been put into the Presbyterian Book of Order in 1997. As the amendment became law, Alex was in high school and just beginning to understand his sense of call. Alex became an activist during college for LGBTQ inclusive polices and programs at UNC while pursuing his bachelor of religious studies and a minor in sexuality and gender studies. He attended seminary at Harvard Divinity School and concentrated his M.Div. studies on gender, sexuality and religion. He wrote his masters thesis on how Christian ethics could inform a sex-positive way to teach sex education. After graduating from Harvard in 2008, Alex moved to Washington, D.C. with his partner. The Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) was in the midst of making another attempt to repeal G-6.0106b. While waiting for the PCUSA to change it’s policies on ordination, Alex began working at the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. While fighting the growing roll-back of reproductive rights and health care, Alex also began volunteering for organizations and projects working at the LGBTQ and faith intersection. In 2010, he served as a lead trainer for the National LGBTQ Task Force’s Believe Out Loud Power Summit in Orlando, Florida. The Power Summit had a bold agenda to help move people of faith out of the pews and into action for LGBTQ equality. It was at this event that Alex met Rev. Deb Peevey who had just been contracted to work with More Light Presbyterians on another attempt to repeal G-6.0106b and replace it with amendment 10A. In 2010, the PCUSA was undergoing another national vote that would hopefully remove the barriers to ordination for LGB people. Alex vowed that he couldn’t sit on the sidelines for another PCUSA ratification vote on ordination if he wanted to continue to call himself a Presbyterian. Alex became Deb’s ‘right hand man’ volunteering over 20 hours a week during the height of the campaign while working full time at RCRC. After Amendment 10A was ratified and put into the Book of Order, the question everyone asked Alex shifted from "what are you going to do since you can’t be ordained?," to “when are you going to finally be ordained!” The shift in possibility of ordination was a wake-up call to Alex that to best serve the church he needed to face up to the growing sense that he is transgender and needed to begin a gender transition. In the fall of 2012 he ended his full time job at RCRC and began working on the marriage campaign in Maryland through the National LGBTQ Task Force, and on the documentary Out of Order. At the same time, he also began his medical gender transition. After marriage became the law of the land in Maryland, he worked with Equality Maryland to pass a state-wide non-discrimination ordinance and as a lead trainer for the Building an Inclusive Church curriculum. In the summer of 2013, he was called to serve as the Executive Director of More Light Presbyterians. Over the past four years while serving as the ED of More Light Presbyterians (MLP), Alex has led the organization through a marriage campaign and nationwide voting effort to remove discriminatory language in the Book of Order and secure marriage equality in the denomination. He has also led MLP through a visioning process for what is next after marriage equality and developed new programs to help congregations and members live into LGBTQ inclusion in their churches and advocate for further equity and welcome in their communities. His journey to ordination is chronicled in the documentary, Out of Order. He currently lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife and three dogs. (This biographical statement provided by Alex McNeill.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alex McNeill Alex McNeill More Light Presbyterians for LGBT Concerns Presbyterian https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a3a04041450bc1f668c8729ee6c6e30f.jpg 299b95c3c7ac859c0e872dff030e125c Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Michael Adee’s life and faith journey has been marked by providence and grace. The young couple who would become his parents, Larry Adee and Doris Walker, met at a USO dance during World War ll. They fell in love and got married after the war. Larry worked for Continental Oil Company, so they lived in different oil-producing communities. They adopted a son Steve, of Cherokee Indian descent, in Oklahoma. Four years later, living in Billings, Montana, they adopted Michael. Larry was raised Presbyterian while Doris was Baptist but chose to join him at a Presbyterian Church. Michael’s adoption was arranged through First Presbyterian Church Billings where Larry served on the Session with a pediatrician who learned that they were ready for a second son. Michael did not really understand the concept of adoption as a child. His parents always used told him that he had been “chosen”—which was most appropriate in their religious tradition. The Adee family moved to Houston briefly and then to southwest Louisiana where Michael spent his formative years in the town of Sulphur. Catholicism was the dominant religion in the area and the sole Presbyterian Church was small. But Michael found it to be a great faith community in which to grow up. Each of the small number of children was considered special. His dad was an Elder and Clerk of the Session and also taught adult Christian Education. Michael’s mom lost her vision due to diabetes when Michael was in 5th grade. Attempts to save her eyesight through surgery failed. Michael understands that his mother subsequently saw with her “heart” and not with her eyes. Michael is deeply grateful to his parents for being models for his life. They lived out their faith in different, but complementary and harmonious ways. His dad had a clear, rational, logical approach to faith. His mom’s faith was more emotional and impassioned with a justice orientation. School played an important role in Michael’s life during his childhood. He was socially active so joined every club or group available. He played a number of sports. He and his dad were active in Boy Scouts. The family went tent-camping on almost every school holiday—sometimes with friends, but usually with other family relatives. Through spending so much time out-of-doors, Michael’s parents taught him and his brother to love and respect earth and creation. As Michael’s brother Steve entered adolescence he began to struggle with school and to experiment with drugs. This led to encounters with school and police authorities. Eventually Steve was forced to leave public school and live at a reformatory school away from the family home. This resulted in a great sadness for the Adee family. Michael recalls the family’s Sunday routine when he was in high school. His mom would put a roast in the oven before they left for church. She insisted that they get dressed up appropriately for church. Michael and his dad were two of the seven members of the choir in worship. On the way home they would stop at the jail to visit Steve. Michael got his first glimpse of racial profiling as he observed that his family was usually the only White folks there and the only ones dressed up. His mom reassured Steve that he was loved—trying to bring some dignity to a troubling situation. During the times when Steve was not in jail, the family would return home from church to eat the pot roast and then the guys would watch football or other sports. Michael recalls that his mom always wanted to root for the underdog. Her compassionate approach to the world—which showed up even in how she observed sports—had a deep influence on Michael and taught him the importance of working to make a difference in the world. Michael was very much a church geek during his youth. He was not only deeply involved with his Presbyterian Church but he went with his friend Barry to the nearby Baptist church which had a larger youth group. Michael says he was “Presbyterian by day and Baptist by night.” While Michael enjoyed this mix of religious experience, it also created some conflict between the Reformed theology of his family’s tradition and the Anabaptist emphasis on personal faith and salvation. Also the Baptist tradition espoused heteronormativity and even preached outright against homosexuality. Michael felt pressure about meeting the “right girl” and developed—what he later understood as--unhealthy attitudes about sexuality and how one integrates sexuality with faith and humanity. The minister at the Presbyterian Church, Clark, was a single man. Michael’s mom invited him to eat frequently with the Adees out of her concern that a single man would certainly starve. Once Clark invited the Adees to eat with him at the manse (the pastor’s home) where Michael discovered that Clark was a culinary artist and had one of the “fussiest” homes Michael had ever seen. Clark became a mentor to Michael in discerning his life and vocational goals and encouraged Michael to pursue his religious training. Michael enrolled in Louisiana State University in the fall of 1973 for his undergraduate work and intended to continue on to law school. During his undergrad years, Michael became even more of a church geek and kept himself busy with the Presbyterian campus ministry, Campus Crusade, InterVarsity and the Baptist campus programs. Toward the end of his college years Clark took Michael to visit Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Michael wasn’t impressed as he observed that life there seemed rather dull compared to his life at LSU. However, Michael later went on a mission trip with college friends to an African mission program at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. He thought that school was a good fit for him, particularly since the seminary had tennis courts on its campus. Michael had been an avid tennis player from a young age. After earning his B.S. degree from LSU in 1977, Michael enrolled at Southwestern. Given the social expectations around him, Michael dated women through high school and college. In fact, he was often a popular date because he was such a respectful, Christian young man. However, a few weeks after arriving at seminary, he found he was strongly attracted to one of his tennis buddies. Being an earnest person, Michael immediately went to the seminary counseling center and told a counselor that he thought might be gay. The counselor seemed totally unprepared to deal with such an honest confession and handed Michael some ex-gay pamphlets and said there was nothing else he could do for him. Michael read the pamphlets but was not impressed. So he decided that he would work harder on being straight and continued to date women. Michael completed the M.Div. degree at Southwestern in 1981 but did not feel that he was called to be a pastor. So he decided to do a year of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at a hospital in Cumberland, Maryland. Under the guidance of an extraordinary supervisor he had a remarkable, transformative year. As to be expected, the CPE experience led him to pull his life apart and put it back together. He developed some friendships with gay men. He continued to play tennis and be involved in church. He began to realize that his social life lacked integrity—he was not being fair to women he dated nor to himself. He dived into more reading, Bible study and prayer to try to sort this out. Michael finished the CPE experience in 1982 and then set off for a two-year stint as a missionary in Zimbabwe. He served as a campus minister at the University of Zimbabwe and worked with the Scripture Union to do programming and retreats with youth. Michael found this to be an amazing experience which led him to become a citizen of the world. During this time away, he also came to realize that it was OK for him to be gay even though this ran counter to what he had been taught in his hometown and in his church experiences. He recognized that Reformed theology and tradition was the solid ground on which he could continue to stand. Michael returned to the U.S. in 1984 and became a campus minister at the University of Nevada-Reno. He found this to be a huge culture shock. While he met some interesting people there, he was uneasy about unethical practices he observed and raised questions with campus ministry leaders. He lost favor and moved on after one year. Because he was now embracing his gay identity, Michael decided he could not continue in campus ministry. So he thought he would explore getting a Ph.D. and teaching. Going back to LSU was an affordable way to do that. He began the doctoral program in rhetoric and public communication along with two colleagues, Donald and Regina. Michael was determined to live a more integrated, honest life. Early in the term, during one of their habitual Tuesday breaks at the Student Union over Earl Grey tea and bagels with cream cheese, Michael took the risk to come out to Regina. Her response was that she had known this for some time. The next day she left a note for Michael that stated: “Dearest Michael, Thank you for inviting me into your life more fully. I have always loved you and love you even more now.” This strong affirmation became a liberating moment for Michael. In 1990, Michael got a teaching position at Northern Kentucky University near Cincinnati, Ohio. During the first semester, he was taken aback when a student in his speech class stated that “gay people deserve to die.” Another student reprimanded the person for the offensive statement. However, Michael was concerned about attitudes toward gay persons on campus and made an appointment with the director of the campus counseling center to discuss this. He met Ann, the director, and proposed the creation of an LGBT student group. She reminded Michael that he was not tenured and he was in northern Kentucky. Michael decided to start a group any way, which met once a week for six weeks in his home. Then he arranged for them to meet in a room at a Chinese restaurant across the street from campus. At that gathering, he proposed that they meet next in the student union on campus. He invited a friend who was active in Cincinnati PFLAG to speak to the group and she was warmly received. During this time, Michael had gone to visit Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, at the suggestion of Ann, the counseling center director. The first Sunday he attended worship there, the congregation’s proposed More Light statement (affirming participation of LGBT persons) was read aloud. Michael was moved to tears and believed that he had finally found a church home. As to be expected, Michael dived into becoming active in the life of the congregation and, in 1992-93, was elected and ordained as an Elder. This practice was not allowed under Presbyterian Church law, so some conservative pastors in the area filed ecclesiastical charges against Mt. Auburn. Back at the university Michael’s department chair and the dean had become unhappy with his work with LGBT students and so moved to fire him from his teaching position. Michael filed a grievance against the university but had no real legal protections. This was a challenging period for Michael as he scrambled to make a living, working a number of part-time jobs of the next year-and-a-half. Eventually he saw a listing for a hospice chaplain job with Vitas Health Care. He interviewed and was hired on the spot. He did hospice work for the next three years, initiating their bereavement program and helping establish an ethics committee. Michael was still actively involved at Mt. Auburn as well as with the national More Light Presbyterians organization. When his activism got local media attention once again, the Vitas director decided he was too controversial and again fired him from his position. Given this tumult, Michael concluded it was time for a fresh start—to leave Cincinnati. He had joined the national gay tennis circuit and competed in the Gay Games in New York City. There he met and fell in love in love with another tennis player, Kevin, from Atlanta. The two of them determined to plot out how to live together. Six cities were identified as possible places to live. Santa Fe was the first to offer Michael a job. He moved there in 1997 to manage an LGBT wellness group. Michael’s good friend Hal Porter, who was pastor at Mt. Auburn, had joined the national board of More Light Presbyterians (MLP). The board often met at the Ghost Ranch Conference Center in Santa Fe. Michael helped with arrangements and hosting for the meetings there. While the board was meeting there in 1999, Hal called Michael and asked him to have dinner together the last night of the meeting. Over the past year, MLP had decided to hire its first national organizer. The search process had dragged on because they didn’t seem to get the right candidate. They were particularly interested in someone with advocacy and organizing experience, not just as a pastor. Hal recognized that Michael’s skills and experience matched MLP’s needs. He asked Michael if he would consider applying for the position. The timing was good for Michael since the director of the agency where he worked had died and they were going through transition. Michael decided to apply, was hired and started working as MLP’S Field Organizer in May 1999. He thrived in that position—which later became Executive Director & Field Organizer—for fourteen years. Michael truly loved this work. It was remarkable in that it coalesced all of his life experiences, education and passions into this work. Furthermore, he was working with a blank slate, so had freedom to create this new position. He recalls that he had two resource documents, the Claiming the Promise curriculum and Walter Wink’s Homosexuality and the Bible. With those in hand, he started traveling to speak in churches all across the U.S., usually in four-five day stints of preaching, teaching, and meeting. The primary goal was to change the policy in the Presbyterian Church USA. However, Michael understood that this was a slow, deliberate process of changing hearts and minds—not just votes at the General Assembly. He observed progress slowly and steadily year after year. Initially, the focus was on removing or deleting laws or policies that were negative toward LGBT persons. But then the MLP board decided to shift to a more positive approach and to espouse a change in ordination procedures that would be more inclusive. The victory finally came at the 2010 General Assembly when all barriers to LGBT participation and ordination were removed. This required a one-year campaign to ratify those changes in the regional presbyteries, which was completed in May 2011. While this was happening, Michael was becoming more aware of the international situation—about antigay laws and atrocities in Africa, Latin America and other places. He started incorporating these perspectives into his work with MLP, recognizing that the Presbyterian Church USA has a presence and relationships in many countries around the world. In the fall of 2011, MLP held a celebratory gathering in Rochester, New York, to mark the ratification of new policies in the PCUSA. Michael did a presentation about international issues during a morning session. Following that, a philanthropist-activist Presbyterian minister asked Michael to go to lunch. She asked Michael if he would be willing to do international LGBT advocacy work separate from MLP, if she helped generate the funding. Michael was sensing that his work at MLP had reached some completion and was pondering where he might be called next. That lunch became a moment of clarity for him—this invitation perfectly fit with Michael’s past experiences and his current passion. Then he had to figure how to make this transition; how he could move into this new ministry while leaving MLP in a stable situation and ready for the new directions it could go. He conferred with the co-moderators in advance of the February 2012 board meeting in San Antonio. The board was generally surprised, with some disappointment but mostly grace in response to Michael’s announcement. They realized this would be a good match for Michael while giving MLP the opportunity to define a new way of being. The board hired Patrick Evans to be its interim director for one year to work with Michael on a transition plan and setting up protocols. Michael started his new position in September 2012. The philanthropist had decided to work through the Horizons Foundation in San Francisco, since it was one of the earliest LGBT foundations. The foundation began funding LGBT projects in the Bay Area but had recently started working in a national collaboration on marriage issues. Taking on a global project was new for them, but they were willing to do it. Initially Michael participated in international AIDS meetings in Washington, D.C. and International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA) meetings in Stockholm to explore how to do LGBT organizing globally in a religious context. A program officer at Horizons helped Michael begin to frame this Global Faith and Justice Project. One of his first activities was to respond to anti-gay laws emerging in Uganda. He invited U.S. colleagues to join him in a Faith in Uganda Project to get signatures of U.S. religious leaders to ask Ugandan government leaders to do no more harm. Michael found it quite daunting—both extremely challenging yet gratifying—to determine how to be in solidarity with the Global South even while tackling some immediate, pressing issues. The magnitude of needs and problems for LGBT persons internationally can be overwhelming. But Michael drew on his experience as MLP Field Organizer to remember that what had been accomplished there had seemed impossible at the onset. He has resolved to work faithfully in accompaniment with local LGBT activists and faith leaders around the world and stand with them to do this work. One of the first realizations in his work is that LGBT persons and allies in other parts of the world do not have LGBT-affirming resources and writings to support their activism. So he has begun to work in collaboration with the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion to bring together emerging scholars from around the world to help design this curriculum. (This biographical statement written by Mark Bowman from an interview with Michael Adee and edited by Michael Adee.) Biographical Text Michael Adee’s life and faith journey has been marked by providence and grace. The young couple who would become his parents, Larry Adee and Doris Walker, met at a USO dance during World War ll. They fell in love and got married after the war. Larry worked for Continental Oil Company, so they lived in different oil-producing communities. They adopted a son Steve, of Cherokee Indian descent, in Oklahoma. Four years later, living in Billings, Montana, they adopted Michael. Larry was raised Presbyterian while Doris was Baptist but chose to join him at a Presbyterian Church. Michael’s adoption was arranged through First Presbyterian Church Billings where Larry served on the Session with a pediatrician who learned that they were ready for a second son. Michael did not really understand the concept of adoption as a child. His parents always used told him that he had been “chosen”—which was most appropriate in their religious tradition. The Adee family moved to Houston briefly and then to southwest Louisiana where Michael spent his formative years in the town of Sulphur. Catholicism was the dominant religion in the area and the sole Presbyterian Church was small. But Michael found it to be a great faith community in which to grow up. Each of the small number of children was considered special. His dad was an Elder and Clerk of the Session and also taught adult Christian Education. Michael’s mom lost her vision due to diabetes when Michael was in 5th grade. Attempts to save her eyesight through surgery failed. Michael understands that his mother subsequently saw with her “heart” and not with her eyes. Michael is deeply grateful to his parents for being models for his life. They lived out their faith in different, but complementary and harmonious ways. His dad had a clear, rational, logical approach to faith. His mom’s faith was more emotional and impassioned with a justice orientation. School played an important role in Michael’s life during his childhood. He was socially active so joined every club or group available. He played a number of sports. He and his dad were active in Boy Scouts. The family went tent-camping on almost every school holiday—sometimes with friends, but usually with other family relatives. Through spending so much time out-of-doors, Michael’s parents taught him and his brother to love and respect earth and creation. As Michael’s brother Steve entered adolescence he began to struggle with school and to experiment with drugs. This led to encounters with school and police authorities. Eventually Steve was forced to leave public school and live at a reformatory school away from the family home. This resulted in a great sadness for the Adee family. Michael recalls the family’s Sunday routine when he was in high school. His mom would put a roast in the oven before they left for church. She insisted that they get dressed up appropriately for church. Michael and his dad were two of the seven members of the choir in worship. On the way home they would stop at the jail to visit Steve. Michael got his first glimpse of racial profiling as he observed that his family was usually the only White folks there and the only ones dressed up. His mom reassured Steve that he was loved—trying to bring some dignity to a troubling situation. During the times when Steve was not in jail, the family would return home from church to eat the pot roast and then the guys would watch football or other sports. Michael recalls that his mom always wanted to root for the underdog. Her compassionate approach to the world—which showed up even in how she observed sports—had a deep influence on Michael and taught him the importance of working to make a difference in the world. Michael was very much a church geek during his youth. He was not only deeply involved with his Presbyterian Church but he went with his friend Barry to the nearby Baptist church which had a larger youth group. Michael says he was “Presbyterian by day and Baptist by night.” While Michael enjoyed this mix of religious experience, it also created some conflict between the Reformed theology of his family’s tradition and the Anabaptist emphasis on personal faith and salvation. Also the Baptist tradition espoused heteronormativity and even preached outright against homosexuality. Michael felt pressure about meeting the “right girl” and developed—what he later understood as--unhealthy attitudes about sexuality and how one integrates sexuality with faith and humanity. The minister at the Presbyterian Church, Clark, was a single man. Michael’s mom invited him to eat frequently with the Adees out of her concern that a single man would certainly starve. Once Clark invited the Adees to eat with him at the manse (the pastor’s home) where Michael discovered that Clark was a culinary artist and had one of the “fussiest” homes Michael had ever seen. Clark became a mentor to Michael in discerning his life and vocational goals and encouraged Michael to pursue his religious training. Michael enrolled in Louisiana State University in the fall of 1973 for his undergraduate work and intended to continue on to law school. During his undergrad years, Michael became even more of a church geek and kept himself busy with the Presbyterian campus ministry, Campus Crusade, InterVarsity and the Baptist campus programs. Toward the end of his college years Clark took Michael to visit Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Michael wasn’t impressed as he observed that life there seemed rather dull compared to his life at LSU. However, Michael later went on a mission trip with college friends to an African mission program at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth. He thought that school was a good fit for him, particularly since the seminary had tennis courts on its campus. Michael had been an avid tennis player from a young age. After earning his B.S. degree from LSU in 1977, Michael enrolled at Southwestern. Given the social expectations around him, Michael dated women through high school and college. In fact, he was often a popular date because he was such a respectful, Christian young man. However, a few weeks after arriving at seminary, he found he was strongly attracted to one of his tennis buddies. Being an earnest person, Michael immediately went to the seminary counseling center and told a counselor that he thought might be gay. The counselor seemed totally unprepared to deal with such an honest confession and handed Michael some ex-gay pamphlets and said there was nothing else he could do for him. Michael read the pamphlets but was not impressed. So he decided that he would work harder on being straight and continued to date women. Michael completed the M.Div. degree at Southwestern in 1981 but did not feel that he was called to be a pastor. So he decided to do a year of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at a hospital in Cumberland, Maryland. Under the guidance of an extraordinary supervisor he had a remarkable, transformative year. As to be expected, the CPE experience led him to pull his life apart and put it back together. He developed some friendships with gay men. He continued to play tennis and be involved in church. He began to realize that his social life lacked integrity—he was not being fair to women he dated nor to himself. He dived into more reading, Bible study and prayer to try to sort this out. Michael finished the CPE experience in 1982 and then set off for a two-year stint as a missionary in Zimbabwe. He served as a campus minister at the University of Zimbabwe and worked with the Scripture Union to do programming and retreats with youth. Michael found this to be an amazing experience which led him to become a citizen of the world. During this time away, he also came to realize that it was OK for him to be gay even though this ran counter to what he had been taught in his hometown and in his church experiences. He recognized that Reformed theology and tradition was the solid ground on which he could continue to stand. Michael returned to the U.S. in 1984 and became a campus minister at the University of Nevada-Reno. He found this to be a huge culture shock. While he met some interesting people there, he was uneasy about unethical practices he observed and raised questions with campus ministry leaders. He lost favor and moved on after one year. Because he was now embracing his gay identity, Michael decided he could not continue in campus ministry. So he thought he would explore getting a Ph.D. and teaching. Going back to LSU was an affordable way to do that. He began the doctoral program in rhetoric and public communication along with two colleagues, Donald and Regina. Michael was determined to live a more integrated, honest life. Early in the term, during one of their habitual Tuesday breaks at the Student Union over Earl Grey tea and bagels with cream cheese, Michael took the risk to come out to Regina. Her response was that she had known this for some time. The next day she left a note for Michael that stated: “Dearest Michael, Thank you for inviting me into your life more fully. I have always loved you and love you even more now.” This strong affirmation became a liberating moment for Michael. In 1990, Michael got a teaching position at Northern Kentucky University near Cincinnati, Ohio. During the first semester, he was taken aback when a student in his speech class stated that “gay people deserve to die.” Another student reprimanded the person for the offensive statement. However, Michael was concerned about attitudes toward gay persons on campus and made an appointment with the director of the campus counseling center to discuss this. He met Ann, the director, and proposed the creation of an LGBT student group. She reminded Michael that he was not tenured and he was in northern Kentucky. Michael decided to start a group any way, which met once a week for six weeks in his home. Then he arranged for them to meet in a room at a Chinese restaurant across the street from campus. At that gathering, he proposed that they meet next in the student union on campus. He invited a friend who was active in Cincinnati PFLAG to speak to the group and she was warmly received. During this time, Michael had gone to visit Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, at the suggestion of Ann, the counseling center director. The first Sunday he attended worship there, the congregation’s proposed More Light statement (affirming participation of LGBT persons) was read aloud. Michael was moved to tears and believed that he had finally found a church home. As to be expected, Michael dived into becoming active in the life of the congregation and, in 1992-93, was elected and ordained as an Elder. This practice was not allowed under Presbyterian Church law, so some conservative pastors in the area filed ecclesiastical charges against Mt. Auburn. Back at the university Michael’s department chair and the dean had become unhappy with his work with LGBT students and so moved to fire him from his teaching position. Michael filed a grievance against the university but had no real legal protections. This was a challenging period for Michael as he scrambled to make a living, working a number of part-time jobs of the next year-and-a-half. Eventually he saw a listing for a hospice chaplain job with Vitas Health Care. He interviewed and was hired on the spot. He did hospice work for the next three years, initiating their bereavement program and helping establish an ethics committee. Michael was still actively involved at Mt. Auburn as well as with the national More Light Presbyterians organization. When his activism got local media attention once again, the Vitas director decided he was too controversial and again fired him from his position. Given this tumult, Michael concluded it was time for a fresh start—to leave Cincinnati. He had joined the national gay tennis circuit and competed in the Gay Games in New York City. There he met and fell in love in love with another tennis player, Kevin, from Atlanta. The two of them determined to plot out how to live together. Six cities were identified as possible places to live. Santa Fe was the first to offer Michael a job. He moved there in 1997 to manage an LGBT wellness group. Michael’s good friend Hal Porter, who was pastor at Mt. Auburn, had joined the national board of More Light Presbyterians (MLP). The board often met at the Ghost Ranch Conference Center in Santa Fe. Michael helped with arrangements and hosting for the meetings there. While the board was meeting there in 1999, Hal called Michael and asked him to have dinner together the last night of the meeting. Over the past year, MLP had decided to hire its first national organizer. The search process had dragged on because they didn’t seem to get the right candidate. They were particularly interested in someone with advocacy and organizing experience, not just as a pastor. Hal recognized that Michael’s skills and experience matched MLP’s needs. He asked Michael if he would consider applying for the position. The timing was good for Michael since the director of the agency where he worked had died and they were going through transition. Michael decided to apply, was hired and started working as MLP’S Field Organizer in May 1999. He thrived in that position—which later became Executive Director & Field Organizer—for fourteen years. Michael truly loved this work. It was remarkable in that it coalesced all of his life experiences, education and passions into this work. Furthermore, he was working with a blank slate, so had freedom to create this new position. He recalls that he had two resource documents, the Claiming the Promise curriculum and Walter Wink’s Homosexuality and the Bible. With those in hand, he started traveling to speak in churches all across the U.S., usually in four-five day stints of preaching, teaching, and meeting. The primary goal was to change the policy in the Presbyterian Church USA. However, Michael understood that this was a slow, deliberate process of changing hearts and minds—not just votes at the General Assembly. He observed progress slowly and steadily year after year. Initially, the focus was on removing or deleting laws or policies that were negative toward LGBT persons. But then the MLP board decided to shift to a more positive approach and to espouse a change in ordination procedures that would be more inclusive. The victory finally came at the 2010 General Assembly when all barriers to LGBT participation and ordination were removed. This required a one-year campaign to ratify those changes in the regional presbyteries, which was completed in May 2011. While this was happening, Michael was becoming more aware of the international situation—about antigay laws and atrocities in Africa, Latin America and other places. He started incorporating these perspectives into his work with MLP, recognizing that the Presbyterian Church USA has a presence and relationships in many countries around the world. In the fall of 2011, MLP held a celebratory gathering in Rochester, New York, to mark the ratification of new policies in the PCUSA. Michael did a presentation about international issues during a morning session. Following that, a philanthropist-activist Presbyterian minister asked Michael to go to lunch. She asked Michael if he would be willing to do international LGBT advocacy work separate from MLP, if she helped generate the funding. Michael was sensing that his work at MLP had reached some completion and was pondering where he might be called next. That lunch became a moment of clarity for him—this invitation perfectly fit with Michael’s past experiences and his current passion. Then he had to figure how to make this transition; how he could move into this new ministry while leaving MLP in a stable situation and ready for the new directions it could go. He conferred with the co-moderators in advance of the February 2012 board meeting in San Antonio. The board was generally surprised, with some disappointment but mostly grace in response to Michael’s announcement. They realized this would be a good match for Michael while giving MLP the opportunity to define a new way of being. The board hired Patrick Evans to be its interim director for one year to work with Michael on a transition plan and setting up protocols. Michael started his new position in September 2012. The philanthropist had decided to work through the Horizons Foundation in San Francisco, since it was one of the earliest LGBT foundations. The foundation began funding LGBT projects in the Bay Area but had recently started working in a national collaboration on marriage issues. Taking on a global project was new for them, but they were willing to do it. Initially Michael participated in international AIDS meetings in Washington, D.C. and International Lesbian & Gay Association (ILGA) meetings in Stockholm to explore how to do LGBT organizing globally in a religious context. A program officer at Horizons helped Michael begin to frame this Global Faith and Justice Project. One of his first activities was to respond to anti-gay laws emerging in Uganda. He invited U.S. colleagues to join him in a Faith in Uganda Project to get signatures of U.S. religious leaders to ask Ugandan government leaders to do no more harm. Michael found it quite daunting—both extremely challenging yet gratifying—to determine how to be in solidarity with the Global South even while tackling some immediate, pressing issues. The magnitude of needs and problems for LGBT persons internationally can be overwhelming. But Michael drew on his experience as MLP Field Organizer to remember that what had been accomplished there had seemed impossible at the onset. He has resolved to work faithfully in accompaniment with local LGBT activists and faith leaders around the world and stand with them to do this work. One of the first realizations in his work is that LGBT persons and allies in other parts of the world do not have LGBT-affirming resources and writings to support their activism. So he has begun to work in collaboration with the Center for Lesbian & Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion to bring together emerging scholars from around the world to help design this curriculum. (This biographical statement written by Mark Bowman from an interview with Michael Adee and edited by Michael Adee.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Adee Baptist Michael Adee More Light Presbyterians for LGBT Concerns Presbyterian https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/77a06bf2064ba9df1ecaeeda0d7a2f8d.jpg 40e5e2e5e04718c5f1d2ed816dd0c139 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document <a href="mailto:ryan@rollingthestoneaway.org">ryan@rollingthestoneaway.org</a> Ryan Hoffmann has worked in marketing, communications, and development with several Catholic organizations and brings a wealth of creativity, energy, and experience to this position.  Originally from Iowa, Ryan earned a Masters in Higher Education at Iowa State University and completed a Masters in Spirituality at Loyola University Chicago in 2008. He’s currently studying at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where he’ll begin the Doctor of Ministry program this fall. Biographical Text <a href="mailto:ryan@rollingthestoneaway.org">ryan@rollingthestoneaway.org</a> Ryan Hoffmann has worked in marketing, communications, and development with several Catholic organizations and brings a wealth of creativity, energy, and experience to this position.  Originally from Iowa, Ryan earned a Masters in Higher Education at Iowa State University and completed a Masters in Spirituality at Loyola University Chicago in 2008. He’s currently studying at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago where he’ll begin the Doctor of Ministry program this fall. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ryan Hoffman RTSA Conference Staff Ryan Hoffman https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/735b588f641bdd3dff29fe88849f9fae.jpg ea509c5b21a7212fed71127482258d45 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document <a href="mailto:mark@rollingthestoneaway.org">mark@rollingthestoneaway.org</a> Mark Bowman has been the coordinator of the LGBT Religious Archives Network since its inception in 2001. He first became publicly involved in Affirmation: United Methodists for LGBT Concerns in 1980. He played a key role in the founding of the Reconciling Congregation Program (now Reconciling Ministries Network) in 1984 and served as co-coordinator and later executive director until 1999. Through the publication of the quarterly magazine Open Hands Mark was instrumental in building ecumenical connections and partnerships in the Welcoming Church Movement. He served as staff coordinator for the WOW 2000 and WOW 2003 Conferences. He lives in Chicago where he is a part-time church musicians and juggles a number of part-time projects in LGBT or church networks. Biographical Text <a href="mailto:mark@rollingthestoneaway.org">mark@rollingthestoneaway.org</a> Mark Bowman has been the coordinator of the LGBT Religious Archives Network since its inception in 2001. He first became publicly involved in Affirmation: United Methodists for LGBT Concerns in 1980. He played a key role in the founding of the Reconciling Congregation Program (now Reconciling Ministries Network) in 1984 and served as co-coordinator and later executive director until 1999. Through the publication of the quarterly magazine Open Hands Mark was instrumental in building ecumenical connections and partnerships in the Welcoming Church Movement. He served as staff coordinator for the WOW 2000 and WOW 2003 Conferences. He lives in Chicago where he is a part-time church musicians and juggles a number of part-time projects in LGBT or church networks. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mark Bowman Mark Bowman RTSA Conference Staff https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/273722394c6c99c328083f29ec830f1e.jpg a97b760a275eac88a35f71a71f8139bd Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document <a href="mailto:linda@rollingthestoneaway.org">linda@rollingthestoneaway.org</a> Linda L. Brenner is an Associate Director for Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) and sets and guides the communications strategy for a diverse, international population. Before joining the MCC staff, Linda was a high school journalism teacher, adjunct instructor for international students in the English as a Second Language program, and educational director in a psychiatric boarding school. Linda and her wife, Susie Brenner, have a nationally touring music/storytelling ministry. Linda enjoys graphic design, photography, and editing her wife’s memoir. Biographical Text <a href="mailto:linda@rollingthestoneaway.org">linda@rollingthestoneaway.org</a> Linda L. Brenner is an Associate Director for Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) and sets and guides the communications strategy for a diverse, international population. Before joining the MCC staff, Linda was a high school journalism teacher, adjunct instructor for international students in the English as a Second Language program, and educational director in a psychiatric boarding school. Linda and her wife, Susie Brenner, have a nationally touring music/storytelling ministry. Linda enjoys graphic design, photography, and editing her wife’s memoir. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Linda Brenner Linda Brenner RTSA Conference Staff https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/36b9d368e739a5900242c3bbe2133e59.jpg d92e7bd743b6d1401381d26c7102a41c Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document lauren@rollingthestoneaway.org Lauren Bennett serves Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) as the Conference/Meeting Coordinator which includes co-leading MCC’s triennial General Conference. She attends Wesley Theological Seminary, pursuing a Master in Divinity and is in process for ordination with MCC. On Sunday, she attends MCCDC where she co-leads a monthly worship service that moves around the downtown area. In her free time she likes being outside, reading, and drinking coffee. Biographical Text lauren@rollingthestoneaway.org Lauren Bennett serves Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) as the Conference/Meeting Coordinator which includes co-leading MCC’s triennial General Conference. She attends Wesley Theological Seminary, pursuing a Master in Divinity and is in process for ordination with MCC. On Sunday, she attends MCCDC where she co-leads a monthly worship service that moves around the downtown area. In her free time she likes being outside, reading, and drinking coffee. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lauren Bennett Lauren Bennett RTSA Conference Staff