86 20 2500 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/db5a614fa0fb86264208a17440edc745.pdf 9ba9035ae97d1292c5dc3b80581eafef 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 The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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 Religious Aspects of Transsexualism, 1971 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 Queer Religion Boston Description An account of the resource Items for the Boston Queer Religious History exhibit 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 Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/6076469e9b8c6c21d271c1a62aa50311.jpg b45cf5c548d4b5d67adea4e182f00e67 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1951. She attended parochial grade and high schools, which served to shape her faith as a devote Roman Catholic. As a child of the Civil Rights Movement, her life had been infused with the certainty of God’s commitment to end oppressions of any kind and trust in God’s promises of abiding and unconditional love and acceptance. She had also learned from her parents and grandparents that actively participating in God’s liberating and healing actions in the world was her responsibility. Her faith has remained grounded in the belief that God calls us to do simple things: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and work to release those imprisoned by guilt, shame, fear, and despair. This laid the foundation for involvement in activities designed to fight discrimination. As a teenager she was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Black Catholics in Action, programs of her local parish council targeting low income children devastated by the 1967 civil unrest in Detroit, and various university based political and social justice groups. <img src="http://rollingthestoneaway.org/media/profile/renee-mccoy/Pic%20MCC%20Harlem.jpg" />Sent from MCC New York to start MCC Harlem (with Karen Ziegler) Her fidelity to the Catholic Church was eventually shaken by its rejection of homosexuality, its limited sensitivities to racial justice, and its unyielding refusal to empower women. Her faith in the power and love of God, however, has never wavered and she has tried to remain true to God’s demand for continued social justice activism. In her search for community, she attended various churches looking for one that would affirm and empower her to answer God’s call for her life but finding none. One Saturday night in 1976 she met members of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit (MCCD) bar ministry team conducting outreach in LGBTQ bars. They invited her to their worship services so she decided to give organized religion one more try. If nothing else, she thought, there was the possibility of meeting a “good Christian woman”! She attended worship the following day and experienced a sense of belonging through the sermon of Rev. Nancy Wilson and the vision of denomination (MCC) that had been missing from her life for many years; she joined the church soon thereafter. When she realized the racism she had experienced in the bars had also seeped into the church, she became chair of the MCC Racism Task Force, which eventually became the current MCC People of African Descent. To continue addressing racism and homophobia, McCoy became a founding member of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (NCBLG), an organization started in 1978 to address the needs and concerns of LGBTQ persons of color. She also decided to move to New York City to expand her life experiences and discover more diverse opportunities for ministry. There, she started the New York Third World LGBT Coalition, an NCBLG chapter focused on issues important to African Americans and Latino LGBTQ persons. Upon completing student clergy training and requirements for licensure and ordination at MCC New York, Rev. McCoy was ordained in 1981. In February of that same year she founded Harlem Metropolitan Community Church (Harlem MCC), the first Christian congregation in both MCC and the country openly governed by African American LGBTQ persons. Harlem MCC was also designed to address their concerns, encourage and empower them, and reflect African American worship styles. Regrettably, HIV/AIDS surfaced soon after the church began and by November this new congregation faced the daunting challenge of caring for persons dying from a new and mysterious disease. The disproportionate occurrence of HIV/AIDS among African Americans had a devastating impact and this new pastor found herself ministering to persons few wanted to touch. This challenge was further complicated by her secular job working with homeless mentally ill women at a shelter in midtown Manhattan. As pastor, she led a congregation truly charged with serving the most broken, providing encouragement and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS, substance abuse issues, and homelessness regardless of sexual orientation. Burdened by serious health issues, McCoy resigned from Harlem MCC after six years of service and moved to Washington D.C., where she worked as the Executive Director of NCBLG. <img src="http://rollingthestoneaway.org/media/profile/renee-mccoy/Pic%20Patricia.jpg" />Meeting first love Patricia When McCoy assumed leadership of NCBLG, HIV/AIDS was approaching the height of global devastation and the organization was forced to narrow its focus to this disease. It joined with others serving people of color to ensure equitable care and McCoy continued providing pastoral support through the ministries of MCC Washington D.C. Continual health and financial challenges, however, required her to move back to Detroit to receive support from her family and the local NCBLG chapter. NCBLG agreed to relocate the national office to Detroit and she remained the Executive Director until 1988. In 1988, she left NCBLG to work for the Detroit Department of Health AIDS Program, which had just begun providing care and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS. There, she worked as liaison to the LGBTQ community and provided HIV testing services and prevention education throughout the metropolitan area. <img src="http://rollingthestoneaway.org/media/profile/renee-mccoy/Pic%20Wedding.jpg" />Wedding with Patricia in Detroit in 2009 That same year (1988) a group of African American LGBTQ persons requested that she start a church that addressed their particular needs and concerns. In response, Rev. McCoy founded Full Truth Fellowship of Christ Church, which will celebrate 29 years of life in September 2017. In order to address the needs of African American LGBTQ persons living with HIV/AIDS, she also founded a secular organization, Healing Ourselves through Prevention Education and Services (HOPES) governed by church and community members. HOPES provided an avenue for federal and state funding, which was denied religious organizations at that time. Full Truth Fellowship Church and HOPES were then together able to provide both spiritual and non-spiritual care and services for persons affected by and t risk for HIV/AIDS. Under McCoy’s leadership HOPES and Full Truth Fellowship gained great respect throughout the Detroit metropolitan area for the tremendous and powerful care their members provided. Eventually, Full Truth Fellowship purchased a building to expand its ministries and HOPES’ HIV/AIDS services, making the church the first LGBTQ organization in Michigan to own land. While she was pastor, McCoy continued working for the Health Department and returned to Wayne State University to complete an undergraduate degree. After receiving a BA in anthropology, she decided it was time to address her own personal needs. She felt conflicted telling her congregation to follow their dreams when she was not doing the same. After leaving parish ministry she went on to earn an MA in anthropology with a specialization in medical anthropology in 1995 and a PhD in medical anthropology in 2005. Her dissertation was titled “African American Men who have Sex with Men: Meaning, Identity, and Risk”.  Since leaving parish ministry, Rev. McCoy  has continued to work in HIV/AIDS related projects including the following: Consultant for the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE) Act Title I; Research Project manager for the Positive Care Project: Care Giving among African Americans with HIV/AIDS; Instructor – Women’s Studies Department at Eastern Michigan University; Qualitative Research Consultant – Wayne State University; Lecturer/Adjunct Faculty teaching Business and Organizational Anthropology – Wayne State University; Program Coordinator and Evaluator at the AIDS Consortium of SE Michigan; HIV Behavioral Surveillance Coordinator for the Michigan Department of Community Health; Director of HIV/AIDS Programs at the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion; Lecturer at the University of Washington Department of Anthropology; Director of Prevention Education at Lifelong AIDS Alliance; and Director of Public and Private Grants at Lifelong AIDS Alliance. <img src="http://rollingthestoneaway.org/media/profile/renee-mccoy/Pic%20Family.jpg" />Family with Renee & Patricia at the wedding In 2015, Rev. McCoy served as interim pastor of Eastgate Congregational United Church of Christ for a year while the congregation searched for a permanent pastor. She continues to be an active member there and serves as a member of the MCC Public Policy Team. She has also been a potter for over 30 years and continues to make and market functional and ornamental pottery in her home studio. She recently joined the board directors at the Seward Park Clay Studio in Seattle. After being diagnosed with and surviving pancreatic cancer in 2016, Rev. Dr. McCoy decided to retire from fulltime employment and limit her energies to those with less stress and more joy. She looks forward to increased pottery making and other art projects, writing, and fishing. She has been married to the Rev. Dr. Patricia Hunter for eight years and lives in Seattle, WA with their dog, Baxter. Dr. McCoy has also published a number of articles and studies including the following: McCoy, Renee. Ain’t I a Man: Gender Meanings among Black Men who have Sex with Men. In: S. McGlotten and D. Davis, (ed.)Black Genders and Sexualities, Palgrave McMillian, 2012. McCoy, Renee. African American Elders and Cultural Traditions. Generations, Fall, 2011; Rituals and Later Life issue. McCoy, Renee. The Failure of the Black Church to Care for Black Lesbians and Gays. In:Brinkley, S (ed.), Where My Girls AT?, Blacklight Press, San Francisco, 2010. McCoy, Renee (2009) Ain't I a Man: Gender Meanings among Black Men who have Sex with Men. Souls: a Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and SocietyVol. 11 No.3, pp. 337-346   McCoy, Renee (2008) HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Prevention Training Manual for Providers and Community Groups. Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotions McCoy, Renee. Ujima Substance Abuse Prevention Curriculum for High Risk African American Youth; AIDS Consortium of Southeastern Michigan; October 2001. McCoy, Renee. Volunteer Training Manual; Men of Color Motivational Group; June 2000. Rapid Assessment, Response, and Evaluation (RARE) Report: Assessing the HIV/AIDS Intervention and Service needs of African Americans in Detroit, MI.  US Department of Health and Human Resources and Detroit Health Department, Jan. 2000. Gleason, JA, Fletcher, C, and McCoy, R.  Assessing Needs for Women with HIV/AIDS in Greater Detroit.  National HIV Infection in Women Conference.  U. S. National             Institute of Health, Washing ton D.C., 1995. Sankar, A., and McCoy, R. "Ethnographic Methods in Public Health Research,” Human Organization Gleason, J., McCoy, R., Fletcher, C.  (1995).  Planning Greater Detroit HIV/AIDS Continuum of care:  consumer perception of health & service needs.  American Public Health Association 123rd Annual Meeting.  San Diego, CA. Detroit Eligible Metropolitan Area 1994 Needs Assessment - Southeastern Michigan HIV/AIDS Council.  Co-investigator in charge of recruitment and outreach AIDS Link, Vol.4, No.2, December 1991, AIDS in the African American Community, with Michelle Rowser and Dr. Ali Naqvi, Ph.D. McCoy, R. The Failure of the Black Church to Care for Black Gays and Lesbians. 1989. Blacklight Magazine. http://www,blacklightonline.com (This biographical statement provided by Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy.) Biographical Text Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1951. She attended parochial grade and high schools, which served to shape her faith as a devoted Roman Catholic. As a child of the Civil Rights Movement, her life had been infused with the certainty of God’s commitment to end oppressions of any kind and trust in God’s promises of abiding and unconditional love and acceptance. She had also learned from her parents and grandparents that actively participating in God’s liberating and healing actions in the world was her responsibility. Her faith has remained grounded in the belief that God calls us to do simple things: feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless, and work to release those imprisoned by guilt, shame, fear, and despair. This laid the foundation for involvement in activities designed to fight discrimination. As a teenager she was involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Black Catholics in Action, programs of her local parish council targeting low income children devastated by the 1967 civil unrest in Detroit, and various university based political and social justice groups. Her fidelity to the Catholic Church was eventually shaken by its rejection of homosexuality, its limited sensitivities to racial justice, and its unyielding refusal to empower women. Her faith in the power and love of God, however, has never wavered and she has tried to remain true to God’s demand for continued social justice activism. In her search for community, she attended various churches looking for one that would affirm and empower her to answer God’s call for her life but finding none. One Saturday night in 1976 she met members of the Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit (MCCD) bar ministry team conducting outreach in LGBTQ bars. They invited her to their worship services so she decided to give organized religion one more try. If nothing else, she thought, there was the possibility of meeting a “good Christian woman”! She attended worship the following day and experienced a sense of belonging through the sermon of Rev. Nancy Wilson and the vision of denomination (MCC) that had been missing from her life for many years; she joined the church soon thereafter. When she realized the racism she had experienced in the bars had also seeped into the church, she became chair of the MCC Racism Task Force, which eventually became the current MCC People of African Descent. To continue addressing racism and homophobia, McCoy became a founding member of the National Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays (NCBLG), an organization started in 1978 to address the needs and concerns of LGBTQ persons of color. She also decided to move to New York City to expand her life experiences and discover more diverse opportunities for ministry. There, she started the New York Third World LGBT Coalition, an NCBLG chapter focused on issues important to African Americans and Latino LGBTQ persons. Upon completing student clergy training and requirements for licensure and ordination at MCC New York, Rev. McCoy was ordained in 1981. In February of that same year she founded Harlem Metropolitan Community Church (Harlem MCC), the first Christian congregation in both MCC and the country openly governed by African American LGBTQ persons. Harlem MCC was also designed to address their concerns, encourage and empower them, and reflect African American worship styles. Regrettably, HIV/AIDS surfaced soon after the church began and by November this new congregation faced the daunting challenge of caring for persons dying from a new and mysterious disease. The disproportionate occurrence of HIV/AIDS among African Americans had a devastating impact and this new pastor found herself ministering to persons few wanted to touch. This challenge was further complicated by her secular job working with homeless mentally ill women at a shelter in midtown Manhattan. As pastor, she led a congregation truly charged with serving the most broken, providing encouragement and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS, substance abuse issues, and homelessness regardless of sexual orientation. Burdened by serious health issues, McCoy resigned from Harlem MCC after six years of service and moved to Washington D.C., where she worked as the Executive Director of NCBLG. When McCoy assumed leadership of NCBLG, HIV/AIDS was approaching the height of global devastation and the organization was forced to narrow its focus to this disease. It joined with others serving people of color to ensure equitable care and McCoy continued providing pastoral support through the ministries of MCC Washington D.C. Continual health and financial challenges, however, required her to move back to Detroit to receive support from her family and the local NCBLG chapter. NCBLG agreed to relocate the national office to Detroit and she remained the Executive Director until 1988. In 1988, she left NCBLG to work for the Detroit Department of Health AIDS Program, which had just begun providing care and support for persons living with HIV/AIDS. There, she worked as liaison to the LGBTQ community and provided HIV testing services and prevention education throughout the metropolitan area. That same year (1988) a group of African American LGBTQ persons requested that she start a church that addressed their particular needs and concerns. In response, Rev. McCoy founded Full Truth Fellowship of Christ Church, which will celebrate 29 years of life in September 2017. In order to address the needs of African American LGBTQ persons living with HIV/AIDS, she also founded a secular organization, Healing Ourselves through Prevention Education and Services (HOPES) governed by church and community members. HOPES provided an avenue for federal and state funding, which was denied religious organizations at that time. Full Truth Fellowship Church and HOPES were then together able to provide both spiritual and non-spiritual care and services for persons affected by and t risk for HIV/AIDS. Under McCoy’s leadership HOPES and Full Truth Fellowship gained great respect throughout the Detroit metropolitan area for the tremendous and powerful care their members provided. Eventually, Full Truth Fellowship purchased a building to expand its ministries and HOPES’ HIV/AIDS services, making the church the first LGBTQ organization in Michigan to own land. While she was pastor, McCoy continued working for the Health Department and returned to Wayne State University to complete an undergraduate degree. After receiving a BA in anthropology, she decided it was time to address her own personal needs. She felt conflicted telling her congregation to follow their dreams when she was not doing the same. After leaving parish ministry she went on to earn an MA in anthropology with a specialization in medical anthropology in 1995 and a PhD in medical anthropology in 2005. Her dissertation was titled “African American Men who have Sex with Men: Meaning, Identity, and Risk”.  Since leaving parish ministry, Rev. McCoy  has continued to work in HIV/AIDS related projects including the following: Consultant for the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency (CARE) Act Title I; Research Project manager for the Positive Care Project: Care Giving among African Americans with HIV/AIDS; Instructor – Women’s Studies Department at Eastern Michigan University; Qualitative Research Consultant – Wayne State University; Lecturer/Adjunct Faculty teaching Business and Organizational Anthropology – Wayne State University; Program Coordinator and Evaluator at the AIDS Consortium of SE Michigan; HIV Behavioral Surveillance Coordinator for the Michigan Department of Community Health; Director of HIV/AIDS Programs at the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion; Lecturer at the University of Washington Department of Anthropology; Director of Prevention Education at Lifelong AIDS Alliance; and Director of Public and Private Grants at Lifelong AIDS Alliance. In 2015, Rev. McCoy served as interim pastor of Eastgate Congregational United Church of Christ for a year while the congregation searched for a permanent pastor. She continues to be an active member there and serves as a member of the MCC Public Policy Team. She has also been a potter for over 30 years and continues to make and market functional and ornamental pottery in her home studio. She recently joined the board directors at the Seward Park Clay Studio in Seattle. After being diagnosed with and surviving pancreatic cancer in 2016, Rev. Dr. McCoy decided to retire from fulltime employment and limit her energies to those with less stress and more joy. She looks forward to increased pottery making and other art projects, writing, and fishing. She has been married to the Rev. Dr. Patricia Hunter for eight years and lives in Seattle, WA with their dog, Baxter. Dr. McCoy has also published a number of articles and studies including the following: McCoy, Renee. Ain’t I a Man: Gender Meanings among Black Men who have Sex with Men. In: S. McGlotten and D. Davis, (ed.)Black Genders and Sexualities, Palgrave McMillian, 2012. McCoy, Renee. African American Elders and Cultural Traditions. Generations, Fall, 2011; Rituals and Later Life issue. McCoy, Renee. The Failure of the Black Church to Care for Black Lesbians and Gays. In:Brinkley, S (ed.), Where My Girls AT?, Blacklight Press, San Francisco, 2010. McCoy, Renee (2009) Ain't I a Man: Gender Meanings among Black Men who have Sex with Men. Souls: a Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and SocietyVol. 11 No.3, pp. 337-346   McCoy, Renee (2008) HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse Prevention Training Manual for Providers and Community Groups. Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotions McCoy, Renee. Ujima Substance Abuse Prevention Curriculum for High Risk African American Youth; AIDS Consortium of Southeastern Michigan; October 2001. McCoy, Renee. Volunteer Training Manual; Men of Color Motivational Group; June 2000. Rapid Assessment, Response, and Evaluation (RARE) Report: Assessing the HIV/AIDS Intervention and Service needs of African Americans in Detroit, MI.  US Department of Health and Human Resources and Detroit Health Department, Jan. 2000. Gleason, JA, Fletcher, C, and McCoy, R.  Assessing Needs for Women with HIV/AIDS in Greater Detroit.  National HIV Infection in Women Conference.  U. S. National             Institute of Health, Washing ton D.C., 1995. Sankar, A., and McCoy, R. "Ethnographic Methods in Public Health Research,” Human Organization Gleason, J., McCoy, R., Fletcher, C.  (1995).  Planning Greater Detroit HIV/AIDS Continuum of care:  consumer perception of health & service needs.  American Public Health Association 123rd Annual Meeting.  San Diego, CA. Detroit Eligible Metropolitan Area 1994 Needs Assessment - Southeastern Michigan HIV/AIDS Council.  Co-investigator in charge of recruitment and outreach AIDS Link, Vol.4, No.2, December 1991, AIDS in the African American Community, with Michelle Rowser and Dr. Ali Naqvi, Ph.D. McCoy, R. The Failure of the Black Church to Care for Black Gays and Lesbians. 1989. Blacklight Magazine. http://www,blacklightonline.com (This biographical statement provided by Rev. Dr. Renee McCoy.) 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 Renee McCoy Catholic MCC Metropolitan Community Church Renee McCoy Roman Catholic https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/afbc0b5698f80b6f841ba8d11809f957.pdf 45d78a50c77dc9809b7f48b7c4ea0c15 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 The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document THE UPSTAIRS LOUNGE FIRE New Orleans, Louisiana A. ELWOOD WILLEY Manager, NFPA Fire Record Department ON JUNE 24, 1973, a fire in a second-floor cocktail lounge in the French Quarter of New Orleans killed 32 patrons and injured 12 others. The fire was deliberately .set on the stairway of the main entrance; blocking the normal exit route from the lounge. Combustible wood paneling and carpet in the stairway provided fuel for the fire. In the confusion that followed, 20 people escaped through a rear door, 15 others escaped through windows, and 28 bodies were recovered from the lounge after the fire. Of those who escaped, one died before reaching the hospital, three died later of burn injuries, and seven others were critically burned. The Upstairs Lounge was located at the intersection of Iberville and Chartres Streets in the French Quarter. On the second floor of a three-story, brick, wood-joisted building, it had been operated as a cocktail lounge since the early 1960's. Two other bars were on the first floor of the building, and there were apartments on the third floor. The second floor was divided into three areas: the bar, a lounge, and a small theater used for plays (see Figure 1). The lounge and theater areas measured approximately 20 feet by 46 feet; the bar was 20 feet by 58 feet. The building was separated from a three-story building on the west and from a one story building on the north by 12-inch-thick brick walls. The second-story landing of the only stairway was in a 12 foot-by-20-foot area that was separated from the bar by a plaster-and-Iathe-on-wood stud partition. Rest rooms were also in this partitioned-off area. A fire door and frame assembly, approved for a Class B opening, and equipped with a door closer, was installed in this partition at the stair landing. There was a large, unprotected opening in the brick wall between the bar and the lounge. A brick wall separated the theater from the lounge; a swinging fire door, approved for the protection of a Class A firewall opening, was installed in the doorway. Interior finishes in the bar and lounge included a rayon fiber-flocked wallpaper on plaster-and-wood lath walls, glass fiber ceiling tiles suspended below a plaster-and-wire-Iathe ceiling, and carpet cemented to a wood floor. Wood paneling on wood studs separated a storage room from the lounge. Interior finishes in the theater included wood-paneled walls, a wood floor, and a wood tongue-and-groove ceiling. In the entrance stairway, carpeting was on the wood stairs, three-sixteenth-inch wood paneling was attached to 1-inch-by-4-inch wood nailers on the plaster north wall, and a burlap fabric was glued over the plaster south wall. Undetermined amounts of fabric and paper decorations were used in the stairway entrance and in the bar. There were two ways out of the second story: the main entrance stairway, which opened to the outside to Iberville Street; and a rear door behind the stage in the theater, which discharged to the roof of the one story building to the north. Illuminated exit signs were installed in the second story over the main entrance, above the doorway leading to the theater from the lounge, and above the rear door behind the stage. The word "EXIT' had been removed from the frame of the exit sign over the rear door. The path to this door was not obvious, and was obstructed by the stage and scenery. To open it, one had to remove a wire from a hasp. The operating condition of the other exit signs could not be determined. An exterior metal fire escape was located on the east side of the building and ran from the second to the third floor. Access to the second floor fire escape balcony was through a window at the north end of the bar. Exterior windows in the bar and lounge areas were 42 inches wide and over nine feet high. Since the window sills were only a few inches above the floor, three horizontal metal rods had been installed across each window to prevent people from falling through the openings. The rods were installed ten inches apart, with maximum clearance of 14 inches between the sill and the first rod. A pair of wooden shutters was also installed in the lower section of each window, and the windows in the lounge were sealed over with plywood. Total seating capacity in the bar, lounge, and theater was 110 people; at the time of the fire, approximately 65 persons were present. No one was in the third story apartments. On Sunday evening, June 24, one of the Upstairs Lounge patrons was annoyed by the constant ringing of the door bell. He went to the entrance door at the head of the stairs and opened it. Fire immediately came into the lounge from the stairway and exposed those sitting at the bar. A group of patrons standing around the piano near the south end of the bar turned when they heard a noise, and saw flames coming into the bar from the entrance doorway. People ran around in confusion. Those who were near the windows unfastened the wooden shutters, opened the windows and squeezed out between the metal bars. Some of those who reached the windows first were able to crawl out and slide down drain pipes to the sidewalk below. As more people became aware of the fire, many of them rushed to the windows, but only a few were able to escape. Meanwhile, the bartender left the bar when he first saw the fire, and shouted for everyone to stay calm and follow him to the rear door. He led several people through the fire door at the entrance to the theater and. directed them through the rear door behind the stage scenery. It is estimated that about 20 people were able to escape through this theater exit. The bartender then went back through the theater to the fire door, opened it and called out again for people to follow him. There was no response, since by that time the fire was spreading through the bar area. He went back into the theater, closed the fire door, latched it and left the theater area through the rear door. Shortly before 8:00 pm, a woman who was walking past the entrance and stairway to The Upstairs Lounge saw a fire burning on the second and third steps. She went into an adjacent bar and shouted for someone to call the Fire Department. A barmaid telephoned the alarm. Four men left the bar and went to the Lounge entrance to see what was causing all the excitement. The woman then went back to the Lounge entrance. By that time, the fire had progressed to the top of the stairs. The alarm was received by the Fire Department, and two engine companies and a ladder company were dispatched at 7:56 pm. Four additional alarms brought a total of 13 engine companies and 4 ladder companies to the scene. At 7:58 pm, first-arriving fire fighters found the entrance stairway and the bar fully involved. Several occupants who had jumped from windows were lying injured in the street, and one woman was waiting for rescue on the exterior fire escape which led from the second to the third floor of-the building. Other Lounge patrons were trapped in the second-story bar; since the fire had spread through that area, they were at the time beyond the reach of help. Fire fighters gave immediate assistance to the injured lying in the street and rescued the woman from the fire escape. They used three 2 1/2--inch hand lines and a 500 gpm ladder pipe for a short time to knock down the fire in the second story, while a special fire-fighting unit known as the Flying Squad advanced up the stairs and into the bar with a 1 ½-inch line. The fire was brought under control within 15 minutes of the initial alarm. After the fire was knocked down, fire fighters found 28 bodies in the bar section (see Figure 1). One pile of bodies was located at the southeast corner of the bar. In all, 23 bodies were located at that end of the bar, next to exterior windows. One of those who had escaped through a window was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital. Fifteen others who had jumped or fallen from windows were also transported to hospitals. Five were treated and released and three died, having suffered massive burns over 50 percent of their bodies. Principal fire damage was limited to the entrance stairway, the bar, and the lounge. The theater received moderate smoke damage. In the stairway, the carpet had been consumed except for carpet on the tread near the top of the stairs. The stair treads and risers were heavily charred. The wood paneling on the north wall had been consumed, and plaster was spalled on the walls and ceiling near the top of the stairs. In the bar area, carpeting was charred, the flocked wallpaper was consumed, and the ceiling tile system had dropped to the floor. The wood cocktail bar, window frames and other combustible furnishings were heavily charred. Fire damage in the lounge was nearly as severe. The char line on the flocked wallpaper on the west (theater) wall stopped two feet from the floor. Some carpet was intact, where it had been protected by furniture, and a portion of the ceiling tile system remained in place at the south end of the room. The wood paneling on the storage room partition was charred down to approximately one foot from the floor. The plywood that covered the windows was charred from the top down to approximately the midpoint. The theater suffered only moderate smoke damage, since the fire door stayed closed during the most severe fire exposure. The speed of the initial fire development is of interest. The woman who had seen the fire burning in the stairway discovered it at approximately 7:53 pm. The alarm was received at 7:55 and the fire apparatus dispatched at 7:56. When the first units arrived at 7:58 the bar was fully involved, and those who survived had already escaped the inferno. The exposure to the bar and lounge patrons was immediate when the entrance door was opened. It is believed that the door remained open or at least partially open after the patron opened it and discovered the fire. Nearly all of the heat, fire, and combustion gases from the stairway vented into the second story, since the only other opening from the stairway was a small window near the top measuring approximately 18 inches by 36 inches. The time that the occupants had to react to the fire threat was very brief, and, the bartender's immediate and positive action in directing patrons through the rear door is credited with saving approximately 20 lives. Five people who initially escaped through windows and slid to the ground over drain pipes and sign appurtenances received relatively minor cuts and bruises. Nine others who squeezed between the window bars and either jumped or fell to the ground received massive burns and other injuries; One of them died before reaching the hospital, and three others died several days later. The woman who climbed out onto the fire escape also received severe burns. Survivors described the frustration of trying to persuade more people to move toward the rear door, instead of sitting or standing where they were. Whether this lack of action was because initial shock created an inability to react to the threat is not known. Panic resulted when those who had stayed behind ran for the windows. Their bodies were found stacked in front of the only visible means of escape. Investigations conducted by the Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office and the New Orleans Fire Department indicate that the fire was intentionally set on the first few steps of the entrance stairway. However, details as to how the fire was set were not available. When discovered, the fire was burning on the carpet on the first two wood steps. Flames spread up the stairs on the carpet and then involved the wood paneling. The National Bureau of Standards conducted flame spread tests of carpet material that had been removed from the second-story floor. The 5/32-inch-thick carpet was constructed of polyvinyl chloride and cellulose fibers, felted together in four layers with the top layer consisting of 100 percent polyvinyl chloride fibers. Two carpet samples were tested using the method described in E-162-72, Test for Surface Flammability of Material, Using a Radiant Heat Energy Source. Test results indicated an average flame spread index of 535, which placed these carpet samples within the Class E flame spread classification. The Upstairs Lounge management indicated that the carpet material on the stairs was the same as that in the Lounge. However, positive identification of the stair material could not be made due to fire damage. The stairway carpet contributed to the initial spread of fire up the stairs, and the carpet in the second floor bar and lounge contributed additional fuel in those areas. 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 Report from the National Fire Protection Association Description An account of the resource The official NFPA report, published in January 1974, provides a detailed account of the fire, how it started and spread. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Night Club Fire (The Upstairs Lounge) New Orleans, LA June 24, 1973; from the National Fire Protection Association; published in Fire Journal January 1974, pp., 16-20 with drawings and fire test data. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a0f6a94a12a676f558fccf6a3d555e86.pdf 1e6b1e98ceaa2d1b95293c1b610eb1e7 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document When Sex Becomes Impersonal By Donovan Bess The Rev. John V. Moore used his downtown Methodist pulpit yesterday to make a case against "the automation of sex" in America. He charged that sexual union frequently amounts to "IBM computers passing in the dark"—and is "as superficial as buying a sandwich at an automat." "The teachings of Jesus", he told his crowded church, "are against any such misuse of sexuality." The Rev. Mr. Moore's outspoken sermon was the first in a series of three he will give at the Glide Memorial Church in the Tenderloin. "The greatest sexual problem of our day," he said, "is the alienation of sex from See Page 14. Col 3" Page 2: "Sermon: The Worst Sex Danger From Page 1 persons" — as evidenced in talk about "having sex." Those two words, the pastor declared, imply that "the persons involved are so unimportant as to be not worth mentioning." "Men can 'have sex' in the dilapidated ward of a mental hospital, or with a beast. Incest is 'having sex'." He said the populat way of viewing sexuality today is in terms of the Kinsey studies, which tabulated and analyzed "sexual outlets." Personal He said there was evidence that sex in America is becoming less and less personal. "It is possible to intimate, while at the same time being almost wholly impersonal," he said. "For example, partners in some sexual acts never even see each other." "I'm not being entirely facetious when I suggest that it may not be long before prostitution is automated." The Rev. Mr. Moore challenged statements by Simone de Beauvoir, a French intellectual, that Lesbianism is a rejection by women of their being used as sexual objects by men. Marriage In marriage, he said, "I cannot agree that this must invariably be the relationship. "Furthermore, I'm sure that in every man-woman relationship, the man is sometimes the object; nor are Lesbians free from the danger of relating to other Lesbians as though they were objects." In citing misuses of sexuality, he said, "the boy or man who is most promiscuous very likely is driven by the fear that he is not really a man" and "must prove his masculinity to himself." Lives In conclusion, the clergyman declared: "Jesus said that He came that we might live rich, full lives. Denial of our sexuality, alienation of our sexuality, repression of our sexuality all stand in the way of the full life. "We will experience the kind of life which Jesus helped man find only when our sexuality, as every dimension of our lives, is fused with love — the kind of love we see in His life.... "Persons, societies and atoms depend for their existence upon power greater than the forces which would pull them apart. Love, being loved and loving is the power which binds persons together, making them and their relationships whole." 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 Report of First Sermon of 3-Part Series by Rev. John Moore Description An account of the resource San Francisco Chronicle, January 11, 1965, pages 1 & 14. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://sfpl.org/librarylocations/sfhistory/sfhistory.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Public Library</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/dffc518ce12266f3fe6f2485be5ea62b.pdf 88221073b648695343c6cb510f6168be Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document A Spirited Seminar on Homosexual Integration PAGE 3 Monday, Jan. 18, 1965 San Francisco Chronicle By Donovan Bess A prominent Methodist pastor, the Rev. John V. More, made an appeal to heterosexual men and women yesterday to devote some of their spare time to "a dialogue" with overt homosexuals and lesbians. The appeal was made during a spirited seminar in the Glide Memorial Church following a sermon by the Rev. Mr. Moore on the need to integrate homosexuals into the community. Nearly 150 men and women remained after the service and spent an hour wrestling with such questions as (1) What is normal in bed? and (2) When is a seduction antisocial? The pioneering pastor won an ovation from the group—many of whom are homosexuals. Furor One woman created a furor when she declared: "I'm heterosexual, but I have many homosexual friends. Why do they defend an act that is not considered normal?" Evander Smith, an attorney, leapt to his feet and told the woman he was going to buy her a copy of "A Quaker View on Sex." "This will be an education," he told her. "...You will find that homosexuality exists in every form of animal life. It just so happens that whales have the highest form of homosexual conduct of any." Chided The Rev. Mr. Moore was chided by some men present for depicting homosexual seduction as a special danger because some young persons "might go one way or the other"—and could be railroaded out of heterosexuality. "Sometimes," said one man, "the younger person does the seducing." Smith said "gay" people were particularly averse to child-molesting of any kind. The pastor received another ovation for his initiative in opening his church to such discussions. He expressed hopes that those present would participate in the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, which was established recently by ministers of four Protestant denominations. Homosexuals, he said, "have got to fight to be a human being," in the same way women fought for the vote, and Negroes now seek equal opportunity. "I want to encourage you," he declared, "to move into larger community matters where you will be absorbed by issues other than 'the homosexual in society.'" To help carry this out, he proposed projects that would involve heterosexual "laymen who are comfortable enough in their own sexuality to do this." 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 Report of Second Sermon in Series by Rev. John Moore Description An account of the resource San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 1965, page 3. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://sfpl.org/librarylocations/sfhistory/sfhistory.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Public Library</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5c46f499cbf199edc69fb8e375a47681.pdf 3a44201c3961211e4e70183a3c901349 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document "Guidelines For 'New Morality' A prominent Methodist minister outlined three new "commandments" here yesterday as a basis for a "new order" for the "new morality." The Rev. John V. Moore used T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party" and Robert Gover's "One-Hundred-Dollar Misunderstanding" — as well as the Bible — to illustrate his sermon on "Chastity and The Pill" at the Glide Memorial Methodist Church. "All talk of the 'new morality' leaves me cold," the Rev. Moore said. Order Any "new freedom" is useless, he contended, unless it operates under a "new order" to preserve the stability of relationships. "Pleasure is no solution. It is a principle of disorder... For a new morality, we must have positive principles. "Some believe The Pill (birth control pills_ will solve the problem, but it is no substitute for responsibility. "Sex is a gift of God. It can beautify, but unless there is power, power to shape this gift, it can destroy. Question He posted this question: "The college girl who goes all the way" thinks she is free, but is she really free? "Our task is to create a new order to shape the new freedom—or else it is chaos. "Yet what sex ethic can be devised to include the single woman, the homosexual, the divorced man?" The Rev. Mr. Moore suggested these three imperatives: "Thou shalt be growing in fidelity. "Thou shalt be growing in responsibility. "Thou shalt grow in loving. These imperatives, he said, can shape the values of the "new freedom," and "for those unwilling to shape the values, the future is bleak." 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 Report of Third Sermon in Series by Rev. John Moore Description An account of the resource San Francisco Chronicle, January 25, 1965, page 4. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://sfpl.org/librarylocations/sfhistory/sfhistory.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Public Library</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f0bd535c9fb88d08e31d890dfc987ccf.jpg e8877301e00ba4f58f39f40ad8b8022e https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/be2e4c2226545c33baae1524a0643c36.jpg 7d5d21eab9214096d7801248764fff05 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document The Friend June 24, 1960 Towards a Quaker View of Sex--II A Friend writes: "We have no music...we are not cheap...but..." Was this advertisement for a restaurant in a political weekly also applicable to the Society of Friends? This thought was one of many thrown up at a conference at Hampstead Meeting House on June 11 called by the group of Friends who signed the article in The Friend of May 20 on "Towards a Quaker View of Sex". Anna Bidder took the chair, and representatives were present from the Home Service and Marriage and Parenthood Committees, the Friends Guild of Social Workers, Hampstead Monthly Meeting Elders, a group of Friends at Tunbridge Wells and the Homosexual Law Reform Society, the Joint Secretary of which is a Friend.* Other concerned Friends were also present, including a number of psychiatrists. Anna Bidder first described why the group responsible for calling the conference had begun to meet some three years ago, and how over the years it had been led to attempt a fundamental reassessment of Christian morality on sexual matters. Three other members of the group then spoke from their individual standpoints. Alfred Torrie, with thirty years' experience as a psychiatrist behind him, asked what the Quaker answer was to both the homosexual who views his conduct with disgust and loathing, and to those others, differently constituted, who are unwilling to seek help. He stressed the normality of the homosexual phase through which most of us pass, but also disclosed how much uncharted ignorance there was about the subject. Doctors seldom saw the homosexual in the early stages: when he sought medical help he usually was in deep trouble. Knowledge and compassion were both needed. In the homosexual, as in all men, below his self-disgust was the living Christ. That was the Quaker faith. Duncan Fairn followed with some account of his experiences of the morbid side of the problem from seeing men in prison over the last twenty years or so. He described the impact of the law and its differentiation between the conduct of men and women, and referred to the interest arouse by the Report of the Wolfenden Committee. Although members of the group had begun by having a concern for those in acute need, they had been led to seek an understand of sex in life as a whole. It has been said, humorously, that "sex has come to say", and what the group was trying to do was to work out a valid philosophy of sex with the help of their Quaker insights. The last group member to speak was Keith Wedmore, a barrister who spoke for the younger generation. Experience at a university and in the Army had disclosed for him the wide gap between conventional beliefs and practice. He had been forced to ask himself whether our morality was true, right and practicable. With Alfred Torrie he stressed the homosexual and heterosexual components of our nature. It seemed to him important to understand that it was not so much homosexuality itself which was a problem as the lack of heterosexuality. Was it possible that St. Paul was not the last word on sexual morals? In the group they had come to see that personal relationships were of prime importance. "Personal relationships matter for ever and ever." The conference devoted the afternoon session to criticism of a draft outline for a pamphlet designed to help Friends to know the facts about sexual development in general, and to understand some of the special problems of homosexuality. The discussion was opened by Richard Fox, and the criticisms and suggestions were remitted to the convening group as a guide in the final preparation of the document, which it is hoped will be published. Kenneth Barnes brought the conference to a close by emphasising that the work of the group on "Homosexuality and Other Problems of Sex" over the years had been a profound religious exercise, and that they had tried to make themselves available to the Spirit's leading. There had been a deep sharing of experience. Again and again they had found conventional judgments, when ruthlessly examined, to fall short of their understanding of truth. They believed that there was not sexual experience which could be condemned outright without knowledge of its inner quality. Christ's words to the woman in adultery abode for ever: "Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more." _____________ *Venetia Newall 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 Report on Hampstead Conference Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Reproduced by permission of The Friend, June 24, 1960, pp. 892-3. Description An account of the resource The Friend published an account of the June 11 conference at Hampstead Meeting House in its June 24 issue. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/50f6319c774242e85da100ad6097b958.jpg 8d369dea1ff0ee15e4b02e25bd72c922 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 The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document Memorial Services Held for N.O. Blaze Victims by Eric Newhouse Gay leaders collected money Sunday to bury some of the 30 fatalities of the June 24th French Quarter fire, to aide the hospitalized and to build a church for homosexuals here. More than 200 persons attended church services at St. Mark’s Methodist Church, during the “National Day of Mourning,” including Bishop Finis Crutchfield, bishop of the conference of Louisiana. “The bishop should be commended for having the guts to be here today,” said the Rev. Troy Perry of Los Angeles. Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Churches for homosexuals, said numerous New Orleans churches had refused to let the congregation use its facilities for public memorial services. “We had been prepared to go out in the streets because we were turned away right and left by the Sunday Christians, who are even Christian on Sunday,” added Morty Manford, one of the founders of the Gay Activist Alliance in New York. Just One Stigma But he said that was just one of the stigmas of being homosexual. “Many of our sisters and brothers who died at the Up Stairs Lounge bar were gay,” said Manford during the services. “They knew what it was like to live in a condemning society where churches call us sinners, psychologists call us sick, legislators call us criminals, where capitalists denounce us as subversive and Communists denounce us a decadent,” he said. “The irony of it is that we know we are living, feeling productive humans.” Perry told the congregation he had visited the Up Stairs Lounge a year before the flash fire, because the Metropolitan Community Church here had used a back room of it at one time. “It was no den of iniquity,” he said. “People were happy, they were smiling. There were not fistfights.” Last Song According to people who were there last weekend, the last song they ever sang was the one they always sang at the end of Sunday brunch,” he added. “They all joined hands and sang ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall.’” During the final song, Perry broke in to tell the mourners that a local television station had disregarded his request and had set up cameras outside the church to film people leaving. “For those of you who don’t want to be seen with us,” he added, “this door will take you out through the rear of the church.” No one used the rear door. “In light of the real fear of recrimination felt here, I’m jubilant,” said Perry after the services. 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 Report on Memorial Service Description An account of the resource The Morning Advocate’s Eric Newhouse writes sympathetic account of the July 1st memorial service. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The Morning Advocate, July 2, 1973. https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/130de05a67148ebb59406553f33f8abe.pdf 89ebbbd7862587ebaad410b27a04acb6 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Page 1: A Report on the Councils on Religion and the Homosexual January 26, 1969 by Foster Gunnison Jr., Institute of Social Ethics Hartford, Conn. Prepared for: January 29, 1969 meeting, CRH of New York, Holy Apostle Episcopal Church, New York City. Page 2: Out San Francisco way the Methodist Church operates a social service institution called the Glide Urban Center. Its purpose is to provide a bridge between the church and the many and varied social problems afflicting the youth and other residents of that city. In this it is representative of current trends in all of our churches with ministers moving from pulpit to street-corner to tackle first hand the full range of, now well advertised, urban economic and social ills. San Francisco is also the birthplace and chief operating center of several of our country's leading pioneer homophile organizations - groups of militant homosexuals fighting systematically for an equal place for all homosexuals in a traditionally hostile society. Perhaps this is why San Francisco is sometimes called the "Queen City." The Society for Individual Rights, the Mattachine Society, the all-lesbian Daughters of Bilitis, the league for Civic Education, the Tavern Guild of San Francisco, the Vanguard Society - all are headquartered out there, and all played an important part in the development and support of the unique institution now to be related. A few years ago a Methodist minister, Theodore Mr. McIlvenna, working out of the Glide Center took a particular interest in the problems of the homosexual. He was well aware of the way our society treats its homosexual citizens, and well aware of the near total failure of the church to do something constructive about it. And so, in the activist spirit characteristic of Glide, Rev. McIlvenna set himself to this perhaps toughest of all churchly tasks, and began approaching the leaders of the San Francisco homophile organizations. A special retreat was eventually scheduled for the spring of 1964. Sixteen brave and curious ministers of Methodist, Protestant Episcopal, Lutheran, and United Church of Christ denomination met with thirteen militant, skeptical homosexuals from the aforementioned organizations in the now-famous Mill Valley Conference held at the White Memorial Retreat Center in the Golden Gate foothills across the bay from San Francisco. It was a three day affair during which the homosexual found the church, at least as represented here, not to be the bible-thumping, brimstone-spewing condemner of homosexuals as previously envisioned, and ministers found the homosexual, at least as represented here, not to be the amoral, anti-social, wrist-flipping weirdo of time-honored stereotype. The conference was indeed a shared experience - a unique and courageous beginning toward rapprochement of historically antithetical views and attitudes. And it was the first time that the American homosexual had been able to establish meaningful communication with a major social institution on a systematic basic. As a consequence of this exploratory retreat a Council on Religion and the Homosexual, embracing ministers and homophile leaders, the first of its kind anywhere to my knowledge, was incorporated in the State of California as a non-profit educational enterprise. The council got off to a turbulent start. In order to raise funds for operations, it scheduled a benefit "gay" ball for New Years day of 1965 in a downtown hall in San Francisco, clearing first with the police department and receiving assurances that there would be no police harassment or interference. Sure enough, the ill-fated ball was raided in classic free-wheeling, swashbuckling style. The hall was saturated with police. Ministers were rough-shouldered aside. Arrests were made on trumped up charges (1) and some of these resulted in convictions. This was the first time the ministers of the Council were direct witness to a massive anti-homosexual action, not to mention their own abusement. It was a first, dramatic, totally unexpected confrontation with the establishment. They said it as a shocking display of force and crudity, and an unbelievable violation of public word and trust. If there were any ministers associated with the Council who had harbored lingering doubts about their commitment to this new and controversial enterprise, such doubts were dispelled with finality. And the Council, now fully united, promptly called a press conference and brought a million dollar suit against the City of San Francisco. (2) Today the Council is represented with clergy from all the major Christian faiths from Unitarian to Roman Catholic, plus professionals from the social sciences, psychiatry, education and the law, and, of course, a full complement of leaders from the homophile organizations. (1) E.g - a chair collapsed under two spectators who instinctively grabbed each other for support. They were promptly arrested and convicted for disorderly conduct. (2) The civil suit has not as yet been resolved, but relations with police have improved markedly, and news coverage of the whole affair was extensive. Page 3: It is governed by 21 directors elected members at the annual business meetings. Its purposes are to educate - to dispel myths, ignorance, and combat fear and hostility; to initiate dialogue - encourage discussion; to study - to promote research and increase the appallingly inadequate body of knowledge on the subject of homosexual; to defend and protect homosexuals against abuse - to give practical aid and counseling when homosexuals run into difficult or require guidance in their personal lives. Its chosen methods are 1) orientation, and 2) confrontation. It desires that society shall accept homosexuals, and judge all persons on the basis of factors other than sexual preference. In the words of Rev. McIlvenna: "Let us recognize that we are indeed sexual beings, and let us rejoice in our sexuality." It predicts that as social isolation of the homosexual recedes, and education progresses, all members of society will have their attention directed to the correction of a multitude of governmental, commercial, and private discriminatory laws, policies, practices, and attitudes which today collectively destroy the lives of hundreds, and damage thousands more, and render quite impossible of achievement a truly great society. Specifically how does the Council function? First, the Council reaches out to the homophile community itself - out to all homosexuals in the local area. Some serve on the board of the council, others are simply members and attend its regular meetings. Monetary contributions are made to a National Legal Defense Fund - an independent corporation established to fight the long battles through the courts. The Council recently participated directly in a Minneapolis obscenity case which sought to deny homosexuals the right to receive male nude magazines sent through the mails as now permitted to heterosexuals. They fought hard and won. Homosexuals in despair or in need of a job or a place to live are provided the services of professionals or referred to competent sources. Special aid is given to street youths. San Francisco has many abandoned teenagers roaming its streets and wallowing in alcohol, drugs, and homosexual prostitution. The council supports a hospitality center and helps to rebuild their likes - steering them not away from homosexual orientation, but from its commercialization and exploitative applications. Second, the Council buttonholes fellow clergy in the religious community. The aim is to promote a re-examination of official church attitudes in these matters, and, if possible, active participation on the Council. Meetings are held with decision-making bodies of the churches. All of the denominations have been approached. Many have responded. Theologians, bishops, priests and lay leaders are consulted individually and in groups. Special seminars and retreats are scheduled from time to time. Within the congregations of several of the churches, discussion groups - both youth and adult - have started. And the same with student groups in the denominational colleges and the seminaries. In 1966 the Council sent two delegates all the way to London to participate in a joint U.S.-Great Britain interdenominational conference just on homosexuality and attended by noted researchers and some members of parliament. Simultaneously it help a 3-day theological seminar in San Francisco likewise dealing solely with homosexuality, and drew clergymen all the way from the Midwest on east to Massachusetts. And, of course, the work of the council has been documented and discussed in dozen widely circulated church magazines. Third, the council recruits professionals from other fields - anyone who can be put to work advising, counseling, testing homosexuals, or simply re-education their fellow specialists. The need for action and contribution of of time and services is made clear. But the Council also responds with help of its own. Research is underwritten. Subjects for testing are rounded up and presented, or contracted through the mails, and research guidance is provided throughout. In addition, the Council itself participates in other organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Friend's Service Committee. Fourth, the Council challenges public and corporate officials and community leaders. These are tough nuts to crack. Here progress can be agonizingly slow. Such men occupy highly sensitive positions. They are caught in a bind between minority sentiment or personal conscience and unrelenting public opinion or rigid official regulations. The army chaplain won't touch the problem with a ten foot pole. Naval authorities will show only sporadic interest in a few phases of the problem. Letters to the Civil Service and/or Defense Department are exercises in tail-chasing. But the Council has pursued all of these and many more. Page 4: There is, however, occasional progress. A task force for fair employment practices for homosexuals has been organized. Appeals to the police department and Alcoholic Beverage Commission have reduced abuses from these sources. The police have even detailed a public relations officer to maintain continuing liaison with the homophile community. Voter registration drives have been mounted. And along with this, a special candidates' night is held before each election with all candidates invited to attend and express their view. And, it is rumored, woe betide those who don't show up. This may be a bit overstated, but political efforts do seem ready to be having some modest effects. But, again, the Council responds with help of its own. It participates in a police relations campaign to build good will toward law enforcement officials. It participates in anti-venereal disease drives and educates the homophile community to use of caution. It cooperates with the Office of Economic opportunity in the latter's efforts to salvage and accommodate the lost youths of San Francisco. Finally, the Council confronts the general public. It advertises to one and all its varied purposes, activities, and achievements, and it seeks every opportunity for publicity to do this. The Council has been interviews and reported in Newsweek, Time, Look, The Nation, the Wall Street Journal, and gets frequent coverage in the San Francisco papers. It prints and distributes brochures to educate the public. Officers and board members appear on local radio and TV shows. It sends speakers out to high schools, colleges, university graduate seminars, the YMCA, the YWCA, the Junior Chambers of Commerce, women's clubs, and men's fraternal organizations. And, of course, it holds public forums and symposiums. A brief sampling of speakers shows a sociologist, a rabbi, a representative of the Playboy Foundation, a researcher from the famed Kinsey Institute, a public health official, and the executive director of London;s Albany Trust (an overseas homophile outfit.) Once in a while the Council will take to the streets in a physical show of support when the occasion suggests. In 1966 a National Protest Day Demonstration was staged on the steps of the city's Federal Building. That same year, after being first promised, and then later denied, a literature booth at the California State Fair in Sacramento, the Council stationed itself at the entrance to the fair grounds - a location far more strategic than any booth could have afforded - and did a brisk business that well expected earlier expectations. And, as usual, newspaper coverage of the entire affair was lavish. But amid this beehive of activity, certain landmark achievements beyond police relations and political influence stand out. First, in 1965 the Council wrote and published a document entitled "A Brief of Injustices." This document has stood virtually as a a manifesto for the homophile movement in America. It was the first major, comprehensive statement of grievances to come from the movement and gain respectable circulation. It listed in detail - one by one - all the principal areas of discrimination and abuse to which homosexuals were being subjected. And it called again and again for correction and reform. Second, through the Council's persistent efforts, the United Church of Christ became the first denomination to officially and publicly declare its commitment to the Council's work and to back this commitment with funds. Today the Council has the financial support of the United Church of Christ's Board of Homeland Ministry and Northern California Council of Churches, plus the Methodist's California Board of Christian Social Concerns and Glide Urban Foundation, plus the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of California, and, of course, the homophile organizations themselves. It has furthermore won the moral support of the National Council of Churches, the Young Democrats of San Francisco, and a variety of local and regional religious and professional groups. Third, the Council was influential in Protestant Episcopal Bishop Pike's 1965 anointment of a special study committee on homosexuality for the state diocese and his inclusion of homophile representatives on the committee. The committee's sympathetic recommendations for abolishment of abuse and encouragement of future study were adopted by the diocese in 1967. Fourth, the Council was influential in the 1967 Southern California American Civil Liberties Union official statement condemning state laws impinging on homosexual relationships. And fifth, two ministers of the Council, excelling in group coordinating and moderating capability filled the first two chairmanships covering the first four annual meetings of the North American Conference of Homophile organizations, and, by virtue of their patience and perseverance and the respect which they as individuals, commanded, these men were key Page 5: factors in holding the conferences together in these sensitive early stages long enough to allow them to take firm root and continue on as annual events. And indeed, the Council as a whole has stood to all homophile organizations everywhere as a symbol of an awakening social conscience of the future, and - a source of inspiration to better their own efforts and not lose heart in the face of public opinion as it exists today. Now, what about other similar councils around the country? It is difficult to report accurately on this because inter-organizational communications are still somewhat erratic, and, with some exceptions, one is frequently reduced to guesswork unless he does a lot of traveling. I have traveled a little, but the picture can change rapidly from year to year, and sometimes month to month. In 1965 representatives of the grandady San Francisco Council went to Los Angeles and met with other ministers from that city plus some from Dallas. As a result of this meeting two new Councils on Religion and the Homosexual were started. Of these, the Los Angeles group appears to have been more successful to date, and indeed probably ranks second only to the San Francisco enterprise in energy and scope of activities. It meets at least monthly. It operates a counseling center. It has held 3-day retreats and symposiums. It has appeared on local radio and TV. It was publishing its own newsletter for a while, and [illegible]. It has scheduled parties and outings. It even organized an educational field trip to all of the city's bars. And it has taken a great many public forums to which guest speakers are invited, and it makes and and sells duplicated recording tapes of the speeches. Here is a brief sampling of topics covered in the forums or in the monthly discussion meetings: Do homosexuals drink to much? Is "bar-hopping" bad? Must Male and Female homosexuals hate each other? Financial security for the homosexual. On being involved. Our out-moded sex laws. New trends in sex morality. What message does the church have for homosexuals? How homosexuals look at the bible. The homosexual's responsibility to the community. The Dallas Council, on the other hand, after two years of effort, does not appear to have gotten fully off the group as best as I can determine. I do not know why or what can be expected from it in the future. So much for these two. In Miami, in 1967, through the personal efforts of a local homophile leader, the Center for Dialogue - a missionary service center, Lutheran I believe, or perhaps interdenominational - took no problem and scheduled monthly discussion meetings for interested homosexuals. There were plans for setting up similar groups in Tampa and a dozen other Florida cities. I do not know if anything ever came of these, nor even if the Miami operation is still functioning. I have not had word from down there in a good many months. In Hartford, for several years, now, a subdivision of an interdenominational social service sub-committee, by the name of Project "H," has been meeting monthly. Ministers, sociologists, educators, lawyers and other disciplines are represented on it , and it is currently contemplating adding selected members of the homophile community. It offers counseling services as an extension of New York City's venerable George W. Henry Foundation, and it works at public education and legislative reform. It has organized public symposiums, and is now sponsoring a bi-weekly, partially self-sustaining discussion group for local homosexuals. Project "H" is solidly established and rapidly growing in scope and effectiveness. The future for it looks very bright indeed. Neither of the two foregoing organizations are formally identified as Councils on Religion and the Homosexual, as are the others in this report, and neither are directly affiliated with the national and regional networks of homophile organizations spanning the country. But both work to the same end and follow along essentially similar lines. There have been reports of a Council in Ottawa, Canada, and I have had one communication form the minister up there. But it has appeared to be an on-again, off-again effort, and its present existence, if any, remains unverified so far as I am able to tell. Councils were planned for Philadelphia and Chicago with the backing of homophile organizations in those cities, but to Page 6: to my knowledge neither ever really got going, and both I believe are now defunct. A Council did get off the ground in Washington DC a while ago. It lasted for a couple of years or so and then, I understand, evaporated. Off-hand, I know of no additional Councils current or of the past. But, as said, the picture can change very rapidly, and one is always hearing of this or that enterprise being planned or in the works. Why do some Councils succeed and others fail? I am not at all sure I know the answer. With one exception my direct experience with these organizations has been next to nil. I am not sure that it matters much. One always seems to have a different opinion as to why these things happen. I do, of course, hear reports from time to time - about organizations that have failed. I can never know whether they have substance or not. I have heard, for example, that the homophile representatives to a Council were belligerent, or domineering, or defensive beyond what might reasonably be expected. Or that the ministers were apathetic, skeptical, or uncommitted - or perhaps overly committed to the past. Maybe so. Maybe not. I will hazard a guess, however, and suggest that Councils fail because the initial group is simply weak in leadership and organizing capability, and because no effort is made to function systematically with planned and varied programs relevant to the purpose but of equal interest to ministers and homosexuals. Such programs under strong leadership are the best cure for belligerence, and apathy, and lack of commitment. I never knew an organization of any kind to fail that had them. 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 Report on the Councils on Religion and the Homosexual, Jan. 26, 1969, by Foster Gunnison, Jr. Description An account of the resource Organization Collection Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Repository: <a href="http://www.gaycenter.org/community/archive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Archive of LGBT History</a> https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/e50ed90ee8f632181a04a56cf5064a2f.jpg 897b180e2c6a31613ef42e18a374d6b1 https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/73faadf4a24b552e465cff7615f1a37a.jpg a05c48de3c2235279fef074a4a3d62d3 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Request to Rowntree Trust 7 Feb 1960 Description An account of the resource Keith Wedmore sent letter to the Joseph Rowntree Trust outlining the nature and composition of the Quaker Committee on Homosexuality and requesting £100 funding to help cover the group's expenses for one year. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Keith Wedmore Papers https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/92e2a48d72f91bc467ea50ce4afe043b.jpeg 6b916e656194d3a83ee62737fea68723 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 The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Website A resource comprising of a web page or web pages and all related assets ( such as images, sound and video files, etc. ). URL https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/researchers-the-spanish-inquisition-abolished-in-1834-still-hurts-spain-today/ 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 Researchers: The Spanish Inquisition, abolished in 1834, still hurts Spain today Subject The topic of the resource Spain is still trying to heal from the Spanish Inquisition, yet far-right forces are threatening to rise again. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://onlysky.media/hemant-mehta/researchers-the-spanish-inquisition-abolished-in-1834-still-hurts-spain-today/ 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 Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Rev. Al Schon Stole Text Rev. Al Schon United Church of Christ St. Louis, MO Al’s Schon’s call to ministry began early in his life and so too the circuitous path towards ordination. As he describes the journey, Al laughs gently and says that God is surely a man, because a woman would have asked for directions. Born and raised in one of the United Church of Christ’s predecessor denominations, Al’s early call to ordained ministry was postponed with the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. His spiritual pilgrimage led him to the Roman Catholics and a brief sojourn as a Franciscan candidate before returning to the United Church of Christ. Consistently his path included service within and beyond the institutions of the Church. Following many years of serving as a lay leader, Al’s gifts for ministry were affirmed with a call, first to licensed ministry in 2008 as a Pastoral Associate with Peace UCC and now to ordination. As a gay man in the church, Al knows the definition of dissonance and the value of standing in the gap. Patiently and intentionally, he has words to create safe space in the church for all those who sojourn. The Reverend Albert Schon Ordained on May 19, 2012 Peace United Church of Christ St. Louis, MO Denomination United Church of Christ Roman Catholic Church Contribution Date 2012 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1152 Title A name given to the resource Rev. Al Schon Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant St. Louis, Missouri (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Katherine and Darlene HawkerSelf Clergy Activist HawkerSelf, Darlene HawkerSelf, Katherine Missouri Ordination Schon, Al St. Louis United Church of Christ https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/10e872b92539369dd98aee5210874a99.png b986c8ef41a4c2528b656ede2f3e8351 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 Queer Spirit Podcast Description An account of the resource Podcasts from WMPG.org and 90.9 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Rev. Alexis Fuller-Wright Photo Subject The topic of the resource Queer Spirit Podcast Description An account of the resource Rev. Alexis Fuller-Wright is an ordained United Church of Christ pastor and currently serves as the Associate Conference Minister serving UCC congregations throughout the Maine Conference. Before her wise decision to move here, she served congregations in California and New Jersey. The announcement of her appointment said this about her: “Alexis represents a new generation of leadership, called by the Spirit to bring new life and energy into the church.” Alexis and her wife Liz, a science writer, spend their non-working hours chasing after their kids, Nora and Will. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marvin Ellison and Tamara Torres-McGovern Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rev. Alexis Fuller-Wright https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5fc1372820c423e002e3bcb748976f89.png a992a956c22fec9d79bd6edaafdccaf9 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 Queer Spirit Podcast Description An account of the resource Podcasts from WMPG.org and 90.9 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. 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 Rev. Amanda Gerken-Nelson Photo Subject The topic of the resource Queer Spirit Podcast Description An account of the resource Rev. Amanda Gerken-Nelson is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, a non-profit that believes the public witness of LGBTQIA+ ministers transforms the church and enriches the world. In this work Amanda has the unique privilege of traveling around the country to encourage and support the 400+ LGBTQIA+ pastors who are transforming the face of the church. Prior to her work with Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries Amanda pastored a Lutheran congregation East Hartford, Connecticut. A graduate of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California, Amanda grew up on the East Coast and considers herself a true New Englander at heart. On a more personal note, Tamara Torres-McGovern, the co-host of Queer Spirit, happily adds: “I’m lucky that she not only came back to the North East, but that she moved to Maine and, on top of that, she and her wife Tasha became my neighbors!” Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Marvin Ellison and Tamara Torres-McGovern Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rev. Amanda Gerken-Nelson 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 Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Rev. Anita Hill Stole Text Rev. Anita Hill Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Saint Paul, MN This deacon’s stole was given to Anita Hill by St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church (Saint Paul, MN) in May 1994 when she was installed as “Pastoral Minister,” a term shared with Catholic women who are unable to be ordained. The Rev. Anita C. Hill retired this stole on the occasion of her “extra ordinem” service of ordination by the same congregation on April 28, 2001. Pastor Hill was officially received as a member of the clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on September 18, 2010. Hill played a significant role in the change in policy of the ELCA to allow openly LGBT clergy who are in relationships to serve on the rosters of her denomination. Denomination Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Contribution Story Click <a href="https://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?ID=36">here</a> for a biographic profile of Anita Hill, in the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network's Profile Gallery. 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1178 Title A name given to the resource Rev. Anita Hill Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rev. Anita Hill Clergy Activist Evangelical Lutherans of America (ELCA) Hill, Anita Lutheran Minnesota Ordination St. Paul Women and Religion 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 Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Rev. Anita Hill Stole Text Rev. Anita Hill Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Saint Paul, MN This deacon’s stole was worn by Anita from May 1994 when she was installed as Pastoral Minister of St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church (Saint Paul, MN), until the date of her “irregular” (read extraordinary) service of ordination on April 28, 2001. The Rev. Anita C. Hill was officially received as a member of the clergy roster of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on September 18, 2010. Hill played a significant role in the change in policy of the ELCA to allow openly LGBT clergy who are in relationships to serve on the rosters of her denomination. Denomination Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Contribution Story Click <a href="https://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?ID=36">here</a> for a biographic profile of Rev. Anita Hill, in the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network's Profile Gallery. 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1179 Title A name given to the resource Rev. Anita Hill Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Saint Paul, Minnesota (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rev. Anita Hill Clergy Activist Evangelical Lutherans of America (ELCA) Hill, Anita Lutheran Minnesota Ordination St. Paul Women and Religion https://exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1c74eb9c4db758c492adf0e1d617c3ac.jpg 3966c7137953304df6402de083594aca 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 Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Rev. Ann B. Day Stole Text Rev. Ann B. Day United Church of Christ Holden, MA In my childhood, Methodists baptized me, Brethrens welcomed my visits, and Southern Presbyterians raised and confirmed me. But while in seminary, I chose the United Church of Christ as my spiritual home. Barely out to myself in the late 1970s, I did not join the UCC primarily because of its lgbt welcome. I joined because the UCC felt spacious and refreshing to me in its particular way of combining Christ-centeredness, ecumenical commitment, and social justice. That my choice has enabled me to serve the Church in the context of a denomination whose General Synod and other bodies have been bellwethers in the struggles for affirmation of same-gender loving/lgbt persons has been an amazing grace. For twenty years (1987-2007), my partner, Donna Enberg, and I had the privilege of serving as staff for the Open and Affirming Program (ONA) of the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns. That there are more than 650 ONA (publicly lgbt-welcoming) churches/settings in the UCC, and that Donna and I are legally married in MA, indicates that things are changing in church and society. For their wonderful company and dedicated work, I am deeply grateful lgbt-affirming UCC national and Conference staff persons, ONA supporters throughout our denomination, ecumenical Welcoming Church colleagues, and all who let their light shine in the service of justice and peace. Courage and joy as we follow the Spirit's lead! Denomination United Church of Christ United Methodist Church Presbyterian Church (USA) Contribution Date 2007 Contribution Story This stole was given in celebration of the United Church of Christ's 50th Anniversary, and for the refuge that the UCC has offered for so many GLBT clergy. David Lohman IWR and Faith Work Coordinator National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's Institute for Welcoming Resources Home of the Shower of Stoles Project 2007 Click <a href="https://www.lgbtran.org/Profile.aspx?ID=69">here</a> to read Rev. Ann B. Day's biographic profile in the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network's Profile Gallery. 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1096 Title A name given to the resource Rev. Ann B. Day Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Holden, Massachusetts (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Rev. Ann B. Day Day, Ann B. Massachusetts Methodist Open and Affirming in the UCC (ONA) Presbyterian Presbyterian Church (USA) Theology United Church of Christ United Methodist Church Women and Religion 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 Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Rev. Anne M. Rousseau Stole Text Rev. Anne M. Rousseau United Church of Christ Needham, MA Beautiful child of God, Wonderfully and fearfully made, Her childhood religion not understanding, Leaves to find her spiritual home. Loving God all the while, hearing her call – Another fearful, misunderstanding denomination says You are not what God means; You are not what God needs! Seeking truth, finding self and voice and face, When it was easier to be discouraged, Hearing her call to ministry, Working to find homes for those with none, Speaking the language of justice and love, Shining on those forgotten, Saving young women’s lives, Serving God and humankind. One day, the United Church of Christ Welcomes and affirms Her soul and her gifts and her ways. Once made invisible by others, You are what God means; You are what God needs. Beautiful child of God: Minister, example, Igniter of hearts to justice and love, Church beacon, God’s good and faithful servant In whom God is surely well-pleased. May God’s grace fill your life, And God’s voice continue to fill your ministry. With love and gratitude, The Outreach Committee and the Open and Affirming (ONA) Committee Congregational Church of Needham, MA United Church of Christ January 2009 Denomination United Church of Christ Contribution Date 2010 Contribution Story Given to the collection by Kathie Carpenter from the Congregational Church of Needham 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1129 Title A name given to the resource Rev. Anne M. Rousseau Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Needham, Massachusetts (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Congregational Church of Needham, MA, United Church of Christ Massachusetts Open and Affirming in the UCC (ONA) Ordination Rousseau, Anne M. Theology United Church of Christ 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 Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Rev. Barbara Pescan Rev. Ann Tyndall Stole Text REV. BARBARA PESCAN REV. ANN TYNDALL Unitarian Universalist Evanston, IL We have been extremely blessed in our ministries. From Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, California, to serving as co-senior ministers at the Unitarian Church of Evanston, more often than not we have been in the company of people who saw us as persons first. Against that background, aspects of our being, such as being lesbians, were visible and received. Teachers, parishioners, colleagues and friends have encouraged us. Although our ministries were refused from time to time, even in the most glaring instance, homophobia was never the only factor in the decision. Other gay men and lesbian women pushed against institutional homophobia before us, so our way was smoothed considerably. Were they allowed, the women and men behind the stoles in this exhibit could give so much to the world so in need of healing! We are daily grateful to Unitarian Universalist Association, congregations and our seminary for giving us opportunity after opportunity to serve. Deepest gratitude to the Welcoming Congregation, Unitarian Church of Evanston for sending this beautiful stole to Shower of Stoles, and to Carol Nielsen who created it. Denomination Unitarian Universalist Contribution Date 2006 Contribution Story This stole was dedicated and given to the project during a large exhibit of stoles at the Unitarian Church of Evanston. 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/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 1078 Title A name given to the resource Rev. Barbara Pescan Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Evanston, Illinois (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Carol Nielsen Clergy Activist Illinois Nielsen, Carol Pescan, Barbara Tyndall, Ann Unitarian Universalist Women and Religion