PRIDE IN THE AGE OF CORONATIDE

Union Avenue has a long history of love, advocacy, and partnership with the LGBTQIA+ community.  Whether working with Food Outreach, Doorways, the Metro Trans Umbrella Group, or other organizations, we are an open and affirming church made up of LGBTQIA+ people and allies, and we help our community beam with Pride!

Pride month has its roots in the bold resistance of trans women of color after a violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn in June 1969.  LGBTQIA+ folks got so enraged with how they were being treated by people in power that they took to the streets. They physically stood up for the right to be treated humanely.  The Stonewall Riots gave rise to what we now call gay pride, and had it not been for the actions of those who came before us, we would not be where we are today.  LGBTQIA+ history is one not just of protest, but of anger and emotion in the unflinching declaration of the inherent self-worth across a rainbow of human diversity.

As we begin Pride Month this June, we are at a crucial moment in our nation’s history.  There are oppressed people right now who are enraged at the devaluation of their lives by institutional and systemic discrimination, racism, and oppression.  Stand with them – they’re our family.  Expect of yourself the same thing you expect of others when it comes to embracing our uniqueness in lived experience and expression and embodiment.  The Spirit of God is pouring herself out, driving us to cry for wholeness, knowing that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “no one is free until we are all free.”  Only together can we finally help Love’s victory come to be.

And God said, “Let there be PRIDE!”

Join Disciples AllianceQ on Sunday, June 28, at 6 p.m. (CDT), for a special live-streamed Pride Worship Service featuring Disciples LGBTQ+ leaders from across the United States and Canada. Whether you are an ally or part of the LGBTQIA+ community, or questioning in liminal sacred space, we walk beside you in your faith and life journeys.