By genuinely welcoming and integrating LGBTQ people into a congregation all members can experience transformation. When individuals who were once unwelcome and perhaps even unnamed are brought into a community of faith, new perspectives emerge on what it means to live as people of faith. When individuals who have been marginalized for so long enter […]
On 19 June 1865 Union General Gordon Granger proclaimed in Galveston, Texas, the federal government’s decree that all previously-enslaved people in Texas were free; this proclamation was read over two and a half years after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, which had been signed by President Abraham Lincoln on 1 January 1863. It is this […]
29 May 2026 LGBTQ people understand from years of experience that they are unwelcome in most congregations. Since our culture is saturated with the anti-queer rhetoric of religious leaders who claim to represent the only authentic Jewish and Christian positions on homosexuality, a congregation that seeks to become welcoming needs to state clearly and publicly […]
22 May 2026 A congregation interested in becoming a community of care should begin with education and compassionate dialogue. The leaders and members of a church or synagogue will need to educate themselves about sexual orientation, gender identity, and the most genuine and effective ways to integrate LGBTQ people into the life of the congregation. […]
15 May 2026 Everyone can distinguish a genuine welcome from one that is half-hearted, and it is not difficult for LGBTQ people to realize whether they are welcomed or not in a particular congregation. Merely posting a welcome sign or publishing a statement of acceptance does not prove, of course, that a congregation is actually […]
Click here for a video recording of CLGS Lavender Lunch! What does it mean to be Transgender and Catholic in a Church still learning to grasp the full dignity of trans persons? Sponsored by the CLGS Catholic Roundtable, this Lavender Lunch panel brought together Trans Catholic leaders whose lives, faith, and courage are at the […]
8 May 2026 Baptist minister Rev. Jacki Belile recommends a three-fold task for congregations seeking to welcome LGBTQ people: “Take into account the depth of people’s betrayal and pain at the hands of the institutional church in all the dimensions of fellowship, preaching, teaching, and pastoral care”; Offer “significant opportunities for LGBT people to have […]