A Queer Pilgrim

I was hoping to end the year with a kind of summation of where we "are" in the LGBTQIA2S+ community and the world in which we live. However, opening up Oregon Public Broadcast (OPB) latest news on their website, such was not the case.  Elizabeth Miller of OPB wrote the following: " A new survey of LGBTQ youth across the country finds 45% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide in 2021, the year survey responses were collected. At the same time, 60% of youth who wanted mental health care were not able to get it." "In Oregon, 44% of  LGBTQ youth surveyed  have “seriously considered” suicide in the past year. That figure is only slightly lower in Washington, where 41% of  LGBTQ youth surveyed  considered suicide." "Ninety percent of Oregon LGBTQ youth say recent politics have harmed their well-being “sometimes” or “a lot.” That number is 89% in Washington." This is scandalously high. Having worked in non-profits who house LGBTQIA2S+ young people

With the backdrop of the passage and signing of the Respect for Marriage Act, today's blog post has to do with faith. Faith and living in a faith community is part of marriage for some of us in the LGBTQIA2S+ community. For example, in my wedding with Christian, and subsequent marriage, faith is central to who and whose we are. We attend church worship services weekly because I'm a Presbyterian pastor working with two faith communities: Portsmouth Trinity Lutheran Church and Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship. But staying in the institutions which individual faith communities are part of has not been easy, especially when these institutions--like the Presbyterian Church USA and Evangelical Lutheran Church of America--were keeping us not only out of the ordained ministry and denying marriage, but also fostering conversion therapy and supporting ministries that hurt and denounced LGBTQIA2S+ people.  As I tell people, while the institutional church attacked me, Brother

The LGBQIA2S+ community and faith communities have been in the news this week, with some fantastic news alongside news that is meant to challenge our meant to the core of our very being. While I started to want to report on one story one day, the next day there would be another story that was attention grabbing, too. And then there was another. On the one hand, there is the story from the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS). It involved the case of Colorado-native Lorie Smith, a humble website designer, who said that, because of her Christian faith, she could not and would not design a wedding website for a same sex couple. The problem was that in the state of Colorado, as a business, you cannot refuse to discriminate against anyone in a business transaction or "public accommodations," like on the basis of sexual orientation. What was even more interesting and bizarre is that Lorie Smith has never been asked to design such a website. She just doesn't want to do it in case sh