Profiles in Courage: LGBTQIA2S+ People Who Have the Courage to Be Who God Created Them to Be.

Along with The United Methodist Church jumping into the 21st century in welcoming LGBTQIA2S+ people as ordained clergy, able and willing to be pastors/elders and deacons, along with allowing same sex weddings, and using funds from the pew to support LGBTQIA2S+ people and programs, there are individuals who have stood up and out in the last few weeks that need to be recognized. It is upon their shoulders that the next generation of queer clergy leaders will go and grow in their ministries.

First is Rev. Dr. Beth Stroud. This is what David Crary of the Associated Press wrote about the events from last week, after the UMC changed its policies towards LGBTQIA2S+ people a week earlier: "Twenty years ago, Beth Stroud was defrocked as a United Methodist Church pastor after telling her Philadelphia congregation that she was in a committed same-sex relationship. On Tuesday night, less than three weeks after the UMC repealed its anti-LGBTQ bans, she was reinstated.

In a closed meeting of clergy from the UMC’s Eastern, PA region, Stroud exceeded the two-third vote requirement to be readmitted as a full member and pastor in the UMC. Bishop Joh Schol of Eastern PA welcomed the outcome, stating, ‘I’m grateful that the church has opened up to LGBTQ persons.’”

Here’s a link to that article: https://apnews.com/article/united-methodist-lgbtq-samesex-marriage-935deaaaf58dd615c32a4128871dd199

The second profile in courage is the Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, who has always loved the Black Church, and developed an ambition in his youth to become a pastor even as he realized he was gay. He is pastor of Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, MA. Last year, on CBS, he stated the following: Crowley said he never questioned being attracted to men. In fact, early on he felt people's issue with his sexuality lay in their perception that it was a problem. A cultural debate that for decades has met at the intersection of religion and sexuality. 

"I have always known that I was queerfully and wonderfully made," said Crowley. "The queering that I do in churches is not bringing churches into the world or bringing the world into churches. It's actually drawing churches closer to the original message of Christ, which is about love and acceptance.”

Here’s a link to his story: https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/gay-pastor-brandon-thomas-crowley-myrtle-baptist-church-newton/

The third story is of Brother Christian Matson. A Benedictine oblate, Matson also came out as transgender on Pentecost 2024. From Jack Jenkins of Religious News Service: "Brother Christian Matson, a Catholic diocesan hermit in Kentucky, has spent years doing just that. His monk’s habit might catch his neighbor’s eye, but he is known in the town where he lives primarily through his work with the local theater.

But recently, Matson decided that his faith compels him to make a little more noise than usual. ‘This Sunday, Pentcost 2024, I’m planning to come out publicly as transgender,’ Matson told Religious News Service on Friday(May 17), saying he was speaking out with the permission of his bishop, John Stowe of the Dioceses of Lexington, KY.’”

Here’s a link to his story: https://religionnews.com/2024/05/19/catholic-diocesan-hermit-approved-by-kentucky-bishop-comes-out-as-transgender/

These are all courageous people who have claimed that they are each created in the image of God, and that that, in and of itself, is a good. Each one is courageous in coming out in their respective denominations as well: UMC, Baptist, and Catholic. Their stories are important as we, who are part of the LGBTQIA2S+ community, speak out, show up, and no longer hide in our closets, especially for the next generation of LGBTQIA2S+ people in Christian faith communities. This, right here, is how we will change the world towards more welcoming, affirming, and loving people in the LGBTQIA2S+ community and allies, and those who are not LGBTQIA2S+ who are fearful of us: By sharing our stories, in the open, written or performed in a play or musical, sung or painted, danced or plastered on billboards. This is the way that homophobia and discrimination against us will be a thing of the past, as people understand and realize that we are everywhere in the world, and have been since the beginning of human evolution.

May it be so.