I have been traveling. This week I was in Washington, D.C. at the Human Rights Campaign Clergy Call for Justice and Equality. 298 Clergy gay and straight and trans clergy gathered to advocate and lobby for GLBT Rights on Capitol Hill!
Inspiring! As many of you know I serve on HRC’s Religion and Faith Council and I have the privilege of working closely with amazing clergy leaders for GLBT equality and an opportunity to work with the outstanding professionals at HRC.
This year’s Clergy Call (the third) was no exception. On Sunday Clergy Call worked hand in hand with MCC’s People of African Descent Conference on unique issues in educating and reaching out to African American Church community. Rev. Darlene Garner is an elder in the Universal Fellowship of MCC and an active member of the Religion and Faith Council. On Monday the fuller gather began as clergy from every state in U.S. checked in.
Monday morning began with prayer and introduction and an amazing keynote address by Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. She appears often on the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC and is a straight ally of our movement for GLBT equality. She is a political analyst and on faculty at Tulane University. She challenged all of us about the intersection of race, and gender, and sexual orientation. She challenged us that the notion of citizenship is the issue in the political sphere. Who belongs and who doesn’t. This resonated to all of us in attendance. It certainly has been the issue that has been articulated by the birther movement calling into question our President’s citizenship. It is the same discussion when talking about immigrants and immigration reform and who can become a citizen. It is the issue when talking about LGBT equality when heinous laws continue to be passed or initiatives placed on the ballot that take away our rights as citizens or fail to recognize our equality.
Think about it. Who belongs and who doesn’t. That is an important idea. Who is in and who is outside.
More on Clergy Call tomorrow.