Dear Bro, Have you ever thought about the things we know now only by our efforts to understand ourselves and our environment? For instance, when I think about what our mother could have shared with me about the process of becoming a young woman (and then an older woman), I don’t remember her saying anything about what my first period would be like — much less menopause, or even what kind of bra to buy once my breasts start to need more support, if you know what I mean (not that I’d expect you to, but this particular search for answers becomes quite real as life progresses.) Neither do I rememb ..read more

Why the proximity of the two holidays should provoke reflection This July 4th, America for the 248th time celebrates its independence from British rule. But the proximity of Juneteenth, now a federal holiday since President Biden designated it as such in 2023, should force Americans to take a closer look at what this holiday really represents. More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and two months after the end of the Civil War, enslaved African Americans in Texas found out they were free on June 19, 1865. With two wildly different — yet celebratory — liberation narratives abo ..read more

Since abolition, women have led the fight for rights we now take for granted When those rich white males turned the Declaration of Independence’s “All men are created equal” into the original U.S. Constitution, they took “men” quite literally. Their constitution made landed white men equal. They denied the vote to everyone else. “Taxation without representation” ended — for them. Freedom in its fullest form was limited to them. When we immortalize these founding fathers, let’s be realistic: They didn’t include most of us in the American dream. It took “radical” and “disruptive” people who were ..read more

As I watched the Atlanta Pride parade broadcast on TV last fall (we march in October thanks to a summer drought in 2007 that rendered the parade’s endpoint, Piedmont Park, a scorched wasteland), I was struck by a couple of things at once. For starters, our local news legend Monica Pearson, the “Oprah of Atlanta,” was part of a three-person panel hosting the parade broadcast — complete with interviews, background stories and history lessons — as though it were our own Southern-fried version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. (Just swap out Santa Claus for a homegrown complement of white-bearded ..read more

A conservative backlash against bisexual, transgender, and gay people is growing so strong that random street violence is surging in the U.S., the U.K., and elsewhere. Kids are learning hatred from parents and churches and  then bullying and beating up LGBTQ+ classmates. Queer adults are fleeing conservative states out of fear, and things seem to be getting worse rather than better — particularly for transgender people. I have some experiences to share that will help. If I could ask one simple thing of friends and allies of LGBTQ people, it would be daily public solidarity. How? Let me te ..read more

Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, holds profound significance for our nation and should be honored and celebrated by everyone, including LGBTQ+ people — and in particular, by LGBTQ+ Christians. Here’s why. For starters, Juneteenth for me as a Christian is about recalling just how truly awfully, inhumanely and impudently white people once behaved toward another part of God’s creation that was in fact their equal in God’s eyes. In their weak, selfish, short-sighted hunger for power and unquestioned dominance, they failed to see their Black brothe ..read more

Dear Bro, In the dictionary there are two distinct definitions of perspective. One deals with the way we can draw an object to make it look like it has dimensions — in other words, so the eye will perceive, say, an object in a picture as being three-dimensional. The other says: “A particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.” That second definition is meaningful to me because I’m realizing now that it’s possible to take multiple perspectives on seemingly everyday things. Every day we perceive our surrounding and make interpretations about how things are — or are g ..read more

There’s still a difference between accepting and affirming Last month, United Methodist Church delegates voted to repeal the denomination’s long-held exclusionary stance toward its LGBTQ+ members in church doctrine, polity, and social standing. The news was received with mixed feelings — cheers and tears. “We have been Methodists since 1917 in the oldest black section of Houston,” Harold Cox, an openly African-American gay male from Boston, shared with me.  “I’m sad because the United Methodist Church is my family’s business.” Cox comes from a supportive and long family line of Methodist ..read more

In life’s complex tapestry, where prejudice, -isms and misunderstanding can still cast long shadows, the LGBTQ+ community has navigated through storms of discrimination and rejection. And within that struggle lies an opportunity — a clarion call to embody the deepest teachings of love, compassion and forgiveness as professed in the Gospel. This Pride Month, I want to challenge you to take this embodiment seriously, even while fully acknowledging that it’s certainly easier said than done. In fact, many of my closest friends say that there are limits to the love we offer, the compassion we dispe ..read more

Is this just a blunder, or has the Pope revealed his true colors? Pope Francis sent global shock waves when the news broke that he used the highly offensive F-word frociaggine (“faggotness” in Italian) in a closed-door conversation at the Italian Bishops’ Conference. During a discussion about whether to admit gay seminarians in preparation for the priesthood, the pontiff replied: “There is too much frociaggine in seminaries.” The news of Francis using this particular homophobic and eyebrow-raising epithet deeply hurt many out and proud Catholic LGBTQ+ people  hoping for full inclusion and ..read more