Illegal To Be You
By Lisa Turnquist
It's Friday night. You'd like to start your weekend with friends and dinner at a great restaurant. But, you're not allowed into most restaurants.
You've been given a promotion and raise that make it possible to upgrade your house or apartment. The perfect place just went on the market. But, no real estate agents will return your calls or agree to schedule a showing.
Your hard work and long hours of studying paid off. You graduated from high school with honors and have been accepted to your dream university. After settling into your dorm and classes, the snide comments and pranks start. Walking across campus can be like running a gauntlet. You haven't slept well in weeks because you don't feel safe.
These experiences were common for LGBTQ+ folks in late 1960s New York City. One of their safe havens was The Stonewall Inn - a bar in lower Manhattan. They could safely be themselves for a few hours or until the police arrived to arrest people suspected of violating anti-gay laws. A police raid on The Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, morphed into a 6-day riot as LGBTQ+ folks protested their treatment as second-class citizens or worse.
A memorial march was held the following year in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago and later turned into Pride Month nationwide every June. Pride Month is a time to celebrate those who have led and are leading efforts to change societal constructs that prevent our LGBTQ+ neighbors from having the same freedoms our cis-gender, heterosexual neighbors have enjoyed for centuries. Pride Month is a time for LGBTQ+ neighbors to be part of a larger community and be supported for being their true selves.
The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History Behring Center held an exhibit entitled 'Illegal to Be You' from June 2019 to June 2021. Memorabilia from LGBTQ+ activism from the 1960s to current day convey our LGBTQ+ neighbors' experiences working for equality in the eyes of the law, society, health care, and commerce. While the exhibit detail is no longer available online, an informative summary is available via the link above. The exhibit asked questions that heterosexual, cis-gender folks may not need to ask themselves on a frequent basis:
• "How far will you go to express who you are?
• Where can you be safe and be yourself?
• What do you do with your feelings? How do you survive?".
The ELCA released a social statement on Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust in 2009. While this statement was divisive and controversial at the time and remains so, it calls us to three important actions for our LGBTQ+ neighbors - to serve, love, and support them.
To serve, the statement recalls text Martin Luther wrote in The Freedom of the Christian "claiming that Christians are at one and the same time radically freed by the Gospel and called to serve the good of the neighbor:
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all."
While we Lutherans are free to live the life we choose, Christ has called us to serve our neighbor well, to treat them as we prefer to be treated while living in community with each other.
To love, we are called to live in relationships that are "loving, that include and reflect an abundance of agape (unlimited love, forgiveness, compassion, care, and concern), eros (passion, excitement, and joy), and philia (care for the neighbor)". How amazing would it be to be in relationships with so much support and promise? Perhaps that support and promise would sustain us as we debate, disagree and work through complexities and differences we encounter every day. Loving relationships are not always easy but, they are worthwhile.
To support, we work to create structures that sustain loving relationships and provide what is necessary to thrive, not merely survive. We can encourage through failures, mourn losses, and celebrate successes. Support for our LGBTQ+ neighbors creates social trust that is practically non-existent today. Support can be given in small ways like asking about preferred pronouns, being sensitive to how LGBTQ+ folks present themselves to society, and meeting them where they’re at instead of where we're comfortable being.
We can do all three trusting that God loves each of us as we are, God freely gives us grace and, together, we can create a community of support for those ostracized for being their true selves.
I encourage you to learn more about what Pride Month means to the LGBTQ+ community using the links below as a starting point. St Barnabas will attend the Golden Valley Pride event June 8. Please join us to love and support our neighbors!
Resources:
National Museum of American History's Illegal to Be You exhibit - https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/gay-history-beyond-stonewall?utm_source=si.edu&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=promo
In June 1969, LGBTQ+ community members resisted a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a bar in lower Manhattan. The museum marked this 50th anniversary with a display featuring objects from its collections that put the history of that memorable event within a larger and longer experience of being gay.
ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust - https://www.elca.org/Faith/Faith-and-Society/Social-Statements/Human-Sexuality
The statement provides guidance on key matters, such as marriage, family, same-gender relationships, protection of children and youth, sexuality and the self, sexual intimacy, and cohabitation. It addresses issues of sexuality in the public square, the workplace, and within the church. This social statement was adopted by the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. This statement is currently under review by the ELCA.
ELCA Justice Portal - https://www.elca.org/Our-Work/Publicly-Engaged-Church/Justice-Portal
On this page you will find information and links to participate with others across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in living out God’s baptismal call to act for justice.
PFLAG National Glossary - https://pflag.org/glossary/
A glossary of terms used in the LGBTQ+ community. Founded in 1973, PFLAG is the first and largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and their families.
The Trevor Project - http://www.thetrevorproject.org
The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ young people. We provide information & support to LGBTQ+ young people 24/7, all year round.
The Human Rights Campaign - http://www.hrc.org
HRC’s campaigns are focused on mobilizing those who envision a world strengthened by diversity, where our laws and society treat all people equally, including LGBTQ+ people and those who are multiply marginalized.
Library of Congress resources - https://www.loc.gov/lgbt-pride-month/resources/
The collections of the Library of Congress contain many books, posters, sound recordings, manuscripts and other material produced by, about and for the LGBTQ community. The contributions of this community are preserved as part of our nation’s history, and include noted artistic works, musical compositions and contemporary novels. The Library’s American collections range from the iconic poetry of Walt Whitman through the manuscripts of the founder of LGBTQ activism in Washington, D.C., Frank Kameny.
Twin Cities Pride - https://tcpride.org
Our mission is to empower every LGBTQ+ person to live as their true self. We envision a future where all LGBTQ+ people are valued and celebrated for who they are.