Welcoming People of Color to Affirming Congregations
The Christian community—including the United Methodist Church—has a notorious and uneven history when it comes to welcoming, discipling, elevating to leadership, and serving people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual. (Some groups add those who are “two-spirit,” which comes from North American, Indigenous traditions.*)
At the same time, in many nations around the world, thousands of individuals, congregations, and church judicatories have made the decision to open their doors and arms unabashedly to LGBTQIA+ persons, including those from communities marginalized because of able-ism, racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant bias.
Still, some Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color find themselves in white Christian communities whose members and leaders may believe themselves to be open and LGBTQIA+-accepting, yet still operate in ways that are racist, Eurocentric, classist, and derisive.
During this PRIDE month, we invite you to consider how lay and clergy leaders in church or ministry might become more explicitly welcoming, affirming of, and in partnership with people who are LGBTQIA+ Persons of Color.
Watch this video featuring a young Black American lesbian woman, Nia Shand. Ms. Shand tells the story of coming out to her racially mixed congregation. Then use the questions below to explore and plan out how your church may become more accessible and receptive across lines of race, class, and clan.
Discussion Questions
1. Who are the LGBTQIA+ People of Color in your congregation/ministry location? What are their race-ethnicities, languages, and socioeconomic circumstances?
2. What on your website, church signs, social media, etc., alerts people “different” from most of your members/congregants that they specifically are welcome, expected, understood, and would be comfortable in your setting?
3. What steps has your congregation taken to talk about racism and racial injustice and to join in efforts (religious and secular) that focus on anti-racism, immigration reform, and other support groups?
4. How do clergy and laity in leadership in your setting represent a racially/ethnically diverse community? How would a Latino gay man, for instance, who visits your church “see himself” as a potential leader?
5. Name the ways your leaders and members are trained to and supported in demonstrating welcome to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, including those from the LGBTQIA+ community. (Consider what Nia describes when she walked into her home church, holding her partner’s hand.) What percentage of church members might stare coldly or curiously? What percentage will know and act from the idea that your church ethos is that of welcoming all people? What percentage of your leaders and members practice actively welcoming others into your church?
6. What three (3) first steps might your congregation make toward becoming a place that demonstrates and witnesses to the love of God through explicit welcome, support, and advocacy for and with LGBTQIA+ people?
Perspective on Faith from A Transgender, Non-Conforming Latinx Theologian
In their book, Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation (Broadleaf Books, 2020), Baptist minister the Rev. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza talks frankly about “navigating life as an activist theologian who is transgender, gender nonconforming, who identifies as Latinx, and who is on the autism spectrum.
“I don't know anybody like me,” Henderson-Espinoza, who runs the nonprofit Activist Theology Project, told the (Nashville) Tennessean in a recent interview.
“It’s important for me as a trans person, as Latinx, to take place and to bear witness, that even someone like me can follow the ways of Jesus and maybe imagine another possible world," said Henderson-Espinoza, who previously wrote Activist Theology.
The book includes Dr. Henderson-Espinoza’s experiences as a person born and reared in Texas, and the effects of “socialization in the church” and of being biracial and inhabiting a body that is “light-skinned and conditionally white.” (They have a Mexican mother and white father.)
Compiled from news reports
Acronyms & Terms Explained
Lesbian/Gay (LG) describes sexual and affectional orientation toward people of the same gender. Gay usually refers to one who identifies as male and who is sexually/romantically attracted to other males; lesbian usually refers to a person who identifies as female and who is attracted to other females.
Bisexual (B) describes a person whose primary sexual and affectional orientation is toward people of the same and other genders.
Transgender (T) (frequently abbreviated to “trans”) describes a range of identities and experiences of people whose gender identity and/or expression differs from conventional expectations based on their assigned sex at birth. Not all trans people undergo medical transition (surgery or hormones).
Queer/Questioning (Q or QQ) Historically, “queer” was used as an epithet/slur against people whose gender, gender expression, or sexuality do not conform to dominant expectations. Some people have reclaimed the word queer as a celebration of not fitting into norms/being “abnormal.” Those who are questioning may be exploring their own gender identity, gender expression, and/or sexual orientation.
Intersex (I) describes the experience of naturally (that is, without any medical intervention) developing primary or secondary sex characteristics that do not fit neatly into society’s definitions of male or female.
Asexual (A) is as an umbrella term to describe identities where someone rarely or never experience sexual or romantic attraction. Asexuality is different from abstinence. Abstinence when one makes the choice not to have sex, whether one is sexually attracted to another person or not. Asexuality is a lack of sexual desire or attraction, regardless of whether one engages in sexual contact or not.
*Some references add the designation Two Spirit (2S), which comes from the Ojibwe phrase niizh manidoowag and is used by some people from North American Indigenous/Native people to describe men, women, and transgender people from those cultures.
