Celebrating National Coming Out Day
Since 1987, National Coming Out Day has been celebrated by LGBTQIA+ people around the country. Last year, a series of interviews to diverse leaders within the PC(USA) shed light on why this day has such special importance for LGBTQIA+ people. Amanda Barclay, Pastor at Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco, explained,
“National Coming Out Day and LGBTQIA+ history month to me are national efforts to recognize our full humanity, in response to the historical failure to see queer people as fully human and fully divine.”
Other interviewees included Bertram Johnson of Union Theological Seminary, Phillip Morgan of Central Presbyterian Church, Louisville, and CNP Board member Slats Toole. Toole testified to the healing that affirming spaces and people can offer. Of their Reaffirmation of Baptism, they said,
“It wasn’t until I was in that room, filled with a cloud of witnesses who cared for me and affirmed me, that I realized how much I needed this experience as a part of healing from the trauma the church had caused me.”
At the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, we rejoice in the witness of LGBTQIA+ people in the Church while working for a more just and inclusive world. This past weekend, Covenant Conversation: Olympia offered a chance to explore practical steps toward that future and create spaces of healing for those who have experienced trauma in the church. We're grateful to The United Churches of Olympia and the many people involved in these important conversations.