Lesbian Day of Visibility and LGBTQIA+ Visibility in Worship

By Amy CernigliaFor Lesbian Day of Visibility, historically celebrated on April 26, I wrote last year about the frightening book bans and attitudes of “Don’t Say Gay” creeping into Florida classrooms and threatening the visibility of sexual minorities. In this last year, the Board of Education has expanded its bans on acknowledgement of LGBTQIA+ people. Gender minorities face heightened threats as legislation erase transgender kids and render them invisible by restricting their access to healthcare. Still other bills label drag performances as sexually explicit and unfit outside of nightclubs. Around the country, LGBTQIA+ people and particularly transgender people face increasing risks for their visibility, even the threat of removal from parents supporting their kids with gender-affirming care. As a millennial in Mississippi, I grew up toward the end of the generation of queer people seeking community in the darkness of clubs and bars when we could not safely connect in public. Invisibility is isolation, but it is also safety. In my church’s preparation to host a booth at Bradenton Pride, hosted by a local youth nonprofit, I wondered how the body of Christ might respond to these attempts at erasure. After all, God views us all in the light of Christ as beloved children. How might we, as Christians, testify to that truth? How can we acknowledge and witness our LGBTQIA+ neighbors inside and outside the church walls? We prepared a number of activities that would incorporate our neighbors into our church worship through creative arts. In the weeks leading up to Pride, a table full of rainbow stationary and sample messages invited church members to write a note of love and affirmation. On the day of the festival, volunteers handed letters to nearly a hundred grateful recipients. These letters said things like, “You are a beloved child of God.” “Our church sees and supports you.” “You have friends and family in Christ at Peace Presbyterian Church.” This way, even church members unable to attend Pride could provide a unified witness and share the Gospel.At Peace Presbyterian Church, the Lord’s Table curves inward, a unique shape created specifically for our church to invite people forward with outstretched arms. Due to this unique shape, a church member had measured and cut fabric weeks in advance to create a table runner with a satin material conducive to paint. At Pride, our booth invited visitors to paint their hands and leave a handprint on the cloth. This provided an excellent opportunity to witness to the sacrament as many visitors asked, “What is Communion?” I am never asked this question more than at Pride, where kids amaze me with their open hearts and good questions. Now, in Eastertide, our Lord’s Table is adorned by this colorful cloth created with the religious and queer communities working together. Visitors were also invited to paint rocks that will decorate the church’s nature trail during Pride month, another way of expressing their colors, artwork and symbols of visible representation. One Spanish-speaking attendee at Pride had searched all day for a booth where he could communicate with the volunteers. One of our church's youth pulled out her phone and spoke with the young man using Google translate, striking up a friendship and painting rocks together despite the language barrier.Our Parish Associate, the Rev. Mary Beth McSwain, offered “glitter blessings” to visitors with a brief spoken liturgy and oil from Jerusalem mixed with glitter. Some attendees refused or hesitated, but she received an enthusiastic “yes!” from the majority. Some lifted bangs to receive a sign of the cross on their foreheads, while others pulled back sleeves for a blessing like a stamp on their hands. Over and over, McSwain offered a blessing: “You are a beloved child of God, and you glitter and shine in holy light.” One person rotated her hand in the sunlight, admiring the glitter in silence, before exclaiming, “Wait—you mean… God loves ME?” In a recent sermon, McSwain said, “That made my mama heart ache. Yes, honey—God loves you. She had forgotten, or maybe never been told.” A lesbian church member remarked, “I remember too receiving a sparkling blessing at a pride day in Portsmouth, NH. I will never forget the healing power of that blessing.” One mother of a transgender young adult mentioned that she was so thankful to see our church’s booth in the wake of her family’s rejection from another local Presbyterian church that had welcomed gender and sexual minorities before a shift in the church's culture. This young person still felt comfortable engaging with our church's members. As they said, “I know that Jesus loves everyone. I know the church that rejected me was wrong.” With confidence in Christ’s love, they proclaimed a message of good news for all people. Transformed by Christ, religious and queer communities are not oppositional forces. Inclusive worship can encourage the visibility of LGBTQIA+ people, allowing them to see themselves in others or for others to notice them for the first time. As a seminarian and Candidate for Ministry of Word and Sacrament, I remember my own relief upon seeing a lesbian classmate holding hands with her wife. This subtle visibility provided a quiet reminder that other women like me can exist in seminaries and in the ministry of the Gospel. Where our civic spaces "don't say gay", may our churches sing “for gay and for straight, a place at the table.” Kids may struggle to find themselves represented in books or classrooms, but they will see themselves represented at the Lord’s Table, where Christ loves and claims all of us as God's own. Our community's young people may not be able to safely share their names, pronouns, or gender expression within their own schools, but the church can offer a safe place to be visible.May we live into the fullness of our identities as children of God, not living under the cover of darkness, but proudly in the light of Christ.Amy Cerniglia is the Communications Coordinator for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians and Director of Music & Outreach at Peace Presbyterian Church.