Pride & Action
I remember the first boy I had a crush on. I will spare names and details since it clearly did not work out. I have to say though that my first crush was a pretty devastating experience. The crushing was fine, but the fear of what it all meant and what it made me realize about myself was a little too much for my young heart and mind to handle. The fear was too much and I did nothing about that crush.
Fast forward some 15 years later to my first Pride Parade. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was a ball of nerves. What would people think? What if I was one of the people who ended up on the news? Would I lose friends? And dear God, what about my family? This time fear did not win. I walked in the parade. I celebrated. I may have even done a little flirting.
This month, many of us will have the chance to walk, dance and even prance in Pride parades around the country. After two years of isolation, it will be a welcome reprieve to parade and celebrate the joys of being LGBTQIA+.
While we parade though, there will be in a small or large city somewhere in this country, a young person deeply fearful of what it means to have a crush on someone they are told they should not. In some corners of our country, there will be a young person struggling with language to describe what they feel and for whom they feel it. This is where pride and celebration meets organizing and advocacy.
On the one hand, we must celebrate who we are and what we have accomplished. On the other hand, we must engage in work that expands opportunities for the world to be safer and kinder to all our children! That is what motivated the leadership of CRS to launch our LGBTQIA+ advocacy and the Bayard Rustin Fellowship. We believe that congregations, people of faith, and those of goodwill have such a powerful role to play in this important work of making the world safer and kinder for LGBTQIA+ people and communities.
As we start Pride month, I am pleased to introduce our second Bayard Rustin Fellow, Kwyn Townsend Riley. Kwyn is an extraordinary fighter with deep roots organizing from a Black queer feminist lens. Kwyn is no stranger to Community Renewal Society or Chicago. She has offered her gifts of poetic protest to multiple CRS events and is a familiar voice of conscious, leadership and service in Chicago and beyond. We hope you will join us here at CRS in extending a warm welcome to Kwyn as we invite you to continue to support this important platform she will lead. Follow this link to read more about Kwyn.
Here are a few things you can do this month to celebrate and advocate.
Make space for LGBTQIA+ people to share their stories in your worship service.
Consider posting an 'All Are Welcome' sign outside your church, home or office. Send us a photo that we can share.
Join our issue team and help anchor CRS’ LGBTQIA+ efforts.
Donate in support of this life-changing work.
In Solidarity,
Keron Blair
Capacity Building Manager for Organizing and Policy