Women-Church Convergence expresses solidarity with LGBTQI+ community during Pride Month, June 2017
For immediate release: June 5, 2017
Women-Church Convergence (W-CC), a coalition of Catholic-rooted feminist organizations, expresses our unwavering solidarity with members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Ally (LGBTQI+) community during Pride Month, June 2017. We celebrate the monumental legal, social, and religious achievements on issues of sex and gender, and pledge our energies to ensure that more justice, more love will emerge.
At a time when discrimination and violence including murders of LGBTQI+ people are rising, we call for an end to all oppression based on sexual orientation or gender identity. We decry the use of religion to justify any violation of human rights.
We are especially sobered as we approach the first anniversary of the horrific massacre of fifty people at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, the deadliest mass shooting on U.S. soil. We are alarmed by the record-setting number of murders of transgender individuals, especially transwomen of color in 2016, a trend expected to continue this year. We continue to challenge faith leaders and politicians who have failed to acknowledge these hate crimes, and who have failed to accept or repent of their responsibility for creating a climate that allows such dehumanizing attacks to occur.
We register our deep concern about the pending guidelines on how federal agencies, federally funded organizations, businesses, and social service agencies should interpret the recently signed Executive Order “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty.” We fear that the guidelines will roll back the stability and equity that marriage equality has provided for hundreds of thousands of couples and their children, and will place undue burdens on these families. We reject any attempt to characterize this discrimination as an issue of religious freedom.
Women-Church Convergence laments the continuing social and religious condemnation that leads LGBTQI children to attempt suicide and to face homelessness, violence, addiction, bullying, and other negative outcomes at rates four to eight times higher than their straight, cisgender peers. As women from the Roman Catholic tradition we affirm that same-sex love is healthy, good, natural, and holy.
We work to end the disparity in income, housing, health care access, and family stability faced by LGBTQI adults, especially by LGBTQI people of color. We commit to continuing the work of dismantling structural oppression faced by members of the LGBTQI community. Women-Church Convergence joins people of faith and goodwill to use the month of June to express their support for LGBTQI+ people. Here is how:
–Turn out for Pride marches and festivals with signs of blessing for these communities
–Articulate clearly the tenets of faiths that compel work for justice and equality
–Join Women-Church Convergence at the National Pride March in Washington, DC on June 11, 2017, and at Sister Marches all across the country when we march for the equality of all!
Happy Pride Month to all, and let love and justice resound in joyous chorus!
Contact:
8th Day Center for Justice
kathleen@8thdaycenter.org
A Critical Mass: Women Celebrating Eucharist
kellogg2000@yahoo.com
DignityUSA
execdir@dignityusa.org
Catholics for Choice Canada
Rganley209@gmail.com
Chicago Women-Church
chgowmnchu@sbcglobal.net
Loretto Women’s Network
roxm@tribcsp.com
Mary’s Pence
katherine@maryspence.org
National Coalition of American Nuns
dquinn4220@aol.com
SEPAWOC
mecoop@comcast.net
Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER)
water@hers.com
Women-Church of the Wabash Valley
barb1840sp@gmail.com
Women’s Ordination Conference
ehanna@womensordination.org
Women-Church Convergence (W-CC) is a coalition of autonomous Catholic-rooted groups working to build just social and ecclesial structures with shared power for everyone, especially women and those whom church and society marginalize. Women-Church Convergence amplifies diverse feminist, faith-filled voices. We create spaces in which all can live out their vision of full inclusion in church and society. Our commitment to feminist ministries and our social justice values lead us to act boldly in the world for the benefit of all.
