Faith programming remains key part of Creating Change Conference

The National LGBTQ Task Force opened its 38th annual Creating Change conference this week in Washington, DC. This year, as in previous years, faith and interfaith programs remain an important part of the conference’s mission and practices.

For some, the presence of faith activities at LGBTQ+ conferences may seem antithetical. Creating Change also does not deny the history of harm caused by religious institutions. “We must be clear that faith activism is not an easy pill to swallow in LGBTQ spaces. They have no qualms about saying they acknowledge the pain, trauma, and violence that is claimed in the name of religion,” said Tahir Sharma, director of faith activism for the National LGBTQ Task Force.

Indeed, several panels at the conference openly discuss recognizing, healing, and resisting religious harm and religious nationalism, including today’s “Defending Democracy Through Religious Activism: Effective Strategies for Faith and Interfaith Organizing.” The event also includes a panel entitled “Expert Panel on Human Rights,” featuring local queer faith activists Ebony C. Peace, Rob Kissan, and Eric Erdrich, who also participate in the annual DC Pride Interfaith Service.

Another session will include a space for survivors of religious violence and a “drop-in space to love one another in healing ways, hosted by Pastor Alba Onofrio and Theo Drake.”

But Sharma and his colleagues, who organized the Creating Change Conference, explained that the “state of resentment” against religious communities, especially those that support queer liberation and solidarity, is counterproductive and negates the rich history of queer religious activism. “It is time to call for an approach to LGBTQ+ liberation that uses interfaith literacy as a tool rather than a weapon against us,” Sharma explained.

Recognize local queer faith icons

Along with panel discussions, combating religious nationalism and fostering engagement with allied faith activists and local communities are at the heart of this year’s faith activities. As Sharma said, “We are giving out the Faith Award this year because Pastor Sophia BetancourtAnd Dr. Betancourt is a great leader and a very outstanding person in not only representing UU, but representing himself unapologetically. ”

Based in the Washington, DC area, Dr. Betancourt has more than 20 years of experience working as a public servant, seminary professor, scholar, environmental ethicist, and public theologian. Her work is rooted in her lived identity as a queer, multiracial, and first-generation Afro-Latinx daughter of immigrants from Chile and Panama, making her an important voice in advancing unifying universalism toward antiracist and pluralistic faith work.

Create a faith-based gathering place

Sharma also said that faith fosters unique spaces and practices for encountering sadness and joy. For this reason, Sharma says, “While I want to create spaces for people to be curious and engage in spiritual fulfillment and grounding, I also believe that in these times, we should retreat to spaces to grieve and spaces to find hope.” The Many Paths Gathering Space serves this purpose, allowing visitors to pause for spiritual retreats, speak with members of the spiritual care team, and take a sensory break from the hustle and bustle of the conference.

This also means exalting and foregrounding queer religious temporality. ofrenda An exhibition by non-binary Korean-American photographer Sarg Wismas is held in honor of those who have passed away. divine identity, and “Shower of Stoles,” a collection of approximately 1,500 liturgical stoles and other sacred rituals representing the lives of people of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender faiths.

stall shower

of collection The program was first started in 1995 by Martha Juillerat and Tammy Lindahl. They received the 80 stoles that accompanied them and gave them comfort as they put aside their ordination from the Presbyterian Church. The entire collection was first exhibited at the 1996 General Conference of the Presbyterian Church of New Mexico. According to the task force, the stolen property “immediately became a powerful symbol of the Church’s great loss of gifted leadership.”

Each stall represents the story of a queer person who is active in the life and leadership of their faith community and is often sent by them, but sometimes by their loved ones in their honor. Approximately one-third of all stalls are donated anonymously, and more than three-quarters of stalls donated by clergy and full-time church professionals are donated anonymously.

The collection “not only shows the serious harm caused when people fail to fulfill their calling when they are faith leaders, but also speaks to how queer and transgender people have been present in our society.” [faith] Since the beginning of our tradition, the community has always provided leadership,” Sharma explained.

Explicit interfaith engagement

In addition to creating sacred spaces for participants, hosting workshops focused on faith-based action, and recognizing D.C.’s rich history of queer religion, Creating Change also hosts distinct faith services, including Buddhist meditation, Catholic Mass, Shabbat services, Juma services, and ecumenical Christian services on Sundays. “Creating Change” also welcomes events that are central to queer religious affirmation, such as name/gender/pronoun/identity blessing ceremonies and readings and discussions around queer Bible stories with Pastor Sex (aka Pastor Alba Onofrio).

But Sharma explained that along with specific faith-based programs, “we want to build on what I helped introduce, which is to separate the interfaith services that are happening this year, which are wakes, versus the ecumenical Christian service, which is currently the only event that takes place on Sunday morning.”

This will include tonight’s Interfaith Empowerment Service and tomorrow’s Interfaith Institute, as well as Sing in the Revolution, an event where people are invited to “experience the joy and rhythm of resolution and what it feels like,” Sharma said. One of the key activists behind this effort is the Rev. Eric Erdrich, an ordained interfaith minister at Circle Sanctuary and a member of the Pride Interfaith Service Planning Committee.

Confirming that queer faith work is part of liberation

Sharma said her goal this year is to consider why faith matters in spaces of queer liberation, as well as holding spaces and discussions about faith-based practice and liberation and intentional interfaith work. How do we approach demobilization efforts and understanding digital strategies as tools for navigating the deeper visions needed for a better world that require us to think that we are not alone in the struggle for mutual enrichment and liberation?” He explained.

People may be surprised to learn that faith work has been intentionally included as part of the National LGBTQ+ Task Force since its inception in the 1980s. “You can attribute that to former leaders like Urvashi Vaid who really understood the role of faith in liberation and justice work,” Sharma said.

“While someone who wasn’t necessarily religious, she certainly had a clear understanding of the relationship between those who are our allies, those who are against us, and those who sit in between – people who come from religious and spiritual backgrounds and who are unapologetically LGBTQ+,” he continued.

This year’s faith program builds on this rich history, looking at “ways to kind of open the door for our people to come out into the general space of the conference, not just invite people in” to share how faith-based work is a tool, not a hindrance, for queer liberation work.