Becoming Transformed
The first pride marches rose from the simple desire to be free — free from police violence and surveillance, free from stigma and shame, free from gender and sexual roles that did not fit. In seeing images and hearing accounts of these first marches and protests, we can see that the Holy Spirit was truly working among them. We see boldness and joy, solidarity and mutuality, grief and remembrance. The full range of human emotion and experience is present in pride marches, protests, and celebrations. And as we strive for greater freedom, we must also recognize that not one of us can be free until all of us are free.
As Tamice mentioned last week, many of us have intersecting identities that complicate a simple freedom. For my own life, racism against me as a black person is also harm against me as a queer person. Homophobia and transphobia against me as a queer person is also harm against me as a black person. My queerness and my blackness cannot be separated; I cannot be liberated in just one part of my identity. This is the same in our community: liberating a small fraction of our community does not liberate our entire community. Anti-drag laws are being used to harm trans people. Anti-trans laws are being used to harm cisgender queer people. Our struggles are not siloed. Just as Paul reminded the Corinthians in his first letter to them, we cannot say, “I don’t need you!” to another part of the body of Christ and think that our community can thrive or survive. The parts of our community that are the most vulnerable are also the most indispensable (1 Corinthians 12:21-22).
“We need one another to remove the veils from each other so that we may reflect the glory of God.”
When we recognize the most vulnerable parts of our body of Christ, the witness of these parts can reveal new understandings of who God is and what God is doing in our world. We need one another to remove the veils from each other so that we may reflect the glory of God. The Holy Spirit leads us to cooperate with one another in becoming our truest selves. As our passage for this month shows, we are still becoming more and more like the Spirit of God. While our identities are unchanged, our relations to ourselves and to our community are constantly becoming and transforming. We may discover new language or unearth new feelings that lead to clarifying the words we use to describe our identities, yet we are not changing who we are. We are still, and will remain, LGBTQ+ because that is how God created us and Christ will continually transform us within that.
Through building community with one another and bringing the body of Christ closer together, we begin to recognize the amazing power we have to transform the world. Our strength and solidarity gives us the freedom to make changes, big and small. We find the courage to speak up to a family member who has caused harm. We live in the world in ways that shake up the status quo and show that other ways of living are possible. We share our stories in ways that change the hearts and minds of people in power.
Becoming Together,
Carter Kelly
He/They/She
