Remember this rainbow day.

Look around, and see how LGBTQ+ people found a way to look out for each other.

Feel the energy crackling across your skin, let it sink into your memory.

Because LGBTQ+ children of God, and the allies God sent to protect us, are embodiments of resurrection.

Jesus shares these words of peace as a reassurance right before a time of violence, separation, and despair: his crucifixion on the cross. Christ knows that this time will be brutal, but he offers three words of hope amidst the impending trials and tribulations ahead.

We are in an era where those in power are trying to legislate queer people out of existence. One of the common justifications for this violence is Christianity. The United Methodist Church is taking steps towards the full inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQ+ people is a way to challenge the legitimacy of this argument.

I’ve been waiting for this moment, like many before me, for years. I’ve been preparing with my fellow delegates for this postponed General Conference since 2019, read over legislation, and looked forward to be “in the room where it happens” (gotta quote Hamilton at least once, right?).

As I journey towards General Conference, both physically and spiritually, I can’t help but feel the contrast between my reality the last time we gathered in 2019, and my reality now. In 2019, I was a decade into my service as clergy in the United Methodist Church, but in my first year of doing so as a publicly Queer clergy person.

From April 23rd through May 3rd, United Methodists from all over the world will converge in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the 2024 General Conference.