Rev. Michael J. Crumpler on the First Pride “On June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village NYC, Marsha “Pay It No Mind” Johnson threw the first shot glass as an act of resistance against routine police raids in the gay community.
Over the course of five decades, the LGBTQ civil rights movement has gone mainstream as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, genderqueer, intersex, asexual, non-binary, and polyamorous folx have come out and fought for our right to be ourselves in the privacy of our homes and in the public square. In the wake of the AIDS crisis, we fought to stay alive when the rest of society left us for dead. Together we’ve co-created communities of resistance and re-imagined faith and family in a world hostile to queer existence.
For Unitarian Universalists, Pride was not just a new way of being but a renewed commitment to our first Unitarian Universalist principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Unitarian Universalist Pride has been about being “called in” to recommit to our sixth Unitarian Universalist principle of peace, liberty, and justice for all. For many, this has been a calling of joy as lesbian and gay ministers have found a faith that fully embraces our gifts, callings, and freedoms of conscience. For others, this calling in has been an arduous journey as transgender UUs have been forced to fight for full acceptance and inclusion in a faith that all too often falls shorts of being faithful. Likewise, non-binary, bisexual, asexual, and intersex UUs strive to be fully embraced in a Beloved Community eager to claim them as their own.”