Blogs
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moment: Transgender Rights, Title VII, and the Church
6/17/2020
Pride Month Moments: Transgender Rights, Title VII, and the Church Dear Church (Yes, that is Church with a big “C” so I mean universal Church), In this Pride month, on Friday, June 12th, and on Monday, June 15th, two important decisions were made by parts of the federal government--the executive and legislative branch, and judicial branch--which the Church should sit up and take notice of, because it is going to have an impact upon the life of congregations. Remember, the decision made ...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month People: The Prophet, Larry Kramer
6/11/2020
Pride Month People: The Prophet, Larry Kramer When I think of LGBTQ+ activists, and was considering the position of LGBTQ+ Advocacy Coordinator with the UMC folks in the OR-ID Conference, one of the first people who came to mind was the writer, playwright, and HIV/AIDS activist, the late-Larry Kramer. Larry Kramer died a few weeks ago, and his presence in this world is deeply missed by many of us. Larry Kramer was a prophet in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible sense. Consider the following...
Greater NW Pride: Pride Month Moments; Stonewall Inn Riot
6/4/2020
Pride Month Moments: Stonewall Inn Riot June is “officially” Pride Month in the United States. The usual salutation is “Happy Pride!” as we see and great each other within the LGBTQ+ movement. Happy Pride! In a pre-COVID-19 world, we would be getting ready for all the Pride parades, lunches, parties, festival booths, picnics, and firework displays. Rainbow bunting and flags would be festooned everywhere in large cities and small towns across the US. And in my role as both organizing ...
Greater NW Pride: Resisting Evil: Violence Against LGBTQ+ People Around the World
5/26/2020
Resisting Evil: Violence Against LGBTQ+ People Around the World In the United Methodist Church (UMC), the Baptismal Covenant begins with these words, “Resisting evil…” While the UMC is in the midst of struggling with the way of moving forward, together, with some wanting the ordination of LGBTQ+ clergy and same-sex marriages in UMC buildings, while there are others in the church who do not want these things, nevertheless there is continued violence being perpetrated against LGBTQ+ people ...
Greater NW Pride: Come Out
5/22/2020
Come Out! In the last week, I’ve had two opportunities to publicly, on pod-cast and television, “come out” as a gay man, again. It’s a weird kind of phenomenon that non-LGBTQ+ people don’t get, simply because non-LGBTQ+ people didn’t and don't have to come “out” in a largely non-LGBTQ+ society. The norm in non-LGBTQ+ societies is most everyone is non-LGBTQ+, unless someone is otherwise, um, out about being LGBTQ+. Otherwise, it is not known or a "secret," in which only your mom and ...
The Rush to Re-Open: A Theological Reflection
5/18/2020
Rev. Tim Overton-Harris reflects on what worship really means while gently questioning the eagerness with which we yearn to return to worship spaces during a pandemic.
Greater PNW Pride: What CNN's Anderson Cooper Might Teach Us About Being Church
5/13/2020
What CNN’s Anderson Cooper as “Dad” Might Teach Us About Being Church There is no other comparable experience like becoming a parent. It is simply overwhelming. Being present at the birth of my children, holding their mom’s hand, breathing with her through her contractions, being in the birthing room, cutting the umbilical cord of both children, and then holding them in my arms as their mom was taken away to be cleaned up, is seared into my memory. While their mom had nine months to ...
Greater NW Pride: Giving Blood, Plasma, and Discrimination Against Gay Men in COVID-19 Pandemic
5/5/2020
Giving Blood, Plasma, and Discrimination Against Gay Men in COVID 19 Pandemic Last week’s blog covered discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in health services. One person wrote back the same day I posted the blog, asking, “How are LGBTQ+ people being discriminated against in terms of health services?” Here’s how gay men in particular are currently discriminated against by health services in the US: your Red Cross bloodmobiles and blood drives, many of which are sponsored by your friendly...
Greater NW Pride: First, Do No Harm and LGBTQ+ People
4/29/2020
First, Do No Harm and LGBTQ+ People While our divided and undivided attention is focused on the local and national response to COVID 19, it is important to remember that in other parts of the government, business is being done in our name. Several offices have not shut down, even if people are obeying a shelter-in-place order. And works of justice, or injustice in this case, are proceeding as if there was no COVID 19 pandemic. For example, the Trump administration removed a policy put ...
Greater NW Pride: Christian Privilege in the COVID-19 Pandemic
4/21/2020
Christian Privilege in the COVID-19 Pandemic In writing this blog, I write it as a white, cisgender, Christian, gay, able-bodied, middle-class man in a partnered relationship. I am a living intersectionality of many “privileges” in this American life. Admission: Being white, cisgender, middle-class, partnered, and male is an enormous privileged class in Portland, in which being gay is, in some circles, even more of a privilege than being non-LGBTQ+, save for some churches and denominations....
Greater NW Pride: Holding Hands
4/14/2020
Holding Hands Since one of the first days that he showed up in my life, my partner Christian has reached out and held my hand in public. The first time it was in the Portland Saturday Market, and it was fun in its novelty, and sweet as a romantic gesture. We have held hands when walking in airports around this country, cafes, in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Universal Studios-Orlando, in Boston, Atlanta, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Salem, Massachusetts. Why do we hold hands? It is a ...
Greater NW Pride: Rainbow Time!
4/8/2020
Rainbow Time! One of the news items that received much buzz on social media, e.g., news websites like Huffpost, Daily Kos, Joe My God, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, along with main stream press/media like network television was the rare appearance of Queen Elizabeth. The Queen gave a rare addresses to her nation and the Commonwealth. It was outside of the usual end of year/Christmas addresses, which is to be expected annually. There have been only five times during her reign that she has given such a ...
Greater NW Pride: Idaho, People who are Transgender, and Transgender Day of Visibility
3/31/2020
Idaho, People who are Transgender, and Transgender Visibility Day March 31 is international Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). This is an annual event dedicated to celebrating people who are transgender and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide. It is also a day to celebrate the contributions people who are transgender bring to society. Happy Transgender Day of Visibility! And Idaho wanted to show us how to celebrate this day by two new laws ...