Pride for UCOH

Hello Spiritual Friends,

It’s PRIDE month, and that means those of us in the LGBTQIA+ community are celebrating! When I was a kid, and by kid I mean in my early 20’s, we didn’t do PRIDE parades. We did marches. Here’s some pictures I shot as a budding photographer at a March in downtown Austin in 1995, sixteen years after the Stonewall Uprising.

On June 2nd, 1990, President Bill Clinton dared to sign a proclamation naming the month of June as “Gay and Lesbian Pride Month.” He was building on a historical foundation that began in 1969 when spontaneous protests broke out thanks to police who raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village NY. In November of that year, the ECHO group (Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations) declared "a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY."

While we LGBTQIA+ folks have been around for much longer than sixty decades, this was our first uprising and a declaration of honoring our own visibility and existence. And there’s courage in that. As we begin this series honoring LGBTQIA+ history and experience, we center in the Truth that every person is a beloved expression of the Divine. As the first of three bloggers to share my thoughts on PRIDE month, I hope these reflections deepen our compassion, expand our understanding, and call us into deeper alignment with Love itself.

Unity teaches that our spiritual identity is whole, divine, and unique. LGBTQ+ people are not broken, sinful, or needing to change—they are expressions of the Infinite. Metaphysically, being true to yourself is being true to the Christ within.

Coming out is more than something just LGBTQIA+ people do. Although in a world that appears to create an experience of separation, it is harder for us to feel safe when we do. But imagine if we were to equate coming out with a spiritual awakening. God invites us to be its fullest, unique and authentic expression. For our LGBTQIA+ brothers and sisters, the declaration “This is who I am,” is a spiritual act. LGBTQIA+ identity is not something to fix or tolerate; it is a form of divine uniqueness. The path of LGBTQIA+ people, often one of rejection, courage, and integration, is a living example of the hero’s journey toward full Divine expression.

But everyone has a coming out story. Not just gay folks. You might have a coming out experience, too. Maybe you left a rigid religious tradition or belief system to explore a more inclusive, Spirit-centered path. Did you choose to pursue a creative path when your family or community valued practicality over creativity? How about setting boundaries with your parents or family at some point in your life? Maybe you’ve struggled with an addiction of some sort and you’ve had to “come out,” in order to experience wholeness again.That’s coming out. Coming out is releasing a mask to live in greater harmony with your inner knowing, which is the Christ within. It's an act of self-love and liberation.

My invitation to you this Pride Month, is to take a cue from those brave souls who first protested the raids at Stonewall Inn. Consider something you might want or need to come out about this month. Explore your feelings around that, and allow the fullest expression of the Divine to move through you in courage and joy as you release the ties that bind you to hiding under a bushel, as the verse says. Howard Thurman tells us, ““Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” God is life itself, and God wants you to come out and come alive!

It’s Pride Month, friends! I’m proud of you.

Join us in Friendship Hall on Friday June 27th for a special screening of Kathy Baldock’s movie, 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture. CLICK HERE for more information and to register.

Author: Joni Lorraine, MSF, Spiritual Director