The LGBT Crisis in Poland

A sticker with the word lgbt on it sits on top of a magazine.

By: Christoph Slomski (KKBS, Berlin) and Matthew Schmid June of 2019 saw celebrations across the United States marking how far the country has come on LGBT rights. It’s hard to believe that this year’s World Pride events in New York City—lasting an entire month, bolstered by innumerable corporate sponsorships and centered on a parade that…

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Hurricanes, Homosexuals, & Other Culprits of Convenience

A blue car on top of a wrecked house.

Since the intentional misreading of the Sodom and Gomorrah story in Genesis 19 in the Bible where the twin cities were supposedly destroyed because of homosexual depravity, the causes of natural disasters always find ways to be placed on the backs of LGBTQ Americans. We have become an easy, go-to explanation. And, usually by Bible-thumping…

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Milo Yiannopoulos’ Trash Talking Tanks

A man is holding his hand up in front of a dark background.

Trigger Warning: discussions of pedophilia and child abuse  For Milo Yiannopoulos—vulgarian, alt-right’s telegenic token gay and Breitbart’s polemical senior editor—his last appearance on a national stage may have finally come. And, the bridge too far for even his audience wasn’t Yiannopoulos’s misogyny, xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia or homophobia, to name a few, but rather his…

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How The Religious Right Is Getting It Wrong

A statue of a woman holding an eagle.

For the past week, my newsfeed on Facebook has been filled with posts and comments about the arrest of Kim Davis, the court clerk from Kentucky who was imprisoned on Thursday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in her county, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling for equality and direct orders from a judge to resume…

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What LGBTQ People Need To Hear From Christian Leaders

A woman praying in a dark church.

“Sexual orientation is not a sin. Gender identity is not a sin. We are all created in the image of God.” For me, more than anything else—this statement is what I want to hear from our religious leaders. I want to hear the unambiguous pronouncement that people who are same gender loving, bisexual, transgender, non-gender…

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Confronting Echoes Of The AIDS Hysteria As We Battle Ebola

A person laying on a bed in a room.

Exactly a decade ago this month I received an email flagged as urgent from Monrovia, Liberia. It was from Lee Johnson, then coordinator of “Liberian Youths Against HIV/AIDS.” “Presently, the HIV/AIDS scourge is deeply eating into the fabric of our society and there is little being done to bring this to a halt. Therefore, some…

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DignityUSA Shows Another Side Of Catholicism

A woman holding a sign that says catholic supporting equality.

Whenever the media uses the phrase “Catholic Church” when they reference statements made by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) or by individual church leaders, Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of DignityUSA, stands up to correct them. “The bishops try to discredit DignityUSA by saying we’re not authorized to use the word Catholic,” she says.…

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When ‘Non-Denominational’ Really Means ‘Homophobic’

A crowd of people at a concert with their hands raised.

Because I didn’t know how to tell her, my mother was one of the last people I came out to, but it’s funny—she’s always been the first to have my back. My mother would never let anyone shame her son—even her own church. Not now, not ever. That unwavering support was demonstrated yet again last…

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Catholic School Contracts Are Unfair To LGBT Community

A group of people holding signs that say catholics and straight for equality.

About a century ago, Catholic job-seekers were routinely confronted with signs reading, “No Catholics need apply.” Now, it seems administrators in some Catholic schools are prepared to post signs that say, “No gay people need apply.” LGBT people have worked for the Catholic Church probably for as long as the church has been around. For…

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