Texans Of Faith Stormed Capital For Gay Rights
The largest delegation of fair-minded Texas faith leaders since the conception of the LGBT equality movement is on its way to the nation’s capital to participate in the third Human Rights Campaign’s Clergy Call for Justice and Equality, today through Tuesday.
Twenty-two clergy, theologians, and seminarians from across the Lone Star State are registered for this year’s lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.
Every two years, the Human Rights Campaign Religion and Faith Program mobilizes people of faith to advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Among the important items on the agenda will be the full implementation of the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell,” the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, anti-bullying efforts across the nation and passage of the Dream Act.
Texans have a particularly tall order as grassroots citizen lobbyists — since both Republican Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn have consistently voted against human rights initiatives during their legislative careers in Washington. At the core of the Texas delegation are 15 students, faculty, and alumni of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, the largest from any seminary or divinity school in the state.
Brite, founded in 1914 by an endowment from Marfa rancher Luke Brite, is on the campus of Texas Christian University. Brite once was conservative on the issue of LGBTQ-inclusion, but now is the only accredited institution of theological higher education in Texas to extend welcome status to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons by action of its Board of Trustees.
Among the faculty are two openly gay and lesbian professors, and the number of LGBTQ students in the Fort Worth school is growing.
“Students are learning how to take a stand for justice by becoming clergy for whom all people matter, and are eager to work for equality in public forums like Clergy Call. Our students are taking their roles as public theologians seriously,” said Stephen V. Sprinkle, associate professor of practical theology at the Divinity School, and theologian in residence at the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas. “Each of the students who have traveled to Washington chose voluntarily to participate in Clergy Call because they believe faith calls them to be here.”
Billed as the largest interfaith gathering of LGBTQ and allied clergy and faith leaders in the United States, Clergy Call will bring representatives of faith communities from all 50 states to the Capitol for training in faith messaging, skill-building for advocacy with legislators, interfaith worship, and person-to-person lobbying of senators and congresspeople.
This year’s headline speakers include Rabbi Denise Egger, the Rev. Harry Knox, Bishop Gene Robinson, Bishop Yvette Flunder, Rabbi David Saperstein, the Rev. Nancy Wilson, and Bishop Carlton Pearson.
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