George of Sylvania

Tag: pride

  • Quick Trip to D.C.

    Quick Trip to D.C.

    Our team with Cindy Buhl

    This past week a few of us from the church I work at, Trinity Episcopal Church, went to Washington D.C. to share our concerns with a few people. These people were Rep. Jim McGovern’s Legislative Director Cindy Buhl, Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and Senior Aid to Sen. Jon Husted, Sean Dunn. Unfortunately, Sen. Bernie Moreno’s office could not supply someone to meet with us. We also met up with members of the Episcopal Public Policy Network; Susie Faria, Lindsey Delks, and Troy Collazo, wonderful people doing incredibly important and hard work.

    At the end of our meetings we provided a summary of our talking points we were able to get to, and some we couldn’t. Below you can read them, along with some pictures from our trip. We look forward to going back in the fall and following up with these concerns.

    EPPN and our team

    LGBTQIA+ support

    The Trevor Project has been an incredible safety net for the LGBTQIA+ community, and the current administration has called to defund this. Trinity Episcopal Church is if not one of, then the most open and affirming Episcopal congregation in Toledo. We see first-hand people who walk through our doors that have been affected by gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination. Removing funding for this lifeline is not only unthinkable but cruel. The administration’s push of a “traditional family structure” as a source of stability and the lament for the lack of childbirth, coupled with the current administration wanting to cut programs like head start is not only confusing but shows they do not actually care for the American family. Queer families have been here from the beginning and will not disappear because this administration chooses to ignore them. With wages low, student and medical debt, cutting programs like head start continues to burden families of all kinds.

    This suggestion of funding cut not only hurts at a federal level, but Ohio House Bill 616, is a slap in the face of history and decency. While we know you work at the federal level, we encourage you to reach out to your fellow legislators at the state level (as will we), to encourage voting against it. We believe reconciliation can only happen when people are willing to have open and honest conversations, and what HB616 offers leads to more pain and ignorance. Our children deserve to know the real history of America, this includes our queer siblings and how we have treated them and people of color, warts and all. Our Christian community is called to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to recognized and serve the dignity in all peoples. Our children deserve better than to be told they do not belong.

    A very tired version of me at the end of the day.

    Medicaid cut concern

    Medicaid makes up 93% of the non-mandatory spending and cuts to this must happen to reach the $880 billion according to the non-partisan Congressional Spending Office. President Trump says Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will not be touched. How are we to trust this when in a recent interview with Meet the Press he stated he wasn’t sure if he is responsible for upholding the constitution? The truth is, cuts to Medicaid threaten the viability of hospitals, nursing homes to name a few. Every week, we serve a free meal to those who live on the margins to get to know our neighbors. There are real concerns about medical coverage from those who attend, and they run the spectrum of age and race. Part of the baptismal covenant we recite in the Episcopal Church is that with Gods help, we will seek and serve Christ in all peoples. Cutting medical coverage to the most vulnerable amongst us is unacceptable, and we are pleading you to help us uphold this covenant by standing against Medicaid cuts.

    Our team with Rep. Kaptur

    USAID concern

    Ohio Farmer’s Union President Bryn Bird, who farms in Licking County, underscored the importance of USAID’s food commodity purchases on prices at the farm gate:

    “USAID plays a crucial role, not only providing food aid to millions around the world but also directly purchasing grains from Ohio farmers. Our farmers deserve predictable, fair market conditions to plan and grow their businesses. A pause on these programs will only add more uncertainty and volatility to an already challenging marketplace, leaving many Ohio farmers facing an unpredictable season. Ohio farmers are more than capable of rising to the challenge of feeding the world, but they need stability to do so.”

    A shutdown of USAID would also have devastating consequences for the people of food-insecure nations that rely on USAID’s food assistance programs. These programs provide vital nutrition to millions of human beings.  To end these USAID programs with no replacement in sight will at a minimum, lead to increased hunger, malnutrition, and disease in the affected countries, cause the deaths of huge numbers of people worldwide, and could trigger political instability in countries that are already facing food crises.

    As previously stated, every week we host a free meal and see the effects this would have stateside. Prices continue to go up and as we seek to make this breakfast ministry sustainable, it becomes harder as more people cannot afford groceries.

    Future POTUS

    Gun violence concern

    In the summer of 2023 our deacon, the Rev. Meribah Mansfield and Mike Linehan (Community Mission Team Leader at Olivet Lutheran Church in Sylvania, OH) formed the Northwest Ohio Multifaith Coalition to Reduce Gun Violence. This coalition helps to enable faith communities to work collaboratively to reduce gun violence through education, advocacy, and healing. Since its formation, it has grown to involve 41 congregations and more than 200 people throughout the Toledo area. Mike and Meribah met while marching with Moms Demand Action in a community festival parade in June 2023. It was there that the idea of a multifaith coalition began to take shape. Soon after, they began organizing a series of gun violence reduction forums. 

    Five faith-based forums have been held so far on topics including survivor testimonies, legislative action and advocacy training, safe gun storage, and updates on efforts of the City of Toledo’s Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (MONSE). Coalition members worked with MONSE to develop Peace in Motion, Toledo’s 5-Year Comprehensive Safety Plan. It includes 42 targeted recommendations to reduce gun violence by fostering safer neighborhoods and creating opportunities for all residents. Gun violence not only continues to be an epidemic in Ohio, but nationwide. 

    Celebration after a long day.

    Immigration and deportation concern

    As of this week, CBS reported the current administration seeks to put into place deals with Angola and Equatorial Guinea to accept migrants. Everything that is going on with this administration’s handling of migrants, legal or otherwise, goes against one of the core tenants of Christianity. To watch over for one’s neighbor, to help the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner, is critical to living out our faith. Not only that, but the way the administration has been going around the courts, and not providing due processes, a constitutional right, flies in the face of what it means to uphold American ideals. 

  • Ignorance isn’t Bliss, it’s Dangerous

    Trigger warning: this post addresses bigotry against the LGBTQIA+ community.

    Something I have learned as I have aged is my opinion is not needed on most things. Especially as someone who society has catered to for a very long time. It has been almost a month since the opening ceremony for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and I am still upset about some of the backlash. The weird moral outrage thinking it was aimed as an attack on the Last Supper is laughable. But one post in particular still gets under my skin, and it came from a family member’s blog.

    A few weeks ago, a friend of mine messaged me asking if I had read their newest post, and to be honest, I try hard not to. It is usually filled with bad grammar, and rambling thoughts one would expect from a conservative religious boomer who lives in an echo chamber. The title itself was a redflag, I had a feeling this one would be different than normal. Looking back, it took me somewhere around 10 minutes to click on the link because I had to try and prepare what was about to unfold.

    Truely, I wish I were surprised but, there was a lot of anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric, though the author I am sure would never see it that way. From comparing the film, The Dallas Buyers Club, all but stating that is how “real” marginalized Drag Queens live, to reminding readers that the world has always been this way and that’s why God destroyed it during Noah’s time. Stating that there has been “queer” behavior all over the pagan world, until the rise of Christendom, in which it went underground.

    The ignorance displayed in this post, is the same we see all over social media when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community. It reminds me of a story my dad told me about he and his dad. My father was born and raised in Dayton Ohio. During the 1960’s, he was in elementary school, and one day my grandfather and he were walking into the library. When my dad looked down the street he saw something he didn’t understand. So, he asked, “dad, what are all those people doing wearing their bedsheets out?” Not knowing he was witnessing a Klu Klux Klan demonstration, my grandfather responded with, “son, that is ignorance personified.”

    This, without a doubt in my mind, is ignorance personified.

    This type of ignorance is a choice, and people use it as a crutch. It is not on anyone but themselves to learn about what they do not know after they have become aware of it. I have had a lot of conversations with family, friends, and others about the LGBTQIA+ community, and what it means to be an ally. It is always clear who engages, those who are afraid to give up social or societal standing, and those who know they’re “right.” Continued intentional ignorance about the LGBTQIA+ has cost a lot of lives. Especially in the trans community most recently, for example, stated in the medical journal, Innovation in Clinical Neuroscience, “Gender-affirming care has consistently been shown to improve quality of life, improve health outcomes” yet religious conservatives continue to try and block it.

    This week is Pride in exotic Toledo Ohio, and the church I work for has been planning our involvement for most of the year. Pride, being radically welcoming, and actively being a safe space is who our big queer church is. It is how we show others we can be the hands and feet of God. It is how we express the love of Jesus to the stranger, and those millions of sheep that have left the flock. It is how we reach out and say, I see you, and I love you. And I am so honored to belong to this house of worship.

  • Toledo Area Gay and Lesbian Affiliation’s Digital Exhibit

    Mayor Wade and the raising of the 2023 Pride Flag at One Government Center

    This week I was reading our local paper, The Toledo Blade, when I came across an article by Andrew Cramer (which you can read here). It is about the Toledo Area Gay and Lesbian Affiliation newsletter which ran from 1983 to 2019. The Toledo Lucas County Public Library has released a digital exhibition, housing all of the 442 issues released. As we are planning our August Pride festivities for our church it is nice to know this exhibition exists.

    According to Cramer, TAGALA’s newsletter stood out as a, “single publication for a wide range of LGBTQ+ groups, including those focused on political activism, religion, community service, and more.” My uncle Ricky and his partner Ken were staples at big family parties when I was growing up in the 90’s and 00’s, and I couldn’t help but think of them while reading. They both passed away from cancer in the late 00’s, and I was very fond of them, especially Ken.

    I work at one of the oldest churches in downtown Toledo, and everywhere you walk there is a sense of history passing through its doors. The history this church has with the LGBTQIA+ community in Toledo is long lasting, and firm. Long before the days of Obergefell, people were safe and welcomed here. In the 90’s we hosted the Toledo Gay Men’s Chorus, and I can’t help but think of the newsletters from TAGALA that came through these halls.

    One of the things that jumped out to me from Cramer’s article was how different the coverage in the newsletter is versus national press:

    “TAGALA’s more private dialogues stand in stark contrast to the mainstream storytelling. First-person opinion pieces offer genuine response to the events of the day, not as an observer, but as someone who has lived the relevant experiences.”

    The first person narrative in a time of great oppression, discrimination, and harassment (which unfortunately continues today), is crucial. This resource that the library is hosting is such an important part of history, and as an ally, I am excited to share the news about it. Last year I had the honor and privilege of attending the raising of the Pride Flag outside of One Government Center (as seen above). During this time I heard tales of the way Toledo has grown over the decades to become such an open and affirming place.