LGBTQIA+ Icon Blake Brockington (LGBTQ+ activist) “I’m still a person. Trans people are still people. Our bodies just don’t match what’s up (in our heads). We need support, not people looking down at us or degrading us or overlooking us.” “We have to address all these problems at once – misogyny, patriarchy, LGBT issues, race […]

LGBTQIA+ Icon Frank Kameny (LGBTQ+ activist and astronomer) “Gay is good.” “The government then put its disqualification of gays under the rubric of immoral conduct. The word simply does not belong in any issuance in this country. Morality is a matter of personal opinion and individual belief on which any American citizen may hold any […]

ReconcilingWorks extends deep gratitude and joy for our partnerships through the Reconciling in Christ (RIC) program. Beginning in 1983, the holy work of this ministry now represents 13% of ELCA and 7% of ELCIC congregations, synods, and ministries. On Mondays through June we are celebrating all RIC Partners who became RIC in June. Below is […]

LGBTQIA+ Icon James Dale (Gay rights activist) “With discrimination there can be no half measures. Equality can’t be doled out in fits and starts.” “Coming out is often a difficult process. It’s a journey, but it’s so important to be true to yourself and to be proud of who you are.”   June is Lesbian, […]

God of love and relationship, We give you thanks today for the many ways care, guidance, protection, and wisdom are shared among us. For those who have nurtured us, taught us, walked beside us, and helped shape who we are— we offer our deep gratitude. We honor all who embody fathering in its many forms: […]

LGBTQIA+ Icon Jennifer Finney Boylan (Writer, professor, and LGBTQ+ activist) “I have a different theory, which is even more harebrained. It goes like this: Maybe we should all just love one another, even if we don’t completely understand the things that people bear in their dark, strange hearts, even if the stars that other men […]

LGBTQIA+ Icon Billie Jean King (American tennis player) “Equity is not a woman’s issue, a LGBTQ+ issue or a minority issue, it’s everyone’s responsibility. None of us is as strong as all of us are together.” “Ever since that day when I was 11 years old, and I wasn’t allowed in a photo because I […]

Today, on Juneteenth, we remember, honor, and celebrate the emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States—and we also recognize that the work of liberation, justice, and equity continues. At ReconcilingWorks, we know that LGBTQIA+ justice cannot be separated from racial justice. The call to build communities of welcome, inclusion, celebration, and advocacy must […]

Help ReconcilingWorks welcome a new Reconciling in Christ (RIC) community:   Messiah Lutheran Church in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Their welcome statement reads: “At Messiah Lutheran Church we share God’s love and grace. We welcome people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, ethnicities, races, economic status, abilities and all life circumstances. We recognize that we are […]

LGBTQIA+ Icon Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, 1825-1895 (Lawyer and journalist) “I may have a beard, and manly limbs and body, yet confined by these, I am and remain a woman.” “Sexual orientation is a right established by nature. Legislators have no right to veto nature; no right to persecute nature in the course of its work; […]

LGBTQIA+ Icon Edith Windsor, 1929-2017 (LGBTQ+ activist) ” Marriage is a magic word. And it is magic throughout the world. It has to do with our dignity as human beings to be who we are openly.” “I never expected I’d be looking at a piece of paper that said Windsor versus the United States of […]

Today, we pause to rememberand honor the Emanuel 9—The Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Simmons Sr., Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson—whose lives were taken in a horrific act of racist violence at Mother Emanuel AME Church. They were gathered in prayer, study, […]