It’s been a while since I posted an update. Here are two recent times that I have been able to preach.
First, I preached at Lancaster Theological Seminary’s Chapel Service on January 14th. The focus was Jesus’ Baptism.
Then on February 19th, I preached on the Transfiguration of Christ at Mt. Pisgah CME. A few friends asked me to record, so I have an audio recording from my phone that was sitting on the pulpit.
Way back on August 7th, 2022, I had the honor and privilege to preach at Emmanuel UMC in Laurel, MD, once again. It was during their Prophet Margin’s series and the lectionary reading for that day was Isaiah 1:1, 10-20.
Below you will find the video recording of the 9 AM service, which includes ASL interpretation.
It’s been a while since I preached this sermon so I don’t remember how accurate my manuscript is when compared to what I actually said during the service. But my manuscript is available below:
Opening Prayer from Enfleshed
Redeeming One, where we have learned to push our emotions down for our safety or for the comfort of others, create with us safe places for sorrow and anger to land. Where we have learned to stifle our childlike playfulness, create with us welcoming places to dance with delight. For in you, all emotions are safe to feel and safe to express. Amen.
Good morning, Beloved people of Emmanuel. I’m Yost. My pronouns are They/Them. I’m one of many people here at Emmanuel currently enrolled in Seminary. I have the honor and privileged of filling in for Rev. Edgardo this morning one last time this summer.
Our Hebrew Bible passage this morning, comes from the prophet Isaiah who was likely prophesying this passage during the reign of King Ahaz of Judah, known in the Second Book of Kings as an evil king. His actions led to the destruction of the northern kingdom and the expansion of the oppressive Assyrian empire.
Isaiah directs God’s anger, not to the people suffering under oppression, but the rulers that helped usher in the oppression. “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom!” Right out of the gate, God compares the rulers of Judah and Jerusalem to those of Sodom and Gomorrah. Who were widely considered the worst nations. It’s worth noting that many Church and cultural spaces have historically conflated the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah to “sodomy” or homosexuality.
But that is not what we find in the biblical text. Looking at the sins of Sodom of Gomorrah, we find quite a few issues related to the ruling class of Isaiah’s time and ours. While you listen to the context of God’s anger towards the ruling class, pay close attention to how you think this connects our world. I’ll be providing the space for people to share the ideas in a bit.
Ezekiel 16:49 outlines the sins of Sodom as “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease” without aiding the “poor and needy”. In the Talmud, a collection of reflections from Jewish Rabbis, one Rabbi describes Sodom as having four Judges with the names “Liar, Awful Liar, Forger, and Perverter of Justice.”1
How do you see similar accusations in our world?
Our Isaiah passage helps us to see that God joins us in our anger in the face of all of these injustices.
The lack of Justice sought by the ruling classes leaves God unimpressed and even loathsome of receiving worship from them. God proclaims, “Bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me.” I’m especially fond of Eugene Peterson’s interpretation of this text in the Message translation:
“Quit your worship charades.
I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.”
The more time I have spent with this Isaiah text, the more it seems to me that worship without Justice isn’t truly worship. Instead worshiping God without seeking Justice for the last, the lost, and the least is violent – our hands raised to God in worship are seen covered in the blood of the oppressed.
Another way to think about this. St. Ignatius points out that just saying that we love someone, even God, isn’t quite enough. “Love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words”.2
And while Isaiah targets the ruling class in this harsh prophesy, we can see how we are invited to participate in the ongoing revelation of God’s kin-dom. God shows us how best to show our love for God.
“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.”
When we look out into our world at the impacts of climate change, systemic racism, violence, and the use of power to control others, it is overwhelming.
Throughout this series we have already spent time seeing injustice with the support of Amos and enter into risky love with the support of Hosea. And now, Isaiah isn’t asking us to do good and fix everything immediately. Instead, he asks us to learn to do good.
Recently I read an illustration by Erin Law, “a somatic movement educator, politicized healer, and multidisciplinary artist.”3 While they were talking about making connections with our bodies, I think their illustration works well here. They reminded me that in mathematics, fractals are generated with one simple set of directions repeated over and over again leading to some beautiful final images. So, in our case, we can learn to do good by choosing to do good over and over again until it slowly transforms our world around us into a beautiful expression of God’s kin-dom.
Our passage from Hebrews outlines how Abraham and Sarah’s faith directly connects with their actions. Abraham followed his call, set out to a foreign land, stayed there for a time, lived within community, and looked forward to God’s future kin-dom. Sarah had sex with Abraham, longing for a child, whom she then birthed, raised up, and taught to live as strangers in a foreign land. Even though they did not live to see the promise of God fulfilled, they still pressed forward with hopeful anticipation. Their seemingly small actions were picked up over generations as the fractal of God’s kin-dom was still being revealed. We too are invited to do the same from our own circumstances as the work of Liberation has always been a series of small wins that transform the world over time.
The best part is that we are not alone in this journey. We have each other to lean on and learn with. I find it quite fitting that today we get to celebrate communion. As it is in the sacrament of Communion, we get to experience together the Spirit of God in a way that transcends time. We are reminded of what Christ has done, that Christ is with us now in our learning to do good, and that Christ will be there on the day that the full fractal of God’s kin-dom is revealed.
So it is here in this space that we find our companions for this journey. So if you look out at the injustice of our world and feel overwhelmed, find the people in this space and your community on the same journey.
Whether that be the Green team seeking to push back against climate change, community partners at Elizabeth house, little flowers, LARS, or Bridges to Housing Stability, groups supporting the work of intentional diversity and the work of anti-racism, groups supporting the liberation and healing of LGBTQIA peoples, or maybe it is something completely different and you’re feeling called to join together with someone and start something new.
For it is in the face of mountains of injustice that we come together, empowered by the Spirit of God, to learn to do good, seek justice, and rescue the oppressed.
Benediction from Enfleshed
Go forth in the name of
the Creator, who calls you inherently beloved;
the Sustainer, who breaks bread into enough;
and the Redeemer, who labors with us towards liberation.
1“Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 109,” accessed August 2, 2022, http://come-and-hear.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_109.html#109b_1.
2Ignatius and Louis J Puhl, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: Based on the Studies in the Language of the Autograph (Chicago: Loyola Press, 2003), 101.
3“Erin Law Embodiment,” Erin Law Embodiment, accessed August 2, 2022, https://www.erinlawembodiment.com.
I had the honor and privilege to preach again at Emmanuel UMC for Transfiguration Sunday, February 27th, 2022. Below you will find video links for the 9 AM and 10:45 AM services. The 9AM service has ASL interpretation.
Spotify Link (coming soon)
9AM Sermon available on Facebook
While I don’t directly preach from a manuscript, I still write one to reference while preaching. That manuscript is available below. The opening prayer and benediction are from Enfleshed.
Throughout the Epiphany Season, we have been paying close attention to Paul’s letter to the Church in Corinthians in our Series “Love Never Ends.” Last week, Rev. Edgardo challenged us to lean into how we live out the resurrection in our present lives. It is here and now that God continues to transform our hearts towards justice. Rev. Edgardo reminded us that we remain open to this transformation by paying close attention to the model of ministry found in Jesus’ life. I know it’s been a while, but you may recall that we began this series with the Baptism of Jesus. And now as the final bookend for this series, we are focusing on the story frequently called the Transfiguration.
Today’s Gospel story is particularly interesting because it can be found in the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And the lectionary this year has us focused particularly on this passage within the context of the Gospel of Luke. Full disclosure, Luke is probably my favorite Gospel. In Luke’s account, the author has already positioned Jesus as an influencer that stands in opposition of the Roman empire actively occupying his homeland. And I think this is a critical context to keep in mind. Jesus was keenly aware of what life was like under the oppressive rule of an empire.
Up until chapter 9, Jesus’ ministry was limited close to his home in the region of Galilee but he recently started to get more and more attention. His ministry of healing, resurrection, and liberating love has gotten the attention of Herod, who had already killed John the Baptist by this point in the story. To make matters worse, Jesus’ ministry attracts a crowd of several thousand people, which he then miraculously ensures that they are fed. Through these series of events, Jesus’ ministry is getting harder and harder to hide. Eight days after feeding thousands of people we arrive at our story for today.
Jesus goes away to pray after a particularly event-less 8 days and brings with him his close friends and disciples, Peter, John, and James. Jesus’ face and clothes are changed, shining bright in a similar manner to the radiance of Moses after he speaks face to face with God. Which was the focus of our old testament reading for today. As Jesus’ appearance changes, Moses and Elijah appear speaking to him. Most theologians agree that they are here speaking to Jesus as representatives of the Law and the Prophets, two major components of Jewish scripture and life during the time of Jesus. What I find more interesting is what they are talking about.
Verse 31, states “ They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” The word here for departure is actually the same word as exodus. The use of the term exodus here connects Jesus’ ministry to the Exodus story where the people of Israel flee their enslavement in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Jesus had already informed his disciples before this prayer time that he was going to die and now the destination of Jerusalem has been set.
What follows the story of the Transfiguration is equally important. The way Jesus speaks makes it sound like they are going straight to Jerusalem as fast as possible. But, Jesus takes 10 chapters of Luke to arrive at Jerusalem and another 3 chapters to be arrested. In the moment of the Transfiguration, Jesus knows that living out his ministry of healing and liberation will get him killed. He also knows that to not live out his ministry would be to continue to hide a part of himself and limit the Divine presence in his world.
Fr. Shannon Kearns, a Priest in the Old Catholic Church, argues that the transfiguration is Jesus’ coming out story. And that he starts by coming out to his closest friends and then continues to come out over the course of his ministry. While he was already performing many miracles and preaching the liberating love of God’s Kin-dom. He was recently outed by Peter as “the Messiah of God” earlier in this chapter. But Jesus knew that once he fully lived as himself within the larger society, the risk of death was inevitable. Remember that his ministry and love stood in direct opposition of the Roman Empire. He and his disciples knew that his choices were to remain in hiding and live or live as his full authentic self with the risk of death. So in a way, I see this more so as Jesus’ transition story.
Conveniently I just recently heard the story of Lynn Conway, so I’d like to share her transition story with you all to help illustrate this idea. While Lynn Conway is known today mostly for her trans activism, she started off her professional life working for IBM in the 60s. Her work at IBM was foundational for modern computing, developing a way for computer processors to process commands out of order. Without her work, we wouldn’t have much of our modern computers, smartphones, and more. While working at IBM, she found out about modern medical gender affirmation surgery and wanted to attempt to transition for a second time. She was hoping to complete her transition while working for IBM, but they fired her for being trans to avoid public embarrassment. With the trans-phobic laws at the time, Conway was denied access to her children and was divorced by her wife despite early support before the termination of her IBM career. Lynn Conway knew that within the transphobic society, she would have to risk it all to live as her true self.
She then completed her transition and began a new life as Lynn Conway and hid her identity as a transgender woman throughout the rest of her tech career. She had to rebuild her recognition within the tech community as a brand new person, unable to connect her identity to her early work without outing herself. Towards retirement, a journalist was investigating her early work at IBM so she realized that to receive recognition for her work, she would have to come out publicly as a transgender woman. In a Forbes interview Conway stated that in the 70s through the 90s, she was breaking the gender barrier it was in 2000 that she began to break the transgender barrier. Conway’s intentional decision to come out publicly allowed her the place to challenge transphobia within the tech industry and the larger society.
So looking at the Transfiguration story and Lynn Conway’s story side by side. I see that both of them had tough choices to make. They both had to decide to live publicly as their full and true selves while being fully aware of the very real risks of living within oppressive contexts. It was only after living fully as themselves, that their lived messages could become messages of liberation and hope for others.
Now I don’t know about you all, but this week I have cussed. A lot. Specifically, much of that cussing has shown up in my prayers with God. At times this week, it has been really hard for me to see the hope and love of God. This week alone we have seen a new Florida law trying to limit the teaching of LGBTQIA people and histories. They even had attempted to add an amendment that tried to make it mandatory for teachers to out LGBTQIA children to their parents. Then in Texas, governor Abbot increased his attacks on Transgender children by ordering the Texas Family and Protective Services to investigate and prosecute the parents of trans children for “child abuse.” And not even a day later, Russian began to invade Ukraine. You don’t have to go far in the news this week to see people that are actively living in opposition to oppressive forces. Much like Jesus was doing.
The weight of this week feels terrifying so I can easily see how Peter wants to make tents and stay in the place where he felt the Divine. He had experienced the Divine presence in a new way and did not want to continue the journey that would lead to Jesus’ death. But the decision to stay in that place would have hindered the reign of God’s love. Instead, they are met with an overshadowing cloud with a voice proclaiming “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Now many people interpret this as the voice of God, which provides an interesting theological issue. How is God speaking to Godself and existing as one God? I think that the beauty of the Trinity is that God exists eternally as a community of Love. Even God is never alone. So, this voice coming from a cloud draws our attention back to Jesus’ Baptism where the voice first spoke of Jesus’ beloved-ness. Here as Jesus is about to transition publicly and take his message of liberation all the way to his death. In this critical moment in front of close friends, the voice of God shows up and reminds them that Jesus is beloved. God makes their presence fully known at the beginning of the long journey. God remains with them as Jesus and his disciples’ journey to Jerusalem.
It is with this same confidence that we can move forward living out the ongoing revelation of God’s kin-dom of Love because we do not journey alone. God shows up with us in the tough moments where we are challenged to live fully as ourselves. God not only shows up but reminds us of our beloved-ness.
So looking back at this week, this is where I have found the hope of God.
I found the hope of God in the organized resistance against the “Don’t say Gay bill”. I found the hope of God in the twitch streamer raising $25K for Equality Texas. I found the hope of God with the activists advising parents of trans Children to get their documentation organized demonstrating their excellent parenting. I found the hope of God with the multiple district attorneys in Texas refusing to comply with Abbot’s order. I found the hope of God in the 80-year-old man who signed up for the Ukraine military so that his grandchildren can have a better future. I found the hope of God in the 38-year-old Ukrainian father who left his children with a stranger. I found the hope of God in that stranger ensuring that those children are reunited with their mother.
God is not some controlling force pulling the strings from a Heavenly throne. The cloud at the transfiguration shows us that it is here in the mess of things that God resides.
In June of 2021, I was invited to preach at Emmanuel’s Pride Sunday service. The audio and video recordings are available below. I was able to pick out all of the service elements for this service. Pastor Matt Upshaw had an excellent Children’s sermon this week too. Sermon Graphic created by the lovely Rhys W.
Audio version available on Spotify
While I didn’t preach directly from a manuscript, I still wrote one to help prepare. So the raw version of my notes is below.
Good morning, Beloveds. I’m Yost, and my pronouns are they/them. I’m one of several seminarians here at Emmanuel. I’m so grateful to be here with you all for our Pride Sunday Service. I’d like to thank the Rooke Chapel’s Virtual Vocal Ensemble at Bucknell University for the beautiful recording of Mark Miller’s Child of God. Mark Miller is a United Methodist Musician whose music has been sustaining LGBTQIA+ Methodists for years.
I recently decided (we’ll see if it was a wise choice) to start creating content for Tiktok. I intend to create a space where people can ask questions to a Queer Seminarian. One question asked: “What is your favorite way the LGBTQ community glorifies God?” I recorded a few answers for Tiktok, but honestly, 60 seconds at a time just couldn’t do it justice. For the rest of our time together, I’d like to offer an extended response to that question.
Let’s first look at today’s scripture. In Luke’s Gospel account, our passage comes right after Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and some brief miracles throughout Galilee. We find Jesus returning to his hometown and boldly proclaiming his public ministry. People start to get excited after hearing what Jesus had already done in Capernaum and expect him to do the same for them.
They knew who he was as he grew up. Hearing how he had blessed the neighboring town, they expected Jesus to stay with them and bless them similarly. Instead, Jesus quickly shuts down their expectations for him by talking about the prophets Elijah and Elisha.
During a significant drought, the prophet Elijah was tended to by ravens as he lived near a brook. He was then sent to be taken care of by a widow from Zarephath. This widow down to just a jar of flour and a bottle of oil. Jesus notes that there were plenty of widows in Israel at this time. And yet, God chose to provide for a marginalized outsider by ensuring that her jar of flour and bottle of oil never ran out until after the drought was over.
Similarly, Elisha heals Naaman, a Syrian man, from his skin disease. Again Jesus reminds us that there were lepers in Israel also seeking healing. Furthermore, the Love of God is revealed through great miracles performed for outsiders.
Jesus’ ministry stood in the face of the expectations of those that knew him growing up. So much so that they tried to kill him. Luke continues, “When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.”
Also, this isn’t foreign to LGBTQIA people, growing up with a community that has set expectations for you. And for many, living life as their authentic self comes with death threats too. So for my siblings in the LGBTQIA community, you are seen, and you are not alone in your struggles. Additionally, you are deeply holy as you seek to live out who you were made to be.
So let’s look deeper at the passage that got the crowd excited. Jesus is referring to an excerpt from Isaiah likely written around the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. This passage likely instilled hope in Jesus’ audience, a people living under Roman occupation. Jesus declares that this Isaiah passage is actually for those most marginalized and considered outsiders by the larger community. I want to share some stories of various LGBTQIA people that have inspired me to live out this passage.
First, I’d love to introduce you all to Jabari Lyles. Jabari is presently the Chief Operating Officer of Baltimore Safe Haven, a non-profit that “seeks to provide opportunities for a higher quality of life for TLGBQ people in Baltimore City living in survival mode.” Before that, he served the Mayor’s office in Baltimore City under various titles for LGBTQ Affairs. But I first met him during his work with GLSEN. Through GLSEN, Jabari ensured that Queer students were seen and supported through their local GSAs and beyond. The GLSEN Youth Summit that he helped organize gave students a place to learn more about the larger community and themselves in a safe and authentic place. My students that went felt empowered and loved in ways that they hadn’t been before. But the most sacred and impactful thing I witnessed Jabari organizing has to be the LGBTQ prom. The first one brought so much joy and love to these students to fully embody their true selves without fear of harassment. No corner of that prom could escape true unconditional love. Now he has joined forces with the outstanding Iya Dammons at Baltimore Safe Haven, continuing to support the TLGBQ community in Baltimore in their moments of need.
Jabari Lyles is anointed to preach good news to the poor.
Patrisse Cullors shares in her memoir, When They Call You a Terrorist, how her Queer identity and lived experiences shaped the formation of Black Lives Matter. Their quest to end white supremacy expressly affirms “the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum.” Recently Patrisse Cullors stepped down from the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation to create abolitionist art. Cullors advocates for a future free of the oppression found in the Policing and Prison systems.
Patrisse Cullors is anointed to proclaim release to the captives.
Archbishop Carl Bean grew up as a Gay Black boy in Baltimore. Later on, he performed in various Gospel groups and even found himself recording a disco track entitled “I Was Born This Way.” Rumor has it that this track inspired Lada Gaga. Archbishop Bean recounts his first live performance of this song at Catch One, a disco bar for Black gay men.
From the first lyrics, sung a Capella – “I’m happy, I’m carefree and I’m gay … I was born this way” – to the first thump-thump-thump of that dazzling four-on-the-floor disco beat, the crowd went crazy. They were shouting and screaming and jumping for joy. They made me come back and sing that dang thing fire more times. … they liked the message I was preaching.
His work did not end there. When he saw the lack of AIDS support in black gay communities, Archbishop Bean founded the Minority AIDS Project. This project was formed using the training he had received through other AIDS support programs and infused it with the Black church’s traditions. After being ordained by Rev. O’Neill’s Christian Tabernacle Church, Carl Bean chartered Unity Fellowship of Christ Church, proclaiming “God is Love and Love is for everyone.” Since then, his congregation has grown into the Unity Fellowship Church Movement with 16 communities across the nation, including Unity Fellowship Church of Columbia. Archbishop Carl Bean’s ministries have gone to those most neglected by the world to help them find dignity and see their own value.
Archbishop Carl Bean is anointed to proclaim the recovery of sight to the blind.
Across LGBTQIA communities, the healing love of Chosen families is well known. One of these families that I’m a part of happens to be a discord server for a non-binary Tiktok content creator. This space holds each other in love through our questions, struggles, celebrations, and even our corny jokes. The channel #hypes-given-here is regularly an outpouring of love serving as a balm. Our conversations can go from absolute nonsense to deeply spiritual conversations in a matter of minutes while simultaneously holding space to understand the needs of one another. A member of my chosen family, Rhys Wynn, took the time this past week to make our beautiful sermon graphic for today. Through my chosen family (Specifically the City GSA), I obtained the language to describe myself. For that, I am forever grateful.
Chosen families are anointed to bring healing and hope.
Pauli Murray was raised in a segregated school system and went to Hunter College. Early on, she dressed ambiguously, called herself Pete, Dude, or Pauli. Her journal talked about falling in love with women. Still, she resisted the label “Lesbian.” Instead, she used the term “pseudohermaphrodite,” which was an old word that would describe what we now call trans. Throughout her life, she exclusively used the pronouns she/her. Married a man for 18 years. Her letters and journals document relationships with women and her dislike of sex with me. She even asked to be photographed as her boy-self, Pete.
15 years before Rosa Parks, Murray was arrested for not sitting in the correct bus seat section because the seats were broken. Later, she was rejected from some law schools because she was black, ended up at Howard, and then experienced discrimination there as a woman. Thus her coining the phrase “Jane Crow” to describe discrimination against Black women in America. While in law school, she called out President Roosevelt catering to the racism of Southern Democrats by sending letters back and forth with Eleanor Roosevelt. Later, Pauli Murray became the first Black deputy attorney general of California in 1946. Woman of the Year by Mademoiselle magazine. In 1950 She published “States’ Laws on Race and Color,” which was influential in Justice Thurgood Marshall’s arguments for Brown v Board of Ed. In 1961 appointed by Pres. JFK to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Pauli Murray’s legal work served as a significant inspiration for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. When Murray got a job at a New York law firm, she met her new life partner, Irene “Renee” Barlow. They never lived together, but they did everything else as a couple, including going to Eleanor Roosevelt’s funeral. At the age of 64, she went to Seminary and became the first African American woman ordained as an Episcopal priest. She is honored as one of the church’s “Holy Women, Holy Men.”
Pauli Murray was anointed to liberate the oppressed as both a lawyer and a priest.
The first pride parade was actually the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade in 1970, celebrating the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Two prominent figures from this protest were Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson.
Rivera was born in Spanish Harlem in 1951. She lost her mother to depression at a young age and was raised by her grandmother. The latter was ashamed of Rivera wearing makeup and dressing fem as early as 4th grade. Rivera dropped out of school and started to work on the streets before she was even 12. She met a commune of Gay men on 42nd street who held a Christening for her name, Sylvia Rivera. Not long after, she met Marsha P. Johnson.
Johnson was born in New Jersey in 1945 and moved to Greenwich Village after high school. She was raised Roman Catholic and remained religious despite discrimination. Johnson also dealt with many mental health problems, but she took in Rivera to take care of her.
While they weren’t at the Stonewall Inn the first night of the Stonewall Uprising, they were there for most of the uprising. Afterward, they founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries or more commonly known STAR. STAR called out the exclusion of transvestites from the Gay Liberation Front and other post-stonewall events.
While STAR was not entirely accepted by the larger movement for a few short years, they worked hard to help those excluded by the more prominent Gay liberation movement. Because of their work, we have Pride parades around the globe in June every year.
It was only a few years ago that I finally attended my very first Pride Parade. I was able to march in the parade with Jabari Lyles, GLSEN Maryland, and some of my students. Pride events are some of the most beautiful and loving events I have ever witnessed. While modern pride events are celebrations of what has been done so far, they also call attention to the work left to do. Throughout the nation, trans youth are being targeted by over 100 vile and discriminatory laws proposed so far this year alone. And Trans Women of Color are disproportionately targets of violence. They have been for years without any true justice being served. Just like Jesus proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor, TLGB activists are preaching that a better world is possible.
Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and modern-day pride parades are anointed to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Queer people across the nation because the Lord has anointed them. She has sent them to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and bring healing to those neglected by society, to liberate the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
For whenever you find a Queer Chosen family throughout history, today, and the future,
you will find the fulfillment of this scripture.
DV Yost 
