Search for "United Airlines 800-299-7264 Flight Booking Number"

Even Amid Controversy, ‘My Soul Still Sings,’ Says UMC’s First Lesbian Bishop

By Sunnivie Brydum

…more committed than ever to bringing peace, clarity, and acceptance to the United Methodist Church’s decades-long struggle over how to treat LGBTQ congregants and clergy. Before her consecration as bishop, Oliveto “broke the stained glass ceiling” at the 12,000-member Glide Methodist Church in San Francisco, becoming the first woman to serve as a senior pastor at any of the denomination’s 100 largest congregations in the U.S. It was there that she…

Russia Expels Gay American Pastor, An Epidemic of Anti-LGBT Violence in Brazil, And More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…m ahead? Claude Summers explores the possibility of a global schism in the United Methodist Church over the issue of acceptance and ordination of LGBT people. An excerpt: The denomination has been debating the issue for 50 years and has reached no consensus, in part because conservatives have blocked every attempt to forge a compromise. While American members of the UMC are by a slight plurality in favor of reform, most of the denomination’s recen…

Anti-Trans Bus Tour Is Not Very Welcome In Spanish Cities; Gay Rights As A Weapon In Nationalist War On Muslims; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…der notes in Egyptian Streets: “In July, Egypt’s permanent delegate to the United Nations said that Egypt will not comply with any pro-homosexual resolutions passed by the United Nations.” Hungary: Mayor pushing anti-gay, anti-Muslim enclave TIME reports on László Toroczkai, right-wing mayor of Ásotthalom who has banned burka wearing, mosque-building, and the Muslim call to prayer. The town also gays “gay propaganda.” Argentina: UN expert to study…

Istanbul ‘Haven of Sorts’ For LGBT Syrians and Iraqis; Cayman Islands Affirm Marriage Ban with ‘Holy Bible Evidence’; No Room for LGBTs in Malaysia’s ‘Islam-Based’ Human Rights Policy; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…pping point on the way to hoped-for resettlement in Europe, Canada, or the United States. Said one transgender woman, “No reason in this life will make me think to go back to Syria, whether there is war or not. My problem is not just the war.” Another Syrian, Sami, supports himself and his friends through sex work. Like many other Syrian LGBTs, Sami is waiting for his resettlement case to be processed. In the meantime, Saturday nights are his live…

Faith and Civil Liberties Groups Pushing Back Against Islamophobia

By Sarah Posner

…unter the misperception, including in the Arab and Muslim worlds, that the United States is a nation defined by the widely covered images of the marginal few who would burn a Qur’an, rather than by a proud and longstanding tradition of religious freedom, tolerance and pluralism. In communities across the United States, this project will not only serve as a model for tolerance and cooperation and promote local faith leaders as champions of such, bu…

Methodists Vote to Keep Homosexuality “Incompatible”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ks for the full inclusion of LGBT people into the UMC: “We grieve that the United Methodist Church really had the opportunity to live into inclusive gospel of Jesus Christ and live into its tagline of Open Hearts, Open Doors, Open Minds and extend its welcome to LGBT people and unfortunately, chose not to do that. We grieve that UMC continues to harm and discrimination against LGBT people. We’re already here in the United Methodist Church and we w…

At the UN, Conservative Christian Agenda Cloaked in Human Rights Language

By Austin Dacey

…merica). In the spacious Room XXIII of the Palais des Nations, home of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, six pre-adolescent children were declaiming a text that sounded very human-rights-ish, with articles—one for each youth—on protecting, respecting, and establishing a number of things. But if you had listened carefully, everything would have started to sound a bit off. The text being read was in fact not the 1989 human rights tr…

Win For ‘Natural Family’ Crowd at UN Human Rights Council…

By Peter Montgomery

…Nations: Conservatives claim “family” victory at Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution on July 3 which declared, “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.” Economist blogger Erasmus reported that “a new global force is fighting liberal social mores.” It was backed by 29 countries, including Russia, China and many members of th…

Can a Church Split Truly Be Gracious?

By Adam J. Copeland

…alled the “reunification” of the southern-based Presbyterian Church in the United States with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. There’s a great family photo with my grandfather, great-uncle, father—all pastors—and me sleeping in my stroller in the foreground. Reunification brought my family’s pastors back into the same denomination. In the intervening years while I’ve flirted with Lutheranism and interned in the Church of Scotland, the…

Tutu’s Daughter Marries Woman & Loses Anglican Priest License; Romanian Anti-Marriage Activists Get 3 Million Signatures; Australian State Apologizes For Harmful Sodomy Laws; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…l drew a welter of criticism from multiple rights groups, governments, the United Nations Human Rights Council and the European parliament… This is the second piece of contentious and patently Russian-inspired legislation to come off the rails in Kyrgyzstan in recent weeks. Earlier this month, parliament rejected a bill that would have seen internationally funded nongovernment group designated as “foreign agents.” The provision included in that la…