Listening to LGBTQ+ People in American History at Tree of Life

Yesterday at Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation (TOLUUC) in McHenry we marked LGBTQ History Month with Listening to our Past, Listening to our Present, Listening for our Future,  a special service led by Pastor Dave Becker and the Welcoming Congregation Renewal Team.  

Welcoming Congregations are recognized by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) inclusive, accepting, and supporting for individuals on a gender and identity spectrum and being partners, advocates, and vocal allies in the wider community.   TOLUUC, a longtime ally in McHenry County, earned Welcoming Congregation status years ago when it was known as the Congregational Unitarian Church in Woodstock.  Now, along with many other UU congregations, is in the process of renewing recognition in light of evolving conditions and circumstances and a wider and deeper understanding of the fluidity in all of its expressions.

As part of that process, the Renewal Team has planned worship contributions over this church year.  The Listening Service was the first of those experiences.

An LGBTQ+ Two Spirit flag.

Heather Madaus, Director of Lifespan Learning,  connected to another observance—Native American History Month during our Land Acknowledgment by sharing the story of the Two-Spirit People who were honored and valued in tribal societies across North America.  She later also read the beloved classic And Tango Makes Three as the Story for All Ages.  

The Chalice Lighting, a quote from Marsha P. Johnson was read by Renewal Team chair Mariela Janelle Gonzalez.  Music included two video performances by the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus—We Are a Gentle Angry People  by Holly Near and A Change is Going to Come by Sam Cook.  Chaplin Dave read A Contemplation by Wit Lopez from the Black Trans Prayerbook and We Hold Hope Close by Julian Soto as the closing blessing.

My small part in the proceedings was creating and reading for mini-profiles of four individuals from American History.  I drew on previously printed blog entries.  It was like boiling down hundreds of gallons of sap for pint or so of real maple syrup,  especially for a verbose bloviator who can’t resist to share every detail he has learned about a subject.  It took a lot of sweat, but I finally came up with a selection that ran in my allotted three minuets of the service.  It was Mariela who observed that the bios represented themes.  Here they are:

                                Dr. Mary Edwards Walker in her Civil War uniform with her Medal of Honor.

Service

Mary Edwards Walker was a dark haired slender slip of a woman with a defiant don’t-take-no-for-an-answer attitude and a penchant for men’s clothing when she presented herself to the Army and demanded to be put to work as a surgeon not long after the Civil War erupted with the barrage of Fort Sumner in April 1861.  The shocked  Army had no idea what to do with her.  They only offered her a chance to serve as a volunteer civilian nurse at no pay.  Better than nothing, vowing that she would prove herself as the equal of any man.   She was the first woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor and a pension for her Civil War service and continued to practice medicine in male attire for the rest of her long life.

Christine Jorgensen--a glamorous and fashionable transgender pioneer.

Art and Expression

Christine Jorgensen was born George William Jorgensen Jr. in 1926 and was a stateside veteran of World War II.  She  was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery.  In Copenhagen she got special permission for a series of operations beginning in 1952.  Upon her return to the U.S. her transition was the subject of a New York Daily News front-page story. She became an instant celebrity, known for her directness and polished wit, and used the platform to advocate for transgender people.  She became an actress and singer who penned a best-selling autobiography.  She came to reject the original term used to describe her—transexual—in favor of transgender.

We only know her as Betty.  Her cry for help became a spark for a rebellion and a movement. 

Solidarity, Action, Call to Justice

Betty was what was then called by friends and cops alike a butch lesbian, a special target for the vice squad.   She resisted being manhandled by police while being dragged to a squadrol during the raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village in 1969. She called out for help from bystanders crying "Why don't you guys do something?"  That sparked wider resistance and three nights of rioting protest.  Those words became the Remember he Alamo battle cry of a movement.

 Army trooper Bradley Manning on trial and Chelsea Manning after declaring her gender identity.

Conscience and Peace

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning was born Bradley Edward Manning in 1987 and  was an  Army intelligence analyst in Iraq who disclosed 750,000 classified or sensitive, military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks in protest to the War in Iraq.  Convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses she was sentenced to 35 years in prison.  In 2017  her sentence was commuted by Barack Obama.  During her incarceration she revealed her female gender identification and became known at Chelsea Manning despite her in peril in custody.  In 2019 she  was  cited for contempt for refusing to testify against Julian Assage and spent another year behind bars.   Whatever you may think of Assage’s motives and allegiances she acted in good faith and conscience.  She now lives quietly as an LGBTQ+ advocate and has won accolades for her personal sacrifices for peace.

Introducing Tree of Life UU Congregation at Woodstock Pride Fest

In 2019 Pride Parade marchers on Dean Street nearing Woodstock Square.  After a year lost to close confinement, Woodstock Pride Fest is back and Tree of Life UU Congregation will be proud to participate.

Note—Here is the text the brochure the Tree of Life Social Justice Team made for Woodstock Pride Fest today.  Check us out in the non-profit tent on the Square from 11am to 5 pm!

The Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry began its hand-in-hand journey with the local LBGTQ community almost than 30 years ago when it was known as the Congregational Unitarian Church (CUC) in Woodstock.

 It began under the leadership of the Rev. Dan Larsen and the Social Justice Committee to conduct a public information campaign to counter AIDS hysteria that was running rampant.  We promoted the Red Ribbon campaign in the county and co-sponsored the first display of AIDS Quilt panels at McHenry County College.

The church building became a sort of sanctuary—the only safe place in the county for the Gay community and supporters to gather.  The informal organization that became McHenry County Pride and PFLAG held their meetings there and will continue to meet in our new home in McHenry when our building reopens from pandemic restrictions. 

The Congregational Unitarian Church was recognized as a UUA Welcoming Congregation in 2004 after two years of diligent congregational education and work.  We have maintained that certification ever since.

The Diversity Day Festival, founded and led by the CUC, provided perhaps the first public forum in the County to welcome full participation by the LBGTQ community and feature representatives on the program during its run from 2002 through 2013.

We became public advocates for the Civil Union legislation in Illinois that became law in 2011 which gave couples some of the legal protection of marriage.  Meanwhile the church performed union services and stipulated that we considered them marriages.  When the Congregation moved to McHenry we became leaders in the campaign for full Marriage Equality.  In cooperation with PFLAG and others we conducted widely publicized roadside vigils in several towns and participated in a mass march in Springfield. 

The effectiveness of that campaign was shown when the legislation passed the House of Representatives by one vote—Democratic Representative Jack Franks who had remained uncommitted until the last moment and was thought by many to be leaning against.  The legislation was signed by Governor Pat Quinn on November 20, 2013 and became law January 1, 2014.

Tree of Life celebrated by conducting a public joint wedding of four lesbian couples weeks after the law went into effect—among the first in the County. The service was conducted by the Reverend Sean Parker Dennison, a transgender minister who served the congregation from 2012-16. 

The Rev. Jennifer Gracen (left) with her wife Virginia.

Today Tree of Life is conducting services via Zoom but is still as open and welcoming as ever.  The Rev. Jenn Gracen is our interim minister and lives in Crystal Lake with her wife and infant daughter.

                            Hanging out at the 2019 Tree of Life booth at Woodstock Pride Fest..

And that’s why Tree of Life is proud to be part of Woodstock Pride Fest.

Pride Comes to Woodstock

It took a while, but Woodstock Pride Fest will bring LBGTQ Pride Month festivities to McHenry County this Sunday, June 9 from 11 am to 4pm on and around Woodstock Square. Not so many years ago that would have been unthinkable.  Most local Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and transgender folk stayed pretty much in the closet in a deeply conservative and hostile county.  There were no local organizations or safe social spaces.  Most churches were not only unwelcoming, but actively hostile.  People had to travel to Chicago for gay bars and clubs or to celebrate at the city’s long established Gay Pride Parade. 

How times have changed.  This year local festival is co-sponsored by Woodstock Pride, a two year old organization that held a successful Kid’s Pride event last year, the Woodstock Chamber of Commerce which is vigorously promoting the event, as well as several local businesses.   In other words it is a very big deal indeed.

The Festival announcement made to event’s goal crystal clear.

In keeping with the national goal of “mobilizing LGBTQ+ communities, our loved ones and our allies—with particular focus on those who have been actively silenced and neglected—in the fight to affirm and protect our rights, our safety and our full humanity,” the Woodstock Pride Parade/Festival will feature remarks from speakers representing a broad base of the diverse Woodstock and Chicago based community, including representatives of the Woodstock LGBTQ+ community and allied organizations that are actively pursuing equity, inclusion and justice for all people, regardless of gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, disability, national origin or status.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the entire Woodstock-area community to come together and share in the very human elements that unite us, while celebrating the differences that make us unique,” Woodstock Pride President Crystal Squires said regarding the event. “We are at a crucial moment in our national history, and the participation of so many organizations in this event will send a message, in self-celebration, that we are a community that stands together for all of our Woodstock residents, gay or straight, cis or trans, immigrant or Native American, regardless of economic standing, religious affiliation or place of origin. We unite as one community, and in solidarity with similar events taking place on the same month, in communities across the country.”

In addition to delivering a strong message of united community, the parade and festival will recognize 2 key anniversaries of the LGBTQIA+ communities; that of the Pulse Nightclub shootings in Orlando, Florida, which were perpetrated on June 12, 2016 and those who stood during the Stonewall Riots which occurred on June 28, 1969. The Woodstock Pride event will open with a moment of celebration and reverence for those who were involved in the Stonewall Riots, having paved the groundwork for future LGBTQIA+ generations and conclude with a special tribute and moment of recognition to those lives lost in the Orlando Pulse Nightclub shooting, one of the darkest moments in American LGBTQIA+ history. 

Run up to Sunday on the Square there will be several events including:

Thursday, June 6—Kid’s Pride activities at Mixin Mingle at 124 Cass Street at 10 am.

Friday, June 7—Dragon Fly presents an all-ages drag show at Mixin Mingle from 8-10pm.

A post show GLOW Party at D.C. Cobbs, 226 Main Street, at 10 pm.

Saturday, June 8—Bruncholgy: Queen Hosted Brunch at Mixin Mingle 10am-noon.

Buren Street at 10:30 am.

Woodstock Chamber of Commerce and Real Woodstock present Rockstock featuring The GooRoos on the Square from 7-10 pm.

The main event on Sunday will kick off with the Pride Parade around the Square at 11 am followed by the festival program from the Gazeebo stage featuring speakers including Congresswoman Lauren Underwood of the 14th District and representatives of Woodstock Pride, the Woodstock Chamber, the National Organization for Women (NOW), the Democratic Party of McHenry County, and others plus a wide variety of musical performers.

Representative Lauren Underwood of the 14th District will be a featured speaker at Woodstock Pride Fest.

Also on the Square festival goers can peruse information tables from sponsoring organizations, local non-profit and advocacy organizations as well as shop with vendors and dine from food trucks. 

The Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation Social Justice Team is proud to represent the long association our Congregation has had with the LBGTQ community and movement.  As early as 1970 the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association adopted a resolution opposed to the discrimination against Homosexuals and Bisexuals.  Although today it might seem like a bland appeal for mere toleration, at the time it was the first such public declaration by any national religious body with the exception of the explicitly gay Metropolitan Community Church. 

Since then a steady stream of resolutions and policies have gone far beyond mere toleration including recognizing an support Gay and Lesbian clergy, developing inclusive sexual education programs including About Your Sexuality (AYS) in 1971 and the more comprehensive Our Whole Lives (OWL) curriculum for all ages, pioneering in work to end HIV/AIDS stigmatism and promoting accessible health care, and inaugurating the Welcoming Congregation program to train UUA congregations in full acceptance of the LBGTQ community and certify them for public recognition.  The UUA became committed to full marriage equality and was a leading voice in national, state, and local campaigns to make it a legal reality.  It has expanded its welcome and advocacy to transgender individuals and other gender non-conforming folk.  It Standing in the Name of Love campaign, now recast as Love Resists in cooperation with the United Church of Christ, has taken to the streets in full public support LGBTQ rights and safety.

Our Congregation began its hand-in-hand journey with the local LGBTQ community almost than 30 years ago when it was known as the Congregational Unitarian Church (CUC) in Woodstock.  It began under the leadership of the Rev. Dan Larsen and the Social Justice Committee to conduct a public information campaign to counter AIDS hysteria that was running rampant.  At the time McHenry County Coroner Alvin Quarehammer was publishing screeds in the Northwest Herald claiming AIDS could be spread on airliners through the ventilation system and calling for Gays to be placed in quarantined internment camps.  We promoted the Red Ribbon campaign in the county and co-sponsored the first display of AIDS Quilt panels at McHenry County College.

The church building became a sort of sanctuary—the only safe place in the county for the Gay community and supporters to gather.  The informal organization that became McHenry County Pride and PFLAG held their meetings there and continue to meet in our new home in McHenry.  There was also an early counseling program for Gay, Lesbian and questioning youth and a program for transgender youth and their families is currently active at Tree of Life.

                              Tree of Life UU Congregation in McHenry is a long-time Welcoming Congregation

The Congregational Unitarian Church was recognized as a UUA Welcoming Congregation in 2004 after two years of diligent congregational education and work.  We have maintained that certification ever since.

The CUC was one of a handful of organizations conduct pilot tests of the first version of the OWL curriculum and has been offering the program once every two years ever since for junior high school age students. 

The Diversity Day Festival, founded and led by the CUC, provided perhaps the first public forum in the county to welcome full participation by the LGBTQ community and feature representatives on the program during its run from 2002 through 2013. 

We became public advocates for the Civil Union legislation in Illinois that became law in 2011 which gave couples some of the legal protection of marriage.  Meanwhile the church performed union services and stipulated that we considered them marriages.  When the Congregation moved to McHenry we became leaders in the campaign for full Marriage Equality.  In cooperation with PFLAG and others we conducted widely publicized road side vigils in several towns, conducted telephone and post card campaigns, did personal lobby-in-mass visits to the offices of a local state representative and senators, and participated in a mass march in Springfield.

Tree of Life led road side vigils for Marriage Equality.

The effectiveness of that campaign was shown when the legislation passed the House of Representatives by one vote—Democratic Representative Jack Franks who had remained uncommitted until the last moment and was thought by many to be leaning against.  The legislation was signed by Governor Pat Quinn on November 20, 2013 and became law January 1, 2014.

Tree of Life celebrated by conducting a public joint wedding of four lesbian couples weeks after the law went into effect—among the first in the County. The service was conducted by the Reverend Sean Parker Dennison, a transgender minister who served the congregation from 2012-16.  The church remains a safe and welcoming venue for all marriages.

Tree of Life celebrated marriage equality with a ceremony uniting four lesbian couples.

Since the first openly Gay man joined the church in 2002—surely there had been others long before not public with their identity—LGBTQ folks have not only been welcomed into the community but have become an integral part of it participating in all aspects of church life and assuming leadership roles at all levels. 

And that’s why Tree of Life is proud to be part of Woodstock Pride Fest.