Liverpool Pride 2015: Love is no Crime
Kieran leading our church group in the Liverpool Pride march, with affirming and apologetic messages. PHOTO: Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Pride this year took the theme ‘Love Is No Crime’, in recognition of legislative change in the UK and the need to support our siblings around the world where LGBT people are marginalised, punished, attacked and killed, either by the state or people’s own communities. Kieran Bohan, co-facilitator of Open Table, our monthly LGBT-inclusive communion service, shares his reflection on the event.
For the last five years, I have marched with the LGBT youth group I ran. As I am no longer working with them, I 'youth worked’ a group of people from the church my partner and I support to engage with the spirit of Pride in a deeper way this year. A group from St Bride's has marched in Liverpool Pride almost every year, carrying a banner and walking alongside other inclusive faith groups.
Allies from St Bride’s marched with us and apologised for what some Christians have done to the LGBT community. PHOTO: Pete Carr
Christian Voice protest at Liverpool Pride. PHOTO: Jonathan Jelfs
Our stall with brightly coloured stars for #PrideWishes.
Photographer Jonathan Jelfs recorded our progress on the march - you can watch a slideshow here (4 minutes 30seconds).
This year we marched separately, with more people than ever, and a desire to be part of the 'I’m Sorry’ campaign, which involves Christians apologising to the LGBTQ community for the ways they have harmed them. I took inspiration from hearing Andrew Marin of the Marin Foundation speak at the Open Church conference in London about his work of reconciliation between Christian and LGBT communities in Chicago, where the I’m Sorry campaign began in 2010. When other members of our community spoke passionately about it on a retreat day earlier this year, I knew we had to find a way to try it.
The #PrideWishes spread around the prayer table and altar.
The aim of the I’m Sorry campaign is for Christians to stand by the side of the road displaying messages of affirmation and apology so that those in the Pride march can see them. If a negative Christian protest is present, as there is each year in Liverpool, the intention would be to offer non-violent resistance, to stand nearby, perhaps with backs to the negative protestors, as a barrier between them and the negative demonstration.
I explored a roadside presence this year, but I had not appreciated the amount of council and police bureaucracy involved, plus only four of us felt ready to do it, so we decided instead to march as one large group, carrying messages of both affirmation and apology. The messages of apology included 'We are sorry for what Christians have done to LGBT people’ (pictured above), and 'I’m sorry for Christian homophobia & transphobia’. The messages of affirmation included 'God loves you, no matter who you love’, and 'God Loves Hugs’, my twist on the infamous 'God Hates Fags’ slogan from the Westboro Baptist Church. It would make a good hashtag - spread the word! #GodLovesHugs :-)
Throughout the day, we had a stall in the community market area, which we aimed to create as a sacred space of welcome and affirmation, a taste of what we hope people will experience if they come to our church, or to any of the other inclusive faith communities we promote as part of the Spectrum of Spirituality network of LGBTQI people of faith and the groups which support them.
On the stall we invited people to write on a brightly coloured star with a wish, a prayer, a thank you or a message of love. 75 people did.
On Sunday morning we shared them at St Bride’s morning service, where they were placed on the prayer table and altar as we celebrated the Eucharist.
Michael Causer (9 October 1989 - 2 August 2008)
I shared a selection of these messages on the new Open Table Twitter account this week with the hashtag #PrideWishes. They range from prayers for world peace to a wish to meet Bruno Mars, so we couldn’t promise that all would be fulfilled! Some were more poignant, like this one:
I hope one day I am happy with who I am.
We hope we can be part of the answer to that prayer for this person, and others who express the same desire.
The date of Liverpool Pride was chosen to be the closest Saturday to the anniversary of Michael Causer’s death. Michael Causer died seven years.ago because of serious injuries from a homophobic attack. You can read his story here.
At the vigil in his memory, and for all victims of hate crime, in the city’s Stanley Street Quarter on Sunday, all present were asked to make a pledge to tackle prejudice and hate crime in the coming year, and to share their support on social media, using the hashtag #ImMichaelsMate. Here’s mine:
I was privileged to be one of the founding trustees of the Michael Causer Foundation, which I supported for three years. I have written earlier about my motivation for this work.
Now I am no longer working directly with children and young people, but I still have opportunities to deliver LGBT awareness training, and I am particularly interested in bringing together my work in Christian and other faith communities with my work in the LGBT community to be part of the reconciliation and healing process that is so needed.