A place for LGBTQ spirituality and the arts. Home of the gay Jesus and queer saints. Uniting body, mind and spirit. Open to all. Renamed Q Spirit blog and moved to Qspirit.net in 2017.
LGBTQ Christian theology, Bible study, memoir and fiction are presented in five new books this month.
They are “UnClobber: Rethinking Our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality” by Colby Martin, “I Love to Tell the Story: 100+ Stories of Justice, Inclusion, and Hope” by Nancy Wilson, “Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility” by Ashon T. Crawley, “Only Say the Word” by Scott D. Pomfret and “Two Natures” by Jendi Reiter.
“Unclobber” is part LGBTQ-affirming Bible study and part memoir of a millennial evangelical. Six “clobber passages” of scripture used to exclude LGBTQ people are examined in chapters that alternate with the author’s own story of being fired from an evangelical megachurch when they discovered his progressive stance on sexuality. In a highly readable style, Martin writes of how he went from being “oversaved” to affirming that scripture does not condemn loving, committed same-sex relationships. The author is co-pastor of Sojourn Grace Collective, a progressive Christian church in San Diego. Foreword by author Glennon Doyle Melton. Priced at less than $9 on Amazon. Published by Westminster John Knox Press.
This innovative interdisciplinary book brings together queer theology, black studies, womanist theory and performance studies to examine alternative or “otherwise” ways of being. For example, Blackpentecostal music and worship styles create an aesthetics that makes it possible to resist and critique of normative, repressive culture. The author is assistant professor of Ethnic Studies at University of California, Riverside. Crawley grew up in a Blackpentecostal home where both his parents -- and he himself -- were clergy in the Church of God in Christ, the largest Blackpentecostal denomination. “I accepted my own queerness and began to, in earnest, interrogate theologies of sex and sexuality that were repressive and diminished folks’ capacities for flourishing and vitality,” he said in an interview about the book at The New Inquiry. Published by Fordham University Press.
This collection of true stories from the LGBTQ faith community will bring laughter, tears, insight and hope. Sections cover love and marriage equality, pastoring, death and funerals, hate and violence, laughter, portraits, kids and angels, MCC’s first decade, earthquakes and MCC buildings, sexuality and ecumenical adventures, and White House encounters. She draws on four decades of ministry and activism and ministry in MCC for motivational, educational stories of pastors and porn stars, presidents and persons with AIDS, and many more. This looks like an LGBTQ Christian version of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” Cute story titles include “And a Little Dog Shall Lead Them” and “A Queer Christmas Dinner.” Wilson is retiring this year as Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches. Published by CreateSpace.
“Only Say the Word” by Scott D. Pomfret.
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An openly gay man is wounded in an assassination attempt when he rejoins the Catholic church after a long estrangement in this gripping novel. He heals others but gets injured by an abused former altar boy. Only his atheist boyfriend and a single disgraced priest can save him from catastrophic injuries. The story unfolds in Boston during the battle for marriage equality, AIDS activism, the scandal of pedophile priests, culture wars and political corruption. The Massachusetts author has written a variety of books, including “Since My Last Confession: A Gay Catholic Memoir.” Published by Ninestar Press.
A gay fashion photographer who was raised Southern Baptist moves to New York City for a sexual and spiritual odyssey during the AIDS crisis of the early 1990s in “Two Natures.” This stylish debut novel from a gifted poet is a rare combination of erotic romance and intelligent reflection on Christian faith. Narrator Julian Selkirk seeks glamor and often-fleeting romance to replace the religion that rejected him. Experience teaches him to see beyond shame, surface attractions and short-term desires. Based in Massachusetts, Reiter is the author of several poetry books and co-founder of WinningWriters.com. Published by Saddle Road Press. Fore more info, see “Two Natures” explores sexuality and spirituality during AIDS crisis by Kittredge Cherry.
New in Sept: LGBTQ Christian books “Liberating Sexuality,” “The Secret Love Letters of Saint Paul,” “The Good News About Conflict” and “Faithful Families”
New in August 2016: LGBTQ Christian books "Same-Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome," "Transgender Children of God," "The Prince's Psalm," “Christianity and Controversies Over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa"
New in July 2016: LGBTQ Christian books “Transgender, Intersex and Biblical Interpretation,” “Religious Freedom and Gay Rights,” “Holy Women Icons” and “Is It a Boy, a Girl, or Both?”
Pioneering lesbian minister Nancy Wilson is being honored today (July 6) as she retires as global moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches.
I worked closely with Nancy from 1991-94 as MCC’s ecumenical field director. Here are some photos of our efforts to advocate for LGBTQ rights at the World Council of Churches, National Council of Churches and other church events. Thanks, Nancy, for your passion and prophetic vision!
Nancy is the second person, and the first woman, to lead MCC since it was founded in 1968 by Troy Perry. When MCC was founded, homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime, but MCC gave religious affirmation to queer people. Nancy joined the new denomination as associate pastor of MCC Boston in 1972 when she was 22 years old.
After serving in numerous positions in MCC, Nancy Wilson was elected as moderator in 2005 following Perry’s retirement. President Barack Obama appointed Nancy to the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2011. When Obama was re-elected, she became the first openly LGBT clergy to participate at the Inaugural Prayer Service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
Her 44 years of ministry are being celebrated today with a “Tapestry of Thanks” event at MCC’s international General Conference in Victoria, BC, Canada.
In 2016 she wrote a new book: “I Love to Tell the Story: 100+ Stories of Justice, Inclusion, and Hope.” Her collection of true stories from the LGBTQ faith community will bring laughter, tears, insight and hope. Sections cover love and marriage equality, pastoring, death and funerals, hate and violence, laughter, portraits, kids and angels, MCC’s first decade, earthquakes and MCC buildings, sexuality and ecumenical adventures, and White House encounters. She draws on four decades of ministry and activism and ministry in MCC for motivational stories of pastors and porn stars, presidents and persons with AIDS, and many more.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, right, meets MCC National Ecumenical Officer Kittredge Cherry and MCC Chief Ecumenical Officer Nancy Wilson, and an unknown woman. The MCC delegation was in Johannesburg, South Africa in January 1994, to advocate LGBT religious rights at a meeting of the World Council of Churches.
Protestors carried a sign saying, “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free” when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to Metropolitan Community Churches in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. Pictured in the middle is Nancy Wilson of MCC. Photo by Kittredge Cherry.
We held protest signs and took over the microphones when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to MCC in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 12, 1992. Nancy, pictured in the middle, seized the podium and said, “It’s easier to get into heaven than into the NCC!” She banged her fist on the podium so hard that it cracked. Protest signs in this photo say, “Stonewall Rises Again!!!” and “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free.” Pictured are, from left, John Taktikos of Axios (Orthodox gay and lesbian group), Nancy Wilson of MCC, and Lorna Cramer of Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian/Gay Concerns. Photo by Kittredge Cherry. RIP John Taktikos, who died of AIDS in October 1993.
MCC clergywomen met Christian feminist authors at the “Re-Imagining” conference. Left to right: Lori Dick, Virginia Mollenkott, Susan Thistlewaite, Nancy Wilson and Kittredge Cherry.
MCC clergy at “Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women” conference Nov. 4-7, 1993 in Minneapolis included, from left, Revs. Coni Staff, Kittredge Cherry, Nancy Wilson and Lori Dick. More than 2,000 attended the conference, which was controversial for presenting female images of God, accepting LGBT people and other “heresies.”
Pictured left to right are Laurie Fox of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, Kittredge Cherry and Nancy Wilson at a demonstration for LGBT rights at the Christian feminist “Re-Imagining” conference Nov. 4-7, 1993 in Minneapolis.
Nancy and I sang and held a banner at a demonstration for LGBT rights at the Christian feminist “Re-Imagining” conference Nov. 4-7, 1993 in Minneapolis. Our banner says, “A Christian fellowship reaching out to gays and lesbians around the world” with the logo for Metropolitan Community Churches.
The NCC-MCC Dialogue Committee gave an official report in November 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio. We sure look miserable. Our committee tried and failed to find common ground on homosexuality. Left to right: Bishop Clinton Hoggard (African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church), Jean Marshall, Kittredge Cherry (MCC), Nancy Wilson (MCC), Laura Bailey (Disciples of Christ) and NCC staffer Eileen Lindner. Some other committee members are not pictured. RIP Bishop Hoggard, died 2002.
MCC’s delegation to the World Council of Churches 1994 meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, consisted of, from left, Kittredge Cherry, MCC ecumenical director; Sylvanus Maduka, head of MCC in Nigeria; and Nancy Wilson, MCC ecumenical officer (before she was moderator). We shocked many WCC leaders by urging them to stand up against homophobia in the church, and got a warm welcome from South African LGBT Christians.
Happy times with Kittredge Cherry, Nancy Wilson, and my spouse Audrey Lockwood in July 1993 after my ordination at MCC General Conference, Phoenix.
Nancy Wilson, left, and Kittredge Cherry advocated for LGBT rights at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991. I’m wearing headphones to listen to the translation at the multilingual event. This was the first conference that I attended after being hired as Field Director of Ecumenical Witness and Ministry for MCC.
MCC’s delegation to the World Council of Churches Assembly in Canberra, Australia in 1991 included, from left, Revs. Steve Pieters, Sandi Robinson, Nancy Wilson and Kittredge Cherry.
Before the Orlando massacre this month, the deadliest attack on LGBT people in U.S. history was an arson fire at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans. The fire killed 32 people on June 24, 1973, exactly 43 years ago today.
It is enlightening the re-examine the UpStairs Lounge fire in the wake of the Orlando shooting that killed 49 people at the Pulse gay bar in Florida on June 12.
Few people cared about the UpStairs Lounge fire at the time. The crime was never solved, churches refused to do funerals for the dead, and four bodies went unclaimed. Now there is a resurgence of interest in the martyrs of New Orleans.
The fire is being remembered in powerful new ways, including the 2016 book “Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation” by Harvard history professor Jim Downs. The fire is covered in the first chapter, titled “The Largest Massacre of Gay People in American History.”
“Upstairs Inferno,” a documentary directed by Robert Camina and narrated by Christopher Rice, is currently playing at film festivals around the United States before its release on DVD. The film brings humanity to the headlines by interviewing more than 20 people, including several survivors who have kept silent for decades.
For queer people, the UpStairs Lounge served as a sanctuary in every sense of the world. It was a seemingly safe place where LGBT people met behind boarded-up windows that hid them from a hostile world. Worship services were held there by the LGBT-affirming Metropolitan Community Church of New Orleans. The pastor, Rev. William R. Larson, died along with a third of congregation. Half the victims were MCC members. Those who died included people from all walks of life: preachers, hustlers, soldiers, musicians, parents, professionals and a mother with her two sons.
The horror of the fire was compounded by the homophobic reactions. Churches refused to hold funerals for the victims. Finally MCC founder Rev. Troy Perry flew to New Orleans to conduct a group memorial service. Families of four victims were apparently so ashamed of their gay relatives that they would not identify or claim their remains. The City refused to release their bodies to MCC for burial, and instead laid them to rest in a mass grave at a potter’s field.
The full-length feature documentary “Upstairs Inferno” was produced and directed by Camina, whose previous film was the widely praised “Raid of the Rainbow Lounge” about a police raid at a Texas gay bar. Now he has created the most comprehensive and authoritative film on America's biggest gay mass murder. Survivors interviewed in the film include Ricky Everett and Francis Dufrene and a survivor who lost her lover Reggie Adams in the blaze.
Narrator Chrisopher Rice is an openly gay New York Times bestselling author whose hometown is New Orleans. His debut novel "A Density of Souls" got a landslide of media attention, mostly because he is the son of famed vampire author Anne Rice.
Two videos trailers for the film have been released. The first trailer provides an overview while the second trailer present additional interviews about the personal impact of the fire.
Meanwhile a different film crew working on “Tracking Fire” discovered vandalism on the memorial plaque while filming an interview there in May 2015. Someone through a paint bomb at the plaque, leaving it discolored even after the paint was cleaned off.
A sidewalk memorial plaque outside the UpStairs Lounge building in New Orleans was dedicated in 2003 and vandalized in 2015 (photo courtesy of "Tracking Fire")
Another documentary still in production is “Tracking Fire” with director Sheri Wright. A video trailer is posted. “My focus is to tell the story of what happened, honor the victims, including the mother who died with her two sons, the survivors, their friends and family. It is also my intention to present a way for healing to replace the pain of tragedy and to offer a healthy resolution for personal and social conflict,” the film’s website explains.
Announcing the full-length trailer for Tracking Fire, a documentary which chronicles an unsolved case of arson that claimed 32 lives - one of the worst tragedies in LGBT history in America.
Posted by Tracking Fire on Monday, March 24, 2014
LGBT Religious Archives created an online exhibit about the UpStairs Lounge Fire with more than 120 artifacts that weave together stories about the fire and its aftermath, early gay activism, and the beginnings of Metropolitan Community Church in New Orleans. Original artifacts include newspaper and journal articles, photographs, correspondence, government reports and recordings from the time. The exhibit went online in September 2013 and received the 2014 Allan Bérubé Prize for “outstanding work in public or community-based LGBT and/or queer history.”
The crime received little attention from police, elected officials and news media. The only national TV news coverage at the time was these video clips from CBS and NBC:
Louisiana playwright and composer Wayne Self spent five years weaving together the stories of the UpStairs Lounge fire victims and survivors. The result was the dramatic musical "Upstairs," which has been performed in various cities in Louisiana, New York and California after opening in New Orleans and Los Angeles in June 2013. He says his work takes the form “of tribute, of memorial, even of hagiography.”
The musical "Upstairs" brings back to life people such as MCC assistant pastor George “Mitch” Mitchell, who managed to escape the fire, but ran back into the burning building to save his boyfriend, Louis Broussard. Both men died in the fire. Their bodies were found clinging to one another in the ashes. In the musical, Mitchell sings a song called “I’ll Always Return”:
…Modern age,
Life to wage.
To get ahead, must turn the page.
I can't promise I'll never leave,
But I'll always,
I'll always return….
Self raised funds so that Mitchell’s son and the son’s wife and could travel from Alabama to attend the play. Many victims of the UpStairs Lounge fire were survived by children who are still alive today.
The musical also explores the unsettled and unsettling question of who set the fire. Rodger Dale Nunez, a hustler and UpStairs Lounge customer, was arrested for the crime, but escaped and was never sentenced. He was thrown out of the UpStairs Lounge shortly before the fire for starting a fight with a fellow hustler. He committed suicide a year later. Self says that other theories arose to blame the KKK and the police, but he implicates Nunez -- with room for doubt -- in the musical.
A gay man may have lit the fire, but the real culprit is still society’s homophobia that set the fuse inside him. Hatred for LGBT people was also responsible for the high death toll in another way. The fire was especially deadly because the windows were covered with iron bars and boards so nobody could see who was inside. But they also prevented many people from getting outside in an emergency.
The UpStairs Lounge is recreated with haunting detail in Skylar Fein’s 90-piece art installation. He builds an environment with artifacts, photos, video, and a reproduction of the bar’s swinging-door entrance, evoking memories of how the place looked before and after the fire. “Remember the UpStairs Lounge” debuted in New Orleans in 2008 and was shown in New York in 2010. In January 2013 the New Orleans Museum of Art announced that it had acquired the installation. Fein donated it to the museum, saying that he did not want to dismantle the work or profit from its sale. He discusses the fire and shows objects from his installation in this video.
The victims of the UpStairs Lounge fire are part of LGBT history now, along with the queer martyrs who were burned at the stake for sodomy in medieval times. Their history is told in my previous post Ash Wednesday: Queer martyrs rise from the ashes.
The UpStairs Lounge fire gives new meaning to the Upper Room where Jesus and his disciples shared a Last Supper. It was also the place where they hid after his crucifixion, but the locked doors did not prevent the risen Christ from joining them and empowering them with the Holy Spirit.
The shared journey of LGBT people includes much loss -- from hate crimes, suicide, AIDS, and government persecution. But the LGBT community has also found ways to keep going. Reginald, one of the survivors of the UpStairs Lounge fire, expresses this strength in the song "Carry On" from the "Upstairs" musical:
I can speak.
I can teach.
I can give of the compassion I've received.
I can build.
I can sing!
I can honor all the loves,
That have passed away from me,
By sharing all the good that they have ever shown to me.
I can live my life.
I can carry on.
Carry on.
Carry on!
New Orleans film maker Royd Anderson's “The UpStairs Lounge Fire” documentary lasts 27 minutes (longer than the fire itself) and includes interviews with an eyewitness, a son who lost his father, a rookie firefighter called to the scene, author Johnny Townsend, and artist Skylar Fein, whose art exhibit about the tragedy gained national prominence. Here is a video trailer for the documentary.
The value of remembering the UpStairs Lounge fire was summed up by Lynn Jordan in the LGBT Religious Archives online exhibit that he co-curated. Jordan, founding member of MCC San Francisco, visited New Orleans shortly before and after the fire. In his introduction to the UpStairs exhibit, he explains:
“I left New Orleans with the promise to each of the 32 who would become immortal, that I would remember their sacrifice and carry them with me in all that would unfold in my life. The research and documentation that is an integral part of this Upstairs exhibit is “my” living into completion the promise to these “32 martyrs of the flames” that they “would not” be forgotten.
For those who would say that this event was so yesterday, i.e., we have achieved so many advances in our civil rights and in our acceptance for this to happen again, I would remind them that hate and intolerance are not constrained to finding shelter in any one moment, any one location in our “queer” history. To focus only on how far our LGBTQI communities may have progressed in 40 years; to fail to remember the sacrifice of all the lives lost or shattered in this journey; to lapse into complacency about our personal security: places us at risk of reviving the tragedy of our past in the present.”
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This post is part of the LGBT Calendar series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series celebrates religious and spiritual holidays, holy days, feast days, festivals, anniversaries, liturgical seasons and other occasions of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people of faith and allies.
LGBT protest at the National Council of Churches in 1992: John Taktikos, Nancy Wilson and Lorna Cramer (Photo by Kittredge Cherry)
Important events in LGBT church history came to mind this week when I got an announcement that Axios launched a new Facebook page.
I remembered how the fiery truth-telling of Axios President John Taktikos shook up the Orthodox leaders who were keeping pro-LGBT Metropolitan Community Churches out of the National Council of Churches.
Axios is an organization of Eastern and Near Eastern Orthodox, and Byzantine and Eastern-rite Catholic LGBT Christians.I met John Taktikos in 1992 through my work as MCC's international ecumenical director.
I arranged for John to advocate for LGBT rights with Orthodox church leaders at the 1992 National Council of Churches annual meeting in Cleveland, Ohio. He spoke passionately to the Orthodox leaders, who were the main opponents blocking MCC’s membership. LGBT representatives from many other NCC member churches joined us too.
We held protest signs and took over the microphones when the National Council of Churches denied observer status to MCC in Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 12, 1992. Nancy Wilson, pictured in the middle, seized the podium and said, “It’s easier to get into heaven than into the National Council of Churches!” She banged her fist on the podium so hard that it cracked. Nancy is retiring this summer after 10 years as moderator of MCC.
On that dreadful day I took the photo at the top of this post. Pictured are, from left, John Taktikos of Axios, Nancy Wilson of MCC, and Lorna Cramer of Unitarian Universalists for Lesbian/Gay Concerns.
Protest signs in the photo say, “Stonewall Rises Again!!!” and “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual: We are Already in the Church. Let us be Open, Free.”
The AIDS crisis was raging and John died before he could attend the next NCC annual meeting. Axios vice president Alexi stepped in to fill his place.
Over the years I have kept and treasured the elegant envelope addressed to me at MCC headquarters in John’s own handwriting. It is dated Oct. 17, 1992, when we were planning for the NCC meeting.
I scanned it this week when Axios launched a new Facebook page. This graceful calligraphy reflects a beautiful spirit who helped lay the foundation for LGBT people of faith today.
I light a memorial candle for Bill Rosendahl, an early supporter of LGBT Christianity and the first openly gay man on the Los Angeles City Council. He died March 30 at age 70.
Bill made a big impression on me personally when he invited me to be a guest on his cable TV talk show “The God Squad” in 1993.
He reached out to me because I was public relations associate for the Metropolitan Community Churches denomination, and he wanted to include the LGBT perspective in his program. On each show a diverse group of clergy discussed news events and social issues from a religious viewpoint.
MCC founder Troy Perry was enthusiastic as soon as he heard about my invitation to appear on “The God Squad.” He explained that Bill was a closeted gay man and a huge supporter of LGBT rights, including our religious rights.
I was a nervous young lesbian clergywoman when I arrived at the Century Cable studio for the show, but Bill immediately put me at ease with his warm welcome and fair-minded approach to controversial topics.
I felt a bit awed by Bill and some of the other panelists, including seasoned publicists for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese and the Islamic Center. I tried to rise to the occasion as he asked us to comment on topics of international importance such as NAFTA and the break-up of Yugoslavia. I must have done OK because Bill asked me back at least two more times in 1993.
Later Bill came out publicly as a gay man and in 2005 he was elected to the L.A. City Council.
I learned more about why Bill took the risk of including LGBT religious views on “The God Squad” from his obituary in the Los Angeles Times. It said he was the son of German Catholic immigrants who fled Europe during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, adding:
For years, Rosendahl had been quietly visiting gay bars and introducing himself with a fake name. He said he was conflicted about his sexuality because of attitudes toward gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church.
Most other tributes to Bill Rosendahl rightly focus on his later accomplishments as City Councilman, but I will always remember him as the man who used his postion to ensure that queer voices were heard on “The God Squad.”
May Bill Rosendahl join the LGBTQ saints in the great “God Squad” in heaven!
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Image credit: All images are from “The God Squad,” April 29, 1993
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Related links:
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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, heroes, holy people, humanitarians, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
A Cosmic Christ appears with subtle LGBT symbolism in the work of Chicago artist Doyle Chappell.
He has done variations on the Cosmic Christ theme for years -- most recently in colorful windows dedicated Sept. 20, 2015 at A Church 4 Me Metropolitan Community Church where he is a member. The phrase “Cosmic Christ” refers to Christ who is continually incarnated in all creation.
“In the windows for A Church 4 Me in Chicago, the Christ wears a diamond earring on the left ear which for me is a bit of a gay reference,” Chappell told the Jesus in Love Blog.
People are inspired by the new “Cosmic Christ” window at A Church 4 Me MCC in Chicago (Photo by Carl Krysa)
Multiple intersecting and nested pink triangles within triangles repeat a symbol imposed on gay prisoners in Nazi Germany and later reclaimed by the LGBT community.
“The triangle is more than a gay symbol,” Chappell explained. “It is to me a symbol of ancient wisdom that points to a higher level of consciousness toward the ‘Omega Point’ as expressed by the philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, one of the first theologians to show interest in the ‘Cosmic Christ.’”
Ultimately Chappell used LGBT imagery to enhance his vision of a Cosmic Christ for everybody. “My main intent was to honor the idea that ‘The Cosmic Christ’ is in all that has been created since the Big Bang and beyond our concepts of Christianity...in all particles of creation and certainly all life and honors all who seek to connect with the sacred wisdom,” he said.
He reiterated the concept of an all-inclusive Christ by making one eye blue and the other brown. “The hair of many colors explodes beyond the box and not only expresses absolute diversity but also the fire of the Holy Spirit,” Chappell added.
The 15-by-15-foot Cosmic Christ windows at A Church 4 Me were constructed with watercolor paper on clear acetate and painted with acrylic glazes. The technique results in a spectacular stained-glass effect.
The Chicago windows are the latest of several Cosmic Christ artworks that Chappell created for MCC, a denomination ministers primarily in the LGBT community.
At MCC of the Rockies in Denver he did a 20-foot-tall Cosmic Christ with the reflection of a rainbow on his left leg. The monumental mural is located directly behind the church’s altar. “I used LGBT male, female and straight models to build a composite image that crosses over all sexualities,” Chappell said.
He also painted the Cosmic Christ as a live performance before a crowd at an MCC conference in Chicago. That painting now belongs to MCC founder Troy Perry.
Artist Doyle Chappell stands outside his “Cosmic Christ” window in Chicago
While the Cosmic Christ is one of his favorite subjects, Chappell is best known for his portraits. From the beginning of his art studies at the University of Texas, Chappell liked painting people. He uses layers of bright colors and painterly brushwork to express the inner qualities and outward appearance of each individual. Serious art collectors value his work and his portraits are included in many private collections. Some of his favorite portraits are of “just plain folks,” but his well known subjects include actress Daryl Hannah nd Lynda Johnson Robb, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson.
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Special thanks for photos and info to Rev. Jennie Kitch, pastor of A Church for Me MCC, and Rev. Gordon McCoy.
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This post is part of the Queer Christ series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. The series gathers together visions of the queer Christ as presented by artists, writers, theologians and others. More queer Christ images are compiled in my book Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More.
Kittredge Cherry celebrated communion in 1993 at Metropolitan Community Churches General Conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
Happy birthday to Metropolitan Community Churches! And thanks for 47 years ministering in the LGBT community. MCC was founded 47 years ago today on Oct. 6, 1968.
Rev. Kittredge Cherry, 1988
Photos from MCC history are posted today for the first time in honor of the occasion, and as a tribute to all queer people of faith who dare to believe that God loves us just as we are.
The photos here show highlights from my own ministry in MCC during the 1990s. I had the privilege of working closely with Rev. Troy Perry, the openly gay man who founded MCC. He was incredibly brave and visionary to create a church for queer people back in 1968, when homosexuality was still considered a sin, a sickness and a crime. He describes the founding and early years of MCC in the book Don't Be Afraid Anymore: The Story of Reverend Troy Perry and the Metropolitan Community Churches by Troy D. Perry and Thomas Swicegood.
I joined MCC in 1985 and became an ordained minister. I served as program director at MCC San Francisco. Then I joined the denominational headquarters in Los Angeles, where I handled ecumenical and public relations, working with Troy and Rev. Nancy Wilson, who currently heads MCC as moderator. She chronicles the history of MCC in her book “Outing the Church: 40 Years in the Queer Christian Movement.”
I try to post some of my historic MCC photos every year on MCC’s anniversary. This year I am sharing many of Nancy and me doing ecumenical ministry together. The photos capture just a few moments from those memorable times.
Details about the photo at the top of this post: Pictured are, from left, John Torres (?), Jay Neely, unknown, Kittredge Cherry, Rev. Elder Jean White, Rev. Elder Hong Tan, unknown, and Ravi Verma. This worship service was co-sponsored by the Department of Ecumenical Witness and Ministry and the Department of People of Color. I was ecumenical field director at the time.
My old IBM computer was HUGE and already outdated, but I was using it in 1994 when this photo was taken in my office at MCC headquarters in Los Angeles.
Women clergy having fun together in 1991. From left: Betty Pederson, Kittredge Cherry, Audrey, Jane Spahr and Coni Staff. Betty, Coni and I were all MCC clergy at the time. We were at my farewell party as I prepared to leave San Francisco to minister in Los Angeles. Janie has been an activist for since the 1970s as a Presbyterian minister, facing church trials for breaking church law to marry committed same-gender couples.
MCC San Francisco's 1986 All-Church Retreat, October 1986. Those were the days! Retreats were the highlight of the year at MCC-SF in the late 1980s.
Small groups for discussion and prayer were the heart of every MCC-SF retreat in the late 1980s. My small group at the 1986 retreat included,from left, Kittredge Cherry, George Voigt, Patrick Horay, Karen Miller, Charles West and Gordon Gross.
MCC San Francisco Retreat, October 1987. It was the height of the AIDS pandemic and we had a wonderful, spirit-filled time together. Some of those pictured have passed on to new life.
My small group at the 1987 MCC-SF retreat included, from left, Bob Crocker, Dennis Edelman, Sylvia Perez, unknown, Kittedge Cherry, Paul (Holton?) and Lynn Jordan.
My life partner Audrey and I at the 1987 MCC-SF retreat.
The deadliest attack on LGBT people in U.S. history is being remembered in powerful new ways today on its 42nd anniversary, including two new films. An arson fire killed 32 people at the UpStairs Lounge, a gay bar in New Orleans, 42 years ago today on June 24, 1973.
“Upstairs Inferno,” directed by Robert Camina and narrated by Christopher Rice, premieres tonight in New Orleans, where “Tracking Fire” is currently filming on location with director Sheri Wright. “Upstairs Inferno” brings humanity to the headlines by interviewing more than 20 people, including several survivors who have kept silent for decades.
Few people cared about the UpStairs Lounge fire at the time. The crime was never solved, churches refused to do funerals for the dead, and four bodies went unclaimed. Now there is a resurgence of interest in the martyrs of New Orleans.
The fire is examined in depth in the 2016 book “Stand by Me: The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation” by Harvard history professor Jim Downs. The fire is covered in the first chapter, titled “The Largest Massacre of Gay People in American History.”
For queer people, the UpStairs Lounge served as a sanctuary in every sense of the world. It was a seemingly safe place where LGBT people met behind boarded-up windows that hid them from a hostile world. Worship services were held there by the LGBT-affirming Metropolitan Community Church of New Orleans. The pastor, Rev. William R. Larson, died along with a third of congregation. Half the victims were MCC members. Those who died included people from all walks of life: preachers, hustlers, soldiers, musicians, parents, professionals and a mother with her two sons.
The horror of the fire was compounded by the homophobic reactions. Churches refused to hold funerals for the victims. Finally MCC founder Rev. Troy Perry flew to New Orleans to conduct a group memorial service. Families of four victims were apparently so ashamed of their gay relatives that they would not identify or claim their remains. The City refused to release their bodies to MCC for burial, and instead laid them to rest in a mass grave at a potter’s field.
The full-length feature documentary “Upstairs Inferno” was produced and directed by Camina, whose previous film was the widely praised “Raid of the Rainbow Lounge” about a police raid at a Texas gay bar. Now he has created the most comprehensive and authoritative film on America's biggest gay mass murder. Survivors interviewed in the film include Ricky Everett and Francis Dufrene and a survivor who lost her lover Reggie Adams in the blaze.
Narrator Chrisopher Rice is an openly gay New York Times bestselling author whose hometown is New Orleans. His debut novel "A Density of Souls" got a landslide of media attention, mostly because he is the son of famed vampire author Anne Rice.
“Upstairs Inferno” will play at film festivals around the United States over the next 18 months before it becomes available on DVD. Two videos trailers for the film have been released. The first trailer provides an overview while the second trailer present additional interviews about the personal impact of the fire.
Meanwhile a different film crew working on “Tracking Fire” discovered vandalism on the memorial plaque while filming an interview there in May 2015. Someone through a paint bomb at the plaque, leaving it discolored even after the paint was cleaned off.
A sidewalk memorial plaque outside the UpStairs Lounge building in New Orleans was dedicated in 2003 and vandalized in 2015 (photo courtesy of "Tracking Fire")
“Tracking Fire” is just about to wrap filming and a video trailer is posted. “My focus is to tell the story of what happened, honor the victims, including the mother who died with her two sons, the survivors, their friends and family. It is also my intention to present a way for healing to replace the pain of tragedy and to offer a healthy resolution for personal and social conflict,” the film’s website explains.
Announcing the full-length trailer for Tracking Fire, a documentary which chronicles an unsolved case of arson that claimed 32 lives - one of the worst tragedies in LGBT history in America.
Posted by Tracking Fire on Monday, March 24, 2014
LGBT Religious Archives created an online exhibit about the UpStairs Lounge Fire with more than 120 artifacts that weave together stories about the fire and its aftermath, early gay activism, and the beginnings of Metropolitan Community Church in New Orleans. Original artifacts include newspaper and journal articles, photographs, correspondence, government reports and recordings from the time. The exhibit went online in September 2013 and received the 2014 Allan Bérubé Prize for “outstanding work in public or community-based LGBT and/or queer history.”
The crime received little attention from police, elected officials and news media. The only national TV news coverage at the time was these video clips from CBS and NBC:
Louisiana playwright and composer Wayne Self spent five years weaving together the stories of the UpStairs Lounge fire victims and survivors. The result was the dramatic musical "Upstairs," which has been performed in various cities in Louisiana, New York and California after opening in New Orleans and Los Angeles in June 2013. He says his work takes the form “of tribute, of memorial, even of hagiography.”
The musical "Upstairs" brings back to life people such as MCC assistant pastor George “Mitch” Mitchell, who managed to escape the fire, but ran back into the burning building to save his boyfriend, Louis Broussard. Both men died in the fire. Their bodies were found clinging to one another in the ashes. In the musical, Mitchell sings a song called “I’ll Always Return”:
…Modern age,
Life to wage.
To get ahead, must turn the page.
I can't promise I'll never leave,
But I'll always,
I'll always return….
Self raised funds so that Mitchell’s son and the son’s wife and could travel from Alabama to attend the play. Many victims of the UpStairs Lounge fire were survived by children who are still alive today.
The musical also explores the unsettled and unsettling question of who set the fire. Rodger Dale Nunez, a hustler and UpStairs Lounge customer, was arrested for the crime, but escaped and was never sentenced. He was thrown out of the UpStairs Lounge shortly before the fire for starting a fight with a fellow hustler. He committed suicide a year later. Self says that other theories arose to blame the KKK and the police, but he implicates Nunez -- with room for doubt -- in the musical.
A gay man may have lit the fire, but the real culprit is still society’s homophobia that set the fuse inside him. Hatred for LGBT people was also responsible for the high death toll in another way. The fire was especially deadly because the windows were covered with iron bars and boards so nobody could see who was inside. But they also prevented many people from getting outside in an emergency.
The UpStairs Lounge is recreated with haunting detail in Skylar Fein’s 90-piece art installation. He builds an environment with artifacts, photos, video, and a reproduction of the bar’s swinging-door entrance, evoking memories of how the place looked before and after the fire. “Remember the UpStairs Lounge” debuted in New Orleans in 2008 and was shown in New York in 2010. In January 2013 the New Orleans Museum of Art announced that it had acquired the installation. Fein donated it to the museum, saying that he did not want to dismantle the work or profit from its sale. He discusses the fire and shows objects from his installation in this video.
The victims of the UpStairs Lounge fire are part of LGBT history now, along with the queer martyrs who were burned at the stake for sodomy in medieval times. Their history is told in my previous post Ash Wednesday: Queer martyrs rise from the ashes.
The UpStairs Lounge fire gives new meaning to the Upper Room where Jesus and his disciples shared a Last Supper. It was also the place where they hid after his crucifixion, but the locked doors did not prevent the risen Christ from joining them and empowering them with the Holy Spirit.
The shared journey of LGBT people includes much loss -- from hate crimes, suicide, AIDS, and government persecution. But the LGBT community has also found ways to keep going. Reginald, one of the survivors of the UpStairs Lounge fire, expresses this strength in the song "Carry On" from the "Upstairs" musical:
I can speak.
I can teach.
I can give of the compassion I've received.
I can build.
I can sing!
I can honor all the loves,
That have passed away from me,
By sharing all the good that they have ever shown to me.
I can live my life.
I can carry on.
Carry on.
Carry on!
New Orleans film maker Royd Anderson's “The UpStairs Lounge Fire” documentary lasts 27 minutes (longer than the fire itself) and includes interviews with an eyewitness, a son who lost his father, a rookie firefighter called to the scene, author Johnny Townsend, and artist Skylar Fein, whose art exhibit about the tragedy gained national prominence. Here is a video trailer for the documentary.
The value of remembering the UpStairs Lounge fire was summed up by Lynn Jordan in the LGBT Religious Archives online exhibit that he co-curated. Jordan, founding member of MCC San Francisco, visited New Orleans shortly before and after the fire. In his introduction to the UpStairs exhibit, he explains:
“I left New Orleans with the promise to each of the 32 who would become immortal, that I would remember their sacrifice and carry them with me in all that would unfold in my life. The research and documentation that is an integral part of this Upstairs exhibit is “my” living into completion the promise to these “32 martyrs of the flames” that they “would not” be forgotten.
For those who would say that this event was so yesterday, i.e., we have achieved so many advances in our civil rights and in our acceptance for this to happen again, I would remind them that hate and intolerance are not constrained to finding shelter in any one moment, any one location in our “queer” history. To focus only on how far our LGBTQI communities may have progressed in 40 years; to fail to remember the sacrifice of all the lives lost or shattered in this journey; to lapse into complacency about our personal security: places us at risk of reviving the tragedy of our past in the present.”
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This post is part of the GLBT Saints series by Kittredge Cherry at the Jesus in Love Blog. Saints, martyrs, mystics, prophets, witnesses, heroes, holy people, humanitarians, deities and religious figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and queer people and our allies are covered on appropriate dates throughout the year.
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by Troy D. Perry and Thomas Swicegood.
