Sexuality

A person taking a picture of confetti.

Pride Events Display Disparities In LGBTQ Community

By pwsbuilder / June 8, 2017 / Comments Off on Pride Events Display Disparities In LGBTQ Community

June is Pride Month for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities across the country—and parades abound. While we all rev up each June for Pride so, too, do the fault lines of race and class in the LGBTQ community. With advances such as hate crime laws, legalization of same-sex marriage across the country,…

Read More
A silhouette of a woman in the woods.

Reporting Sexual Assault, As A Queer Woman

By pwsbuilder / January 20, 2017 /

Trigger warning: discussion of sexual assault, violence The incoming President of the United States has an awful history in regards to the sacred feminine. As Christians, we cannot always control the broader cultural climate (try as we will, and try as we must), but I encourage us to remember that whenever we move into and…

Read More
A building with a clock tower in the background.

I’m Transgender & I Don’t Need Your Stinking Mercy

By pwsbuilder / January 13, 2017 /

I was a Catholic for over fifty years. I was president of the Altar Boys (how many women can say that?). I was involved with religious groups at my high school. I was a Eucharistic Minister. I played piano at Mass for over 25 years. I worked retreats for high school seniors and ran retreats…

Read More
A silhouette of two hands making a heart shape.

Honoring The Wisdom Of Our Bodies

By pwsbuilder / October 27, 2016 /

As a young girl I grew up believing God had created humans perfectly in His image (Genesis 1:27). God made me with brown eyes, olive skin, small hands and feet, a soft heart and a quirky personality. I grew up believing that God saw me, his creation, as good. And therefore, so did I.  I…

Read More
A man and woman posing for a picture in front of the ocean.

Changing Minds: A Young Seminarian Learning to Love

By pwsbuilder / October 19, 2016 / Comments Off on Changing Minds: A Young Seminarian Learning to Love

As a young seminarian in the late 1970’s, I enjoyed being a graduate student on the campus of a major university in the Midwest. The big library and vast intellectual community were a thrill, but the greatest joy was attending Sunday services at the university’s chapel, an elaborate modernist/Gothic building on the edge of campus.…

Read More
A woman holding a hymnal in front of a crowd.

United Methodist Church’s “Way Forward” Erases LGBTQI People

By pwsbuilder / October 10, 2016 /

Last Wednesday the executive committee of The United Methodist Church Council of Bishops announced that they had sent out invitations to the people they hoped would constitute the special commission formed at General Conference to discuss the vexing issue of whether and how the church will continue to discriminate against LGBTQI people. Lots of people…

Read More
A painting of a woman holding a heart.

Queering The Song Of Songs: Painting The Shulamite

By pwsbuilder / August 24, 2016 / Comments Off on Queering The Song Of Songs: Painting The Shulamite

Return, return, the Shulamite. Return, return, and let us gaze on you. How will you gaze on Shulamite in the dance of the two camps? How beautiful are your sandaled feet, O prince’s daughter. The curves of your (quivering) thighs are like jewels crafted by artist hands. Your vulva a rounded bowl; may it never…

Read More
Yellow chrysanthemums in a vase.

Growing In My Faith & My Marriage

By pwsbuilder / August 18, 2016 / Comments Off on Growing In My Faith & My Marriage

Who am I? I know the answer that is normally given would be; name, age, hometown, college, work, children, pets. Those answers are available, but before I list the things you can find out with a quick search I will define myself. I am a lover, free spirit, one who is easy to laugh, but…

Read More
A group of priests in white robes clapping their hands.

Catholics Welcome Pope Francis’ Call For Church Apology To Gay People, Others

By pwsbuilder / June 27, 2016 /

Catholics have begun to welcome Pope Francis’ recommendation that the church apologize to LGBT people, women, and others whom it has harmed. The pope made his remarks during an in-flight press conference on the return flight from his apostolic visit to Armenia over the weekend. Jesuit Fr. James Martin, a noted author and commentator, called…

Read More
A group of people holding signs in front of a building.

HB2: Bathroom Politics Sanction Discrimination

By pwsbuilder / May 16, 2016 / Comments Off on HB2: Bathroom Politics Sanction Discrimination

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory reached a new low last week by bringing a lawsuit against the Federal government on his right, and his state’s right, to discriminate. Governor McCrory’s attachment to bathroom politics, in a southern state, which once sported his, hers, and “colored” bathrooms, pulls back the curtain on conservative politics as a…

Read More