State College Friends Meeting
Minute of Solidarity with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) Community
Adapted from a similar minute from Germantown Monthly Meeting:
Those who would extinguish freedom have historically targeted the most vulnerable and disregarded in society — those with the fewest allies, the fewest willing to put themselves in harm’s way to defend them, the fewest who see their fate as inextricably bound up with them. To the degree they are successful in isolating the most marginalized, they are emboldened to widen their assault until, in the famous and sobering words of Martin Niemöller, “There is no one left to speak out.”
Today, those facing the spearhead of this attack are the LGBTQIA community — and in particular, trans people. Those who oppose granting rights to these groups are now focusing their assault on this minority-within-a-minority that does not conform to conventional norms of gender expression and gender identity and who can most easily be “othered.”
The viciousness and danger of this assault is reflected in the overtly genocidal threats that are now issued publicly without shame or qualification. “Transgenderism,” a recent speaker at CPAC [Conservative Political Action Committee] proclaimed, “must be eradicated from our public life,” chillingly echoing the language of the Nuremberg Laws. And in grim confirmation of the seriousness of this intent, the flood of recent state laws prohibiting gender-affirming care, not only for children and adolescents but also for adults, will, to a certainty, multiply the cost in trans lives beyond the already intolerable levels of violence, murder, and suicide that plague this beleaguered community, effectively eradicating trans individuals.
Even the advances in civil rights for the broader queer community that we have come to take for granted are under attack, as opponents seek to carve out “religious freedom” exceptions to anti-discrimination laws and call on an already predisposed Supreme Court majority to re-legitimize anti-sodomy laws and reverse marriage equality.
We affirm the spark of the Divine in all people. We are willing to sit with those who seem to us to view the world otherwise. We recognize that other cultures are in much different social spaces than North American, Euro-centric Quakers. We urge these other cultures to attend to their inward Teacher, who will lead all to right action. All who claim Christ as their Savior are expected by Him to live His teachings. We would do well to remember to “love your enemies,” and the truth that “As you have done to the least of these, so have you done to me;” and “do to others as you would have done to you.”
In such a climate, the still, small voice must be lifted up. Mere assurances of tolerance, acceptance, goodwill, and even support are no longer enough from those who stand for justice and equality. We of State College Monthly Meeting commit ourselves, as individuals and collectively, to active resistance and to solidarity with LGBTQIA people everywhere, in ways including:
- Declaring to the world that all individuals are by right entitled to follow the sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression that are authentically theirs, and we will actively campaign for laws and policies that reflect this testimony.
- Promising to provide a safe space for all LGBTQIA members, attenders, and other individuals who reach out to us.
- Pledging to continually educate ourselves on issues of concern to the queer community and charging our committees to consider how LGBTQIA issues impact their work and how they can contribute to advancing justice and equality.
- Pledging to be allies in word and deed
Friends interested in accessing a minute from Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting and also resources, are encouraged to follow this link.
