How wonderful to be invited to join such an array of notable speakers at the LGBT History Month session at the Chester Police Headquarters. The session was organised so well and brought together representatives from Liverpool Open Table Kieran Bohan; the Equality & Diversity representative from 5 Boroughs NHS Partnership Tara Hewitt; Rose Neelam discussing LGBT and being a Muslim; and Khakan Qureshi from Finding a Voice in Birmingham: all of this, more than ably organised and led by Kat Stock, a PCSO and the LGBT chair of Cheshire Police Network (CCLGBTNetwork) group.
The session was introduced by the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner, John Dwyer.
It was notable that all speakers of differing faiths were in agreement... about LGBT! Here's a picture of them all (Kieran was hiding it would seem!):
The session was introduced by the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner, John Dwyer.
It was notable that all speakers of differing faiths were in agreement... about LGBT! Here's a picture of them all (Kieran was hiding it would seem!):
All the speakers, bringing together the different faiths of Christianity (Anglican & Roman Catholicism) and Islam mentioned their journey, of particular struggles when confronting their own faith with respect to LGBT but, contrary to many perceptions, winning people over with love. As they engaged with people, as others understood what it meant to be LGBT or how coming out enabled that person to be the person that God truly made them to be, others saw the deeper meaning and came to a greater understanding and empathy. All felt that winning a personal battle was one thing but they were committed to putting their head in the firing line and give a voice to the many who were unable to speak out.... or come out. And they encouraged all of us to do the same: to stand up for others within the LGBT community.
It was such a encouraging afternoon of reassurance and positivity.
Our short talk focussed upon the Clobber verses, those 6 verses out of the 31000+ verses in the Bible which are used to criticise others because of their homosexuality but which can be interpreted very differently when particular words are examined in context. Remember that the word 'homosexuality' was only introduced into the language in 1869, and then to describe what they perceived to be a disease. Of further interest the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was the first Bible to include the word and that in 1946 - rather recent really. So what were they interpreting this to be prior to 1946?
It was such a encouraging afternoon of reassurance and positivity.
Our short talk focussed upon the Clobber verses, those 6 verses out of the 31000+ verses in the Bible which are used to criticise others because of their homosexuality but which can be interpreted very differently when particular words are examined in context. Remember that the word 'homosexuality' was only introduced into the language in 1869, and then to describe what they perceived to be a disease. Of further interest the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was the first Bible to include the word and that in 1946 - rather recent really. So what were they interpreting this to be prior to 1946?
Our own personal journey was also given but is one that is heard and not put on line. Here are our slides:
chester_lgbthm_interfaith_lgbt_lincs_for_blog.pdf |