Affirmation News, Volume 4, Number 11, November 1995 Page: 2 of 6
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Gay & Lesbian AllianceAgainstDefamation/Dallas
Human Rights Campaign Fund ED Birch addresses Christian
Coalition conferees; Calls for New Ethic of Respect and DecencySome members of Pat Robertson's Christian
Coalition recently joined with progressive
clergy and other supporters of Lesbian and
Gay equal rights to hear a speech by HRCF
Executive Director Elizabeth Birch during the
group's annual "Road to Victory" conference
in Washington.
More than 300 people crowded into a ball-
room to hear Birch deliver an address in the
form of an "open letter" to Christian Coalition
members. The speech was held next to a
Gramm for President luncheon, and just
down the hall from the conference's main
ballroom where most of the 1996 GOP presi-
dential hopefuls were addressing the two-day
gathering.
When her formal request to address the
conference was turned down, Birch reserved
a room in the same hotel that would host the
conference, to deliver her message directly to
Christian Coalition members.
Excerpts from her speech follow:
The time has come for us to speak to each
other rather than past each other.
I believe in the power of the word and the
value of honest communication. During my
years of work as a litigator at a major corpo-
ration, I was often amazed at what simple,
fresh and truthful conversation could accom-
plish. And what is true in the corporate set-
ting is also true, I'm convinced, in our com-
munities. If we could leam to speak and lis-
ten to each other with integrity, the conse-
quences might shock us.
I am grateful for those who have come
today and will give me "the benefit of the
doubt" and be willing to consider what I have
to say. I will be hopeful, most of all, if you
respond by joining me in finding new ways
to speak with honesty not only about one
another, but also to one another.
If I am confident in anything at all, it is this:
our communities have more in common than
we care to imagine. This is not to deny the
many differences. But out of our sheer
humanity comes some common ground.
Although the stereotype would have us
believe otherwise, there are many conserva-
tive Americans within the nation's Gay and
Lesbian communities.
What's more, there are hundreds of thou-
sands of Christians among us - Christians of
all traditions, including those represented in
the Christian Coalition.
And, like it or not, we are part of your fam-
ily. And you are part of our community. We
are neighbors and colleagues, business asso-
ciates and friends. More intimately still, you
are fathers of sons who are Gay and mothers
of daughters who are Lesbians. I know many
of your children very, very well. I work with
them. I worry with them. And I rejoice thatthey are part of our community.
Many of your children who are Gay and
Lesbian are gifted and strong. Some are
famous; most are not. But many are heroic in
the way they have conquered barriers to their
own self-respect and the courage with which
they've set out to serve a higher good. All
were created by God. And you have every
right to be proud of each of them.
I begin by noting the worthiness of the
Gays and Lesbians in your family and our
community for a reason: it's hard to commu-
nicate with people we do not respect. And
the character of prejudice, of stereotype, of
demagoguery, is to tear down the respect
others might otherwise enjoy in public, even
the respect they would hold for themselves in
private. By taking away respectability, rhetor-
ically as well as legally, we justify the belief
that they are not quite human, not quite wor-
thy, not quite deserving of our time, or our
attention, or our concem.
And that is, sadly, what many of your chil-
dren and colleagues and neighbors who are
Gay and Lesbian have feared is the intent of
the Christian Coalition. If it were true, of
course, it would be not only regrettable, but
terribly hypocritical; it would not be worthy
of the true ideals and values based in love at
the core of what we call "Christian."
The reason I have launched this conversa-
tion is to ask that you join me in a common
demonstration that this is not true.
I am convinced that if we cannot find ways
to respect one another as human beings, and
therefore to respect one another's rights, we
will do great damage not only to each other,
but also to those we say we represent.
I recognize that it is not easy for us to
speak charitably to each other. I have read
fundraising letters in which people like me
are assigned labels which summon up the
ugliest of dehumanizing stereotypes. I have
heard of poiidcal agendas calling not merely
for the defeat of those I represent, but for our
eradication.
Such expressions of hatred do not, can not,
beget a spirit of trust. Nor do they pass the
test of either truthfulness or courage. They
bear false witness in boldface type.
I would not ask that you, as members of a
Christian group, or as supporters of a conser-
vative political cause, set aside either your
basic beliefs or your historic commitments.
The churches which many of you represent
were also the churches I attended as a young
woman. In those days, I heard sermons about
justice and sang songs about forgiveness. My
greatest hope is not that you will give up your
faith, but that it will work among all of us.
Neither of us should forsake our funda-
mental convictions. But we could hold thoseconvictions with a humility that allows mom
for the lives of others; neither of us may be
the sole possessors of truth on every given
issue. And we could express our convictions
in words that are, if not affectionate, and if
not even kind, then at least decent, civil,
humane. We need not demonize each other
simply because we disagree.
For some (Gay men and Lesbians), the
deepest agony of life is not that they risk
physical abuse or that they will never gain
their civil rights, but that they have felt the
judgment of an institution on which they
staked their lives: the church. What they long
for most is what they once believed was
theirs as a birthright: the knowledge that they
are God's children, and that they can come
home.
And it is not only those of us who are Gay
or Lesbian who have suffered on the
doorstp of some congregations. Parents,
fearing what others at church might whisper,
choose to deny the reality that their son is
Gay or their daughter is a Lesbian. Brothers
and sisters suffer an unhealthy, and unwar-
ranted, and un-Christian shame. They bear a
burden that cripples their faith, based on a
fear that cripples us all.
I have come today...to make three simple,
sincere appeals to those of you who are
members of the Christian Coalition.
Please make integrity a watchword for the
campaigns you launch. We all struggle to be
people of integrity, especially when we cam-
paign for funds. But the fact that we are
tempted by money is no excuse. We need to
commit ourselves to a higher moral ground.
I ask that, as individuals, you talk to those
of us who are Gay or Lesbian, rather than
succumb to the temptation to either avoid us
at all cost, as if we are not a part of your com-
munity, or to rant at us, as if we are not wor-
thy of quiet conversation.
Finally, I appeal to you as people who pas-
sionately uphold the value of the family. You
have brothers and sons who have not heard a
word of family affection since the day they
summoned the courage to tell the simple truth.
You have sisters and daughters who have
given up believing that you mean it when you
say, "The family is the basic unit of society," or
even, "God loves you, and so do I."
Above all the other hopes with which I've
come to you hovers this one: that some mem-
ber of the Christian Coalition will call some
member of the Human Rights Campaign
Fund and say, "It's been a long time, son" -
or, "I'm missing you, my daughter" - and
before the conversation ends, someone will
hear the heartfelt words, "Come home. Let's
talk to each other."
In that hope, I appeal to each of you.DAL
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United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Concerns. Affirmation News, Volume 4, Number 11, November 1995, periodical, November 1995; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1608717/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.