A Texas church has chosen a radically different path from many denominations nationwide. Instead of demonizing LGBTQ+ people, the Galileo Church in Fort Worth has opted to support and welcome the community.
The congregation is particularly disturbed by the state legislature’s recently enacted law that bans healthcare providers from treating trans kids and has launched a program to help families get their children the healthcare they need.
“Health care is a human right, and withholding necessary care for trans kids is state-sponsored cruelty. As neighbors to one another, we seek ways to help each other’s families flourish,” the church says on the website for the new program, the North Texas TRANSportation Network.
The church will assist families who need to travel out of state to get treatment for their children with a $1000 grant. Individual donors and organizations fund the group; no public money is used.
The not-for-profit doesn’t require religious beliefs or church participation from applicants. The only qualification is that families must live in the 19-county northern Texas area and have a trans or gender-diverse child.
“I’m a mother, I have three kids so and I have always been able to get the healthcare for my kids that they desperately needed,” Executive Director Cynthia Daniels told CBS News. “So to me it’s just being a good neighbor to a group of people who have been selected to not be able to receive their healthcare and to me that’s devastating.”
Grants are distributed as the funds become available.
There is a diversity of Christian denominations and some are (socially) progressive. But we seldom hear about them as angry evangelical ones scream mich louder. But they are there, doing their work as they always have making little news unless you look for it.
For example the Metropolitan Community Church has ordained LGBT clergy since 1968 and United Church of Christ since -72. So there are very socially progressive denominations out there, just wish their voices were heard louder. Or that media reported on them more.
Thinking of it I would like more Christian schisms to be prevalent.
My partner was telling me that Tammy Faye Bakker was a queer ally during the AIDS epidemic, gave a victim of AIDS a hug when people were scared to touch them, told christians to be ashamed of themselves for turning their backs, and had one on her TV show (by satellite because all the crew were scared so it wasn’t logistically possible). All these people are batshit crazy but like they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day
She certainly had the same taste in makeup as many queer performers.
Thank you for highlighting this fact. For another example, the Episcopal Church has LGBT clergy, and performs marriages for LGBT people. It strongly emphasizes welcoming everyone with no exceptions, and supports lots of social welfare programs. They even oppose legal restrictions on abortion. Liberal Christians are out there but they don’t make headlines in most cases.