NORFOLK — More than a dozen faith leaders gathered Wednesday to support the LGBTQ+ community against this year’s rise in violence and anti-LGBTQ legislation.
After Human Rights Watch last week declared a national “State of Emergency” for LGBTQ+ Americans, the Hampton Roads LGBTQAI Interfaith Group decided to hold a news conference at MJ’s Tavern to show its solidarity, according to one of the group’s founders, Rev. Mark Byrd, senior pastor at New Life Metropolitan Community Church in Norfolk.
The group gathers annually ahead of PrideFest in addition to other meetings. But this year, it felt it needed to do more.
“No matter the differences in our faith — and we have differences in our faith, just a little,” Byrd said to chuckles from the group behind him, which included Jewish and Druid leaders and representatives of various Protestant denominations.
“We hold a common belief that violence in any form, be it physical, be it rhetorical, be it legislative, goes against and is contrary to the call to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.”
There have been over 520 anti-LGBT bills introduced around the country this year, Byrd said, with 220 specifically targeting transgender and nonbinary people. So far, 74 have passed.
According to a 2023 survey by The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention organization, 41% of young people who identify as LGBTQ have considered suicide in the past year.
The survey also indicated two-thirds of LGBTQ youth said hearing about potential state or local laws banning people from discussing LGBTQ people at school substantially worsened their mental health. One such policy, commonly referred to as “Don’t Say Gay” rules, passed last week in western Virginia, where the Bedford County School Board voted 5-1 in favor.
Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gill of Tidewater Chavurah spoke about intersectionality between the Jewish and LGBTQ communities, remarking on how frequently the same organizations that target LGBTQ individuals also express antisemitic views.
“We have a common — I won’t say enemy — but people who have in common the fear of Jews and the fear of LGBTQ people, the same people: white supremacists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis,” she said. “That’s one of the reasons we choose to stand with the LGBTQ community. We stand together in opposition to those who out of fear and hate threaten us, but they will not win.”
Rev. Mario Melendez, with the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, speaks about his, and other faith leaders in the Hampton Roads interfaith community, support for the LGBTQI+ community during Wednesday, June 14, 2023, afternoon’s press conference in Norfolk.Another speaker, Rev. Mario Melendez of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, spoke passionately about the importance of compassion and respect for human dignity.
“We have to ask ourselves, how many more children are going to be sacrificed at the altar of power, political fundraising and cynicism?” he said. “How many more families are going to suffer at the hands of demonic forces of xenophobia, homophobia and transphobia? I say no more.”
Continuing the plea to support LGBTQ youth and families, Rev. Noah Van Niel, the rector at Christ & St. Luke’s Episcopal in Norfolk, said he wanted young people to know there are faith communities where they will be accepted.
“This is a matter of life and death,” he said,” The stakes are that high.”
Susan Pederson, the cofounder of the Interfaith group, said that she hadn’t planned to speak, but added her voice to plead for support from LGBTQ+ allies.
“We need the straight community as much as the LGBTQ community,” she said.
Asked what changed her mind about speaking, she paused and shrugged.
“The Holy Spirit.”
Katrina Dix, 757-222-5155, [email protected]
