This Black History Month reflects on the deep connection between Black history and faith, highlighting how faith has served as a sanctuary and source of strength for the Black community in their pursuit of equality. Despite the church being central to liberation movements, the author recounts their experience as a Black lesbian feeling excluded within a faith that celebrated their racial identity but not their sexuality. Ultimately, they found a church that embraced their whole identity, emphasizing the ongoing need for acceptance and love within religious spaces.
In my entire time in the church, I have never had a female pastor or queer pastor. Anyone who was openly gay, lesbian, or queer was shunned.
Growing up as a Black lesbian woman in a church that celebrated my Blackness but condemned my queerness and womanness felt like a contradiction too heavy to bear.
Faith has always carried a radical message. Its message of belonging,... has been woven into the fabric of Black history and continues to blanket us in hope.
The church was always more than a house of worship. It was in its pews, prayer circles, and among those choirs that some of our greatest movements were imagined into reality.
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