5 THINGS TO KNOW

MCC Church founder to donate artifacts to Smithsonian.

Rev. Elder Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Churches, the first Christian denomination with a primary ministry to the LGBT community, is donating a collection of artifacts from the church’s 51-year history to the Smithsonian Institution…

5 THINGS TO KNOW

What does queer mean? Well, there’s no one definition.

When people ask “What does the Q stand for in LGBTQ?” some people think its stands for “questioning” (as in someone who is questioning their own sexuality), but it actually stands for “queer,” a reclaimed anti-gay slur describing people whose sexual or…

5 THINGS TO KNOW

Forgotten origins of the modern gay rights movement in WWI.

Gay soldiers who survived the bloodletting returned home convinced their governments owed them something – full citizenship. Especially in Germany, where gay rights already had a tenuous footing, they formed new organizations to advocate in public for their rights. Though the movement that called itself…

5 THINGS TO KNOW

The 50 years history of the Metropolitan Community Church.

The 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots was the rightful heart of this summer’s World Pride celebrations. But a lesser-known 50th anniversary predating Stonewall, a golden jubilee year for a gay group that went all but unmentioned at World Pride…

5 THINGS TO KNOW

The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam.

Neither the Bible nor the Qur’an (Koran) has a lot to say about homosexuality, and what they do say relates only indirectly to contemporary discussions about gay rights and same-sex marriage. Like pre-modern scholars of law and ethics, these books assume…