Special day set aside to welcome LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people
Selkirk United Church is a very busy place in our community. The space has transformed for many different local activities from welcoming artists and musicians, to being a rehearsal space for local theatre. Last week the church once again celebrated PIE Day affirming its stance to be public, intentional, and explicit about it being a welcoming place for all LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people.
The event started with members gathering to eat some pizza (pie).
From there, Rev. Cole Grambo took to the floor to lead the discussion that followed.
“In a year like this year, it might have been easy to focus on other things, and maybe that’s one of the goals of those who are causing chaos around the world right now, to divide our attention in so many different ways, in so many different places, and so many different issues we forget about some of the important ones,” said Grambo.
Despite all of the upheaval that seems to be going on, Grambo explained that we do have time for PIE Day this year.
“At the same time that all of these other things are happening, we have people’s very identities under attack. Vulnerable people are being made even more vulnerable, and hatred and racism, homophobia, and transphobia, and all the other phobias are on the rise, and they are being given a voice, and those voices are becoming more radical and more aggressive,” he explained.
Grambo said that that is why PIE Day, a day when the United Church celebrates the public, intentional, and explicit inclusion of LGBTQIA+ and Two-Spirit people, is so important to have.
He then decided to steer the presentation through some recent events going from more local stories to national ones.
Grambo started by discussing the church’s Pride Flag which flies above the front entrance to the church saying that the church was very glad to be able to put one up. They did have an unfortunate incident a few months ago when some vandals ripped the flag down and caused some damage. Luckily, they ordered a new flag plus a few more as backups should something like this happen again. The new flag is currently flying. Additionally, they have coordinated with others and they now know about cameras in the area that they will be checking if any additional vandalism occurs.
He has also offered to forgive the vandals should they come forward.
“The flag stolen in the middle of the night probably isn’t the worst, but we’re ready to put up a new one, if and when that happens again. That’s a minor detail for us. It’s not a big cost measure, but it’s important to have that flag flying to show people who we are and what we support. The fact it was stolen does say something too. There’s more work needed,” said Grambo.
The presentation then shifted to a video clip where United Church of Canada Moderator Carmen Lansdowne discussed the work of the church to be public, intentional, and explicit.
“Now, more than ever, when queer rights are being threatened and religiously motivated, anti-LGBTQIA+ hatred is on the rise, we must proudly sing out and embrace PIE,” said Lansdowne.
Lansdowne also recommended that people check out the winners of the Sing out Proud song contest that the United Church of Canada hosted with songs celebrating inclusion. They can be found online at https://pieday.ca/.
Grambo then discussed a recent news program created by CBC’s The Fifth Estate which featured the struggles of a small Alberta town’s library which was defunded. This library had been a safe space for LGBTQIA+ youth. The whole story can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRDL9Fm1ZLA.
“It’s a very interesting show, very disturbing. One of the things that jumped out at me was the word indoctrination. That side of things is worried that, opening things up and learning about who people are is an indoctrination. What actually is an indoctrination is trying to close all that talk down so that your vision is then very narrow in terms of what you’re learning about, what are the possibilities in your life are for you as a person, or who you actually are, how you identify. So, I think they’ve just got it so twisted backwards that they’re worried that more education is going to be a terrible thing, and they want less and less and less until everyone’s acting the same way. It’s just very scary and very sad,” he said.
Because it wasn’t possible to show the entire video in Grambo’s presentation, he also showed a clip of an LGBTQIA+ youth who took part in the video. This person strongly advocated for the need for a safe space in the community.
Grambo also read some of the letters of support that the library and the youth received from the rest of the country supporting the need for public, intentional, and explicit, safe and inclusive spaces in our community.
Grambo then turned the presentation to the international stage discussing the recent changes that the American government has taken to remove rights from people in the LGBTQIA+ community.
From there, he opened the discussion to the group.
Many people reaffirmed that the church needed to be an inclusive space. Some members also discussed how, though they don’t themselves understand what being a person in the LGBTQIA+ community is like, they don’t have to know, to know that they are people deserving to be included.
Though they already had inclusive marriage and baptism policies in place. The Selkirk United Church took its first steps to become an affirming community in 2014 and after some work, in July of 2015, they officially became an affirming community within the United Church of Canada. In 2019 the church held its first PIE Day and every year the members continue to reaffirm their commitment to being public, intentional, and explicit.
