Rev. Brown's speech at City Hall following the announcement that the California Supreme Court had upheld Proposition 8, which denies the right of marriage to same-sex couples:
On behalf of the people of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, where we have been performing same-sex weddings since 1970, I am honored to stand here with you this evening resolute in my determination that the California Supreme Court has not had the last word on marriage equality. For months we have been hearing that the day of decision was coming, but what has not been said is that this day of decision does not belong to the highest court in California. Even though injustice and discrimination have prevailed for the moment, the bigger truth is that May 26, 2009 is really the day of decision that belongs to you and me. NOW is the moment when we have the opportunity to decide who we really are, and what we are called to do in the face of the tyranny of the majority that will continue to hurt our people until Prop 8 is overturned once and for all.
In his lifetime, our gay brother Harvey Milk made the decision to believe in the power of hope. In her lifetime, our lesbian sister Audre Lorde made the decision to speak truth to power. Every day, our heterosexual ally Judy Sheppard makes the decision to choose compassion and love over hatred and revenge against those who killed her son Matthew. What decision will you and I make today?
We have the opportunity right now, to decide to rise above the ignorance and misunderstanding of others, and to choose to march and demonstrate with a commitment to non-violence. We have the opportunity this night to decide to turn our anger into action, and our rage into a righteous power that will give us energy for the long battle ahead. We now have a golden opportunity to decide to take this experience of injustice that has been perpetrated against us, and use it to broaden our understanding of the suffering of all those who live every day under the burdens of racism and poverty. This is our chance, right here, right now in these streets together, to decide that this adversity is only going to make us stronger, more committed to making justice real for all people, and more determined than ever before to celebrate our fabulous queer ways of love and life and community every day.
My brothers and sisters, let May 26, 2009 forever be known as the Day of Decision of our people—the day we chose together to step fully into our calling and our ability to create hope, to speak truth to power, to believe in the sacredness of our love and our relationships, to never give up, and to trust that the day is coming when same-gender marriages, and life, and love will truly be celebrated all over this world in which we live.
Comments delivered by Rev. Lea Brown on Sunday, May 17th at a Castro neighborhood rally sponsored by Gays Without Borders and Rainbow World Fund to address escalating violence against LGBT people in Iraq:
On behalf of the people of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, where we seek to be a house of prayer for all people and a home for queer spirituality, I am here today as the leader of a spiritual community who is appalled that once again, our people are being beaten, tortured, and murdered in the name of God. Their murdered bodies are being labeled with the word “pervert” but it is not our fallen gay brothers and transsexual sisters who are perverts…the true perversion is that committed by others who insist hatred against any one group of people is the will of God.
The true perversion – the true abomination is not men who love men, or the expression of gender of our trans brothers and sisters, but it is what is done in the name of God all over the world. The true abomination is Christians who label all Muslims everywhere as terrorists, and Christians who also kill LGBT people in the name of God. The true abomination is Muslims in Iraq or anywhere who believe that LGBT people deserve only death. The true abomination is anyone, anywhere, of any faith who lives not by unconditional love, but by hate, and by violence against the oppressed.
On behalf of my congregation I am here to say that we stand in solidarity with Gays Without Borders, Rainbow World Fund, and our queer sisters and brothers in Iraq, and we are speaking out against the abominations being perpetrated against our people all over the world. And I am here to say this as well: don’t let what is happening Iraq, what is being done in the name of God – don’t let it destroy your own faith and spirituality. Our people are not only being physically killed in Iraq, they are being killed spiritually as well – and how many of us have also suffered religious violence at the hands of those who say they act for God? Don’t let anyone deprive you of your spirituality and spiritual power. The queer people in Iraq need us to step into that power, to bring peace and healing to our world. On their behalf, let us work to create a world where all people know they are created in the image of the Divine, and where all queer people know they are sacred and that we bring great joy to the heart of God.
Comments shared by Rev. Lea Brown at an Interfaith Service at Grace Cathedral on the Eve of Day of Decision:
I share with you tonight on behalf of the people of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, where we have been performing same-sex weddings since 1970.
As we continue to open our hearts in prayer, I invite all of us to hear these words by Marge Piercy:
Alone, you can fight...
But two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction.
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.
Please pray with me...
Holy One—under our chuppas and in our churches, in the presence of Gods and Goddesses and in the name of Allah, we have asked for your blessing on our holy unions, our commitment ceremonies, and on our weddings. As your people gathered with great hope for justice we ask your blessing upon us now, that by this time tomorrow we will be filled with your Spirit and dancing with joy in the streets as you celebrate with us.
But if this is not to be, Mother and Father God of all creation, we ask that you would bless us with holy indignation and sacred fire, that we might do what needs to be done, with love for our enemies and compassion for those who oppose us, until your justice is poured out upon us like a mighty river, and your righteousness like an everflowing stream.
May we embrace your power that we have together, and may we be filled up with your desire for peace and equality for all people. Holy One, expand our vision of what it means to say "We," that we might ever connect our experience of discrimination and oppression with all those who suffer due to poverty, racism, and hatred. As we struggle to bring hope to all those who live in the shadow of oppression, we ask that you would protect us from discouragement, and fill us with hope, that together we might understand and fully embrace our power and our calling to bring healing to our world. In your many names we pray, amen.
Cleaning out your closets? Support MCCSF at the same time! Did you know that you can support MCCSF financially by donating your used items to Community Thrift? It easy to do! Just take your items to Community Thift at 623 Valencia Street, and ask that your donations be coded to charity #16. As your items are sold, we will receive a portion of the proceeds. This is one of the easiest and most efficient ways you can provide financial support for MCCSF. For complete details, visit www.communitythriftsf.org.
We are a spiritual community which affirms that you are beloved! We serve as a witness of God’s radically inclusive love as "a home for queer spirituality."MCC San Francisco is part of the Metropolitan Community Churches, an international denomination that embraces lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgender persons, along with their families, friends, and advocates. We come from a variety of spiritual backgrounds and believe there are many paths to the holy. We celebrate not only the spirit but also the body as a place where God or the holy may be found. Our sexualities and our genders, we believe, are sacred gifts. We believe ourselves called to nurture one another in our individual and collective spiritual growth. We have proven to be a community of healing for many who previously thought of themselves as alone, unloved, or unholy. We also believe ourselves called to a prophetic ministry championing the marginalized, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. We work for justice and peace. We have Christian roots, and for that very reason we want to be for you “a house of prayer for all people” as Isaiah prophesied and Jesus called us to be. We invite you to visit us for any or all of our services and programs!
A message from The Reverend Lea Brown
—President George W. Bush, 2003
Some conservative activists charge that the Supreme Court essentially ignored the will of the majority, who supposedly are against gay marriage. Anger directed toward "judicial activism" is likely to be one of the primary arguments used to spur politically conservative voters to the polls in November, even though six of seven justices were Republican appointments. However, we can be sure that in the months ahead another impassioned plea will be repeatedly trumpeted to specifically mobilize religious conservatives: the "sanctity of marriage" battle cry.
From leaders and followers on the Religious Right: "Only love between a man and a woman is sacred!" From our nation’s highest elected official, speaking in the White House Rose Garden: "Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and woman." While our President should probably remain focused on the more than 4,000 American casualties in Iraq and our increasingly faltering economy, it is a pretty safe bet that 2003 will not be the last time he—or the 2008 standard-bearer for his party—makes a pledge to defend the "sanctity of marriage."
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