A Prayer of Queer Thanksgiving

For this LGBTQ+ Pride Sunday: "A Prayer of Queer Thanksgiving." A chance encounter on Pride parade day calls forth a rainbow revelation, a great cloud of witnesses--and martyrs, and a vision of chosen family in the kin-dom of God. Rev. John MacIver Gage shares a poem-slash-prayer originally offered by Rev. Micah Bucey.Here are all the names mentioned in the poem. Give yourself a little Pride Week homework and look up all the ones you don't know: Marsha P. Johnson; Sylvia Rivera; Christine Jorgensen; Marlene Dietrich; Sylvester; David Bowie; Billy Tipton; Langston Hughes; Lorraine Hansberry; James Baldwin; Oscar Wilde; Octavia Butler; Larry Kramer; José Esteban Munoz; Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick; Michel Foucault; Divine; Candy Darling; Andy Warhol; Hibiscus; Alvin Ailey; Alan Turing; Bayard Rustin; Harvey Milk; Audre Lorde; Michael Callen; Harry Hay; Gilbert Baker; Edie Windsor; Jane Addams; Dick Leitsch; Troy Perry; Pauli Murray; Leonard Bernstein; Howard Ashman; Sister Rosetta Tharpe; Michael Bennet; Willi Ninja; Frida Kahlo; Keith Haring; Jean-Michel Basquiat; Rita Hester; Matthew Shepard; Brandon Teena; Roxana Hernandez; Upstairs Lounge (1973: New Orleans); Pulse Nightclub (2016: Orlando)The Congregational Church of Needham strives to be a radically Inclusive, justice-seeking, peace- making, love-affirming congregation of the United Church of Christ in Needham, MA. Find us on the web at www.NeedhamUCC.org and follow us on Instagram @NeedhamUCC.