Moderator of MCC Calls for Prayer Regarding the Death of a Gay Man in Jamaica

This past week, the LGBT community around the globe learned of yet another horrific attack on a gay man that resulted in his death.

John Terry, a British honorary consul living in Jamaica, was strangled and beaten to death by someone police believe to have been close to John. A note found on his bed referred to him as a "batty man" {derogatory slang for gay man} and that read in part, "This is what will happen to ALL gays."

Since 1997 Amnesty International has recorded the murders of at least 35 gay men on the island, including that of Brian Williamson, founder of JFLAG {Jamaica Forum for Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays} and of a man serving as the Choir Director of a Sunshine Cathedral MCC congregation in Jamaica. Thirty-two incidents of mob violence directed against LGBT people have been recorded in the last eighteen months alone. In many cases, the murders were followed by crowd celebrations around mutilated bodies.

THIS MUST STOP NOW!

"There is nothing politically correct or culturally sensitive about failing to name the realities that are violently claiming the lives of LGBT people and justifying those heinous acts," said Rev. Nancy Wilson, Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, the world's oldest and largest global LGBT organization. "'Murder music' is neither artistic form nor cultural heritage. It is, along with cries from the pulpit for condemnation and execution, and proclamations from the Jamaican Parliament advocating life in prison for so-called 'acts of gross indecency,' the instigation behind and support for not only criminal and immoral behavior, but untold human suffering," she added.

Rev. Robert Griffin, liaison to Sunshine Cathedral's MCC congregations in Jamaica, added that, "Even church-goers live in fear of detection, knowing that the safety of the sanctuary does not extend to them, simply because they are LGBT. The persecution and violence in Jamaica must stop and it must stop now!"

Though it should not matter, John Terry was both a gentleman and a generous human being, whose charitable acts included individual assistance to the poor and volunteer work with agencies, such as those dedicated to serving the mentally ill. His death, and the countless recorded and unrecorded victims of hate crimes before him, must not go unprotested by the international community.

Change is possible. Violence is endemic to no society. Good will among all and living in just and right relationship are not "insider" or "outside" concerns or standards. — They are the business of all of us who care deeply about the safety and well being of all God's children, in particular, God's LGBT children around the globe.

Join me today in:

+ Praying for an immediate end to homophobic violence in Jamaica and around the globe.

+ Contacting Sunshine Cathedral MCC in Jamaica and JFLAG, who together are working to combat the homophobia and discriminatory attitudes behind the violence in Jamaica. For more information regarding Sunshine Cathedral in Jamaica please contact Rev. Robert Griffin.

+ Reaching out, if you are a Jamaican citizen, to local religious leaders and asking for their assistance in ending the violence by preaching acceptance and tolerance of diversity.

+ Writing to The Honorable Orette Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica at hpmgolding@opm.gov.jm. 

Tell Prime Minister Golding that you are a person of faith demanding that the violence against LGBT people stop now. Tell him religious bigotry and social sanction must no longer be used to justify discrimination and criminal acts of violence against gay people. Laws that sanction discrimination must be eliminated, and laws that protect LGBT equally must be passed.

Tell him you are part of a global community of faith that believes in the value and dignity and worth of all God's children, and that you won't give up until all LGBT people are safe from persecution and violence in Jamaica.

We can make a difference. We must make a difference. We must not give up for the sake of the safety of our community in Jamaica.

//signed//

The Rev. Nancy L. Wilson

Moderator

Metropolitan Community Churches

Moderator of MCC on the Passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy 1932 -2009

Moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches

On the Passing of "The Lion of the Senate,"

Senator Edward M. Kennedy {22 February 1932 -25 August 2009}

Remarks by

Rev. Nancy L. Wilson

Office of the Moderator

www.MCCchurch.org

Today I join my voice to those of people around the globe who offer condolences to the family of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, and express sorrow at the loss of a human rights advocate and U.S. legilative leader in the battle for LGBT equality.

Though born into a private life of privilege, he used his public life to advocate for the marginalized on many frontiers. From immigration rights to equal accomodations for Americans with disabilities; from ending discrimination against LGBT people in the work place to preserving funding for minority and women owned businesses, Senator Kennedy remained a tireless advocate for anyone who has ever found themselves on the outside looking in.

Long haunted by the irresponsible behavior that led to the death of a fellow human being, he labored to become one of the most responsible and consistent advocates for the equality of all life.

+Kennedy's life passion was universal health care. He believed access to health care to be

a basic human right.

+Ted Kennedy stood firm in his denunciation of the war, first in Viet Nam and later in Iraq,

condemning what he believed to be a senseless loss of life.

+Always an advocate for civil rights and human equality, he was an early supporter of hate

crimes legislation that would address violence against the LGBT community, and one of

the few United States Senators to courageously vote against the Defense of Marriage Act

in the fall of 1996.

+Kennedy's words framed the debate on and battle for marriage equality: "This Amendment

{DOMA} would make a minority of Americans permanent second class citizens of this

country....And it would write discrimination into a document that has served as a historic

guarantee of individual freedom."

Standing for the freedom of people everywhere, Ted Kennedy fought to end apartheid in South Africa and discrimination at voting polls in the United States. He worked for peace in Northern Ireland and to ban arms sales to dictators in South America.

MCC Board of Administration member, John Hassell, worked with Senator Kennedy and his staff on their 2003 commemoration of the life and work of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and later in reauthorizing the United States global AIDS initiative known as PEPFAR. "I worked with the Senator's staff in organizing an indepth committee hearing on the need for strong American leadership on AIDS," John recounted. "I have never encountered a politician as deeply committed to lifting those on the margins as Senator Kennedy. A champion for the least of these has now passed the torch to us and we should be steadfast in meeting the challenge."

In one of his last public speeches, he called for "closing the book on the old politics of race and gender, and group against group, and straight against gay." He called us, as human beings, "to rise to our best ideals."

Senator Edward Moore Kennedy was, like many of us, a person of contradiction --- large in his hopes and dreams; urged toward action by his own faults and failings.

As I mourn his passing today, I pray that we may all honor the call to rise to our best selves and offer that as a living tribute to his life, knowing that although we have lost a comrade in the earthly battle for equality, we have gained a heavenly advocate.

//signed//

The Rev. Nancy L. Wilson

Moderator

Metropolitan Community Churches