One body with many members - A reflection for Christians At Pride
Sue Say, Church Warden, St Bride’s Liverpool, and ‘card-carrying lesbian’
AS PART of the Christians At Pride service at Liverpool Cathedral last weekend, Sue Say, a member of Open Table Liverpool, offered this reflection on the theme ‘Come Together’, inspired by St Paul’s image of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).
I will never forget the first time I heard this passage, my foster father read it to me in 1972 when I was just eight years old.
He told me that in God's eyes I was just as important as everyone else.
I didn't believe him.
I was a mixed-race left-handed demon raised in care in the 60's. I had already been told in a thousand different ways just how little I mattered. I had felt very alone.
Sue speaking at the Christians At Pride service in Liverpool Cathedral’s Lady Chapel on Sunday 31st July 2022, with British Sign Language interpreter in front.
My father went on to explain that we were all needed, all part of God's plan. We all had to work together doing what we could.
“Some suggest we had to put aside our differences. No, I don’t think so. I think we had a much harder job. We had to accept our differences. We had to embrace our uniqueness and celebrate our diversity. ”
My father told me that by making our individual contributions, we could spread God's love to everyone. We were told to look after each other, and to love each other.
Now, that was the part that really resonated with me.
Oh, I loved that. Working together to change the world. I felt inspired.
I thought often over the years, about the many parts, all different but all needed. United in victory and defeat.
I have always been a card-carrying lesbian, I knew for sure when I was 12-years-old. Kojak (the actor, Telly Savalas, came off my wall and up went Billy Jean King. I feel a bit robbed because I don't have a coming-out story
My parents were good Christians who didn't judge, and were very big on truth. So I thought nothing of proclaiming my undying love for Ann at the dinner table one evening. My mother responded: ‘Let me know when you going to invite her for tea’. My father, well, I think he said, ‘Can you pass me the sugar please, Sue?’
But anyway, I went to my first London Lesbian Strength march in 1980, when I was 15 years old. It was incredible. I had never seen so many amazing women gathered in one place. To be surrounded by like-minded people, all demanding the right to walk the streets of our city in safety, dressed the way we wanted to and most importantly, in control of our own destiny - it was a defiant demonstration. It was very empowering.
The Gay Pride march was held on the same day. As the years rolled on, and funding became limited, the two marches eventually combined, working together. So was born London Lesbian and Gay Pride.
Some suggest we had to put aside our differences. No, I don't think so. I think we had a much harder job. We had to accept our differences. We had to embrace our uniqueness and celebrate our diversity.
We did so by looking inwards, creating the safe spaces for our growing community to be able to discuss and examine our preconceptions and inner prejudices.
And so began the addition of letters of our rainbow community - LG became LGBT, and eventually LGBTQIA+. This, born out of our genuine need as a community to be inclusive, the outcasts refusing to pass on that pain.
Pride is a magnificent example of the many different parts, no one more important than anyone else, working together for the betterment of all. United, not just demonstrating or campaigning, but having a party through the streets, celebrating, experiencing joy. Coming together in all our glorious colours to show the world our rainbow. Without blue or red or yellow, we can not be what we are. We are all important.
Our glitter and our glamour, our outrageous displays of self-affirmation are all part of who we are. But so is the support, and respect, that we show each other. Pride is a time when, in coming together, we are safe to be ourselves.
