Building LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Resources

Denton, Texas is a growing college town of 130,000 people. Early in my ministry, I became aware of the need for resources to support LGBTQ+ members of the larger Denton community. On June 1, 2011, Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hosted a community meeting to assess the needs of the community and also extend our reach for volunteer leaders. 90 people attended that meeting and many of them committed to work toward resource-building. From that meeting OUTreach Denton was formed.

OUTreach Denton continues to function as a program of Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship serving the wider Denton County community. Programs include a weekly LGBTQ+ youth group, an annual observance of the Transgender Day of Remembrance on the Denton square, social events for LGBTQ+ adults, and other programs, advocacy, and resource-building that support and celebrate people from marginalized sexual orientations and gender identities.

Denton Unitarian Universalist Fellowship became the center of LGBTQ+ work in our community. I often spoke at public rallies, vigils, and marches and was always contacted by the newspaper for comments on any LGBTQ+ related articles (as in the Supreme Court addressing the Colorado bakery). I offered an invocation for each Transgender Day of Remembrance. I was brought into conversations with the City of Denton to promote fair legislative practices within the City. I listened to, and sat with, countless parents as they processed a sudden awareness of their child's sexual orientation and/or gender identity. I helped to connect LGBTQ+ people to doctors, dentists, counselors, hair dressers, auto mechanics, real estate agents, and other professionals who would respectfully offer their services regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

When the 2015 Supreme Court decision created marriage equality across the country, I was invited to speak at a rally and officiate the County's first same-sex wedding on the steps of the historic courthouse square before hundreds of people.

The congregation hosted a Wedding Chapel event in July 2015, inviting members of the community (who were previously restricted from marriage rights) to get married at no cost. Six couples joined us that day for wedding ceremonies and a celebratory reception like nothing I'd ever experienced!