Faith & Religion

Prior to the fall of 2004 LGBT people were not talking about their faith much in Ohio—certainly not in any meaningful, organized way. Even more, faith communities who believed in equality for LGBT people were not speaking publicly. The public dialogue around issues of equality was dominated by those whose core ideology rejected the possibility of equality for all people in society and under the law. To be certain, LGBT people had their champions in pockets of Ohio’s faith community. Unfortunately, they were not organized, connected or visible. The goal of Equality Ohio's Our Faith projects is to change that.

From our inception, Equality Ohio has been committed to engaging people of faith in achieving our vision. The coalition meeting where Equality Ohio was formed occurred in the basement of King Avenue United Methodist Church in Columbus with the help of 65 state and national attendees, including many pastors and lay leaders. When we launched Equality Ohio to the public we pledged to be a resource for pro-equality faith communities across Ohio. Most importantly, the first public act of the organization occurred in October of 2006 when we were the only group in Ohio to coordinate an opportunity for leaders of various faiths to give voice to a different vision of Ohio than that which anti-equality pastor Rod Parsley of World Harvest Church espoused just 30 minutes later on the steps of Ohio’s Statehouse.

Over the past two years we have made good on our original promise to include, support, organize and strengthen communities of faith around Ohio.

As part of the organization’s outreach and education programs, the chief aims of the Our Faith project are to:

• Identify supportive faith communities and individual faith leaders, reaching out to them to build a strong statewide coalition that can speak pro-actively on issues of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people;
• Ensure that Ohio’s major cities have a coalition of faith leaders in place and ready to speak locally on behalf of equality in an organized, unified matter at a moment’s notice;
• Provide resources and materials to pro-equality faith communities and leaders across Ohio for the purpose of educating their local communities on issues of equality;
• Create a community accessible resource of pro-equality worship spaces around Ohio for people who are looking welcoming, affirming and otherwise open communities of faith.

For more information about Equality Ohio'is faith outreach and education initiatives, please contact Kim Welter at kim@equalityohio.org or 614.224.0400.

"I understand that many Ohioans struggle in reconciling their sexual orientation with their faith, and I’ve also seen many congregations struggle with their feelings on sexual orientation and gender identity. People of faith who embrace and love their LGBT friends and family need to know that they’re not alone."

- Rev. Tim Forbess, First United Methodist Church, Dayton, OH

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"I know that there are more churches like ours across the state, places where all people are valued regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Equality Ohio can help by giving us the tools to speak with one unified, statewide voice."

- Rev. Kathryn Nystrand Dwyer, St. John's Evangelical Protestant Church:
United Church of Christ, Columbus, OH