73 20 2617 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/cbd238f96adb4f4371a4b152f8301a42.jpg b4ac8088db657871937fc9b171c36590 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/141f633a19e3901275818884328e4a4e.jpg 4402badcb11fb69a3dad40c9495f8e8b https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/78e670069243f4f7261cdb0d5f35f0d3.jpg 33db27c2a58d858c57a7974072029f1d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Shower of Stoles Description An account of the resource Items (stoles) for the Shower of Stoles exhibit Stole A stole in the Shower of Stoles exhibit Honoree The person honored by the creation of thestole. Molly Mead Stole Text Molly Mead Denomination Presbyterian Church (USA) United Church of Christ Contribution Date 2001 Contribution Story This is one of 52 stoles donated to the Shower of Stoles collection by members and staff of Church of the Covenant. Although each of the stoles is unique, all of them are tied together by the inclusion of a piece cloth from a common bolt of blue and ivory material somewhere in the stole. Covenant is both a More Light and Open and Affirming Congregation. Their strong and public advocacy on behalf of LGBT persons in the life and leadership of the church has drawn many LBGT persons to become a part of the Covenant church family. Their 52 stoles represent the largest subset of stoles given to the collection by any one congregation. Church of the Covenant, a federated United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church, is steeped in history. Located just off the Boston Commons, the Gothic revival building erected in the mid-1800's was one of the first churches built in the Back Bay area. In the 1890's the sanctuary was completely redecorated by Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co., including the creation of an extraordinary set of Tiffany stained-glass windows and a chandelier that is said to be the first electrified light installed in a public building by Thomas Edison. Covenant's history of social justice and human rights work is equally rich. When I visited Covenant, I was intrigued to learn that the church was a designated stop along the "Boston Women's Heritage Trail." One of Covenant's members, Abbie Child, was the head of the Women's Board of Missions of the Congregational Church in the late 1800's. Another member, Dr. Elsa Meder, was one of the first women ordained as an elder in the Presbyterian Church. Elizabeth Rice and Alice Hageman, ordained in 1974 and 1975 respectively, were the first women to serve as pastors at a Back Bay church. When they were joined by Donna Day Lower, the church became the only one in the United States with three women clergy. Since opening the "Women's Lunch Place" in 1982, the church has served as a haven for poor women and their children. It is fitting, then, that one of the Tiffany windows is "Four Women of the Bible," including Miriam, Deborah, Mary of Bethany, and Dorcas. Covenant remains on the forefront of work for equality and justice, and is active in the LGBT Welcoming movement in the Boston area and beyond. Martha Juillerat Founder, Shower of Stoles Project 2006 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context 752 Title A name given to the resource Molly Mead Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Boston, Massachusetts (USA) Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Church of the Covenant Boston Clergy Activist Feminism Massachusetts Mead, Molly More Light Presbyterians for LGBT Concerns Open and Affirming in the UCC (ONA) Ordination Presbyterian Presbyterian Church (USA) Theology United Church of Christ Women and Religion https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c2cfb6a2b3c21a38d84a4438d1adbc05.jpg 30e7aac36306b5a0dd1b4f4ee3b5e7fd Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Why I'm on the side of the Quakers by Monica Furlong In the past few days a group of Quakers, with all the courage for which the Friends are so famous, has created controversy by taking a look at personal relationships in our society and faithfully reporting what it saw. Which is that, whether we like it or not, the citizens of this country do not, for the most part, live by the traditional Christian ethic of absolute virginity before marriage and absolute fidelity afterwards. But, whereas at this point most Christian bodies in this country go off into pious tutting instead of serious thinking, the Quakers have taken the opportunity not only to ask whether the moral breakdown may mean t hat our morals are unrealistic, but also to ask what our morality is for. Is it merely there to keep up a comfortable and respectable facade, or is it (and this is the point where it touches Christianity) to give men lives more abundantly full of happiness and love? Is there not a frightful danger of making morals ends in themselves when we should be realising that they are merely guiding lines, lines to remind us of the degrees of love we owe to our married partners, our children, our fellow men and women, and our neighbours? The Quakers are, of course, going to be accused of naivety as well as of far worse things, so this is the time to recognise the true value of what they have been saying. They are asking us to reject traditional Christian morality not because it sets us too high a standard but because its standard is not high enough. The fear Looking around them, the writers see homosexuals obliged to lead furtive and frightened lives: they see married couples who relationship has become a bitter, sterile thing. They see young people who, when they obey conventional Christian morals, do so more from fear--fear of pregnancy, disease or of sex itself--than out of love for their fellows. The Quakers are not suggesting we should sweep traditions away in order to indulge in orgy and promiscuity. On the contrary, they are demanding a standard infinitely higher than the orthodox view demands. They are begging us to forget about what is "done," and instead to train ourselves and our children to behave with love and responsibility in every sort of personal relationship. Such an attitude might mean that young people sometimes had affairs, but it would discourage the flippant and callous kind of promiscuity which is the real enemy of joyful living. It might mean that husbands and wives sometimes admitted to one another that they were "in love" with someone outside the marriage, but it would also mean that they made much more resolute attempts to resolve their marital problems. It would certainly be an end of the kind of squalid intrigue or the heartless "going off with someone else" which is he real enemy of marriage. These recommendations might mean that homosexuals began to live as openly together as heterosexuals do. The courage It would be a merciful release from the pitiful half-life of the public lavatory, the court, and the prison which is one of the ugliest indictments of our community. Those who complain, as many are already doing, that the Quakers are wanting to do away with all "restraints" can know nothing of the true nature of love. Where a legalistic morality asks us to one mile, a genuine love or those around us makes us go two. It takes real courage and energy for a marriage couple to resolve their difficulties as they go along instead of sinking into apathetic indifference. It takes real restraint for young men and women to behave lovingly towards one another when, as always, there is a strong bias towards selfishness and lust. But then it is this kind of courage and love that Christianity is about. If we deny that it is possible for men and women to live good, happy lives when controlled by love rather than by fear and regulations, then we are denying Christianity itself. When questioned on television about their report, two of the Quakers were asked whether they did not make the mistake of assuming that everyone come from a good, loving home where responsible relationships are taken for granted. Their reply cut to the heart of the matter. The need They pointed out that me and women who have not been brought up in a loving atmosphere fall below moral standards in any case. Having been so badly damaged in childhood, they can make little sense of conventional morals, and will spread pain and lovelessness around. The people who do make sense of morals are precisely those who have been brought up with love: and it is these people anyway who keep the moral laws not from a blind sense of legality or respectability but because good morals are for them the proper expression of love. It would seem, therefore, that what we must emphasise if we want people to live with goodness is not their need for morals but their need for love. Or, as Professor Carstairs would say, not chastity but charity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Monica Furlong in Daily Mail Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived clipping in Personal Papers of Anna Bidder, Lucy Cavendish College Archive Description An account of the resource A few days after mentioning the report in the 18 February Daily Mail (above), religious columnist Monica Furlong used TQVOS as a basis for a stirring challenge to social and Christian morals (date unknown). https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1e94e78331ab5a2121802a135c33a3e2.jpg 656e6e707a91e174bcf19da0afd49263 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document Daily Mail 18 February 1963 A lesson in love on Sex Sunday by Monica Furlong Yesterday seemed to be Sex Sunday, what with the Archbishop of Canterbury writing in the subject in a Sunday newspaper. and the Quakers discussing their new report on sexual morality with Paul Ferris in Meeting Point. This seems a good moment to say how vastly improved Meeting Point has recently become--yet another feather in the B.B.C. cap--discussing people's relationships to one another with great sensitivity and intelligence; not always coming down on the side of orthodox Christianity, but always coming down on the side of love. Last night was no exception. Kenneth Barnes and Dr. Anna Bidder had all the courage and transparent goodness we have learned to expect from the Society of Friends. No doubt they will be attacked for undermining traditional standards of morality. My guess is, however, that the charity and wisdom with which they discussed human triangles and marital fidelity, pre-marital affairs and the situation of the homosexual, must have been a lesson in love to many who would neither understand or obey the conventional Christian ethic. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Monica Furlong in Daily Mail 18 Feb 1963 Description An account of the resource Prominent religious journalist Monica Furlong wrote a positive view of Bidder & Barnes' appearance on Meeting Point in the Daily Mail, 18 February 1963. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived clipping in the Personal Papers of Anna Bidder, Lucy Cavendish College Archive https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/a5c225b9c14412c8152b18ed82151bf1.jpg f476a778c096756c388fa2bb5bc4a749 Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Monique Moultrie (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Georgie State University. Dr. Moultrie’s scholarly pursuits include projects in sexual ethics, African American religious traditions, and gender and sexuality studies. She just returned from an academic leave spent at Harvard University as a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellow. She was also selected to receive the Dean’s Early Career Award, and was recently a participant in a Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion workshop. Outside of the university, Dr. Moultrie is a consultant for the National Institutes of Health and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender-Religious Archives Network. Her forthcoming research project is a book manuscript focused on African American religious media and women’s sexual agency that will be published by Duke University Press. Other recent projects include a co-edited volume A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z, 2nd edition (Palgrave Macmillan 2014); a chapter “Critical Race Theory,” in Religion: Embodied Religion edited by Kent Brintnall (Palgrave Macmillan 2016): 341-358; and an article “After the Thrill is Gone: Married to the Holy Spirit but Still Sleeping Alone,” in Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 33 (2011): 237-253. Her next project is a book length study of black lesbian religious leadership and faith activism, and she has in press “Interrogating the Passionate and Pious: Televangelism and Black Women’s Sexuality,” in The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Columbia University Press). Within the larger American Academy of Religion guild, Dr. Moultrie is the Status of Women in the Profession Chair and a former co-chair of the Religion and Sexuality unit. http://religiousstudies.gsu.edu/profile/monique-moultrie Biographical Text Monique Moultrie (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Georgie State University. Dr. Moultrie’s scholarly pursuits include projects in sexual ethics, African American religious traditions, and gender and sexuality studies. She just returned from an academic leave spent at Harvard University as a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellow. She was also selected to receive the Dean’s Early Career Award, and was recently a participant in a Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion workshop. Outside of the university, Dr. Moultrie is a consultant for the National Institutes of Health and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender-Religious Archives Network. Her forthcoming research project is a book manuscript focused on African American religious media and women’s sexual agency that will be published by Duke University Press. Other recent projects include a co-edited volume A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z, 2nd edition (Palgrave Macmillan 2014); a chapter “Critical Race Theory,” in Religion: Embodied Religion edited by Kent Brintnall (Palgrave Macmillan 2016): 341-358; and an article “After the Thrill is Gone: Married to the Holy Spirit but Still Sleeping Alone,” in Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 33 (2011): 237-253. Her next project is a book length study of black lesbian religious leadership and faith activism, and she has in press “Interrogating the Passionate and Pious: Televangelism and Black Women’s Sexuality,” in The Sexual Politics of Black Churches (Columbia University Press). Within the larger American Academy of Religion guild, Dr. Moultrie is the Status of Women in the Profession Chair and a former co-chair of the Religion and Sexuality unit. http://religiousstudies.gsu.edu/profile/monique-moultrie Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Monique Moultrie Monique Moutrie RTSA Scholarly Advisory Team https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/8d9262dc7f027df55d342314dbfc79f5.pdf 14c6a4cba983b5bf5ed758c6fdd1cf1b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Sampler of Early Documents Description An account of the resource Artifacts for the A Sampler of Early Documents exhibit Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource More Light News newsletter Description An account of the resource Vol. 1, No. 1 (1980). Presbyterians for Lesbian/Gay Concerns. This issue includes coverage of PLGC activities at Presbyterian General Assembly in 1980. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/feed4550743e5e667eca2927334247e4.png b6d6a19de26f049396e40dedae1b528f Person An individual. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource More Light Presbyterians (MLP): Participating Organization Profile Description An account of the resource Following the risen Christ, and seeking to make the Church a true community of hospitality, the mission of <a href="https://mlp.org/">More Light Presbyterians</a> is to work for the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and in society. MLP More Light Presbyterians for LGBT Concerns https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f16ff36ce711abd48fbb83252bd51736.jpg b0eaf0656f7b9025d6e5a31834b0c980 https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5611d97f7aa21ae87745c0665f887ba7.jpg a128f3ff453eee9b3003a4164700e08a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Text Any textual data included in the document N.O. Lounge Fire Kills 29 Persons The 29 charred bodies of victims killed in a cocktail lounge fire were stacked in the city morgue today, and officials said identification was difficult because most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. The brief, intense fire, which swept through a Sunday night beer bust at the Up Stairs Lounge in the French Quarter, trapped most of the victims behind burglar bars. A police official, calling the lounge a homosexual bar, said identification was made even more difficult because some of the men could have been carrying false identification. Fifteen men, some of whom got to the fire escape and leaped to the sidewalk one story below, were injured, and six remained in serious condition today. Hospital officials said they feared some would die. Because of the almost unbelievable speed of the blaze, officials said they were checking out the possibility of arson. “There are hints of a fire bombing,” said Chief of Detectives Henry M. Morris, “but no evidence has turned up to support it. Every story we get conflicts with every other story.” He said no arrests were anticipated immediately. One survivor said he believed somebody dashed an inflammable liquid on the stairway to the lounge and lit it. When the fire broke out, the bar, known locally as a hangout for homosexuals was packed. Sunday was its biggest day, featuring a 5 to 7 cocktail hour with all you could eat and drink for $2, followed by partying until the wee hours. Coroner’s assistants said they would have to check dental records to get identification for some of the charred bodies. Some small persons managed to escape by squeezing through the burglar bars on the lounge’s front windows and then leaping to the street. Others left the building by smashing a side window and climbed onto a fire escape. A few made their way to another fire escape in the rear. The bodies of those who did not make it lay jammed like logs against the front windows, with four huddled under a charred grand piano. Some of the injured apparently were hurt in jumping to the street. Authorities said there was only one woman among the dead. Fire headquarters is but three blocks away. Units were on the scene in two minutes, said Supt. William McCressen. The fire was out 16 minutes later. Adolph Medina, 32, of San Antonio, Tex., said flames engulfed the bar in a short, panicridden moment after the fire broke out on the front stairway. He said, “I was panicked about jumping but two guys urged me to jump and I was small enough…some big guy on the ground caught me, and…kept looking back but my friend never got out.” Linn Quinton, 25, of Houston, Tex., said, “The place just went up. Everyone panicked and started running for the windows. I jumped to the window in the left corner, opened it, swung out, grabbed a pipe and slid down.” “I turned around and broke a couple of other people’s falls, but there were one or two who just wouldn’t jump.” Quinton said, “The bigger people just couldn’t get out.” “Bill Larsen, a pastor at the Metropolitan Community Church, got caught in the window, and I just watched him burn. He had one arm out, and I heard him scream, ‘O God! No!’” “In the next window beside him, three people burned to death while I could only watch.” The bar was at the corner of Chartres and Iberville, one block off Canal Street, and across the street from the back entrance to the Marriott Hotel. Marriott security guard Kenneth Meynard said, “It went up real quick. Second floor, flames were already at (Continued on Page A-4, Col. 7) N.O. Lounge (Continued From Page One) the windows when people started jumping.” Police said the floor above the fire-gutted bar included three single-room apartments that were empty at the time. A bar downstairs and one next door were damaged but there apparently were no injuries in them, police said. Hundreds of persons swarmed from the busy Quarter area to watch firemen remove the bodies, lowering them one at a time with snorkel truck. A bartender set up a bar on the sidewalk across the street and did a brisk business with the spectators. French Quarter Fire Is Probed Quick Searing Blast The suspicious speed of a fire that killed 29 people at a Sunday night “beer bust” in a French Quarter bar was under close investigation today. For the 29 that death found trapped in Up Stairs Lounge, located on the second floor of a three-story building, the end was alike a quick, searing blast from a blow torch. Firemen said the fire lasted about 16 minutes. It consumed the interior of the bar but apparently did little serious structural damage to the old stone and brick building. Courtney Craighead, a survivor, said he believes somebody dashed an inflammable liquid on the stairway and lit it. “The fire came up the stairs fast,” he said. “There was an immense smoke in the room immediately.” Fire Supt. William McCrossen said homicide investigators and the state fire marshal would take a careful look at reports that “some people smelled gasoline just before the fire.” However, he cautioned, such reports were unconfirmed. Craighead, a deacon of the Metropolitan Community church, said he got out by a rear exit, following a bartender who led about 20 men to safety. Most others in the bar were trapped. Those who lived had to leap for their lives. “There’s nothing like seeing human fireballs break through a window and jump –and never a word from them, not a scream, not a groan, nothing,” said a shaken young man who lives in a second-floor apartment directly across the narrow street. The young man, who declined to identify himself, said he was looking out his window because of the insistent honking of a white auto which had paused in the street by the Up Stairs stairway entrance. He said two men dashed down the stairs and into the car. Moments later, he said, fire erupted in the lounge and he watched horrified as several men, hair and clothing already aflame, smashed window with their shoes and scrambled out onto the fire escape landing. From there they had to jump; the old fire escape on that side of the building had no ladder to the street. “It was the quickest fire I ever heard of,” said Louis Uhlich, a retired soldier who was in a bar next door to the stairway of the Up Stairs when it started. “I was on my first beer when this woman ran in and yelled, ‘Come see! Come see!’” Uhlich added. “I ran out and two or three of the steps were on fire.” “I popped back into the bar and told the barmaid, call the Fire Department. By the time I got back outside it sounded like firecrackers going off in there. That stairway was gone.” Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource More Next-Day Coverage Description An account of the resource This edition of the The State-Times (Advocate) from Baton Rouge mixes even more homophobic subtext into its reporting. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived The State-Times (Advocate), Monday afternoon, June 25, 1973. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/2f8898464e73a08883b1a59a98a6e4d1.jpg 7e9e927604aa1b64f604ae294f325332 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Morisco Subject The topic of the resource Two images Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived New World Encyclopedia https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Morisco https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/822010d291958a3e0a4c00a7e0fca9b9.jpg 900fcf025b7687c1c4d6bdc3380e04ac Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Morning services included a Torah service, circa 1970s Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived CBST Archives https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/0d8a14868da689aafce6c30dbd08e1d9.jpg 6b413da139e59c5801b22784735288cc Person An individual. Text Any textual data included in the document Morris Floyd, an early leader of LGBT movements in The United Methodist Church, was born in 1946 in Austin, Texas.  His father Morris Sr. was studying for an MBA degree at the University of Texas.  The family moved to Arizona when Morris was two, living first in Tucson and then in Glendale while his father worked for J.C. Penney.  His brother Steve was born before his father’s 1952 death, from an illness contracted while a prisoner of war in Germany. Morris’s mom Buena, almost always shortened to “Boots,” remarried in 1957.  Ray was serving in the U.S. Air Force and his assignment took the family, now including Ray’s children from his first marriage and their daughter to Ramstein Air Base in Germany in 1961. Morris attended school at Kaiserslautern High School where he was a member of the Latin Club, the National Honor Society and studied Russian. He was active in the Protestant youth group at the chapel on the base and often led the group in its Sunday evening worship. He also worked as director of the Youth Employment Services on the base during his last two years of high school.  There he helped match other teenagers with domestic jobs, such as babysitting and household chores.   Morris had a sense of his sexual orientation during high school but little opportunity to explore that then.  Years later he reconnected with Joe, one of his best high school friends, who was also gay. They had traveled together around Europe together during the last couple of years of high school and became close again before Joe died of AIDS in 1987.  Overall Morris thrived during his high school years and graduated in 1964.     Morris intended to study premed in college and was accepted at the University of Minnesota.  However, one of his teachers was a graduate of George Washington University (GWU) in D.C. and encouraged Morris to apply there.  So Morris began college at GWU in the fall of 1964.  He enjoyed his time in this diverse, urban setting.  However, right away he struggled in the classroom with organic chemistry and decided to drop premed studies.  When his family moved from Germany to California, Morris transferred to the University of Texas to be closer to them.  He was active at the Wesley Foundation on campus and at University U.M. Church.  It was during these college years that Morris started to identify himself as a gay man albeit largely in private. He took some summer classes which allowed him to graduate in January 1968 with a double major in philosophy and political science with a minor in anthropology.  Morris’ college years coincided with peak years of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.   In the winter of 1965 he traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska to participate in a Methodist Student Movement Conference. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. On Morris’ connecting flight departing Chicago, Dr. King spotted him reading a book recommended for the conference and struck up a brief conversation.  That encounter and his experience at the conference nurtured a commitment to social justice activism.      As he completed college, he considered options.  Although he was accepted for training as a Peace Corps volunteer, Morris perceived that church ministry would provide an opportunity to use his skills to address what was needed in the country and world.  He was accepted to enter Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1968.   In the interim, he drew on his mother’s past associations with Congressman J.J. Pickle (elected to Lyndon Johnson’s House of Representatives seat when LBJ became a Senator) to get a position working odd jobs in the House of Representatives that spring and summer.   Morris’ seminary years were again marked by prominent socio-political movements in the U.S. with the anti-Vietnam War protests, the Poor Peoples’ Campaign and the Stonewall Riots.  Wesley students and faculty were certainly tuned into these tumultuous events.  Morris did student pastoring as a youth minister at a Glen Burnie, Maryland congregation and was then assistant pastor at Marvin Memorial U.M. Church in Silver Spring.  He had a good working relationship with the senior pastor Edward Carroll (later elected a bishop) and enjoying numerous opportunities to preach. At Wesley he preached a highly-praised antiwar sermon in chapel, drawing on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.”  He was also active in student government at Wesley.  Morris stayed in seminary a fourth year to work with a cohort of 15 or so top Wesley students who sought to create a more experiential learning experience. They designed a program called “Interact” in which they created their own coursework that would integrate studies with field work.  Wesley Dean L. Harold DeWolf supported the venture and educator-activist Parker Palmer was enlisted to lead the group.   It was in this group that Morris began to talk with others about being gay.  Morris worked with other Wesley students to organize a conference that year, “Politics of Hope,” that brought seminarians and students to D.C. for an intensive urban experience. Dan Rather was the keynote speaker for the conference.     Morris’ last seminary year coincided with the 1972 United Methodist General Conference.  Prior to the General Conference, Morris and leaders of other United Methodist seminary student governments decided to try have voices of seminarians heard at the General Conference.  They organized and traveled to the conference in Atlanta with a proposal that they be seated with voice but not vote.  Following an affirmative vote by the conference, Morris was able to sit in with other conference delegates.  He did get to speak in the historic debate on a Social Principles statement on Homosexuality, which resulted in the “incompatible with Christian teaching” clause being adopted.  He was aware of gay activists who were circulating around the edges of the conference—among them Gene Leggett, Ernie Reagh, and Don McGaw.  He also met Michael Collins there, beginning a deep friendship built on common commitments as gay men of faith and advocacy for LGBT folk in the church.  They worked together closely until Michael’s death in 1984. Morris recalls traveling with Michael one summer to the meeting of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference, where Michael’s ministerial relationship was in jeopardy because he was openly gay.  On the road trip from Southern California, they spent some time in Gold Beach, OR, where an innkeeper insisted on giving them a room with two beds even though their reservation had only asked for one.  After a couple of times of back and forth with the innkeeper Michael – exasperated – finally said, “You can give us two beds if you must, but we’re still only going to use one!”  Walking up the beach for dinner a little later, the two worried half-seriously if they should be on the lookout for bashers. Following seminary graduation, Morris enlisted in the US-2 program, a domestic mission venture for young United Methodist adults.  He was assigned to be chaplain at the Robinson School in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The school needed coaching football, so Morris (who was not an athlete) decided to draw on his experience observing touch football on the seminary campus to coach the junior varsity team.  He quietly glowed when the team finished with a 4-3 record, as the varsity team had a losing season.  Learning that sports provided a great opportunity to connect with students, he became the athletic director at the school.   Morris developed a close mentoring relationship with a number of students and stays in contact with them decades later. During his time in Puerto Rico, Morris was commissioned as a Home Missionary. Morris pursued membership and ordination in what was then known as the Southern California-Arizona Annual conference of the United Methodist Church.  He remembers a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry asking him when he was planning to get married, to which he had no answer.  In those days it didn’t raise quite the red flags it would raise today, and his application was successful.  Later, the pastor who asked him that question became a strong supporter of LGBT folk in the church. In 1975, Morris returned to Southern California to complete a year of pastoring required to fulfill probationary status.  He served that year working with youth at First U.M. Church of El Cajon with a conservative senior pastor.  Persons spotted books about homosexuality on his bookshelves and were concerned about this, but he was not overtly challenged. After that year Morris moved to Farmington, New Mexico to become principal at Navajo United Methodist Mission School. The students boarded there during the week and went home on weekends. The objective of Morris’ leadership was to change the school from being an old-style mission school—where, for example, students were not allowed to speak Navajo—to become more of a Navajo School.  A Navajo pastor was hired as chaplain.  A graduate of the school came back to serve as the guidance counselor.  The school superintendent and Morris were building a board of directors that was primarily Navajo.  After his second year, another school graduate became principal and Morris became associate superintendent.  He spent his last year there largely traveling to raise money for the school.  During one of those trips, he connected by coincidence with the young Affirmation group, LGBT United Methodists and allies, at its national meeting at Broadway U.M. Church in Chicago.  This was the first opportunity for Morris to have significant interaction with other LGBT United Methodists.  The group was considering how to respond to the decision of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary to forbid the graduation of two gay students. Working with Lyle Loder and other friends in the Southern California annual conference, Morris helped to organize a presence for Affirmation in the region.             In February 1980, Morris moved to New York City to work for the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) helping to resource missions in the U.S.  He helped lead training for a new class of US-2 volunteers in the summer 1980 in Boston and the following year in Washington, D.C. He went to the 1980 General Conference in Indianapolis—not as an agency staff but to assist Affirmation in advocating for LGBT concerns.  Although ordained, Morris was also commissioned as a Home Missionary and active in the work of Deaconesses and Missionaries, which is a lay office in the UMC.  In the period not long after the firing of Deaconess Joan Clark, Morris advocated strongly for an approach inclusive of LGBT folk in the office.  This did not make him popular with the woman who provided administrative leadership for Deaconesses and Home Missionaries, but he felt it was especially urgent to do so.  During the decades when women could not be ordained and thereafter, the role of Deaconess has been a path by which many lesbians entered the UMC’s ministry of lay service as leaders, advocates for the disadvantaged and staff for church and community ministry and community centers, among other options. He was a member of the board of Diaconal Ministry in his home annual conference and participated in three international conferences. He also advocated strongly for LGBT concerns in that role, including several "energetic" with the then-head of the office at the GBGM.    Morris had told his boss that he was gay and could see that there were a number of other gay and lesbian persons on the staff.  But there was unease around the agency in the aftermath of the 1979 firing of Joan Clark for being a lesbian. Although Morris had no reason to think he would be challenged, he also realized that in the case of a major expose, the support he would get would be limited.  So in August 1981, he moved to Minneapolis to become executive director of Gay Community Services (later Lesbian & Gay Community Services – LGCS), a mental health center funded largely by the county and by United Way.  During his 20 years in Minneapolis, Morris provided leadership in the LGBT community and beyond by, among other things, being one of the founders of the Minnesota AIDS Project and serving on the state’s AIDS Task Force, as well as the board of directors of the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. This move freed Morris up to become more actively and publicly involved in Affirmation.  He was selected for the Coordinating Committee and helped design plans for advocacy and witness at the 1984 General Conference and to launch a new “welcoming church” program, the Reconciling Congregation Program.      Morris went to the 1984 General Conference in Baltimore as one of Affirmation’s national co-spokespersons, alongside Mary Gaddis.  His years of work in United Methodist missions and as a national agency staff positioned him to get an audience with some denominational leaders there. He was invited to dinner by Bishop Finis Crutchfield from Houston (who was outed after his death from AIDS a few years later) in the dining room of the hotel that housed the bishops.  Crutchfield made a point of walking Morris around and introducing him to other bishops.  He wanted to impress Morris in this way and by relating what he had done for the gay community, previously in New Orleans and now in Houston.   Morris also recalls a hallway discussion with a prominent pastor who was seen as an ally but vehemently opposed the strategy of having an openly gay person to speak to the General Conference.  This taught him to be skeptical about how far “progressive” leaders would go to advocate for LGBT persons.  Affirmation sponsored a dinner for allies and friends at a Baltimore congregation where they honored “saints” who had supported LGBT concerns.  Following the dinner, a leading African-American pastor took Morris to task for not being recognized for the risks he had taken to lead his congregation to provide space for a largely-gay Metropolitan Community Church.  This brought Morris face-to-face again with how covert racism could thwart the intentions and vision of Affirmation that believed it was espousing social justice. Meanwhile, Morris had also sought an appointment by Bishop Jack Tuell to his position at LGCS.  This led to several years of discussion with the Conference leadership about Morris’ status, and initially Morris was placed on an involuntary leave of absence, an action that required a supermajority vote of Annual Conference clergy. At the clergy executive session of the Annual Conference where this occurred, Bishop Tuell made a ruling of church law affirming that such a leave may be initiated and imposed involuntarily. Such decisions are automatically referred to the Judicial Council, the denomination’s Supreme Court.  Morris argued in opposition to the Bishop’s action that the decision was contrary to the Constitution of The United Methodist Church and to key due-process rights provided in the United Methodist Discipline to protect clergy from arbitrary removal of their right to an appointment.  In <a href="http://www.umc.org/decisions/41417/eyJyZXN1bHRfcGFnZSI6IlwvZGVjaXNpb25zXC9zZWFyY2gtcmVzdWx0cyIsInNlYXJjaDpkZWNpc2lvbl9udW1iZXIiOiIxMjA4In0)">Decision 524 </a>the Judicial Council overruled Morris’s appeal. The documents related to the appeal are available below as an additional resource. The second time the question came up, the involuntary leave was sustained by the clergy session, though by a narrow margin.  Thereafter the Bishop agreed to appoint Morris to any position reasonably compatible with the special appointment rules, but not to a local church.  Thereafter Morris worked for many years as an executive for a Twin Cities health care corporation.  He took the retired relationship to the Annual Conference in 1992, feeling that the Annual Conference relationship was hollow under the Bishop’s terms. In 1983, Bishop Tuell had worked with other bishops and an executive of the UM Board of Higher Education and Ministry to devise the language later approved at the 1984 General Conference that required “fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness” of the clergy, effectively preventing the ordination or appointment of gay and lesbian clergy. In May of 2003, Tuell preached a sermon (<a href="https://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/bishop-tuell-how-i-changed-my-mind/)">https://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/bishop-tuell-how-i-changed-my-mind/)</a> describing how he had changed his mind and confessing that he and the others that day were “unconsciously guided” by the need for “institutional protection” over the controversial matter, rather than the Wesleyan “tests of truth” (as the Bishop referred to them in a 2000 sermon called “Doing a New Thing”): “Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason.” Despite their profound disagreement at the time his appointment was in question, Morris remembers his relationship with Bishop Tuell as productive, mutually respectful and friendly. Morris served as a spokesperson for Affirmation through the 1992 General Conference.  In subsequent years he became a member of the Reconciling Congregation Program board of directors.  Among other contributions, he helped the group to create its initial effort to raise funds through major gifts from “Angels.”  In a sermon to the 25thAnniversary celebration of Affirmation, in 2000, Morris reminded attendees that their status as beloved children of God is not dependent on the approval on the United Methodist church, or any other religious body, and called on them find dignity and worth internally rather than allowing themselves to become victims by continually seeking validation from an institution. By the turn of the 21stCentury, Morris was distancing himself increasingly from the church, though he says to this day he is an “fascinated observer and commentator” on what he views as the denomination’s gyrations to find a position regarding homosexuality that will be faithful to the Gospel and to Wesleyan standards while also satisfactory to those who insist on a literal reading of Biblical proscriptions.  He believes that the struggle is about matters even more profound than human sexuality – the very nature of God, humankind, the rest of creation and the relationship among them, as well as the role of the Bible.  He does not think it likely that some sort of political accommodation between deeply opposed factions is likely to produce a resolution satisfactory to anyone.  Prior to the General Conference of 2016 he encouraged (<a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer/2016/05/umc/">http://www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer/2016/05/umc/</a>) progressive United Methodists to forgo allegiance to the denomination and find a home for themselves and their Wesleyan heritage in other denominations.  He believes doing could dramatically strengthen the witness and work of groups such as the United Church of Christ without creating the overhead associated with a new Methodist denomination. Morris now considers himself a “recovering Christian.”  He says that he can identify with many elements of that faith community’s story, but he has recognized that he cannot honestly make the theological affirmations associated with Christian faith. Morris and his partner of 28 years, Alex Herrera, moved from Minneapolis to Chicago in the fall of 2001, where he served for 2 ½ years as the executive leader for development of the Center on Halsted, an LGBT community center.  Thereafter he worked with clients of DST Health Solutions as an account executive, consulting on the implementing the clients’ business strategy through improvements in their technology strategy and infrastructure.  After a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer, Morris retired to get well and spend his time in other ways.  He considers himself a fortunate survivor, now cancer-free 8 years later. Alex and Morris, fearing that Illinois would not promptly approve legislation supporting marriage equality, were married in 2012 in Toronto in a small ceremony with Alex’s mother, sister and her family as witnesses.  They presently live with their pug Niko in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood and have a second home in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  While Alex works as a senior development executive for Northwestern University, Morris enjoys volunteering at the National Runaway Safeline, being active in his condominium association and occasional blogging as the "Observant Queer" (<a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer">www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer</a>). (This biographical profile was drafted by Mark Bowman from an interview with Morris Floyd and edited by Floyd.) Biographical Text Morris Floyd, an early leader of LGBT movements in The United Methodist Church, was born in 1946 in Austin, Texas.  His father Morris Sr. was studying for an MBA degree at the University of Texas.  The family moved to Arizona when Morris was two, living first in Tucson and then in Glendale while his father worked for J.C. Penney.  His brother Steve was born before his father’s 1952 death, from an illness contracted while a prisoner of war in Germany. Morris’s mom Buena, almost always shortened to “Boots,” remarried in 1957.  Ray was serving in the U.S. Air Force and his assignment took the family, now including Ray’s children from his first marriage and their daughter to Ramstein Air Base in Germany in 1961. Morris attended school at Kaiserslautern High School where he was a member of the Latin Club, the National Honor Society and studied Russian. He was active in the Protestant youth group at the chapel on the base and often led the group in its Sunday evening worship. He also worked as director of the Youth Employment Services on the base during his last two years of high school.  There he helped match other teenagers with domestic jobs, such as babysitting and household chores.   Morris had a sense of his sexual orientation during high school but little opportunity to explore that then.  Years later he reconnected with Joe, one of his best high school friends, who was also gay. They had traveled together around Europe together during the last couple of years of high school and became close again before Joe died of AIDS in 1987.  Overall Morris thrived during his high school years and graduated in 1964.     Morris intended to study premed in college and was accepted at the University of Minnesota.  However, one of his teachers was a graduate of George Washington University (GWU) in D.C. and encouraged Morris to apply there.  So Morris began college at GWU in the fall of 1964.  He enjoyed his time in this diverse, urban setting.  However, right away he struggled in the classroom with organic chemistry and decided to drop premed studies.  When his family moved from Germany to California, Morris transferred to the University of Texas to be closer to them.  He was active at the Wesley Foundation on campus and at University U.M. Church.  It was during these college years that Morris started to identify himself as a gay man albeit largely in private. He took some summer classes which allowed him to graduate in January 1968 with a double major in philosophy and political science with a minor in anthropology.  Morris’ college years coincided with peak years of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S.   In the winter of 1965 he traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska to participate in a Methodist Student Movement Conference. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. On Morris’ connecting flight departing Chicago, Dr. King spotted him reading a book recommended for the conference and struck up a brief conversation.  That encounter and his experience at the conference nurtured a commitment to social justice activism.      As he completed college, he considered options.  Although he was accepted for training as a Peace Corps volunteer, Morris perceived that church ministry would provide an opportunity to use his skills to address what was needed in the country and world.  He was accepted to enter Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 1968.   In the interim, he drew on his mother’s past associations with Congressman J.J. Pickle (elected to Lyndon Johnson’s House of Representatives seat when LBJ became a Senator) to get a position working odd jobs in the House of Representatives that spring and summer.   Morris’ seminary years were again marked by prominent socio-political movements in the U.S. with the anti-Vietnam War protests, the Poor Peoples’ Campaign and the Stonewall Riots.  Wesley students and faculty were certainly tuned into these tumultuous events.  Morris did student pastoring as a youth minister at a Glen Burnie, Maryland congregation and was then assistant pastor at Marvin Memorial U.M. Church in Silver Spring.  He had a good working relationship with the senior pastor Edward Carroll (later elected a bishop) and enjoying numerous opportunities to preach. At Wesley he preached a highly-praised antiwar sermon in chapel, drawing on Simon & Garfunkel’s “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.”  He was also active in student government at Wesley.  Morris stayed in seminary a fourth year to work with a cohort of 15 or so top Wesley students who sought to create a more experiential learning experience. They designed a program called “Interact” in which they created their own coursework that would integrate studies with field work.  Wesley Dean L. Harold DeWolf supported the venture and educator-activist Parker Palmer was enlisted to lead the group.   It was in this group that Morris began to talk with others about being gay.  Morris worked with other Wesley students to organize a conference that year, “Politics of Hope,” that brought seminarians and students to D.C. for an intensive urban experience. Dan Rather was the keynote speaker for the conference.     Morris’ last seminary year coincided with the 1972 United Methodist General Conference.  Prior to the General Conference, Morris and leaders of other United Methodist seminary student governments decided to try have voices of seminarians heard at the General Conference.  They organized and traveled to the conference in Atlanta with a proposal that they be seated with voice but not vote.  Following an affirmative vote by the conference, Morris was able to sit in with other conference delegates.  He did get to speak in the historic debate on a Social Principles statement on Homosexuality, which resulted in the “incompatible with Christian teaching” clause being adopted.  He was aware of gay activists who were circulating around the edges of the conference—among them Gene Leggett, Ernie Reagh, and Don McGaw.  He also met Michael Collins there, beginning a deep friendship built on common commitments as gay men of faith and advocacy for LGBT folk in the church.  They worked together closely until Michael’s death in 1984. Morris recalls traveling with Michael one summer to the meeting of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference, where Michael’s ministerial relationship was in jeopardy because he was openly gay.  On the road trip from Southern California, they spent some time in Gold Beach, OR, where an innkeeper insisted on giving them a room with two beds even though their reservation had only asked for one.  After a couple of times of back and forth with the innkeeper Michael – exasperated – finally said, “You can give us two beds if you must, but we’re still only going to use one!”  Walking up the beach for dinner a little later, the two worried half-seriously if they should be on the lookout for bashers. Following seminary graduation, Morris enlisted in the US-2 program, a domestic mission venture for young United Methodist adults.  He was assigned to be chaplain at the Robinson School in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The school needed coaching football, so Morris (who was not an athlete) decided to draw on his experience observing touch football on the seminary campus to coach the junior varsity team.  He quietly glowed when the team finished with a 4-3 record, as the varsity team had a losing season.  Learning that sports provided a great opportunity to connect with students, he became the athletic director at the school.   Morris developed a close mentoring relationship with a number of students and stays in contact with them decades later. During his time in Puerto Rico, Morris was commissioned as a Home Missionary. Morris pursued membership and ordination in what was then known as the Southern California-Arizona Annual conference of the United Methodist Church.  He remembers a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry asking him when he was planning to get married, to which he had no answer.  In those days it didn’t raise quite the red flags it would raise today, and his application was successful.  Later, the pastor who asked him that question became a strong supporter of LGBT folk in the church. In 1975, Morris returned to Southern California to complete a year of pastoring required to fulfill probationary status.  He served that year working with youth at First U.M. Church of El Cajon with a conservative senior pastor.  Persons spotted books about homosexuality on his bookshelves and were concerned about this, but he was not overtly challenged. After that year Morris moved to Farmington, New Mexico to become principal at Navajo United Methodist Mission School. The students boarded there during the week and went home on weekends. The objective of Morris’ leadership was to change the school from being an old-style mission school—where, for example, students were not allowed to speak Navajo—to become more of a Navajo School.  A Navajo pastor was hired as chaplain.  A graduate of the school came back to serve as the guidance counselor.  The school superintendent and Morris were building a board of directors that was primarily Navajo.  After his second year, another school graduate became principal and Morris became associate superintendent.  He spent his last year there largely traveling to raise money for the school.  During one of those trips, he connected by coincidence with the young Affirmation group, LGBT United Methodists and allies, at its national meeting at Broadway U.M. Church in Chicago.  This was the first opportunity for Morris to have significant interaction with other LGBT United Methodists.  The group was considering how to respond to the decision of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary to forbid the graduation of two gay students. Working with Lyle Loder and other friends in the Southern California annual conference, Morris helped to organize a presence for Affirmation in the region.             In February 1980, Morris moved to New York City to work for the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) helping to resource missions in the U.S.  He helped lead training for a new class of US-2 volunteers in the summer 1980 in Boston and the following year in Washington, D.C. He went to the 1980 General Conference in Indianapolis—not as an agency staff but to assist Affirmation in advocating for LGBT concerns.  Although ordained, Morris was also commissioned as a Home Missionary and active in the work of Deaconesses and Missionaries, which is a lay office in the UMC.  In the period not long after the firing of Deaconess Joan Clark, Morris advocated strongly for an approach inclusive of LGBT folk in the office.  This did not make him popular with the woman who provided administrative leadership for Deaconesses and Home Missionaries, but he felt it was especially urgent to do so.  During the decades when women could not be ordained and thereafter, the role of Deaconess has been a path by which many lesbians entered the UMC’s ministry of lay service as leaders, advocates for the disadvantaged and staff for church and community ministry and community centers, among other options. He was a member of the board of Diaconal Ministry in his home annual conference and participated in three international conferences. He also advocated strongly for LGBT concerns in that role, including several "energetic" with the then-head of the office at the GBGM.    Morris had told his boss that he was gay and could see that there were a number of other gay and lesbian persons on the staff.  But there was unease around the agency in the aftermath of the 1979 firing of Joan Clark for being a lesbian. Although Morris had no reason to think he would be challenged, he also realized that in the case of a major expose, the support he would get would be limited.  So in August 1981, he moved to Minneapolis to become executive director of Gay Community Services (later Lesbian & Gay Community Services – LGCS), a mental health center funded largely by the county and by United Way.  During his 20 years in Minneapolis, Morris provided leadership in the LGBT community and beyond by, among other things, being one of the founders of the Minnesota AIDS Project and serving on the state’s AIDS Task Force, as well as the board of directors of the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. This move freed Morris up to become more actively and publicly involved in Affirmation.  He was selected for the Coordinating Committee and helped design plans for advocacy and witness at the 1984 General Conference and to launch a new “welcoming church” program, the Reconciling Congregation Program.      Morris went to the 1984 General Conference in Baltimore as one of Affirmation’s national co-spokespersons, alongside Mary Gaddis.  His years of work in United Methodist missions and as a national agency staff positioned him to get an audience with some denominational leaders there. He was invited to dinner by Bishop Finis Crutchfield from Houston (who was outed after his death from AIDS a few years later) in the dining room of the hotel that housed the bishops.  Crutchfield made a point of walking Morris around and introducing him to other bishops.  He wanted to impress Morris in this way and by relating what he had done for the gay community, previously in New Orleans and now in Houston.   Morris also recalls a hallway discussion with a prominent pastor who was seen as an ally but vehemently opposed the strategy of having an openly gay person to speak to the General Conference.  This taught him to be skeptical about how far “progressive” leaders would go to advocate for LGBT persons.  Affirmation sponsored a dinner for allies and friends at a Baltimore congregation where they honored “saints” who had supported LGBT concerns.  Following the dinner, a leading African-American pastor took Morris to task for not being recognized for the risks he had taken to lead his congregation to provide space for a largely-gay Metropolitan Community Church.  This brought Morris face-to-face again with how covert racism could thwart the intentions and vision of Affirmation that believed it was espousing social justice. Meanwhile, Morris had also sought an appointment by Bishop Jack Tuell to his position at LGCS.  This led to several years of discussion with the Conference leadership about Morris’ status, and initially Morris was placed on an involuntary leave of absence, an action that required a supermajority vote of Annual Conference clergy. At the clergy executive session of the Annual Conference where this occurred, Bishop Tuell made a ruling of church law affirming that such a leave may be initiated and imposed involuntarily. Such decisions are automatically referred to the Judicial Council, the denomination’s Supreme Court.  Morris argued in opposition to the Bishop’s action that the decision was contrary to the Constitution of The United Methodist Church and to key due-process rights provided in the United Methodist Discipline to protect clergy from arbitrary removal of their right to an appointment.  In <a href="http://www.umc.org/decisions/41417/eyJyZXN1bHRfcGFnZSI6IlwvZGVjaXNpb25zXC9zZWFyY2gtcmVzdWx0cyIsInNlYXJjaDpkZWNpc2lvbl9udW1iZXIiOiIxMjA4In0)">Decision 524 </a>the Judicial Council overruled Morris’s appeal. The documents related to the appeal are available below as an additional resource. The second time the question came up, the involuntary leave was sustained by the clergy session, though by a narrow margin.  Thereafter the Bishop agreed to appoint Morris to any position reasonably compatible with the special appointment rules, but not to a local church.  Thereafter Morris worked for many years as an executive for a Twin Cities health care corporation.  He took the retired relationship to the Annual Conference in 1992, feeling that the Annual Conference relationship was hollow under the Bishop’s terms. In 1983, Bishop Tuell had worked with other bishops and an executive of the UM Board of Higher Education and Ministry to devise the language later approved at the 1984 General Conference that required “fidelity in marriage and celibacy in singleness” of the clergy, effectively preventing the ordination or appointment of gay and lesbian clergy. In May of 2003, Tuell preached a sermon (<a href="https://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/bishop-tuell-how-i-changed-my-mind/)">https://www.rmnetwork.org/newrmn/bishop-tuell-how-i-changed-my-mind/)</a> describing how he had changed his mind and confessing that he and the others that day were “unconsciously guided” by the need for “institutional protection” over the controversial matter, rather than the Wesleyan “tests of truth” (as the Bishop referred to them in a 2000 sermon called “Doing a New Thing”): “Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason.” Despite their profound disagreement at the time his appointment was in question, Morris remembers his relationship with Bishop Tuell as productive, mutually respectful and friendly. Morris served as a spokesperson for Affirmation through the 1992 General Conference.  In subsequent years he became a member of the Reconciling Congregation Program board of directors.  Among other contributions, he helped the group to create its initial effort to raise funds through major gifts from “Angels.”  In a sermon to the 25thAnniversary celebration of Affirmation, in 2000, Morris reminded attendees that their status as beloved children of God is not dependent on the approval on the United Methodist church, or any other religious body, and called on them find dignity and worth internally rather than allowing themselves to become victims by continually seeking validation from an institution. By the turn of the 21stCentury, Morris was distancing himself increasingly from the church, though he says to this day he is an “fascinated observer and commentator” on what he views as the denomination’s gyrations to find a position regarding homosexuality that will be faithful to the Gospel and to Wesleyan standards while also satisfactory to those who insist on a literal reading of Biblical proscriptions.  He believes that the struggle is about matters even more profound than human sexuality – the very nature of God, humankind, the rest of creation and the relationship among them, as well as the role of the Bible.  He does not think it likely that some sort of political accommodation between deeply opposed factions is likely to produce a resolution satisfactory to anyone.  Prior to the General Conference of 2016 he encouraged (<a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer/2016/05/umc/">http://www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer/2016/05/umc/</a>) progressive United Methodists to forgo allegiance to the denomination and find a home for themselves and their Wesleyan heritage in other denominations.  He believes doing could dramatically strengthen the witness and work of groups such as the United Church of Christ without creating the overhead associated with a new Methodist denomination. Morris now considers himself a “recovering Christian.”  He says that he can identify with many elements of that faith community’s story, but he has recognized that he cannot honestly make the theological affirmations associated with Christian faith. Morris and his partner of 28 years, Alex Herrera, moved from Minneapolis to Chicago in the fall of 2001, where he served for 2 ½ years as the executive leader for development of the Center on Halsted, an LGBT community center.  Thereafter he worked with clients of DST Health Solutions as an account executive, consulting on the implementing the clients’ business strategy through improvements in their technology strategy and infrastructure.  After a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer, Morris retired to get well and spend his time in other ways.  He considers himself a fortunate survivor, now cancer-free 8 years later. Alex and Morris, fearing that Illinois would not promptly approve legislation supporting marriage equality, were married in 2012 in Toronto in a small ceremony with Alex’s mother, sister and her family as witnesses.  They presently live with their pug Niko in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood and have a second home in Cuernavaca, Mexico.  While Alex works as a senior development executive for Northwestern University, Morris enjoys volunteering at the National Runaway Safeline, being active in his condominium association and occasional blogging as the "Observant Queer" (<a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer">www.chicagonow.com/observant-queer</a>). (This biographical profile was drafted by Mark Bowman from an interview with Morris Floyd and edited by Floyd.) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Morris Floyd Affirmation LGBT United Methodists Methodist Morris Floyd United Methodist Church https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/98dfb55cee2da8c7f1f347b97f938afa.jpeg d7ec8d33bc00e996fad3cb9c3896a5ad Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Most transgender people in state prisons are people of color Description An account of the resource Graphic showing percentage of transgender people in state prisons, by race. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Prison Policy Initiative National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Injustice at Every Turn A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/b913e3cd73377dc578f28f3ab14ee6bf.pdf 40188e01031ef4d04ea97ddb86ab7e19 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Sampler of Early Documents Description An account of the resource Artifacts for the A Sampler of Early Documents exhibit Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource motive, Gay Men's issue Description An account of the resource motive magazine, Vol 32 No 2, gay men's issue.  Source: <a href="https://rainbowhistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rainbowhistory.org</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rainbow History Project: <a href="https://rainbowhistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rainbowhistory.org</a> https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/f91786cb41fc9346369cff9974099241.pdf 8d536fac59f19ff91509ecc39f587456 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A Sampler of Early Documents Description An account of the resource Artifacts for the A Sampler of Early Documents exhibit Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource motive, Lesbian Issue Description An account of the resource motive magazine, Vol 32 No 1, lesbian/feminist issue.  Source: <a href="https://rainbowhistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rainbowhistory.org</a> Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Rainbow History Project: <a href="https://rainbowhistory.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rainbowhistory.org</a> https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/c04fd0fd8d16dd6ae540019c3f0a982a.jpg 2d1d5b1487f1f19460d1d28d1efcf2ed Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. YouTube ID Eleven-character ID assigned by YouTube ObfFAokGlps Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mr. Navaho: Balancing being native American and queer Subject The topic of the resource Mr. Navaho (Zachariah George) is a 25 year old culture keeper. He strives to maintain the old Navaho ways, knows the language, sings the songs, and assumes an educative and ritual role in his community. He knows his value, and yet he capitulates. He suppresses the feminine expression of himself that feels natural to be acceptable to his community. Perhaps Mr. Navaho's role as a performer and soloist opens up an avenue that compensates him for suppressing a more feminine persona he seems more inclined to adopt and project. Mr. Navaho understands the loss of the middle gender that formerly existed in his society. At one point in the film, he spells out on paper the old Diné word, Nádłeehé. He tells the viewer, "This word is very powerful. It identifies me and maybe other people." According to Nowness, a Navajo professor recognizes this word as coming from creation stories and referring to a third gender. Mr. Navajo identifies with this role; he knows that such a person was seen as a good omen, and as he explains: "If you have a gay person in your life, that's in your family, that means your family will never, never fall apart. Ever since Christianity came into our lives, it really changed a lot, not just Native Americans, but a lot of people's lives. That's just sad, you know what I mean?" But is he comfortable performing in his life the role of a gay man? Description An account of the resource Mr. Navaho is accepted by family members and especially his grandparents who say that one's sexual orientation should not matter. His mother observed his girlish ways early in life but warned him not to venture into the feminine gender expression that draws him. He longs for the feminine to the point where he envies the girls' long hair he used to have. In this regard, Mr. Navaho walks the tightrope between the effeminate man he is allowed to be and the female person he is inside that he must keep hidden away. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObfFAokGlps Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Poster Design by Samya Arif Nowness https://www.nowness.com/series/they-call-me/mr-navajo-saila-huusko-jasper-rischen?_branch_match_id=1121012003463969804&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXzzdLN9dLLCjQy8nMy9Y3KHIxcjJMiko0BQAJsykGIAAAAA%3D%3D Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Upstairs Lounge Fire Person An individual. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mrs. Willie Inez Warren Description An account of the resource Mrs. Willie Inez Warren, 59, housekeeper from Monroeville, Alabama, died along with her sons James Curtis Warren, 26, and Eddie Hosea Warren, 24, both from Pensacola, Florida. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Queer Religion Boston Description An account of the resource Items for the Boston Queer Religious History exhibit Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Murray Unitarian Universalist Church Description An account of the resource Location of Murray Unitarian Universalist Church in Attleboro, Massachusetts https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/bcaf3d5c1fdb8586a1424a81c17010b3.jpg 589b1ab5906dbbef55c198e962da4d20 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Queer Religion Boston Description An account of the resource Items for the Boston Queer Religious History exhibit Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Murray Unitarian Universalist Church Description An account of the resource The front facade and parking lot of Murray Unitarian Universalist Church, seen behind a tree on a clear day. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived "Murray Unitarian Universalist Church, Attleboro MA" by John Phelan is licensed under CC BY 3.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/?ref=openverse. https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/5ed1aeebaec5f586c64b7dfd5e37a4ca.jpg 3692c0fc4bc2e74953708e6c666b5ab0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Muxe https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/38fb19908d73ba9e0f78530fca884a19.pdf bebec2a4e735dcb06fa498646c0220e7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Gender Is My Own Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Justyn Grove, Third World Forum, Vol. 1, Issue 1, 2013. extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=is&oid=TWF20130401&type=staticpdf&e=-------en--20--21--txt-txIN-gender------- https://www.exhibits.lgbtran.org/files/original/1778e6a8c55a93096699a9be9ac6a730.jpg 11cbd9fcc5f3d9fbb67d7746450cc2b9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Historical Development of BIPOC Trans-spiritual Leadership YouTube Video A video hosted on YouTube. YouTube ID Eleven-character ID assigned by YouTube Qktnx8BOdUw Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My God Too: Black LGBTQ Students Speak Out Description An account of the resource This edition of the Many Voices visibility campaign is raising awareness of the need to foster accepting and welcoming campus environments for black LGBTQ students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qktnx8BOdUw