News
Nov. 12 - Ex-gay conferences come to West Palm Beach
Nov. 10 - Jeff Lutes resigns as Soulforce Executive Director
Nov. 04 - Maine Votes To Overturn Marriage Equality For LGBT People
Oct. 29 - An IN THE LIFE Special Presentation: Preacher’s Sons
Oct. 29 - Religion-based Prejudice is the Maine Problem
Oct. 23 - Soulforce conference featured in article by Wayne Besen in South Florida Blade.
The 2010 Equality Ride is currently being planned!
We received an exciting number of applications this year, and are pleased to announce that 25 outstanding Riders have been selected. Look out for more information on the 2010 team coming soon!
Meet Equality Ride Director, Caitlin MacIntyre!
Hey everyone!
My name is Caitlin MacIntyre and I am a 2008 Equality Rider and thrilled to be working as a director of the next Equality Ride in the spring of 2010. I am excited to be a part of the legacy of amazing leadership started by Soulforce Q and its wonderful young adult activists and leaders and to play a role in opening a new chapter in the Equality Ride’s illustrious history. But I can’t do it alone.
The Equality Ride changes every life it touches in some way and I know that you, Soulforce supporters, are the people helping to make this life changing adventure flourish, evolve, and continue. We all have a stake in the Ride, not just me or the Riders, or the Soulforce staff, but every person who is committed to ending the religious oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. That’s why I want to hear your ideas on where the next bus should travel, where we’re needed, and what we can do with your help when we get there. I can’t promise that we’ll use every suggestion but I will definitely keep all of your thoughts in mind.
What will be most useful and actionable are specific examples of schools with need and places where you have community that can help us out. For example, if you live in a community with a school that discriminates against its LGBTQ population and you would be willing to put together a dinner for Riders, or if you’ve got a lot of really great connections on campus, or if you have a church group that would be willing to come and vigil with us that would be immensely helpful. The Ride is about building relationships not only with the students, faculty, and administration at the schools we visit but also with the community that will be there after the bus leaves providing continued support and encouragement. You help make the Ride a continuing success and I look eagerly forward to hearing your suggestion by e-mail at: caitlin@soulforce.org. Thanks for your support, your passion, and your input!
- Caitlin
About Caitlin: Caitlin is from a small town in New Jersey where she grew up with her fabulous gay dads and her wonderful ally mom. She left home to attend college at Rice University in Houston, TX where she began doing campus activism and work with Soulforce and other LGBTQ organizations. After participating in the Equality Ride in 2008 as the media director, Caitlin decided to leave school to find her bliss and relocate to Austin to serve as a director of the 2010 Soulforce Q Equality Ride. She looks forward to once again playing a part in a project that empowers, transforms, and excites a new generation of young adult activists and works towards liberation for all people.
What is the Soulforce Q Equality Ride?
Every day, thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people suffer harassment, violence, and discrimination at the hands of those who do not understand them. This oppression usually hides in plain sight, masquerading as rigid doctrine or timeless tradition. Consequently, it often goes unchallenged and unchanged. Guided by principles of nonviolence, we at Soulforce Q approach these controversial issues with a readiness to meet people where they are. It is our belief that open and honest discussion begets understanding and healing, and that philosophy is at the heart of our work.
The Equality Ride is a traveling forum that gives young adults the chance to deconstruct injustice and the rhetoric that sustains it. It allows emerging young leaders to unite in the struggle for common equality. The idea is this. We get on a bus and journey to various institutions of higher learning. Through informal conversation and educational programming we explore concepts of diversity, comparing the effects of inclusive and exclusive viewpoints. More practically, we share and gain insights about how our beliefs influence policy and culture, thereby impacting society. Our goal is to carefully and collectively examine the intersection wherein faith meets gender and sexuality. Such discourse, especially when it affirms the beauty of our differences, plays an essential role in creating a safe learning and living environment for everyone.
Thus far, the Equality Ride has engaged nearly seventy academic communities. Many have shown considerable hospitality in welcoming us, and our legacy at those schools is one of mutual growth and compassionate fellowship. In addition to panels and schoolwide symposiums, we have joined students in cafeterias and coffee shops, participated in Bible studies and worship services, and given presentations in packed classrooms. Unfortunately, not every school chooses to host the Equality Ride. Voluntary redemptive suffering in the form of civil disobedience may become our avenue towards progress if, and only if, a school ignores the urgency and rejects dialogue.
A Movement in itself, the Equality Ride is empowering future generations to put their faith in action and make social justice a reality.
Resources for the Media Donate to the Equality Ride
Who are the Equality Riders?
An Equality Rider is a young adult, age 18 to 28, who recognizes that we must work with religious attitudes if we are to reach reconciliation. A Rider may live anywhere, come from any ethnic background, and may or may not identify as a person of faith. They understand the value of meeting people where they are and that the process towards peace and liberation begins with a conversation, not hostility. What we look for is a willingness to learn, to engage, and to create.
So far, over 100 young adults have joined together as Equality Riders to challenge the religion based discrimination coming out of religious colleges and universities in the US. Will you join this tradition of nonviolent resistance and get on the 2010 Equality Ride?
Meet the 2010 Co-Directors
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Andi Gentile Andi hails from New York City, and is a recent New York-to-Austin, Texas convert. Since her high school years, she has been dedicated to social justice work, particularly activism within the LGBTQ movement. Andi earned her BA in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Psychology from Wesleyan University in May, 2008. There she focused her academic pursuits on feminist and queer theory, and has striven to find innovative ways to put theory into action. Andi has continued to be drawn to LGBTQ activism; outside of Soulforce she has had the opportunity to organize with the impressive and inspiring young people at Texas GSA Network and Out Youth. When not concentrating on her passion for change, she fancies herself a cook, writer, and globetrotter—but she’s always looking for new things to add to the list. |
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Asher Kolieboi Asher hails from Saint Louis, Missouri by way of Monrovia, Liberia. Since his high school years, he has worked for social and economic justice with a special focus on race, gender, and sexuality. Asher earned his BA in Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia in May 2009 and recently relocated to Austin, Texas to join the Soulforce team. |
Where is the 2010 Equality Ride going?
TBA
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