One of the great strengths of Soulforce is our grassroots history. Participants come together for collaborative actions and then return to where we came from; sometimes to the same place, but never unchanged. As a participant in the 2007 Equality Ride, I have the pleasure of counting 50 amazing young activists as my close friends and collaborators. Wick Thomas is one such fierce activist and Wick, along with 2010 Equality Ride Kimmy Devries and Q Camper & board member Yantézia Patrick, are among the organizers and participants in amazing action happening in Kansas City to stand up against the harmful words and actions of Lou Engle and TheCall. I’m excited to pass along news of their upcoming actions:
Kansas City Evangelical Preaches Toward Gay Genocide
EQUAL Stands Up Against Hometown Hatred
Kansas City, Mo. (December 17, 2010) EQUAL will be hosting a direct action to raise awareness of Lou Engle and The Call’s hateful ministry toward gay people in Uganda during his speaking engagement at the IHOP OneThing Conference at 6:00 p.m. on December 30th at the Downtown Convention Center.
Kansas City based preacher Lou Engle has moved his ministry, The Call, into Uganda influencing and promoting the current Anti-Homosexual legislation, which calls for life imprisonment or the death penalty for gay and lesbian Ugandan citizens. This bill has been strongly linked with the preaching of American evangelicals such as Lou Engle. In May 2010 Engle traveled to Kampala (the capital of Uganda) to preach about “homosexuality, witchcraft, and corruption.”
During the conference, Lou Engle addressed youth in the crowd and told them that when America allowed homosexuals freedom, it was the end of the nation. He called upon the Ugandan government to be firm and hold on to its righteous stand against “evil.” Engle’s involvement in Uganda comes with his long history of violent anti-gay and anti-abortion preaching. At past TheCall rallies, like the one in support of Proposition 8 in California, Engle called for “martyrs” to stop the “homosexual agenda” at all costs.
EQUAL will be answering the call for help put out by Ugandan gay rights activists-
“Gay people are already fleeing their homes and have to move from house to house because of threats to their lives. Americans need to stop Lou Engle from coming to Uganda.” –President of Sexual Minorities Uganda, Frank Mugisha
EQUAL will be holding this demonstration to ask the young IHOP conference attendants to help us put a stop to this pending genocide and to raise awareness of this Kansas City based preacher whose influence means the death sentence for many gay Ugandan citizens.
To see more about the event please visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124849544243942
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Founded in 2007 as a grassroots organization for youth and run by youth, EQUAL (Empowering Queer Activists and Leaders) supports Kansas City’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth so that they may develop into socially conscious leaders and healthy, empowered people. EQUAL mentors youth to organize social justice leadership development trainings and conferences, organizes a network of area gay-straight alliances and recognizes and nurtures the skills and talents of the youth with whom we work. We are currently planning to open a safe and welcoming drop-in youth center that will provide a variety of social and health services to Kansas City’s youth. For more information, please go to www.equalcenter.org.
[Former Soulforce board member] Paul Egertson died suddenly yesterday afternoon, January 5, 2011, in his home in Thousand Oaks, California. Egertson, staunch ally and advocate for full inclusion of LGBT people in the life of the church, had championed the ordination of LGBT candidates for ministry and an end to the policies and practices of the church that relegated LGBT people to a second-class.
