This weekend I will join the four million people flooding New York City's streets to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. The centerpiece is Sunday's Pride parade. What most Americans do not know when they gaze on the parade's nearly-naked dancers, "dykes on bikes," and transgender teenagers is that Pride parades exist because of a devout Pentecostal minister.
For far too long, our country's conversations about religion and LGBTQ people have focused on antigay religious leaders and politicians like Vice President Mike Pence. But Pence should not be the poster boy for religion. As a scholar of religion and LGBTQ politics, I am convinced that if we draw attention to how religion has served as a source of strength for many LGBTQ people, we will take power away from the Religious Right and expand our nation's ideas about what religion looks like in America.
In 1970 the Reverend Troy Perry, a Baptist minister turned Pentecostal preacher, organized the first Pride parade. Perry had come out as gay in the 1960s and started a church in his Los Angeles home for gay and lesbian Christians. Soon, hundreds filled Perry's services, many breaking down into tears when they received communion for the first time as openly gay believers.
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