HRC Blog

“It’s about time,” Chaplain Paul Dodd, U.S. Army (Ret), said when asked about DADT repeal. Chaplain Dodd, a member of the HRC Religion Council, was one of the conveners of the 30 members of the Forum on the Military Chaplaincy who gathered at the HRC building on Friday for their fifth annual meeting sponsored by HRC and SLDN. The diverse group of chaplains, retired and active duty service members representing all branches of the military, and citizen activists for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” discussed implementation of repeal, coming out in the military, and training for chaplains in the post DADT military.

This morning, clergy and faith leaders from around the state of Maryland met in Annapolis to give religious backing to two key bills, the Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination Act (HB 235) and the Civil Marriage Protection Act (SB 116), both of which are seeing action this week in the Maryland House of Delegates. Faith leaders are now on their way to meet with members of the Maryland House of Delegates to talk about why their faith compels them to support equality and to urge Delegates to also do the same.

A recently launched campaign by the Unitarian Universalist Association, called Standing on the Side of Love, brought tears to my eyes this weekend.

This weekend I had the privilege of representing HRC for a joint action with Soulforce to deliver a petition – and the  list of its 70,000 supporters – to Kansas City based Pastor Lou Engle of TheCall ministry and the International House of Prayer (IHOP).  The petition calls on Engle to stop using religion and the bible to justify homophobia and to cease with anti-LGBT evangelism in Uganda, evangelism that has created a culture of terror and persecution for LGBT Ugandans.  HRC organized this petition following the brutal murder of David Kato last month.  Kato was a Ugandan activist for freedom and equality the country’s sexual minorities.

The following is a guest post from the Rev. Eugene T. Dyszlewski: Religious Leaders in Rhode Island have led the effort to make marriage equality a reality in the state of Rhode Island. On Wednesday, February 9, a spirited rally followed a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee. The response was tremendous. Indeed, the rotunda was so packed that officials were forced to close the building, leaving hundreds of supporters to brave the cold outside.