The featured picture is my favorite shirt, but there are limited places in which it is truly safe for me to wear it. Before I describe where it is and isn’t safe for me to wear this shirt, I am going to tell you what this shirt symbolizes. I am not only a mother of Neurodivergent and gay kids, but I am an Educational Therapist who is becoming known as the “Facetime Mom” in virtual circles of the youth and young Neurodivergent adults I instruct in my practice. Some of them are also LGBTQ+ because this is scientifcally more common in Neurodivergent communities. I fully support these communities, not because I “celebrate sin” or “wild sexual behavior.” I am celebrating each unique individual because he/she/them are equally-created in God’s image. Since a great deal of hatred and even violence are created from some individuals from within the Church towards LGBTQ+ people and their families, I think it’s vital for Christian/Catholic allies to openly show their allyship.
So let’s talk about where it’s safe for me to freely wear this shirt without the fear of getting verbally abused, potentially attacked, potentially threatened, or even potentially killed. If you think that this is an exaggeration, please Google the overall rise in violence towards LGBTQ+ people, including LGBTQ+ children, especially transgender children. Also, please read my previous Patheos piece about the rise in violence towards LGBTQ+ people and a mother of nine who was shot in California for simply displaying a Pride Flag. Willful Ignorance and Intentional Harm, Similar or Totally One? | Julie Nichols (patheos.com)
Let’s look at the “bright side first,” where it is truly safe for me to wear the featured photo shirt in San Antonio, Texas. I think I could safely wear this shirt without fear of getting verbally abused, potentially attacked, potentially threatened, or even potentially killed in very select places. I could wear this shirt in affirming religious spaces and other spaces where there are rainbow and Pride Flags displayed. I would need to subtract the fear of someone storming in to kill an entire group of LGBTQ+ people, their families, and allies, but a mass shooting could happen anywhere, especially in the United States. I believe the only truly safe space to wear this shirt without valid fear of what I mentioned is in spaces where the entity is not afraid to display its own pride flags.
Let’s talk about the other side, the side where it is unsafe for me to wear this shirt without a valid fear of getting verbally abused, potentially attacked, potentially threatened, or even potentially killed. In Texas, there are very few spaces which are dedicated as Sanctuary Cities for LGBTQ+ people and their families. If the space is not one of these cities, or it’s a place which is not displaying a Pride Flag, it is validly unsafe for me to wear this shirt. This would include but is not limited to: stores which do not have pride merchandise, public streets and venues which don’t display Pride Flags, particularly un-reconciled churches and other religious entities, medical facilities, schools, and many other places who do not openly support LGBTQ+ people and their families.
With the limited number of places I am able to safely wear this shirt, there are also a limited number of spaces which I can talk about my loved ones without fear. This is why the Catholic Church must reconcile this issue, however they can theologically resolve this. There are people from the Catholic Right within the Catholic Church who wish to “purge” LGBTQIA+ people and their families out of the Church without a care or concern of what kind of harm this does to them. I have experienced this first-hand on a number of occasions as a mother and ally, but I stand with the vulnerable and look for support to keep doing my work and ministry. As Jesus says in different places throughout the Gospel, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
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