We Believe? LGBTQ+ Religious Experiences in Central PA

Jerry Brennan was the founder of Dignity/Central PA, the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard of Harrisburg, and Gay Community Services. He was involved in LGBTQ+ activism beginning in the late 1960s, having been “radicalized even before Stonewall,” according to Steven Leshner. According to Steven, “he [Jerry] combined his religious faith and his sense of trying to correct injustice.” Richard Hause said “he wrote a lot of letters to Congress and legislatures, […] he was always up on the latest laws that were coming out. And if he opposed them, he wrote. Profusely. To Congress and the state legislature, and anyone else!”

The experiences of LGBTQ+ clergy are varied. Some were lucky enough to attend open and affirming seminaries, while others avoided going to seminary for years despite feeling called to ministry out of fear that they would not be accepted. Some expressed fear of their safety should they go through seminary as an out LGBTQ+ person, while others went through seminary in the closet and did not come to terms with their sexuality until later. Some were ordained in open and affirming churches such as MCC, while others were ordained in less accepting churches, such as Rev. Eva O’Diam, who was initially ordained as a Church of the Brethren pastor before moving her credentials to MCC.
 

Responses to LGBTQ+ people from religious organizations and communities in Central PA, and the nation at large, were mixed. Debates over the ordination of LGBTQ+ ministers raged throughout the end of the 20th century. Debates over the sinfulness of homosexuality played out in newspapers throughout the country, including in Central PA. Local LGBTQ+ religious groups such as MCC Lancaster and MCC Harrisburg faced backlash from communities when they tried to buy their own buildings. The Harrisburg Men’s Chorus, comprised largely of gay men, had a performance cancelled at a church in York due to religious condemnation of LGBTQ+ people. And, during the AIDS crisis, churches would refuse to hold funerals for gay men who died of AIDS.