By Peggy Carroll
Two weeks ago, Bishop Gene Robinson interviewed people who were in Washington DC’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride parade and found a split between the young and the old.
Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion, gleaned that the young had a very light-hearted view about the event. For them, Pride was a party, a time for celebration.
Older people saw it differently. It was, for them, a time “to remember the journey that got us where we are, and the people and lives that were sacrificed in the process,” Robinson said,
That was the same weekend when Omar Mateen massacred 49 people, most of them Latino, in the gay nightclub called Pulse in Orlando, in the largest mass shooting in US history.
In the aftermath, Robinson could not help but wonder how the people he had talked to just the day before now would respond.
“Orlando was a wake-up call,” he said. “We still have much work to do. Many laws have been changed; hearts and minds have not.”
This weekend, he will be the featured speaker at another LGBT Pride event, the annual observance at Morristown’s Episcopal Church of the Redeemer. He will talk at a public forum at 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 25, 2016, and preach at the 9:30 a.m. service on Sunday, June 26.
Both are open to everyone and free of charge.
“It is an honor to have Bishop Robinson with us,” said Redeemer Rector Cynthia L. Black in a statement. “His courageous witness on behalf of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people is inspirational to everyone—whether they have any connection to a church or not.”
Robinson, now retired, has been a controversial figure since he was elected Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. His selection rocked the church throughout the country and a number of congregations left the Episcopal Church to join or form other denominations.
He now is a fellow at a Washington think tank, writes for the Daily Beast and frequently rallies to support LGBT causes throughout the country – most recently in Anchorage, where protective legislation has come under attack by conservative churches.
HISTORY LESSON
This weekend in Morristown, he will talk about what still needs to be done.
Some of what he has to tell, he believes, will surprise even those in the LGBT community.
“They do not know that in 29 states, a person can be fired from a job for being gay,” he said. “There is no protection. And if you are transgender, 31 states do not protect you. The majority of states do not have non-discrimination laws.”
Much progress has been made, he acknowledged. “But if someone told me 10 years ago that we would have marriage equality before job protection, I would have said he was crazy.”
While same-sex marriage is now legal, he said, the couple may not be able to check into a hotel on their honeymoon, and may come home to find they are fired from their jobs and thrown out of their apartment.
To close the gaps, he held that the LGBT movement must reemphasize the importance of allies – “people who are welcome in places where we are not and who can speak for us.
“We can not underestimate their place in our move to equality,” he said. “They can stand up with us and stand up for us.”
The LGBT movement has learned lessons from the civil rights movement of the 1960s.“All of these oppressions work similarly,” he said. “But if we banded together, we would not be the minority, but the majority.”
Right now, he said, a bill in Congress, the Federal Equality Act, would provide protection in employment, housing and accommodations throughout the country. But he held out little hope that in the current Republican Congress it ever will become law.
One thing that has to be done: Education.
“It is amazing how ignorant we are of our own history,” he said. “Our young people are very ignorant of what has given them the privilege to be able to be ignorant.”
This year, the observance will be a little different. “It will be a little more about remembering our history.”
A MINISTRY WITH JERSEY ROOTS
His own history has been cheered by some and strenuously attacked by others.
Originally from Kentucky, Bishop Robinson’s early ministry was in New Jersey. He was ordained by the Diocese of Newark. He served at St. Luke’s Church in Montclair while in the seminary; his first assignment was Christ Church in Ridgewood.
He first went public about his sexual identity and divorce from his wife in 1986. He has talked openly about the public, negative scrutiny, he has since faced.
In 2008, he and his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrews, were married in a private civil union which became a legal marriage when New Hampshire law changed. They were divorced in 2014, an event that also stirred adverse reactions.
In 2013, he retired and now serves as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, an independent nonpartisan policy institute in Washington DC. According to its website, the institute is dedicated to “improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas as well as strong leadership and concerted action.”
Its aim, it says, “is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country.”
The Church of the Redeemer, at 36 South St., is a GreenFaith certified Christian liberation community in the Episcopal tradition, serving Morristown for more than 160 years.
