Join us on Spirit Day this October 15

Join us on Spirit day this October 15th. Integrity's forty year support of LGBT Episcopalians includes our youth, and we wholeheartedly encourage efforts to make the public aware of the suffering of those whose lives are made miserable, or worse ended, as a result of bullying.

According to GLAAD, "Spirit Day began in 2010 as a way to show support for LGBT youth and take a stand against bullying. Following a string of high-profile suicide deaths of gay teens in 2010, GLAAD worked to involve millions of teachers, workplaces, celebrities, media outlets and students in going purple on social media or wearing purple, a color that symbolizes spirit on the rainbow flag. Spirit Day now occurs every year on the third Thursday in October, during National Bullying Prevention Month, and has become the most visible day of support for LGBT youth."

We invite you to wear purple on October 15th, and be willing to tell people why. Show your support for our children, and let them know that you support them. Feel free to tweet and Facebook your purple with the #SpiritDay hashtag. Turn your Twitter and Facebook profile photo purple using this link.

For our Bishops and Priests, we ask that you wear purple on October 18th, and designate it Spirit Sunday. Use purple as your liturgical color that day, and make it clear that we, as Christians, need to support our LGBT youth - some of the most vulnerable in our society.

Pledge to go purple!

Integrity Idaho Celebrates Ten Years!

A number of years ago, the now-Rev. Deborah Graham approached both LGBT and ally members of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Boise, ID about developing a chapter of Integrity in the Diocese of Idaho.  With a tremendous amount of hard work, and determination, the Idaho chapter of Integrity USA was chartered in October of 2004.

As we venture into our second decade of service to the Diocese of Idaho and her LGBT parishioners, we take time to reflect on what we have accomplished.

• The first item of importance was to create a safe place for LGBT members and their allies to gather and enjoy fellowship.  We have now established a tradition of monthly gatherings.  We enjoy a potluck meal, followed by some sort of activity or simply just converse.   Activities have included game nights, movie nights, and even dance lessons (we have wedding receptions to get ready for!).
• Established a presence at Boise Pride celebration.  We have made ourselves available to the general public, so that we could let them know that there are welcoming congregations in the area.
• Being part of the community-at-large, we found ourselves in the unique position to advise congregations and the general public on LGBT issues.  Concurrently, we were able to help our LGBT faithful to be more outspoken and identifiable in their parishes and communities, while creating a safe haven for worship.
• As part of our monthly gatherings, we led a series of discussions based on Candace Chellew-Hodge’s book Bulletproof Faith:  A Spiritual Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians.  This gave us the opportunities to share our own journeys of faith and learn how to be more compassionate with others that did not share our views. 
• To reach out to our host congregation, St. Michael’s Cathedral, we organized what became known as 'legendary coffee hours'.  One such fell on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, so it was a Mardi Gras theme, complete with fresh beignets!  While we don’t do these on quite the same scale, we do still offer the occasional coffee hour as a thank you to our congregations.
• In 2011, we created a membership survey to see how we are doing and what we can do better.  This gave us a good idea as to what our members were thinking about Integrity Idaho and allowed us to set new goals to help fulfill our mission. 
• We have been sponsors for the Lions Pride Cubs (an LGBT youth group in Idaho) annual winter dance.  This gave us an opportunity to reach out to LGBT youth in our area and give them a safe and welcoming place to gather.
• We created our own Facebook page!  This gives us more access to the public by having a presence on social media.  Go ahead and give us a like!  Find us at www.facebook.com/integrityidaho 

So here we are a decade later, so where do we go from here?  Thankfully, we have a loving, caring Bishop that is very supportive of our mission.  With his blessing, we are working hard to further our presence in the Diocese of Idaho.  Here is what we are currently working on and watching out for:

• We are launching a new web page!  What makes this exciting for us is that we have never had real presence on the web.  We are certainly mentioned, but there has not been anything that gives people a direct resource or contact to us.  We hope to launch our new page by November 1.  Be sure to check us out on the web at http://integrity.episcopalidaho.org 
• Currently in Idaho, there are several political issues on the horizon that we are keeping a very close eye on and speaking out when necessary.  The first being the issue regarding Idaho’s same-sex marriage ban.  This ban was recently struck down and is currently working its way through the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.  As you may be aware, the 9th Circuit did issue their ruling, stating that the Idaho ban was illegal.  However, a stay from SCOTUS has been issued therefore; marriages in Idaho are on hold.  We are certainly hopeful for a positive outcome, and continue to pray that these justices will see just how important this is for Idaho and her citizens.  In response to the Governor and Attorney General’s continuing to defend the ban, Integrity Idaho did publish an open letter on October 8.  This letter will be made available on our web page upon its launch.

UPDATE:  On Wednesday, October 15, 2014 at 10AM MST – MARRIAGE EQUALITY COMES TO IDAHO!  All stays have been lifted, and the Governor and Attorney General, while still opposed to lifting the ban on same-sex marriage, have dropped their legal maneuvers to continue this unconstitutional mandate.

• Another issue that is taking precedence here in Idaho, is the 'Add the Words' movement.  The goal of this movement is to add the words ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’ to the current Idaho Civil Rights Statute.  These four simple words would offer protections for GLBT persons so that they could not be fired from their jobs, be discriminated against for housing, among many other protections.  The problem is that for the last nine years, the Idaho Legislature has refused to even hold a hearing on the bill.  In January of this year, Integrity Idaho sent an open letter to all Idaho Legislators including Governor C. L. "Butch" Otter.  While our letter was welcomed by those law makers that are in favor of this legislation, we received a rather cold response from Idaho’s Republican majority.  That does not mean that we are giving up!  We are working to foster a conversation with law makers on both sides of the aisle.  This also came on the heels of Idaho’s so-called 'Religious Freedom' bills, that if passed would have allowed hate and discrimination in the name of 'personally held religious beliefs'.  When these bills came up in committee, over 500 people turned out to speak in opposition of this legislation.  Among those to testify to the committee were our own Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Brian Thom, and Integrity Idaho co-director, Susan Bolen.
• We recognize that due to the current political climate within our state, it is now more important than ever to identify welcoming and affirming congregations, regardless of denomination.  We are currently working on a plan to identify these congregations in conjunction with the Believe Out Loud program. We will start by working with our own Diocese, and then we will broaden our scope to identify other faiths that are welcoming and affirming by working with the Interfaith Equality Coalition (based in Boise, ID).  While goals for this have not yet been set, we anticipate having our plan defined and in place by the first of the year.

We give thanks to God for our 10th anniversary, working for inclusion and acceptance of all of God’s children in the Diocese of Idaho.  We pray for another successful ten years to come.

Nik Dumas and Susan Bolen are the Co-Directors / Co-Conveners of Integrity Idaho

Young Adult & Campus Ministers Gather With Ecumenical Partners in Chicago

At the end of June, Young Adult and Campus Ministers of the Episcopal Church joined with others of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, and the Disciples of Christ for the first ever Shared Space conference in Chicago.

This year these denominations, which had each previously, hosted their own Young Adult and Campus Ministry conferences, decided to pool their resources to provide one cross-denominational event.

The Rev. Jon M. Richardson

The conference began at Chicago’s Fourth Presbyterian Church with keynote speaker Diana Butler Bass. Dr. Bass led us through a study of changing demographics in the church and our wider American culture to the conclusion that while an unprecedented number of young people are unaffiliated with any religion, the progressive church is uniquely poised to reach them with a message of love and radical welcome - a message that will come as something of a surprise to many “native unaffiliated” young people who grew up outside the church, and whose image of the Christian tradition has largely been molded by Christian conservatives.

I was there to represent Integrity USA at the conference and to serve as a resource for Episcopal Young Adult and Campus Ministers. Students and leaders from across the country expressed their gratitude to Integrity for the work we’ve been doing, and called on us to continue developing resources for their use in campus ministry settings. They reiterated the conclusions that Dr. Bass spoke about in her presentations, and expressed the need for Integrity to continue its work leading the church to a more inclusive reality - the kind of church that young people today demand.

The Rev. Jon M. Richardson is Integrity’s Vice President for National Affairs and serves as Rector of the Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd in Philadelphia, PA.  He has worked with Integrity in Legislative Strategy at the last three General Conventions and serves as our liaison to allied organizations and the Episcopal Church.  He blogs at www.JonMRichardson.com.  Follow him on Twitter @jonmrichardson

Do gay-straight alliances make a difference?

by Joanna Broder
PioneerLocal
January 8, 2009

High schools with gay-straight alliances may be safer places for homosexual, bisexual and transgender youth, new research suggests.

The 2007 National School Climate Survey: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Youth in Our Nations Schools was conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network known as GLSEN, a New-York-based national education association.

This survey found that when high schools had such alliances, these students reported hearing fewer homophobic comments and experiencing less harassment or assaults because of their sexual orientation or gender expression than students attending schools without gay-straight alliances. They also said they felt more of a sense of belonging to their school. Yet only just over a third of surveyed students surveyed reported that they had such an alliance at their school.

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