Letter to the editor: Methodist Church & LGBT people

Western Pennsylvania will soon welcome spring with colorful blooms and sweet aromas. On this Sunday, there’s a sky as blue as popsicles from my childhood.

My girlfriend “KB” and I walk hand in hand looking for a church. We walk up to a stately stone United Methodist Church surrounded by maples, oaks and trimmed hedges.

A brawny, scowling man “greets” us. He looks down and shakes his head.

“You must be lesbians! You can’t come in here! I’m the bouncer.”

“What? A church bouncer?”

“Yeah,” he smirks. “We’re traditionalists. We don’t want you LSTD people coming here.”

I smile. “It’s LGBT people. Really, we laugh, cry, breathe and bleed the same as you.”

“No, this is a place of God.”

“Which God? The God of Love? The God of all people?”

“You queers don’t belong here. My job is to keep you out.”

“Can we just look inside, see the sanctuary?

Scoffing, he opens the heavy oak door. We see the stained-glass windows, red carpet and pews of Methodists, some we know from our small town.

He closes the door. I look up at him, taking KB’s hand. “He isn’t there.”

“I know,” she agrees. “It’s sad. He isn’t there.”

“Who?” he asks.

“Jesus.”

We walk away, leaving the church and bouncer behind us.

We love God and each other. Nothing can bring us down.

We take a long walk. The three of us. KB, me and Jesus.

Jan Lee

Harrison