Irene

Did you watch Tuesday night’s Democratic debate? The race to the White House for Democrats is an exhausting one, and I’m simply watching the battle on television. 

The treatment of “otherness” I experienced from my years of being bussed, I learned had less to do with the people targeted, like myself, and everything to do with the group in power.

All Rev'd Up explores where faith intersects politics and culture. Reverend Irene Monroe and Reverend Emmett Price III come from different black faith perspectives, they're of different generations, they hail from different parts of the country and they come together in this podcast to talk about faith in a different way.

“Trans lives are real lives. Trans deaths are real deaths. God works through other people. Maybe you can be those other people.” We are those other people.

When you reside at the intersections of multiple identities, anniversaries of your civil rights struggles can be both bitter and sweet. And, May 17th was a reminder.

America continues to struggle with its battle against white racism. However, what’s not addressed is the internalized racism people of color struggle with, too consciously and unconsciously. And, it’s called “colorism” or “intra-racism.”

In a culture that is now moving away from toxic masculinity, Morehouse’s admission of transgender male students will be continuing its tradition of nurturing the talents and gifts of its exceptional black men.

The high holy holidays of Passover and Easter are fast approaching and Ramadan is in May. Attacks, however, on places of worship are becoming too frequent in this global climate of intolerance. As a worshiper, I need our president to make us safe.

For decades there has been an ongoing struggle in the United Methodist Church (UMC) to adopt a policy of full inclusion of its LGBTQ parishioners and clergy and all the spiritual gifts we bring to the church. However, UMC voted at General Conference last month to uphold - 53% to 47% - its Traditionalist Plan, which is to oppose same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy. Now the church has the potential for a schism with its global delegation outweighing the U.S

Fox TV drama “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett plays on the show the gay character Jamal Lyon. In real life, Smollett is an African American gay male. Smollett has been charged with concocting an elaborate racist and homophobic assault against him. Smollett’s fan base, needless to say, is flummoxed. So, too, are many Americans trying to push through this deeply polarized moment.

What should have been an enriching classroom engagement turned instead into a public outrage that's now prompting an outside investigation

Jesus courageously confronted injustice. He challenged the temple's hierarchy against the backdrop of the ongoing economic and social oppression of his times. Jesus was a non-violent revolutionary, but he was not passive.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has voiced opposition to making Election Day a federal holiday. However, allowing American voters a more accessible and a stress-free trip to their voting precincts should be a no-brainer. And, H.R.1 — For the People Act of 2019 would do just that.

Transgender people are in every facet of life- even prison. Too often, however, because of physical and sexual assaults, and being housed in facilities according to their birth sex and not their gender identity, these inmates are not only serving time for their crimes, but they are also trying to survive their time while imprisoned.

With a conservative Supreme Court- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh - it comes as no surprise that a 5-4 vote has revived Trump’s discriminatory policy on transgender service members, while the merits of the cases will continue to be challenged in lower courts.

How does the church and God feel about transgender people? Will they go to hell?

While I will continue to argue that the African American community doesn’t have a patent on homophobia, it does however, have a problem with it. And comedian Kevin Hart is another glaring example of the malady.

First Lady Michelle Obama swept into Beantown Saturday as part of the national book tour promoting her memoir “Becoming” that was held at the TD Garden. The evening before the event, my spouse and I were gifted front row seats. OMG! the event was simply magical. And, the audience was wildly excited.

Thanksgiving is an excellent time to give a closer look at the rising escalation of hate crimes in America- its origin and its legacy. America’s origin of hate crimes can be traced with the treatment of Native Americans and how America celebrates Thanksgiving. For many Native Americans, Thanksgiving is not a cause of celebration, but rather a National Day of Mourning.

This November 18th marks the 40th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. The mass murder-suicide was the largest casualty of American citizens before 9/11. With forty years since the Jonestown massacre, a more disturbing image of the Revered Jim Jones’s treatment toward his LGBTQ parishioners emerges.

With October being LGBTQ History Month it allows the LGBTQ community to look back at historical events. And Matthew Shepard’s murder is one of them. This October 12 marks twenty years since the death of Matthew Shepard. In October 1998, Shepard, then 21, was a first-year college student at University of Wyoming. Under the guise of friendship, two men (Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson) lured Shepard from a tavern, tortured and bludgeoned him with their rifles, and then tethered him to a rough-hewn wooden fence to die – simply because he was gay.

"Sesame Street’s" most famous duo Bert and Ernie first appeared in 1969, the same year as the Stonewall Riots, which to the nation’s surprise catapulted the LGBTQ Liberation Movement. And at that time, the idea of partnering these two lovable striped-sweater-wearing puppets as gay was as inconceivable as the idea of legalized same-sex marriage.

While the two warring factions- conservative versus liberal wings - wrestle with the direction the Catholic Church needs to go in this modern era, the church, nonetheless, is still stymied and stained by continued unaddressed claims of sex abuse by unprosecuted sex offenders.

President Donald Trump traffics in racial epithets. Since his first year in office, Trump’s displays of xenophobic, misogynistic, LGBTQ-phobic, and racist remarks (to name just a few from his laundry list of bigotries) appear to have no cutoff point. The Republican Party under Trump doesn’t seem to have one, either.