Dear Glen Morris United Church, 

I want to share with you what it was like as an openly queer minister to be a part of the Kitchener counter-protest to this week’s 1 Million 4 Children that was staged in many cities across the country. You can read more about it here and the more local take here. 

My usual practice, as long as I have been in ministry, is to be visibly present at protests as a voice for love and justice and as a Christian. This means I have worn my robe while marching at Pride parades, and I’ve worn my collar while standing outside a mosque when a White supremacist group was gathering close by.

This was the first time in years of attending rallies, demonstrations, and protests where I had to ask my friends if they thought it would be safe for me to attend a rally and be so visible as it has become a practice for some hate groups to identify people at protests and publicly share their name, address, and more on the internet and encourage others to stalk and harass them.

While I truly believe that many people who are part of the 1 Million 4 Children march are acting on misinformation and are being manipulated by fear-mongering tactics, I still felt fear this week wondering if such a gathering would embolden someone to do something really violent. When I recognized how much fear I was experiencing as someone with the privilege of a very loving circle of care and support I couldn’t help but wonder how hard this week must have been for young children and teenagers who might not have access to much support or community at all. 

If the policies and ideas the 1 Million 4 Children March are promoting end up taking further hold in our schools, this could end up creating really unsafe learning environments for LGBTQ+ students. This is why people organized counter-protests and invited others to show up and challenge the harmful messages being promoted. As a Christian, it felt important that I offered faithful witness this Wednesday morning by showing up and affirming that Christ calls us to be in solidarity with the most marginalized people in society. And something really beautiful was that I wasn’t alone - I met at least half a dozen clergy and members from their communities of faith who were also part of the counter protest. 

I can’t say that it was a good or a bad experience, but perhaps that, as answering God’s call so often does, it helped ensure that my breaking heart could be broken open. I left the counter-protest with enough hope that a message of love and inclusion had been the loudest that day and that this is a message we would continue to carry and fight for in the days to come. 

May the peace of Christ be with all those opening their hearts to new and more expansive ways of understanding gender and sexuality,

May the peace of Christ be with all those for whom this week felt heavy and scary, 

May the peace of Christ calm and restore you, like a warm breeze on an autumn afternoon, 

 

Yours in Christ, 

Rev Michiko