As June (AKA Pride Month) draws to a close, I offer this prayer:
Graciously loving GOD,
We praise you for making humankind in your image and for loving us all — regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ideology, and beliefs.
We thank you for the love that you have instilled in us, that we may use our love for each other to make this world a more accepting and loving place.
We trust in your strength and guidance to lead us through turmoil that is anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and legislation that plagues this world.
Lord, we ask for your loving protection for all of your children, but in these final days of Pride we ask that you strengthen and protect your children in the LGBTQ+ community.
For those who are still in the closet, grant that they may be received with love and support by their family (both given and chosen).
For those who are out and proud, grant that they may be shielded from hatred and fear from those who seek to persecute us.
For those who are still navigating and determining their identity, grant them peace and kindness, as well as the wisdom that no matter who they are, they are loved wholly and purely for who they are.
For those unsure why Pride is a time of reflection and celebration, grant them the strength to learn and reflect upon the history of Queer revolution in this nation and abroad; guide them through the shame and fear instilled upon those in the LGBTQ+ community (especially queer people of color), both through the former legislation and current cultural practices that seek to erase us; grant that they may know the love, joy, and support that we share amongst each other as we continue to fight for the freedom to be ourselves without physical or social punishment.
And for those who seek to live in a world without Pride Month, Lord we ask that you may soften their hearts so that they see that we are made in your image just as they are.
Thank you for the revolutionaries that you have sent and those that are to come.
May our hearts be ever outpouring in love for all on this earth, now and forever.
In Your name we pray,
Amen.
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