About Religion & Faith
The Human Rights Campaign Religion and Faith Program’s mission is to change the conversation about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and faith. Because of the pioneering efforts of brave religious people speaking out for equality, a new movement for change is emerging that embraces a culture of welcome, compassion, and hospitality, values that are at the heart of all our faith traditions.
HRC’s program is engaged in this movement at every level. We have created much-needed resources, such as our online weekly preaching and devotional resource Out In Scripture, our Living Openly in Your Place of Worship guide and our biweekly e-newsletter. Through our Religion Council we are ensuring that Americans hear diverse religious voices speaking about equality in newspapers, radio, television, blogs and webcasts. As some of the most influential religious thinkers in the country, our Religion Council also serves as th key advisory board for our work. Our engagement with 23 Progressive State Clergy Coalitions is also spreading equality on the state and local level. And, through our Clergy Safe Space Conversations, we are having difficult, yet faithful, conversations with religious leaders struggling to reconcile their faith with GLBT concerns.
In doing this work, we literally stand with religious people in all the places they gather. Our work takes us from organizing progressive clergy coalitions in fellowship halls on a given Thursday night to partaking in Shabbat services on Friday evening, to preaching from the pulpit on Sunday morning, followed by a Safe Space Conversation in a church basement on Monday.
We’re also taking the message of equality on the road to seminaries, college campuses and assembly halls, talking with people about faith, fairness and the religious tools for advocacy they can draw upon from their own faith traditions. Our message of equality is also reaching the halls of Congress where religious leaders speak out on such critical justice issues facing the GLBT community as the Federal Marriage Amendment, Hate Crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Throughout all this, we are spreading the good news that transformation is truly happening one community at a time.
