Our Welcoming Committee and other members had the opportunity to “walk the walk” last week at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. A locally-based and very conservative religious group called “Point of Relevance” hosted a speaker from Ohio who operates a web site called Mission:America. It is remarkably fundamentalist in its viewpoints, using the language of the Bible to skewer anyone and everyone not fitting their own religious ideals.
The title of the speech was “Homosexuality: Is the Debate Really Over?” An impromptu meeting of the committee was quickly called, and it was decided that a quiet presence was needed at this event to protest this sort of “hate speech” occurring, especially here in our own community. An email was sent to the entire Welcoming Committee requesting that they be at this event, and a statement was prepared for delivery during a Q and A session that might follow the speech.

That email was subsequently passed around, reached one particular young man outside the church membership who had a Facebook page called “It's OK to be Gay”, and he paraphrased our original email about gathering to protest this group's message of hate. Within 48 hours, it mushroomed to a much larger rally concept, with over 100 people promising to attend. We followed with an emailed invitation to all who attended any of the past Welcoming Congregation sessions or movie nights.

Recognizing that this could be a significant community event, we contacted all of the major media outlets over a 24-hour period, and many responded and attended. WWJ-AM radio ran multiple mentions of it the morning of the speech, Our Rev. Mitra appeared in an interview on Fox 2 News that night, as did George Gray; the Free Press ran a story the next morning. The Grosse Pointe Times sent a photographer and reporter, and www.grossepointetoday.com covered it with a beautifully written opinion piece and photo. WDIV-TV and WXYZ-TV sent cameras and reporters, but failed to use the story on the air.
We are proud to have had an opportunity to stand up in favor of love and acceptance, without fear. Through these actions, GPUC has earned recognition as an open-minded, welcoming congregation, and has taken a giant step toward being a more influential part of the Grosse Pointe communities.
As Rev. Rahnema might say, “May it be so”.