Faith for Pride 2023

All this month, Interfaith Alliance and its partners are celebrating Faith for Pride, our annual effort to mobilize people of all faiths and none in support of LGBTQ+ rights. Our work aims to energize faith-based organizations, congregations, and activists around Pride Month and equip them with the tools to support LGBTQ+ justice year-round. On this week’s show, Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, host of State of Belief and president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, will share highlights from our Faith for Pride kickoff event earlier this month. We’ll hear from an inspiring and diverse group of faith leaders, all united in their vision of a more equitable nation: Rev. Don Abram, M.Div, executive director of Pride in the Pews Felipe Zurita Quintana, leadership council chair for United Religions Initiative of North America Sushma Dwivedi, progressive Hindu pundit and founder of the Purple Pundit Project Ani Zonneveld, founder and president, Muslims for Progressive Values Maharat Rori Picker Neiss, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis and proud mom to a trans child Pastor Bill Knezovich of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Fresno, California, which was recently vandalized for being LGBTQ+ affirming Tracey Labgold, Florida education & training manager for the Jewish LGBTQ+ organization Keshet and Chair of ADL's National Education Committee Malachi Garza, organizing director at the Solidaire Network Rev. Traci Blackmon, executive minister of Justice & Witness Ministries, United Church of Christ Speakers also discuss the ongoing fight against the flood of anti-LGBTQ+ bills that are advancing in statehouses across the country, emblematic of a dangerous national campaign that Christian nationalists and their allies are waging against our LGBTQ+ siblings - almost always misusing the language of faith to do so. More than 100 national and local organizations are co-sponsoring this year’s Faith for Pride initiative, including the Anti-Defamation League, Keshet, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the Sikh Coalition, United Religions Initiative, and the United Church of Christ. Together, we can organize and mobilize against anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and hateful rhetoric that threaten the lives of LGBTQ+ people. State of Belief has a new home and is being distributed via the Religion News Service family of podcasts. Be sure to subscribe to the next generation of State of Belief today via Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or at http://www.stateofbelief.com/newpodcast.