By Dan Kennedy • The press, politics, technology, culture and other passions

Medford trans community and allies protest church’s anti-LGBTQ message

A few dozen of us gathered in Medford Square early Friday evening to protest an anti-LGBTQ sign across the street at the New England Baptist Church. The sign reads: “Male and Female He Created Them. Gen. 5:2. Gender Identity Solved.”

No one was demanding that the church remove the message, which is protected by the First Amendment. But members of the trans community and their allies wanted to let them know that their views weren’t welcome. Both of the major candidates for mayor joined us — Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, who’s running for re-election, and City Councilor John Falco, who’s challenging her.

A party atmosphere prevailed, at least on our side. Led by the Rev. Wendy Miller Olapade, we walked in front of the church once and then stood out on the opposite side of Salem Street, waving flags and signs while motorists honked their horns in support.

Tiffany Chan of WBZ-TV (Channel 4) covered the rally. The Medford Transcript was on hand as well; I’ll post a link once its story has been published. (Now added, below.)

Update: Lex Weaver, editor of The Scope, a social justice publication that’s part of Northeastern’s School of Journalism, made it over to Medford Square after we left and posted this thread. Click here to see the whole thing.

Update II: Here is Namu Sampath’s story in the Medford Transcript.

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2 Comments

  1. Lex

    Thank you for standing up both for equal rights for all and against scientific illiteracy, Dan. My trans nephew and trans sister-in-law appreciate it as much as I do, if not more.

  2. Steve Ross

    I resent selective reading of the Bible by various Christian sects. In this case, the quote is taken out of context. There’s no prohibition there. Where there are prohibitions, mainly in Leviticus, they are often mistranslated. Male homosexuality is banned, female specifically is not. There is no “abomination” in the Lord’s eyes, only a notation in 60 of the 613 Lev verses that something should not be done because it is toavah– “unclean.” Those verses include prohibitions against pork, shellfish, mixing meat with milk in the same dish…. but so many Christians think of the Bible as a cafeteria, selecting what THEY don’t like. They can do whatever they want, but forcing their views on others by law is… truly… an abomination.

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