VAUGHAN REES

What LGBTQ+ History Month Means To Me 

I confess to sometimes feeling a little sad and frustrated when the Chaplaincy is viewed with a kind of respectful suspicion when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues.

Given some of the things that are said by some Christians, there is an inevitability about this, and so I suppose I just need to take it on the chin and commit myself to giving the lie to negative assumptions by the way I am as a person and the kind of service we offer as a Chaplaincy. 

Being open to and affirming of others is not something I have learnt as part of a theological doctrine or as a contemporary political theory.

It has been a touchstone of my faithfulness to the God who was made known to me from childhood at Dinas Noddfa, my home Baptist Chapel in Swansea. Being open and affirming is what I am because of my faith and not in spite of it. 

Desmond Tutu said: “I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven”. I want to say, if it is homophobic, It can’t be heaven.

I have a vision that one day we will live in a world where different expressions of loving human sexuality will be celebrated, and a confident hope that the Church as a whole will catch up and join in.