06/02/2026
Happy Pride Month from AllianceQ!
Beloved Community,
Grace + peace to you this Pride Month.
As we enter this sacred season of celebration, resistance, remembrance, + joy, I find myself humming the familiar words:
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved + liberated a soul like me."
Perhaps grace was never about rescuing us from who we are. Perhaps grace is the relentless love of God that searches for us, finds us, + calls us more deeply into our authentic selves. Grace is the holy invitation to become who God has already imagined us to be.
Scripture reminds us, "For freedom Christ has set us free." (Galatians 5:1)
Freedom is not simply the absence of chains. Freedom is the sacred ability to live fully, love boldly, question honestly, + become wholly ourselves. Freedom is trusting that the image of God is seen most clearly in our q***rness, our gender identity, our searching, our wondering, or our becoming. Freedom is knowing that God's love is wider than every boundary humanity has tried to create.
This month, I want every LGBTQIA+ person to hear this clearly: you are right where you need to be.
Whether you are questioning or certain, out or not yet out, celebrating or struggling, exploring your gender, embracing your sexuality, discovering new language for yourself, or simply trying to survive another day, you are right where you need to be. God is present with you in all of it.
The Divine meets us in our searching. The Holy One delights in our becoming. Love expands through our courage to live truthfully.
I have come to believe that the mind of God is far more expansive, creative, + liberating than we have often been taught. Queerness, at its finest, teaches us that life is not confined to rigid categories. It reminds us that creation is abundant, diverse, surprising, + beautiful beyond measure. Queerness invites us to imagine new possibilities for love, community, family, faith, + freedom.
As an openly q***r, Gay, Black man of God, I carry deep pride this month. Not because the journey has always been easy, but because I have witnessed again + again the faithfulness of a God who never abandoned me, never asked me to become less of myself, + never withdrew love from me. Instead, God kept calling me deeper into authenticity, deeper into liberation, + deeper into love.
That same grace is at work in you.

May this Pride Month remind us that we are not mistakes to be corrected but beloved creations to be celebrated. May we continue building a world where every LGBTQIA+ person knows they belong. May we live courageously into the freedom God has given us. And may we never forget that the love of God is still searching for us, not to change who we are, but to draw us ever more fully into the beauty of who we have always been.
Happy Pride Month.
With pride, hope, + liberation,
Rev. Jermell Witherspoon
Executive Director, AllianceQ
