A Legacy of Pride
Trinity is more than two centuries old, and one of our foundational stories goes back just over a generation, to the mid-1980’s.
At the time PFLAG, a community of parents, families, and allies of LGBTQ+ folk, was looking for a church that could serve as a home base for their recurring meetings. They were declined by church after church, asking several dozen before finally asking Trinity Cathedral to host them. When they reached Trinity, as they tell the story now, they were surprised not only to be met with a “yes” but also with the sense that this wasn’t a difficult decision at all. You see, Trinity already knew itself to be a place of welcome and dignity, and it only made sense to open our doors widely when others couldn’t seem to find the keys to unlock their own.
Pride is, among other many other things, a celebration of who we are, especially those among us who are LGBTQ+. We honor that it is so often a great struggle to be afforded not only the dignity God intends but also the equal rights that our nation promises. That struggle continues to this very day. Yet Pride is also a day to joyfully celebrate the diversity of sexuality and gender that God created.
As a cathedral whose identity has been linked closely with the LGBTQ+ story in Cleveland and the wider Episcopal Church, from a decades-long orientation of welcome to being among the first to raise up lesbian and gay leadership, Pride is a celebration of who Trinity is, has been, and will continue to be.
That legacy is felt not just when we celebrate and fly the colors, but when, on a Sunday long after Pride has passed, a gay person who is still unsure that church is a safe, loving, and affirming place walks into Trinity for their first time and, to their great surprise, finds a home.