The HRC Foundation launched the second year of the Generation Equality Scholarships for LGBT and allied students who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the fight for LGBT equality. The three $2,000 scholarships are part of the HRC Foundation’s Youth and Campus Outreach Program, which aims to provide tools, facilitate connections and empower young people to fight for LGBT equality on campus and beyond.

This year, we will be awarding one $2,000 scholarship in each of the following categories:

• First-year students
• Returning four-year school students
• Returning community college students
  

MLP needs you at the 219th General Assembly (2010)! Volunteers are critical to a successful MLP presence at the General Assembly. This page lists the volunteer opportunities and the types of tasks associated with each. For the events, volunteers need to arrive one hour before the event begins.

Register to Volunteer

MLP Legislative Strategy Team
Times vary with committee process.
Minneapolis Convention Center

• Ordination Committee Liaison
• Marriage Committee Liaison
• Testimony to Ordination Committee
• Testimony to Marriage Committee
• Commissioner Briefings Liaison

• Greet booth visitors
• Keep materials/hand-out  supplies refreshed
• Distribute MLP rainbow scarves
• Answer basic questions about the MLP organization/mission

• Serve as host/hostess
• Greet visitors
• Offer snacks and beverages (MLP will keep suite stocked with supplies)
• Make coffee
• Answer basic questions re: MLP organization/mission
• Tidy-up suite (i.e., making sure empty cups are thrown away, put snacks away at end of evening)
  

• Room set-up--e.g., placing printed materials, center-pieces, etc. on tables, Shower-of-Stoles display.  No heavy lifting required.
• Ticket takers (Tickets will be sold in advance through the Office of the General Assembly for the dinner.  The reception will be free-of-charge.)

• Greet worshipers with song and signs proclaiming the wildly inclusive love of Jesus Christ.

• Room set-up--e.g., placing printed materials, center-pieces, etc. on tables, Shower-of-Stoles display.  No heavy lifting required.
• Ticket takers (Tickets will be sold in advance through the Office of the General Assembly for the luncheon.)

• Room set-up (e.g., display stoles from Shower of Stoles, etc.)
• Usher
• Sing in the choir
  

The Shower of Stoles is a collection of over a thousand liturgical stoles and other sacred items representing the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith. These religious leaders have served in thirty-two denominations and faith traditions, in six countries, and on three continents. Each stole contains the story of a LGBT person who is active in the life and leadership of their faith community in some way: minister, elder, deacon, teacher, missionary, musician, administrator, or active layperson.

This extraordinary collection celebrates the gifts of LGBT persons who serve God in countless ways, while also lifting up those who have been excluded from service because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The collection bears witness to the huge loss of leadership that the church has brought upon itself because of its own unjust policies.

Last month the stoles were on display at University Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and were featured in Baton Rouge's

This will be the seventh year that University Presbyterian has brought the display here, said the Rev. Patti Snyder, senior pastor.

“We’ve had a lot of support for doing this,” Snyder said of her congregation.

“It’s an important reminder, not just for the Presbyterian Church but for the broader church” of those who feel a call by God to serve but are not allowed to do so, she said.

“This particular congregation is very welcoming and open,” Snyder said.

The church’s Web site, at http://www.upcbr.org/, welcomes people “of every generation, of varied religious and cultural backgrounds, of varied theological and political views, and of different races and sexual orientations.”

While the Presbyterian denomination is welcoming in general regarding its congregations, such issues regarding its pastors are more complicated, Snyder said.

The denomination regulations regarding ordination have have been interpreted in various ways, she said.

“We have a longtime struggle over the ordination of people who are openly gay or lesbian,” Snyder said.

The Presbyterians are not alone. Among the other major Christian denominations represented are the United Methodist Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention and the Episcopal Church.