Beacons

beloveds….

we were never meant to

hide in closets

and we were never to be spoken of

in whispered corners by a

world filled with others

afraid of their own reflections

we are from the flame of channing’s truth

olympia brown’s relentless-ness

lou alcott’s defiance of societal expectations,

and thoreau’s solitude of freedom –

freedom of solitude

we are here,

heirs of a theology that says

LOVE is love

the soul is not gendered

that covenants live in hearts

not just in courtrooms and chapels

laws can be cruel

and narrow

but our faith remains wide,

widening still more

until every child hears

their pronouns in liturgies

and every parent

of a trans child

hears their entire congregation

reflect back

“you are not alone”

in the face of their fears

we have always been here

from pulpits to picket lines

from the ancestors you called heretics

to our kitchen tables

where we sat with chosen families

speaking our truths into becoming real

this world may pass bans

overturn laws - rewrite constitutions -

threaten us - but our “marriages”

were holy before they were licensed

and our identities were sacred

before we had names

today – again – and every day

bless those coming out

and those staying in

bless the drag

bless the transitioning

bless the questioning

bless the kinfolk

bless our chosen families

and bless us

because we have

faced ourselves, loved

ourselves, saw ourselves

and we declare we are beauty

and goodness

and unicorns

with a bit of rainbow

and a lot of heart

we gather now

in the wake of their efforts to erase

lighting our chalices as a sign

that we are not so easy to erase

and knowing that we are

literally love becoming

we were never meant to hide

we were always meant to blaze

all rights reserved, kfr June 2025