A depraved craven cesspool of filth

A year ago, as we were planning to move to Lancaster Ohio, I was very nervous about moving into an even more socially conservative town than we already lived in. I worried that my non-white, non-straight, or non-cis family and friends would not feel comfortable coming here. But then I saw glimmers of hope - just up the street a row of pride flags on houses, two churches indicating they are beacons of love, and many businesses openly expressing welcome with rainbow stickers in their windows.

A season later, I was blessed to attend a beautiful, loving prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church - Lancaster, Ohio in partnership with Grace Church (a United Church of Christ congregation) held before the pride event on 9/14. The pride event was a colorful, joyful celebration of humanity, expression, and art. Theo and I felt so good about the place we've chosen to call home.

Then came the "Christians" with their 2nd amendment shirts, moral superiority, and fear-mongering. They sought to intimidate the participants of the event and launched their plan to campaign against future events.

This culminated in the City Council meeting last night where the Fairfield Family Forum came to speak out against The Rainbow Alliance of Fairfield County. It's an understatement to say that tensions were high. I found myself scanning the room to see if the members of the Forum had brought the guns they were so proudly threatening about online.

One of their leaders used this language to describe participants of the pride event (and I assume LGBTQ folks in general):

"degenerate"

"depraved craven cesspool of filth"

"we reject a perverted childless ideology"

"grooming of other people's children in order to sustain itself"

"a barren ideology is a dead ideology and only works if perverts are allowed to access our children's minds and bodies"

And to the Council he said, "In the future, we will be the city council and we will tear down every last shred of this filthy legacy"..."Enjoy your delusions while you have them and a day is coming in not too long a future that they will be seen as the frantic scrambling and screeching of sadly lost souls".

So, there was no hiding their hate.

BUT BUT BUT!

This town showed up with love! The comments in support of the event, and the value of diversity, FAR exceeded those who came to crucify. The stories were vulnerable and heartfelt. The statistics shared were logical and meaningful.

I felt myself being able to breathe again as I looked around at my neighbors, risking their safety to speak, and knowing that I can be at home here and contribute to building a more loving community. Thank you to The Rainbow Alliance of Fairfield County for being a beacon of light!