DignityHeroes: Dignity/Chicago
DignityHeroes is a feature of DignityUSA, and appears every Friday. If there is someone or a group of people you'd like to submit as a DignityHero, please contact JIm Smith, DignityUSA Program Manager, at programmgr@dignityusa.org
DignityHeroes can be Dignity members, non-members, Catholic, non-Catholic. Persons or groups that witness to LGBT integrity, dignity, courage, integration, compassion, justice.
DignityHeroes, 1.13.12: Dignity/Chicago
It is late Advent 2011, and Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George has just told a reporter on local network news that a gay pride parade scheduled for next summer could very well morph into a KKK-like anti-Catholic rally. Members of the Dignity/Chicago chapter were alerted quickly, and all plans that evening were dropped as these members went into high-gear response mode. Several news sources were checked to verify accuracy and extent of the Cardinal’s remarks. Dignity/Chicago statements were developed and news agencies contacted. TV crews show up, network radio calls in, and the folks from Dignity are prepared with initial statements. Their responses go on-air.
Over the Christmas holiday, Dignity members are further prepped by GLAAD media training staff and an Equally Blessed consultant. All week, other members of Dignity stay on top of the news, checking chapter email and voice mail and forwarding media requests. More interviews follow.
The Cardinal finally apologizes. An unusual and welcomed gesture. Dignity/Chicago responds immediately and graciously, and invites the Cardinal to further listen to the stories and struggles of LGBT persons and families.
Our hats go off to a team of dedicated Dignity/Chicago members for stepping in during busy times; for their quick, firm and thoughtful responses; for their willingness to accept assistance from others in order to respond compellingly; for their capacity to graciously accept an apology and forthrightly, respectfully call for continued dialogue with Cardinal George.
Dignity/Chicago, thank you for your persistent, courageous witness to LGBT dignity.
Comments
Thanks and let's continue to be the authentic voice
To Jim and our friends and allies across our Dignity family, thanks for the affirmation and support represented in this piece. We are honored and blessed to be acknowledged, but also to have had the opportunity on behalf of the Dignity movement to be an authentic, challenging and reconciling voice to Cardinal George, and by extension, to all the bishops.
Sometimes opportunity comes in strange and stressful packages. While a stressful and demanding of situation, we were acknowledged by the media (press, radio,TV and on-line sources) as the "go to" people seeking our reactions, thoughts and witnesses to the Cardinal's irrational and harmful words. Our voices were truly heard many times and in many venues.
We trust that with this experience, our authentic witness and the Cardinal's apology, Dignity Chicago will shine more brightly here in Chicago and draw those who are seeking a truly welcoming, inclusive and spiritually alive community as LGBT Catholics, our families and friends.
There is much more work to be done to foster dialogue, learning and growth for all of us, including the Cardinal. We plan to move forward with other partners in the local LGBT communities of faith and leaders of societal change to lead community "witness" events that speak of our truth and our ministry.
Chris Pett,
President, Dignity Chicago