The Reason

Next month is Pride month and as LGBTQ Americans especially those of us who were born here we sometimes forget or take for granted the freedoms that we have and we overlook the reason we celebrate Pride every June. Look up the Stonewall Rebellion and read about what happened in June 1969 New York City. Become familiar with the spark that lit the fire in the fight for equal rights and the change that would come. 

Almost 50 years later we must continue to tell the stories of places where people are often attacked, tortured, imprisoned, and murdered for being honest about their sexual orientations or gender identities. Here is one such story: 

Last Monday at my church Pastor Dwayne got a call from a jail in Sherburne County. I don’t know my Minnesota counties so I don't know where that is precisely. On the other end of the telephone line was Yousef, a young Somali man who had been pulled over for a traffic violation and was being detained because the officer discovered Yousef's work Visa had expired. He pleaded with the arresting officer to let him go saying he identified as gay and if he was sent back to Somalia he would surely be executed but the officer said he was obligated to deliver Yousef to the county jail. At the jail the processing clerk said 'You should call that gay church in Minneapolis' but we don't know what tone he used when he said that. So Yousef used his 15 minutes of internet time that day and looked up All God's Children online then he dialed the number collect. He spoke with my pastor for a long time even though Yousef is not a Christian and begged him to come visit and try to help so my pastor’s name was placed on a list. The pastor faxed photocopies of 2 IDs among other documents and he was told he would be notified when he was cleared to visit Yousef. Early Friday pastor received a call that he was cleared and he was on his way immediately. When he arrived hours later he was told, "Yousef is gone. ICE has taken him away. You are too late.” No one would say why or where and Dwayne has not heard from Yousef since.

 

At this point I am sitting in church listening and bawling and praying but I am still more angry than sad. Still shaking my head asking why?!  The sermon was called No Walls. I still don't know why this man had to die. None of it makes any sense. It's in part because of immigration laws in our country at this time but also the inhumane treatment of people in other countries. He was innocent and young with a long life ahead. For a brief period of time he lived his truth in the United States which was once a place of safety and refuge but now has become a place that is ruled by corruption and deception. This can not be the world I thought I could save when I was a kid. It's all very discouraging. I have to pray for change. It's the only thing that keeps me going.