Three people stood in the shade along Colfax Avenue during Denver’s gay-pride parade Sunday, holding plain white signs with the message, “Forgive us.”
On a day when many Christians were in church, the three of them were deep in the heart of this year’s PrideFest, trying to undo damage they say has been done by members of their own faith.
“We think the way that the church has treated (gays and lesbians) is just wrong,” said Mandy Scheller of Northglenn, whose hand-drawn sign, in full, read: “Forgive us for judging you.”
Scheller and the other two, Jeff Mullis and Jill McClaine, are straight and members of Hope Chapel in Northglenn. They were among dozens of Christians and members of other faiths who took part in the weekend festival.
Some marched in the parade. Others ran booths on the edges of Civic Center, promoting their churches to the array of people there.
The goal, they said, was to break the notion that Christians and gays are always on opposite sides of the social spectrum.
For some of the festival-goers, the message from the church groups was a welcome change.
One woman gave the three with signs bottles of water to show her gratitude on a hot summer day. Scheller said the thank-yous were the responses they were hoping for.
“I think that conservative Christianity has given Christianity a bad reputation,” said Kate Goodspeed, who is straight and a lay leader of Park Hill Congregational Church in Denver. “Jesus loved everybody and really associated with people who were outcasts.”
Park Hill was one of the first churches to participate in PrideFest six years ago, Goodspeed said.
This year, she added, the festival may have had the highest number of churches participating ever.
Six were in the parade and seven had booths, according to the festival website.
Those numbers gave some of the faithful more hope that Denver-area churches are opening up to members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.
But Claire Fagen, who is bisexual and a leader with St. Paul Lutheran Church of Denver, said, “That’s still a very, very small percentage of Denver churches.”
That may be because even congregations that consider themselves liberal or progressive have members who are uneasy about actively inviting gays into the fold, said Jane Anne Ferguson, an associate minister with First Plymouth Congregational Church in Englewood, a church whose slogan is “Progressive, Inclusive, Home.”
She also said some are unsure how the gay community will react to them. Even she wasn’t sure what would happen as her church marched in the parade and set up a booth for the first time this year.
“We have this inferiority complex, as a church, saying, ‘Well, nobody’s going to be interested in us,”‘ she said.
Instead, Ferguson said she talked to scores of people who thanked her for taking a stand and were now thinking about coming to a service.
“I think it’s been very empowering for our community today,” she said. “I think that’s a gift that’s been given to us today.”
Staff writer Nick Martin can be reached at 303-954-1698 or nmartin@denverpost.com.
