Unfinished Lives thanks the HRC’s Religion and Faith Program
The Unfinished Lives Project offers our sincere appreciation to the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program for highlighting our work in this week’s e-mail edition of “Religion and Faith News.”
The Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program mobilizes people of faith to advocate for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The program offers online preaching and devotional resources, works with state clergy coalitions to spread equality at the state and local level, and brings its affirming message to colleges and seminaries across America.
The program’s message of equality even reaches to the halls of Congress where religious leaders speak out on such critical justice issues facing the GLBT community as the Federal Marriage Amendment, Hate Crimes legislation and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. In countless and meaningful ways, the Religion and Faith program spreads the good news that transformation is truly happening one community at a time.
The Unfinished Lives Project is proud to stand beside the Human Rights Campaign’s Religion and Faith Program, working to eliminate hate crimes and embracing “a culture of welcome, compassion, and hospitality, values that are at the heart of all our faith traditions.”
Visit the Religion and Faith Program, or its newsletter archive, to learn more about their extraordinary work.
Unfinished Lives receives an endorsement from the Texas Freedom Network
Unfinished Lives is proud to receive an endorsement from the Texas Freedom Network, a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of more than 28,000 religious and community leaders which monitors far-right issues, organizations, money and leaders. The organization has been instrumental in defeating initiatives backed by the religious right in Texas.
In the endorsement, Deputy Director Ryan Valentine has this to say:
“I am writing to commend – in the highest possible terms – Dr. Stephen Sprinkle and his ‘Unfinished Lives’ project. My support springs from the conviction that his work calling attention to the ’slow-rolling holocaust’ of LGBT hate crimes in this country has a particular urgency in the struggle for civil rights in contemporary America. As society and the media turn a blind eye, someone must tell these stories.”
We at the Unfinished Lives project are truly grateful for the support of the Texas Freedom Network, and we are proud to stand with them in the effort to guarantee dignity and respect for all people.
To see the full text of Valentine’s statement, or to view all endorsements for the Unfinished Lives project, please visit our Endorsements page.
Unfinished Lives receives endorsements from prestigious advocacy groups
Unfinished Lives is proud to receive endorsements from two prominent and respected American advocacy groups. Paul W. Dodd of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and Harry Knox of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation have recognized the Unfinished Lives project for its work to reclaim the memories of anti-gay hate crime victims in the United States.
Dodd expresses the urgent need for a project like Unfinished Lives: “For their sake, for the sake of shattered families and grieving friends, and for the sake of all that is decent and moral in civil society, we can finally hear their stories, honor their lives, and take steps to stop the hate and violence.” Additionally, Knox says our effort “is the most important one of which I am aware seeking to illuminate the lives and struggles faced by gender-variant and transgender people in the United States.”
Both endorsements honor our efforts, and, in return, we work every day to remember and celebrate persons whose lives were unjustly and violently torn from us. We at the Unfinished Lives project are truly grateful for the recognition by these two organizations, and we are proud to stand with them in the effort to guarantee dignity and respect for all people.
About
If you are a first-time visitor to the Unfinished Lives Project website, we invite you to read A Welcome Message introducing you to our project. We are truly grateful for your visit.
The Unfinished Lives Project website is a place of public discourse which remembers and honors LGBT hate crime victims, while also revealing the reality of unseen violence perpetrated against people whose only “offense” is their sexual orientation. LGBT people in the United States are suffering a slow-rolling holocaust of terror and murder all across the country. Every locale and demographic of society are affected: First Nations, Anglo, Black, Latino and Latina, South and Southeast Asian, Transgender, Gay men, Lesbians, disabled, young, and mature. Homophobia has a long, crooked arm, and it is reaching out to snatch the life away from women and men whose tragic stories are under-reported to begin with, and whose memories are swiftly forgotten.
The horror of these killings transcends the shock and bereavement of loved ones and friends. These are not typical homicides; they are not killings for money or drugs, incidents of domestic strife, or crimes of passion. The vicious nature of hate crimes against LGBT persons is extremely brutal, grotesquely violent, and egregiously hateful.
Each murder serves the LGBT population as a sobering warning about the actual level of danger in our communities. The message these killings send is that freedom and open life for LGBT people is a cruel dream.
Our Project Director
Stephen V. Sprinkle is Director of Field Education and Supervised Ministry, and Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, Texas, a post he has held since 1994. An ordained Baptist minister, he is the first open and out Gay scholar in the history of the Divinity School, and the first open and out LGBT person to be tenured there. Read More…
Recent Social Justice Advocacy Activity By Dr. Sprinkle
Summer 2009 – Dr. Sprinkle responded to the Fort Worth Police Department and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission Raid on the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth’s newest gay bar, on June 28, 2009, the exact 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Dr. Sprinkle was invited to speak at three protest events sponsored by Queer LiberAction of Dallas. Here, he is keynoting the Rainbow Lounge Protest at the Tarrant County Courthouse on July 12, 2009. Read More…
Contact Us
Communicate with the Unfinished Lives project team: UnfinishedLives@yahoo.com
Schedule a Presentation
Dr. Sprinkle will gladly present his acclaimed presentation to your organization. To arrange an Unfinished Lives presentation for your organization or group, please contact us.
Dr. Sprinkle has given his Unfinished Lives presentation to these and other community groups and organizations. Read More…
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