KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sundays are revered as a day for worship by many but not all.
Growing up in Mexico, Dani Valencia Montoya recalls her view of a church she once knew changing when she was 14.
“I’m the kind of person that just likes to be who I am, and I’ve always been encouraged to do so until I came out,” Valencia Montoya said. “Then it was, 'You cannot be that. It is wrong and God does not approve of that.'”
Ten years later, Valencia Montoya found a fiancee who showed her a different worship experience.
“Once I started going to church there, I was excited to go to church, to find a community. I mean half the people there are gay,” Valencia Montoya said.
Valencia Montoya now works as a youth and young adult intern for Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral.
“When we say we love you for who you are, we mean we love you for who you are not despite of who you are,” she said.
Deacon Robin Rusconi at St. Paul's Episcopal Church agrees it is necessary to provide not only safe but open and affirming spaces for the LGBTQ+ community in Kansas City.
“A kind of welcoming church will say, 'You are absolutely welcome to be with us,' but then they kind of try to change you,” Rusconi said. "An affirming church says, 'I love you for you. You are perfect in God's image,' and stop there and not try to change them."
Community of Christ, an international denomination headquartered in Independence with congregations in both Missouri and Kansas, is working to learn how to better create such inclusive spaces, too.
“Make sure that we know that we see their worth and we continue to learn about what we can do to honor that,” said Jenny Lowndes, a young adult minister for Midlands Mission Center with Community of Christ, found in Kansas. "Every individual is divinely made, and in the LGBTQIA+ community, they’ve been told that that is wrong, they’ve been told that they do not follow that category of sacredness."
Lowndes along with other members of the KC-metro Community of Christ congregations created a symbol of unity during KC’s PrideFest, allowing people to take part in painting a Pride flag.
“There is a lot more of us than we think who understand unity and diversity ... is sacred space for the queer community, and they deserve it," Lowndes said.
Rusconi said her faith community's work to welcome the LGBTQ+ community is reaffirming they are "doing the right thing."
"... It’s not up to them to come to us, it’s up to us to come to them,” she said.
