53.2 F
Spokane
Monday, May 5, 2025
HomeCommentaryWA's Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Survey to Amplify Queer Voices of Faith

WA’s Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Survey to Amplify Queer Voices of Faith

Date:

Related stories

Justice Department targets Washington’s new child abuse reporting law as anti-Catholic, civil rights violation

U.S. Justice Department launches civil rights probe, calling WA law SB 5375 anti-Catholic, alleging it violates confessional privacy and First Amendment rights.

Community gathers to bridge divides at FāVS ‘Uniting the Inland Northwest’ event

About 100 gathered in Spokane for FāVS News' Uniting the INW event on building community across differences and exploring Ubuntu to bridge divides.

How to heal eco-anxiety with Buddhist principles of interdependence

From chickens to climate action, Tracy Simmons finds hope in backyard ecology and Buddhist values like interdependence, urging local steps to counter eco-anxiety.

Ask a Buddhist: Is Theravada Buddhism closest to the Buddha’s?

This Ask a Buddhist question explores the different branches of Buddhism, including Theravada, and what they teach, where they come from and how close they are to the Buddha's original teachings.

Is a faith-based charter school a threat to religious freedom, or a necessity to uphold it?

The Supreme Court hears case on Oklahoma's bid to fund faith-based charter school, raising key First Amendment church-state questions.

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img

WA’s Groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Survey to Amplify Queer Voices of Faith

Commentary by Tracy Simmons | FāVS News

In a pioneering effort to better understand the LGBTQ+ community, this Pride month saw the launch of the first comprehensive survey of the state’s queer residents.

I couldn’t be prouder to say that my wife, Traci Gillig, is the lead principal researcher for the survey. An assistant professor of strategic communication at WSU’s Murrow College, she’s leading a dynamic team of researchers on this project, which is funded by The Washington State LGBTQ Commission. 

And I get to be her sidekick, serving on the advisory board. Fittingly, my role is to urge people in faith communities to take the survey.

This project is important. It aims to amplify the voices of the queer community and provide state officials with crucial insights into the LGBTQ+ demographics and geographic landscape.

We’ve opened the survey to adolescents as young as 11 and have it available in English, Spanish and Chinese. 

As my wife said, “The government of Washington is actively trying to make this state a safe and welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people. This survey is going to be very valuable for LGBTQ+ people like me. It will help gather information and share people’s voices with lawmakers, so they can continue to move policy in a helpful direction.”

Those voices include queer people of faith.

Our very being ‘an affront to dogma’

The LGBTQ+ community has endured appalling persecution from many religious institutions — forcibly exiled from sacred spaces, barred from positions of faith leadership, subjected to spiritual and other forms of abuse, malicious condemnation, our very existence deemed an affront to dogma.

These are often the stories that make headlines: “Church Splits Over LGBT Clergy,” “Catholic Diocese Fires Lesbian Married Teacher for Being ‘Immoral’,” “Christian University Puts Ban on LGBTQ Relationships, Expression.”

However, despite all this, faith still manages to provide many in the queer community with a source of comfort, hope and inner strength.

Just the other day FāVS reported on the Interfaith Pride service that took place as part of the Spokane Pride festivities. One attendee said the service was a reminder that he didn’t have to be closeted to be a believer.

In recent years an increasing number of religious institutions across America have taken progressive stances officially welcoming queer individuals into their congregations and vocally supporting key issues like marriage equality and ordination of openly gay clergy.

Just this year the United Methodist Church struck down a 52-year-old stance on homosexuality being “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

While there are undoubtedly more, I have identified at least 16 Christian denominations here in Washington State that have taken the affirming and inclusive step of fully embracing all members. In the coming days I’ll be contacting leaders of those denominations, asking them to share the Washington State LGBTQ+ Survey.

All faith communities included

I’ll also be reaching out to non-Christian groups, including Buddhist and Jewish organizations. If you want us to talk with your faith group about this survey, please reach out! 

Questions span a wide range of topics, including available resources, legal protections, access to medical care, experiences with discrimination, physical and mental health concerns, safety issues, hate crime incidents, relationship dynamics, financial circumstances and more.

In taking this survey, the faithful can be pivotal agents of change, as their voices and perspectives can help drive meaningful reforms.

The Washington State LGBTQ+ Survey team has already been at Walla Walla, Pasco, Yakima and Spokane Pride handing out the survey. We’ll also be at Seattle Pride on June 30 and Palouse Pride on Aug. 24, as well as other events. Participants can volunteer their email on a separate form and be entered in a raffle drawing to win a $50 gift card. The anonymous survey is online at lgbtq.wa.gov/survey.


The views expressed in this opinion column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of FāVS News. FāVS News values diverse perspectives and thoughtful analysis on matters of faith and spirituality.

Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of FāVS.News, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Associate Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.

Our Sponsors

spot_img
spot_img
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest


0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
spot_img
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x