Soulforce

Soulforce is the longest-tenured LGBTQ organization in the United States working at the intersection of religion and politics where fundamentalism and patriarchy so often collide with human rights and freedom. Formed in 1998, Soulforce has directly engaged the Vatican, the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops, the United Methodist, Southern Baptist, Evangelical Lutheran, Presbyterian and Mormon General Conferences and Assemblies on the rights of LGBTQ people to full inclusion and office within their fellowships. In addition, Soulforce has entered into dialogue with the five largest (mega) churches in America, two of which have now eliminated their ex-gay ministries and over the last five years visited 100 distinctively Christian Colleges (most members of CCCU), resulting in 14 of them removing anti-LGBTQ policies or practitioners in their communities.

Soulforce continues to call upon Focus on the Family and all of the National Religious Broadcast association members and affiliates to cease and desist use of federally issued permits to broadcast anti-gay propaganda.

Soulforce is one of the United Nation’s Compass Coalition leaders in working to decriminalize LGBT lives in Nations where imprisonment, violence and the death penalty are sanctioned. Over the last two years, we have launched our Delegate and Symposium Programs in addition to the Equality Ride. Our new project manager will absorb some responsibilities for the volunteers involved in these programs.

Our roots are in using nonviolence to seek reconciliation, and we are passionate about youth led activism. Racial, economic, and disability justice are core to how we envision a process towards reconciliation and how we frame what is an LGBTQ issue. While we are not a faith-based organization, we are committed to working in religious spaces and tapping the soulful parts of ourselves that call us to activism.

We are growing in the directions of more multi-faith work, global solidarity actions, performance and the arts, racial justice work, and media activism.