What’s it like to be bisexual in MCC?
As a pastor in MCC, I generally identify as queer, and additionally as bi (meaning that I can be attracted to a gender that is the same as my own or different from my own). I’ve come out in two congregations as bi and no one has seemed to mind. I’ve even preached about it. What’s interesting about MCC is that we have a variety of understandings around theology, sexuality, and gender, and people are generally open to learning about identities that are different from theirs.
We have amazing queer theologians in our denomination who understand that God, people, attraction, sexuality, and gender exist beyond any kind of binaries. And I know that we have other folks for whom the binary is very important, and who can be very uncomfortable when it is challenged. What I love about MCC is that we can generally co-exist well and respect and love each other.
When MCC began in 1968, our founder Troy Perry founded a church for gays and lesbians. But we really were formed in queerness (the queerness of believing that “gays and lesbians” were beloved of God) which allowed us to grow into recognizing that bisexual, trans, and other people are part of our movement/denomination. We have amazing queer theologians in our denomination who understand that God, people, attraction, sexuality, and gender exist beyond any kind of binaries. And I know that we have other folks for whom the binary is very important, and who can be very uncomfortable when it is challenged. What I love about MCC is that we can generally co-exist well and respect and love each other.
Identifying as bi enhances my spirituality because in recognizing my capacity to be attracted to all genders, I celebrate the beauty of our gender spectrum. That celebration brings me closer to God, who is beyond gender.
ABOUT THIS MCC AUTHOR: Rev. Marie Alford-Harkey is the senior pastor of Metropolitan Community Church of the Palm Beaches in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. Formerly, she was the president and CEO of the Religious Institute, an organization that worked for sexual, gender, and reproductive justice in faith communities and society. Marie holds a Master’s in Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, where she met the love of her life, her wife April Alford-Harkey. April is an ordained Episcopal deacon and she and Marie live in Palm Beach Gardens with April’s ministry dog Sandy, and cats Memphis and Magda. Before divinity school, Marie enjoyed a career teaching high school French and Spanish for 20 years.
