June Awareness Month

Recognizing all of God's people

June Awareness Month

June is jam-packed with reasons to rejoice! For many of our young people, it symbolizes the start of summer vacation; for our graduates, it marks the start of their chosen job or profession. It is also Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Pride Month, the Loving vs. Virginia anniversary (Loving Day), and Juneteenth.

What ties these things together? And what ties them to our church? Celebrating the marginalized, honoring civil victories, and speaking out against represents everything we are. The United Methodist Church has a long history of advocating for social justice. Early in our church’s history, we have spoken out against the societal ills that divide us. Today’s UMC continues to work, rally, and pray for racial justice, and fair treatment for everyone. Learn about the ways in which we serve and our response to current day issues.

“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”

― John Wesley

Pride Month

Pride Month celebrates the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan, which launched a liberation movement similar to the civil rights and women’s rights movements. Pride Month is both a joyous community celebration of visibility and an individual celebration of worth and dignity. It is time to realize, respect, and celebrate the global impact that LGBT people have made.

Loving Day

Loving Day, June 12th, honors the couple, Richard Loving (a white man) and Mildred Jeter (part Native American and part African American), who were at the center of the landmark case, Loving v. Virginia, that ended the criminalization of interracial marriage.

It all started when Richard and Mildred fell in love and married. Shortly after their marriage, Richard and Mildred were arrested by the local sheriff for violating Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws which forbid cohabitation or intermarriage between racial groups. While Richard was released from jail after only one night, Mildred, who was five months pregnant, was held in jail for “…the better part of a month.” Richard and Mildred were indicted on felony charges and pled guilty. The judge sentenced the couple to one year in prison, which would be suspended if Richard and Mildred agreed to leave Virginia and never return for 25 years. They moved to Washington, DC, and lived there for several years. Frustrated by their inability to visit friends and family in Virginia, Mildred wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy who referred them to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The case, which began in a small courtroom in Caroline County, VA, was brought to the United States Supreme Court with the assistance of ACLU attorneys Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, and ended in the United States Supreme Court.

Throughout her life, Mildred would tell you that she and her husband were not political activists, but rather ordinary people who desired marriage equality for themselves. When asked if he had anything he wanted the Justices to know,  Richard simply said, “Tell the court I love my wife.”

Visit Oyez to hear recordings of the powerful April 10, 1967, argument against the anti-miscegenation laws that prevented Richard and Mildred Loving from living as a married couple in 1958 Virginia, and Justia.com to read the unanimous decision as written by Justice Earl Warren. You can also hear the story told by them in their own words.

Juneteenth

Juneteenth is the oldest known U.S. celebration of the abolition of slavery, and the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas. On January 1, 1863, at the stroke of midnight, the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, freeing all enslaved persons in the Confederate States. It was not until two years later, on June 19, 1865, when federal forces landed in Galveston and Union General Gordon Granger proclaimed that all enslaved persons in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas were freed.

On June 17, 2021, President Biden signed into law the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making Juneteenth an official national holiday. Many saw the recognition as a huge step toward understanding and acknowledging all parts of our United States history.

Many states celebrated Juneteenth prior to its identification as a Federal holiday. Specifically, Texans have been celebrating Juneteenth since 1866 with parades, musical performances, cookouts, historical readings, and reenactments.