A Texas church has chosen a radically different path from many denominations nationwide. Instead of demonizing LGBTQ+ people, the Galileo Church in Fort Worth has opted to support and welcome the community.
The congregation is particularly disturbed by the state legislature’s recently enacted law that bans healthcare providers from treating trans kids and has launched a program to help families get their children the healthcare they need.
“Health care is a human right, and withholding necessary care for trans kids is state-sponsored cruelty. As neighbors to one another, we seek ways to help each other’s families flourish,” the church says on the website for the new program, the North Texas TRANSportation Network.
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The church will assist families who need to travel out of state to get treatment for their children with a $1000 grant. Individual donors and organizations fund the group; no public money is used.
The not-for-profit doesn’t require religious beliefs or church participation from applicants. The only qualification is that families must live in the 19-county northern Texas area and have a trans or gender-diverse child.
“I’m a mother, I have three kids so and I have always been able to get the healthcare for my kids that they desperately needed,” Executive Director Cynthia Daniels told CBS News. “So to me it’s just being a good neighbor to a group of people who have been selected to not be able to receive their healthcare and to me that’s devastating.”
Grants are distributed as the funds become available.
eeveesupmysleevees on September 22nd, 2023 at 15:23 UTC »
I have been to this church! They are extremely welcoming to everyone and the congregation contains many LGBTQ+ members. Genuinely kind and loving people. Glad to see them get some recognition for their good work!
HoneyHamster9 on September 22nd, 2023 at 12:19 UTC »
This is what religion should be about imo, helping others be happy. A priest once emphasized to me that only Jesus Christ, and none other than Jesus Christ, can judge mortals. No priest, no pope, no man can judge another man. He wanted to really make it clear that you should never judge others, no matter if they're gay, trans, or live any other kind of lifestyle that seems to go against some vague word in the Bible. When another kid asked him if he thinks it's a sin to be gay, he answered that no sexuality is against God since sexuality is love and he can't see how love can be a sin
ih-shah-may-ehl on September 22nd, 2023 at 11:49 UTC »
A good friend of mine is from around there, Republican and 100% everything you'd expect of his demographic except he is also very protective of lgbtq people, to the point where he quietly organized a group of big strong friends so that when we met in a Southern state (gathering of friends) there would always be someone keeping on eye on the one transwoman there, in case anyone in the larger crowd was going to be a problem. In his own words: if anyone causes her grief, I'm going to identify as a serious problem.
Just goes to show there can be support where you least expect it, just as shown by this Texas church.