Heartbreak at death of gay man – Coalisland cleric

In a week when international news headlines have been about the shocking unjustified death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the need to affirm that ‘Black Lives Matter’ I want to say here in Northern Ireland that ‘LGBTQ+ lives matter’.

This week there was another shocking unjustified death – the death of a young gay man by suicide. I could be accused of diminishing racism against black people, but I need to say in our context: ‘Black lives matter. White lives matter. Irish lives matter. British lives matter. Young lives matter. Old lives matter. Unborn lives matter. Dying lives matter. LGBTQ+ lives matter.’

I don’t know if the young gay man who died by suicide was connected to a church, but he was connected to young people who attend our churches.

They are heartbroken.

I know my own daughters followed this young man’s ‘Tik Tok’ mobile videos. What are these young people to make of the world they see on their smartphones? What is the message they need to hear, not just with words, but actions too?

On my own personal life journey it’s taken me time to get to a place where I can acknowledge the reality of racism and homophobia.

My own experience of rejection and marginalisation in my formational years fed a survival mentality and defensiveness, that found it easy to value some lives over others.

I was raised with racism. In 1970s and 1980s London, jokes about the Irish, about Pakistani migrants, about refugees from the Turkish-Cypriot war, and racist language about black people were a part of growing up.

Read the full column from Rev Rawding in this week’s paper available in local shops or by subscribing  to download the paper straight to your device https://bit.ly/306f59N