Please join us for a panel discussion with LGBTQ+ clergy and lay faith leaders of multiple faith traditions to discuss their experiences as queer people of faith, and how the intersection of their respective identities informs their organizing work to build real power to create an LA County of equity and abundance for all.
In all arenas, members of the LGBTQ+ community have been pioneers for change and liberation. As people of faith, we are seeing a new movement of LGBTQ+ folks taking charge and moving faith traditions into spaces of equity and mobilization around social justice issues.
The panel conversation will take place at LA Voice on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, from 6:30-8 p.m.
This program is suitable for all ages.
Participants
Rev. Kimberly Scott (She/Her) is the Pastor at Grace UMC Church in Los Angeles and an LA Voice clergy leader. A cradle United Methodist, Pastor Kim has lived most of her adult life as an out Queer (same gender loving) woman and has both witnessed and experienced the challenges of straddling the trifecta of intersections of sexuality, race, and gender in the United Methodist Church. Pastor Kim has a passion for doing the liberating work of Jesus Christ. Most importantly she wants to see ALL of GOD’s children experience radical hospitality and inclusion in the church that we see exemplified by Jesus throughout the Gospels.
Rabbi Hannah Jensen (She/Her) serves as clergy at IKAR and is an LA Voice Clergy Leader. She lived in many states, traveled to lots of places, and had many jobs, but it was in Los Angeles that she found the Jewish piece of her professional life, working as a spiritual counselor at Beit T’shuvah, doing a summer fellowship with T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and working with the New Israel Fund. At IKAR, Rabbi Jensen works with b’nai mitzvah students, is involved in Community Organizing leadership, works with adults learning Hebrew, and has taught Queer Torah.
Rev. Dr. Antonio Gallardo (He/Him) serves as the Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopalian Church of Long Beach and is an LA Voice Clergy Leader. Rev. Antonio holds three master’s degrees and a doctorate, worked in Detroit as a pioneer in workforce development, helping working people being left behind by globalization find secure niches in the middle class. After moving to Los Angeles, he worked with Cesar Chavez’s family and colleagues and eventually found himself distributing millions of dollars a year in program grants for a non-profit foundation. Rev. Antonio serves as St. Luke’s first Latino Rector, honoring the parish’s legacy for outreach to migrants and its unhoused neighbors with his prophetic heart.
Yunuen Trujillo (She/Her) is an LGBTQ Catholic, a lay minister, a faith-based community organizer, and an immigration attorney. As a lay minister, she has served in Young Adult Ministry for more than 15 years and now serves in an inclusive Catholic LGBT ministry. As a community organizer, she has worked with LA Voice PICO, a multi-faith and multi-racial organization dedicated to creating a society that reflects the dignity of all persons. She is the founder of @lgbtcatholics, an online ministry resource on Instagram. She is also a Religious Formation Coordinator (Spanish) with the Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Persons of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the author of the book LGBT Catholics: A Guide for Inclusive Ministry, published by Paulist Press.
Yesenia Padilla (They/Them) (Moderator) serves as the Communications Director at LA Voice and has over a decade of experience in communications strategy and narrative development for movement-building organizations. They are also a published freelance journalist and are credited with being the first journalist to write about gender-neutral terms in Latinidad for a national publication. Yesenia came into movement work as an organizer, and as a communicator, and has cultivated and managed communications programs for Alliance San Diego, the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, the Southern Border Communities Coalition, and Lawyers for Good Government. Yesenia received their Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing with a minor in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
This program is organized by LA Voice as part of the Circa: Queer Histories Festival 2024, presented by One Institute.