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AWAB Chair Honored As A 2011 Capital Pride Hero Rev. Jill McCrory, Chair of the Board for the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, has been named one of this year’s Capital Pride Heroes. ''The award is designed around individuals who have made a significant and or lasting impact to the community,'' said Michael Lutz, president of Capital Pride. ''They've done some work … to continually better and improve the life of LGBT individuals in the metro D.C. area.'' McCrory has been a longtime ally of the LGBT community. An ordained Baptist minister and the Interim Pastor of Open Door Metropolitan Community Church in Boyds, MD, she has worked to include LGBT individuals in the churches in which she has ministered and has sought to make a safe, welcoming space for those who have been rejected by other churches or religious denominations. Reverend McCrory has marched for the full inclusion of LGBT individuals in both civil and religious life, forming a large Baptist contingent in the D.C. Pride Parade over the last seven years. She is a proponent of marriage equality for LGBT people and testified before the D.C. Council in support of the marriage bill, which is now law. She is also working toward marriage equality in Maryland and has officiated at several same sex marriages in D.C. In January of 2011 McCrory became Chair of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, a national association of churches that have come out in support of all people being welcomed into the full life and ministry of Baptist churches across the land. This new position as Chair of the Board has allowed Rev. McCrory to take her passion onto a larger stage where she hopes to see Baptist churches become more welcoming and affirming of LGBT individuals who seek to practice their faith openly as LGBT Baptists.
This year's
Capital Pride Heroes will walk in the Parade on Saturday, June 11, wearing
Capital Pride Heroes medallions. |