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A community reading of Prayer for the Queer Kids
by Rev. Laurel Littlejohn Gray

Lovingly rendered by members of the First Parish Church of Groton community. We are a Unitarian Universalist congregation in Groton, Massachusetts where our queer kids (& youth & adults) are invited, welcomed, known, accepted, supported, cared for, befriended, needed & loved.

🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Text of Rev. Laurel Littlejohn Gray's prayer:

When I google “prayer for queer kids” the first hit
is all sin,
asking God to force repentance
for what I call holiness.
And so I yell.
I swear and I rage
and I feel the heat of fury mixed with protection.
Absolutely not.
That thing they despise,
I call it sacred,
this being oneself
in a world that suggests repentance
with a tone of holier than thou
damnation.

No. Not here. Not in this house.
There will be no repenting for the courage to love honestly,
for the ways your gender beckons you to bloom.
No, this is a prayer for the queer kids.
A ring of fire, protecting
the eden that exists inside
of embodied love.
In this house we speak only
of the holiness in existing honestly,
in living and loving fully.

My prayer for queer kids is this:
may you find the people who love you fiercely,
may the god of grace fill your lungs with life
when people leave you gasping through tears,
may you know in your bones
that you can never be separated from all that is sacred,
because it exists inside of you,
it exists in every gesture of love you dare to offer the world,
a salve to the soul-bruise of anyone
who believes they are only somewhat worthy,
an act of holy defiance.

You, my dear, are glorious
just as you are, now and forever.
Amen

🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

Readers:
Nathaniel Clark
Barbara Rich
Rev. Elea Kemler
Jackie Frey
Leo Premru
Evelyn Hendrickson
Donnie Funch
Cyndy Premru
Anne Bohan
Ryan Hendrickson
Amy Hendrickson
Sarah Iacobucci
Li Kynvi
Roze Hendrickson
Max Hendrickson
Kathryn Ellis Moore

Audio Edited by Dan Steinbrink
Produced by Li Kynvi

Photo credit: Greg Premru

Recorded with permission from Rev. Laurel Littlejohn Gray
First Parish Church of Groton, MA
Unitarian Universalist
June 2022
https://uugroton.org/ ​