The Southern Baptist Church Is Coming for Gay Marriage… Again. Here’s What You Need to Know
Spencer Macnaughton | Uncloseted Media Weekly Newsletter
I was planning to write about dispatches from our WorldPride DC booth or about our PRIDE fundraiser in New York City. But there’s something more important happening.
The renewed push to overturn marriage equality nationwide is strengthening. A few key facts:
⚖️📜🧑🏽⚖️👩⚖️ Lawmakers in at least 9 states have proposed measures to undermine same-sex marriage rights this year.
🕵️ The group taking credit for the push is MassResistance, a notoriously anti-LGBTQ hate group that has published a book called “The Health Hazards of Homosexuality” and has worked to roll back queer rights globally, with chapters in Africa, South America, the Caribbean and beyond. Read our investigation about the group here.
⛪ Coinciding with this new push lies another arguably more dangerous threat. This week, Southern Baptists overwhelmingly endorsed a ban on gay marriage at their annual convention, including a call for a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 10-year-old precedent legalizing it nationwide.
The endorsement is part of a growing effort by evangelicals to reverse Obergefell v. Hodges. While the Southern Baptist Convention has long opposed gay marriage, this week’s vote at its annual meeting was the first time that America’s largest Protestant denomination—which believes homosexuality is sinful—has asked tens of thousands of representatives from member churches to work to end it.
The reason they’re doing this now is in part because they hope to build on their movement’s success from 2022, when they successfully helped overturn Roe v. Wade. They are aiming to apply the legal and political strategies that proved effective for that victory at a time when Republicans are in control of the White House, Congress and the Senate.
Thank you to all who attended our amazing 2025 PRIDE fundraiser at the Mercedes Club! It was such a joy to celebrate Uncloseted’s success with you all, and thank you to everyone who donated. If you weren’t able to attend but would still like to support our work, you can do so here:
Southern Baptists Overwhelmingly Call for a Ban on Gay Marriage (CNN)
Map Shows Where Gay Marriage Would Be Banned if Supreme Court Overturns Law (Newsweek)
White House Proposes Axing 988 Suicide Hotline Services for LGBTQ Youth (NBC News)
The specialized suicide-prevention counseling service for LGBTQ youth and young adults received more than 1.3 million contacts since it started in 2022, advocates said.
Bishop Budde Hopes Pride Month Can Be ‘Antidote’ to ‘Unnecessarily Hurtful’ Rhetoric (The Hill)
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, who asked that President Trump “have mercy” on LGBTQ children and immigrants during a prayer service he attended in January, says she hopes Pride Month celebrations this year help LGBTQ people heal from months of amped-up speech and policies targeting their identities.
'Not Just a party:' World Pride Celebrations End with Defiant Politics on Display (NBC News)
Thousands gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a rally and protest march.
Over the next week, be on the lookout for new Uncloseted reporting:
🆕 In January 2024, four months after arriving in New York City, Kelvin sought asylum in the U.S. after being forced to flee his village in Zimbabwe, where residents tried to kill him. He became one of over 100,000 people in the 2024 fiscal year who sought asylum in the U.S. because of their LGBTQ identity and one of the one million asylum cases pending determination. But under Trump 2.0 and in Mayor Eric Adams’ New York, seeking asylum is increasingly complicated. Jaylen Green reports.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to email me with questions, complaints and story ideas!
Spencer Macnaughton, Editor-In-Chief — spencer@unclosetedmedia.com
If objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism is important to you, please consider making a tax-deductible donation through our fiscal sponsor, Resource Impact, by clicking this button:
We are dealing with fanatics who are addicted to religion. Their motives are dishonest as they have deeper problems that they cover up with “faith.”