HRC Releases 'Christian Conversation' Guide

The Human Rights Campaign, which late last year launched the "All God's Children" ad campaign, is continuing its efforts to reach religious communities with a new resource guide for Christian congregations.

"'A Christian Conversation Guide: Creating Safe and Inclusive Spaces for People who are LGBT' ... provides practical suggestions for building safe and inclusive faith communities and congregations," according to the HRC website.

"Included in the guide is a step-by-step conversation guide for small group discussions on the health and well-being of LGBT people; a list of actions faith communities can immediately take in their congregation and communities; as well as a comprehensive glossary of useful terms when talking about sexual orientation and gender identity."

The guide includes suggested steps "on the journey to inclusion," advice for holding small group discussions about LGBT inclusion, and other resources. It can be downloaded from the HRC website.

With last year's "All God's Children" campaign, the HRC noted the importance of engaging people of faith -- particularly in highly religious Mississippi -- on LGBT issues.

"It would be nearly impossible to successfully engage a large majority of Mississippians about LGBT equality without discussing it in the context of faith," it said in a fact sheet, which noted that the campaign "is intended to change hearts and minds, improve the public perception and overall awareness of LGBT people, begin to reduce the painful stigma that many face in their daily lives, and help future efforts to enact pro-equality legislation."