Salutations, Meteor readers,

What a great newsletter we have for you tonight. My colleague Bailey Wayne Hundl explains the implications of the United Methodist Church’s recent decision to allow LGBTQ+ people to be ordained, a journey with which Bailey is personally familiar. She’s lived many lives!

We’re also discussing new proposed legislation—backed by Halle Berry—for people experiencing menopause and, as always, offering some weekend reading.

With love,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Halle yes: Today, a bipartisan group of women senators proposed a new bill that would devote $275 million to menopause research and care. And the woman largely behind it? Halle Berry, whose own experience with menopause was met with an enraging and uninformed misdiagnosis of herpes. “I have this great sex. I wake up in the morning, I go to the bathroom, and guess what? I feel like I have razor blades in my vagina,” Berry says of the moment that sent her to the doctor’s office and ultimately resulted in discovering she was perimenopausal. Inspired by her experience to “do something about it,” Berry is now the poster woman for the Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act. During a press conference announcing the proposal, one of the senators co-sponsoring the bill noted, “Menopause is not a bad word. It’s not something to be ashamed of. And it is not something Congress or the federal government should ignore. There is no excuse for shortchanging this issue when it comes to federal dollars.”

AND:​​​​​​​

• Speaking of which: New research suggests that “menopause brain” is real.

• On Tuesday night, counter-protesters attempted to “forcibly dismantle” a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Those present at the scene told NPR that fireworks were shot into the encampment and pepper spray was used. Videos of the violence—which police officers allegedly waited half an hour to try and stop—show counter-protesters beating and verbally berating students inside the encampment and destroying their tents. (Biden broke his silence on the protests and condemned the violence but didn’t specify by who). Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Russia, China, and Iran are mounting campaigns to exploit divisions among Americans over Gaza. (Kind of like when they did this.)

AN OFFICER WITH THE CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL DETAINS A PROTESTOR AS THE UCLA ENCAMPMENT IS CLEARED OUT. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) 

• Yesterday, New York prosecutors announced their plan to retry Harvey Weinstein on charges of criminal sex acts following his overturned conviction last month. A new trial date has not been set, but Weinstein has been remanded until his next hearing in late May.

• A combination of various medical studies has found that more people regret having children than they do having gender-affirming surgery. Show this to that one relative who keeps saying it’s a fad.

• Penny Simkin, known as the “mother of the doula movement,” has died. Simkin was the founder of DONA, an organization that trains and certifies doulas; she also invented the “squatting bar,” still widely used by many.

LOVE THY NEIGHBOR

“I Did Not Think This Change Would Come in My Lifetime”

A seminary dropout on the latest decision from the United Methodist Church

BY BAILEY WAYNE HUNDL

THE CULMINATION OF YEARS OF WORK. (VIA AP IMAGES)

For the last 25 years, pastors in the United Methodist Church (UMC) have faced losing their jobs and having their ordination revoked for officiating same-sex weddings—even when doing so for their own children. The UMC bylaws have also prohibited “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained as ministers—or appointed to serve in any capacity—since 1984.

All of that changed on Wednesday. With an overwhelming majority and no debate, the denomination’s highest legislative body voted to overturn these policies.

For me, this is personal. For the better part of a decade, I was one of those pesky “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” causing trouble in the UMC. (That link has my deadname, but I’ll be cool about it if you will.) While I was in seminary, I even sought ordination through the UMC—though admittedly, I didn’t make it very far. And when I think about all the shit I’ve seen, I have to be honest: I did not think this change would come in my lifetime.

When I was 19 years old, I interviewed for an internship with a youth pastor at a UMC church. It went phenomenally (mainly on account of me being awesome and a Capricorn rising). The youth pastor even told me, “I have other people to interview, but if I’m being honest, you’re perfect for this and this is perfect for you.” I said that that was great, but that before we finished, there was one last thing he should know about me; I told him I was gay. And he asked me to leave.

I went home fuming but undeterred, a feeling that, over the years, became all too familiar. When I was 20, I attended a UMC legislative session reviewing the church’s restrictive bylaws against gay people. Before the vote, anyone could come to the mic and speak for or against the issue—and the lines for both were long. I remember the burning of my ears and the tight grip of my friend’s hand in mine as one woman droned on about the dangers of the “demon” of homosexuality and how we must do anything in our power to stop it. In that same room two years later, at a conference for queer Christians, I watched my friend break down in tears as he described being exorcized by his foster parents, who later disowned him.

I carry too much pain from these experiences to expel in one short article. Do I mention my first pastoral internship, the one I accepted before I came out, where I waited for my host family to fall asleep so I could whisper over the phone to my boyfriend that I loved him? The otherwise progressive church who kicked a gender-nonconforming member out of their choir for being “too distracting”? Or hell, what about the responses I received just yesterday when I tweeted in celebration?

WWJD? NOT THIS. (SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF BAILEY WAYNE HUNDL)

For years, I grew more and more battle-hardened, staying in the fight (and the church) for three reasons: my love for the faith, my love for queer people, and the notion that somebody had to clean up this mess. Eventually, I made the choice so many have: I left for my own sanity.

I know that for many people, this seems like the obvious choice. “If the church is homophobic, why don’t you just leave?” But when we buy into the false dichotomy of Religious vs. Queer (a dichotomy invented by homophobes, mind you), we force queer people to sever themselves from a crucial aspect of themselves, something that gives their life meaning, community, and hope. And I’ve watched too many people—people I love, people I miss—pick the former.

But now, thanks to this monumental decision brought about by the stubborn hopefulness of queer Methodists and their allies, fewer of my family will be forced to leave themselves behind. It’s a good day.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On parenting: The one place in the world where it’s the hardest to care for your children? Gaza. (The Washington Post)

On incarceration: “Less than two years ago, [Brittney] Griner was starting her nine-year sentence in a penal colony in Russia, sewing uniforms for the Russian military and subsisting on spoiled food.” Now, Griner is ready to share her story. (The New York Times Magazine)

On the history of student protests: One day in 1970, everything changed for on-campus protests in America. (Teen Vogue)

On women’s health: Yes, women live longer. But they also are more likely to be ill in those years. (The Guardian)

A quick PS from Shannon: Wishing a happy early birthday to my father, a true Taurus, gone too soon.  Miss you every day old man. 

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