Pride Month Spotlight: Gene Robinson
Throughout June, we’re celebrating LGBTQIA+ people who have shaped our church and our world – trailblazers, advocates, saints, and quietly persistent troublemakers who got us here. Next up: the man who wore a bulletproof vest to his own consecration.
V. Gene Robinson (born 1947) was consecrated as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003, becoming the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion worldwide. The threats against him were serious enough that security required him to wear a bulletproof vest under his vestments at the ceremony. Robinson served as bishop until his retirement in 2013 and has remained an active voice for LGBTQIA+ inclusion in the church ever since. This September, Robinson will preach at the Episcopal Church’s “Full and Equal” gathering in Minneapolis, marking 50 years since the 1976 General Convention declared that LGBTQIA+ people have a full and equal claim to the church’s pastoral care.