By Chris Carpenter

It's up to us to be the change and even though we all can still do more, there's so much to be thankful for.
--from the song "Thankful" sung by Josh Groban


Christmas and Hanukkah may involve presents, and Halloween and Easter plenty of chocolate, but many adult Americans consider Thanksgiving Day their favorite holiday. They don't do so first and foremost because of the Macy's parade, the football games or even the food. We love the fourth Thursday of November each year because it celebrates two linchpins of life: faith and family.


As GLBT people, faith and family aren't always things that inspire immediate gratitude. Our nearest and dearest can criticize or ostracize us because of our sexuality, and some churches and religious groups are downright condemnatory. Still, our families and the faith systems we were raised in have marked us indelibly and--for better or worse--made us the individuals we are today.


Part of arriving at self-acceptance as GLBT men and women means we have embraced the positive elements of our upbringing, and reconciled ourselves with the things that weren't so good. Naturally, it takes time to do this but the more we go through the process with a thankful spirit, I believe, the faster and better it will go. Thank God, however one understands God, for everything that has made us who we are today.


It is also important and beneficial for us to be grateful as the GLBT community. Marriage equality still alludes us in California and many places, gay-bashing and other expressions of hatred directed toward us go on, and young GLBT people have committed suicide as a result of bullying. These rightly sadden us, and I pray they may end once and for all and ASAP. But let us give thanks this year for the rescinding of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that now allows gay, lesbian and bisexual soldiers to serve openly. Let us give thanks for continuing legal decisions against the heinous Proposition 8, even though its supporters are challenging them. And let us give thanks for the documented growth in Americans' acceptance of us as citizens worthy of equal rights that we pray will soon result in the national legalization of same-sex marriage.


On the personal levels of my family and faith, I'm thankful this Thanksgiving to have a new nephew--my first--who my brother and his wife recently adopted from China after several years of thwarted attempts to adopt from one country or another. I am thrilled, as is my mother who now has her first grandchild to bear our family name. I'm also grateful to have been ordained a bishop this year. After more than twenty years of battling to be treated with respect as a gay Roman Catholic seminarian and priest, it was a great surprise and humbling honor to be consecrated bishop within the Reformed Catholic Church. Considerable responsibility and an increased ministry workload has come with the appointment, but I am nothing but thankful.


Even after the Thanksgiving dinner leftovers have been consumed and the holiday shopping has begun, let us strive to be grateful: for everything we have already received as individuals and as a community, and for all our blessings yet to come.