A Mount Pleasant organization that supports the LGBTQ+ community and local church are celebrating their work together during Pride Month.
The Mount Pleasant PFLAG chapter was established over two years ago with help from its current president, Bob Mueller. The purpose of this group is broken down into three parts: supporting those in the LGBTQ community, helping educate others and being advocates. Mueller expands on the goals of helping educate others in the community,. “We try and talk to the community more and more about acceptance, the need for being welcoming and the benefits of being welcoming. So we’ll work with the chamber and businesses down here and try to encourage them to say, ‘Yeah these people are a part of our community.’”
Mount Pleasant PFLAG’s meetings were first held at the First Presbyterian Church, whose welcoming statement on their website includes those that are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Pastor Trey Hegar explains that this statement takes a lot of work to fulfill,. “There’s a challenge within this statement to really work, to be that welcoming church and to be welcoming individuals. Especially when we have such strong disaggreements on homosexuality, politics, abortion, crime, race and things like that that have really been at the forefront of what’s been going on in our nation.”
Mueller says the only other church in the Mount Pleasant area that has voiced its welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community is St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. PFLAG Mount Pleasant hosts a hybrid in-person/virtual meeting on the third Tuesday of each month, and you can find more information about the organization by visiting this story at kciiradio.com.