Preparing to Stand in Solidarity with LGBTQ+ People

What does it mean to stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ people?  How does one go about expressing solidarity?  These are questions that every Catholic needs to ask.  They are also questions that any Catholic parish or school which wants to welcome LGBTQ+ people need to consider because standing in solidarity is one of the strongest ways to express welcome.

In a recent reflection for U.S.Catholic, Kevin P. Considine defined solidarity in the following way:

“[Solidarity] is an idea and practice meant to create equity and mutuality in human relationships when there is a power imbalance in the larger society. Solidarity requires more than nice social media posts. It demands concrete actions to address any dysfunction in a social system that thrives on inequity.”

In other words, solidarity is about deeds, not words.  And it is meant to create equality, not just be a gesture of charity. Solidarity is not about pitying someone from afar, but an act of personal encounter.

For Catholics interested in welcoming LGBTQ+ people,  solidarity can be seen as a spiritual practice which involves the soul, mind, and body.

To achieve this, prayer becomes a necessary practice and the first place to begin.  In prayer, we may ask: “God, let me be able to see your LGBTQ+ children as you do. God, let me love as you love. God, open my heart and help me to let go of my ways of thinking that lead to pain, misunderstanding, and mistrust.”

We might pray that queer and trans people be protected from violence, that each may have a home where they feel safe, that none may be forced to hide or deny their authentic selves. Even if we do not know what to pray for, we can pray that we might learn: “God, help me to see the needs of my neighbor. Remove the blind spots from my eyes that prevent me from recognizing harm and prevent me from recognizing this person as my family.” 

Prayers fall short, though, if we do not also open our minds and use them. We are not called to stand in solidarity only with those whom we like and with whom we agree. When we recognize in our minds that all people are part of God’s family, we are building a foundation of solidarity. 

 Once we have prayed that God might stir our souls and set our minds to follow God’s invitation, it becomes time to assent to the divine nudges by engaging our bodies to act. At its core, solidarity is built upon relationships, and relationships are built upon understanding–or, at least, the desire to understand. Do you know what queer people pray for? Do you know how it feels to be a queer person today? To understand, we must use our ears and our heart to listen. 

All of us have gaps in our understanding. For example, even though one of us is trans, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to know  how it feels to be a Black trans person or a lesbian young woman kicked out of her home. We must listen to the voices and stories of these individuals in order to begin to understand their joys, their fears, their pain. We must hear how God is uniquely present in each person, We must listen to them, not simply to what we have heard others say about them. 

Even if we seemingly do not personally know any LGBTQ+ people, personal stories queer and trans people sharing their stories, their faith, and their hopes abound online. Each provides an opportunity to get to know a person different from ourselves, but also to get to know God in a new way. If we are paying attention, this can spur us to build upon our sense of connection to translate into concrete action. 

The actions that our prayer and holy listening will lead us to can take many forms, depending on our context, our own power and privilege, and our community. It might look like speaking up when friends and family members say something disparaging about queer people. Perhaps it is by hanging a rainbow flag or ‘Safe Space’ sticker in your office or classroom window.  You can always show your concern by supporting a local LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. 

You can also consider lifting up the voices and stories of queer people or bringing your prayers for queer people forward in your faith-sharing groups, Bible studies, and parish or school activities. It may mean reckoning with the ways of talking about God that fall short when we consider the whole human family, and it may mean challenging those views when they show up in homilies, classrooms, and public discourse. 

Action is the heart of solidarity because it closes the gap and erases the illusion of distance and inequality between persons. If we believe that our responsibility to each other ends with extending our thoughts and prayers, we distance ourselves from those who are suffering. When we practice solidarity, we have prayed that God will bring us closer, and we know that that is only the beginning. 

Determining what one’s own personal sense of solidarity with LGBTQ+ individuals will look like will depend upon your own prayer and discernment, because solidarity is ultimately a spiritual practice. It is how God calls us to live in community and how God calls us to respond to injustice. 

And we should also remember that there are so many members of the human family who need our solidarity beyond queer and trans individuals: immigrants and their families, those suffering in Gaza, children who dread going to school for fear of gun violence, disabled individuals who are losing lifesaving healthcare, just to name a few. Take a few moments each day to consider where your solidarity is most needed and how it can be expressed. 

Caution: don’t be surprised that you might be called to stand in solidarity with those towards whom you feel the most resistance. Ask God for the grace to be transformed.

—Phoebe Carstens and Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministey, September 30. 2025