Atlanta queer-friendly Black church is source of solace for LGBTQ youths: ‘I look over and see my people’

By Alex Portée, Today

Bishop Oliver Clyde Allen III has a theory: Churches that oppress LGBTQI+ people are not churches.

Allen is the senior pastor and founder of The Vision Cathedral of Atlanta, which he began with his husband in 2005.

Today, the predominantly Black Pentecostal church has some 3,000 fellowshipped members, most of whom are LGBTQI+. And, like many organizations that serve marginalized groups, it rests on a historical foundation that the church fought to mold so that its members would be accepted.

“When people of color, Black people couldn’t find solace in white LGBTQ spaces, we created our own,” Allen tells Today.com about the church’s mission. “We created our own of everything, whether it was our own fraternities and sororities, our own institutions, our own churches.”

Discover how Allen and people like im create those spaces.

While church creates community for Black Americans, these spaces are not always safe from terrorists, as we have seen time and again.

Check out more Black history and culture news.