Why does a Christian church sponsor an LGBTQIA+ Pride parade every year?

Galveston Central Church sponsors the Third Coast Pride Fest parade every year because we believe that queer, LGBTQIA+ people are loved by God, exactly as they are and that is worth celebrating! We want to show our community that there are Christians who believe in Jesus, the empire-defying, truth-teller that he was, and also affirm their queer siblings. There are also LGBTQIA+ Christians in our community that both fully embrace their queer identities and follow Jesus.

We know the Church has excluded and harmed many of our queer siblings and we know we cannot undo that harm. So, Central strives daily to seek justice and provide peace and comfort to those with deep wounds caused by the Church. We hope that participating in Third Coast Pride Fest can at least be a small step toward inclusion and reconciliation.
 
Here's what all of this means:
Our community at Central, and beyond, is more creative, fun, loving, generous, curious, colorful and free because of our queer, LGBTQIA+ congregants. With them, we are closer to mirroring the full image of God, who loves everyone. Period.

If you're someone with a faith background who is struggling to reconcile what you've been taught about queerness with your calling to love your neighbor, or if you're simply curious about how we came to this conclusion and the biblical, theological reasons behind it, we invite you to reach out to our Pastoral Team. Each of our three pastors has years of experience, graduate level education and degrees, and would love to set up a time to have coffee or even just a longer email exchange with you and answer questions you might have. Click here to be redirected to our "contact us" page and get in touch.

If you're reading this page, you might've been directed here by scanning the QR code attached to one of our keychains. These rainbow keychains were handmade by our staff from yarn, repurposed after hanging in our sanctuary for a year as an art installation. The yarn sculpture was the finale in a series of smaller yarn art pieces that accompanied our Lent 2025 sermon series, Everything [in] Between. Here's the description of the series via A Sanctified Art, the group who originally curated it:

"Our theme, “Everything In Between,” invites us to navigate the polarities in our lives with more faith, intention, and openness to be transformed. You will see that each weekly sub-theme explores two supposed binaries, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We often consider these ideas to be opposing. However, as we explore these concepts within the scriptures, we find nuance and complexity. We find that these dichotomies are false. We might begin to see a full spectrum instead of black and white. We might find that God is present in between."

During Holy Week 2025, our staff took several hours each day to work on the installation and string about seven miles of yarn across our sanctuary. That yarn hung above our congregation as they sang, prayed, celebrated and grieved for a whole year and served as a reminder to embrace the tension that comes from living in a diverse community. If we approach with curiosity and embrace nuance and color instead of relying on black and white thinking, we might just create something beautiful.

We hope you'll hang onto this keychain and let it remind you that your whole, colorfully, contradictory self is loved by God and by us here, at Central.