'Our love must be long, radically inclusive': Tulsa faith leaders bless Progress Pride, Black Lives Matter flags ahead of Tulsa Pride Festival

Leaders from across many faiths gathered at John Hope Franklin Reconciliation Park for an interfaith service to honor the LGBTQ+ community and to bless the Progress Pride, Black Lives Matter, Tulsa, Muscogee Nation and United States flags ahead of the Tulsa Pride Festival, which runs Friday through Sunday.

The Rev. Carmen White Janak with the Family Safety Center celebrated the intersectionality represented in the Progress Pride flag by honoring recent anniversaries and events from other important movements in history.

“As we stand here on sacred ground, on the heels of Juneteenth and the centennial of Tulsa 1921, we are grateful for your spirit and those of our brother and sister trailblazers who opened up a way for many more expressions of your creation to unfold in beautiful, melodic ways,” Janak prayed.

She then turned to her fellow faith leaders with her message of inclusivity.

“There is no reconciliation without repentance,” Janak said. “We must not follow the blueprints set forth by this country that works to divide us into factions based on our respective ‘isms.’

“My brothers and sisters, we cannot extricate, neither untether, systemic racism, sexism or homophobia from one another. Let us be mindful that it takes Selma and Stonewall,” she said in references to places of significance to the Black and LGBTQ civil rights movements, respectively.

“My brothers and my sisters, our love must be long. It must be radically inclusive. It must carry the weight and the energy of the trailblazers and ancestors. It must be heard, yes, but more importantly, it must be felt.”

Janak said the faith entities represented at the service will be remembered as safe havens for all of God’s creations.

Dani Byrd, with the Board of Advisers at Oklahomans for Equality, said this is what real love looks like — a love for all people.

“Love doesn’t look like telling others, ‘You don’t belong here because of who you love. You don’t belong here because we pray this way, because our God is this God,’” Byrd said. “True love looks like, ‘We’re all in this together. How about you take my hand and I’ll take yours, and we’ll figure this out together.’

“The God I believe in has a universal fit, and that means we all have a place. Love looks like all of us here today.”

The people in attendance placed their hands on the various flags that fly above the Dennis R. Neill Equality Center, the home of Oklahomans for Equality, to signify intersectionality and honor every person, no matter under which flag they fall.

They blessed the flags and prayed for the week ahead, which will include a festival, a parade, and a 5K race.

The Rainbow Run will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday starting at the Equality Center, 621 E. Fourth St.

The Tulsa Pride Festival starts at noon Saturday, with the parade step off at 6 p.m. at 13th Street and Boston Avenue. The route travels north on Boston Avenue to Fourth Street and then east to the Equality Center.

On Sunday, a Family Pride Picnic will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Guthrie Green, 111 E. Reconciliation Way.