This speech was given by Anita Smith Buckwalter at BMC’s luncheon during the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, July 5, 2010.​ The Lansing Church of the Brethren has been a publicly open and affirming congregation for 13 years (1997). We have been marching in Michigan Pride parades for the last 7 years. A dozen of us walked this year. However, it was our first year to have a booth at the diversity festival after the parade. We handed out 240 cups of cold water. Then we