Grand Marshalls Jim Bennett and Deacon Maccubin in the Gay Pride Pride

The 1980s was a particularly difficult time for queer religious experience, and queer existence overall due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It was not until the late 1970s when the HIV strain that started the North American pandemic made it way to the United States, via Zaire and Haiti. Men who have sex with men were, and still are, disproportionately impacted by HIV. The first government report on HIV/AIDS was published in the Morbility and Mortality Weekly Report, reporting that:

“In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died.”

At approximately the same time as the start of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, LGBTQ+ civil rights groups and religious organizations faced backlash from "Moral Majority" leaders like Anita Bryant and Rev. Jerry Falwell. Conservative religious leader Jerry Falwell argued that HIV/AIDS was God's punishment for homosexual promiscuity, which he made clear in an CBC discussion with MCC founder Troy Perry on July 6, 1983. 

Some religious organizations, mainly those created by and for LGBTQ+ individuals like the MCCDC advocated for and ministered to the LGBTQ+ community. In 1982,the MCCDC partnered with the Whitman-Walker Clinic, the NIH, MCC Baltimore, and Georgetown University Hospital to host one of the first AIDS forums in the nation (the event was held at the church). At a time when people were still weary of contact with HIV+ positive individuals, water baptism held by Faith Temple at Calvary Baptist Church in DC in 1986. This occurred at a time when many churches were not baptizing persons known or thought to be HIV positive or had AIDS.

Many religious institutions, however, reacted by excluding LGBTQ+ members and their access to religious resources. In October 1986, the Vatican issued a letter on human sexuality by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, which argued that LGBT individuals are "objectively isordered." The letter also insisted that gay organizations should not be allowed to use Church propery, so at the request of Archbishop James Hickey, Fr. Timothy Healy (then Georgetown Univeristy President) informed Dignity that the chapter could not use any campus chapels for worship. Dignity moved the next year to St. Margaret Episcopal Church. This is not to say that people within Catholic and Christian communities did not also minister to those who were sick and dying. To learn more about Catholic ministry, read Michael O'Laughlin's book.

Continued LGBTQ+ religious gains in the 1980s

Two major gains occurred in 1982. Gay activist L. Page "Deacon" Maccubbin and his life partner, Kim Bennett, were among the first to celebrate a Holy Union and the were the second couple to be registered as Domestic Partners in the District of Columbia. Dr. James Tinney gave an inclusive revival at All Souls Unitarian Church at 2835 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C. Faith Temple also worshiped at Calvary United Methodist Church and New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, its present location.