Caleb Parker

Many queer folks fled the United Methodist Church (UMC) after its 2019 General ­Conference—which added even more homophobic prohibitions to church rules—but Caleb Parker did the opposite and made his return. Raised as a United Methodist, he had stepped away from the church for a while, but the harmful new policies galvanized him into action. Caleb got himself elected as a lay delegate for the 2024 General Conference, and initiated the formation of the church’s first-ever Queer Delegate Caucus. I was proud to be one of his co-founders.
His strategic thinking helped clarify our role at the conference, and enabled us to have a substantial influence on the outcome, which ended up being greater than we could have ­predicted—in a historic vote in May, we saw the complete overturning of the UMC’s anti-LGBTQ stance. Caleb inspires me to keep insisting that the church can, and must, do better.

Ryde is a regional organizer at Reconciling Ministries Network