Rev. Gil Caldwell's plane touched down in Billings today. Forty years ago he was hip-deep in work on racial justice. For the next two weeks he's in Montana to spread the word about the need for relationship recognition of gay and lesbian couples during the Fair is Fair Tour.
Caldwell is part of an exciting project called Truth in Progress. Together, he and documentarian Marilyn Bennett of Helena are taking part in a multimedia project to promote cross-cultural understanding around issues of race, sexual orientation/gender identity, and religion.
The ACLU of Montana and Truth in Progress are teaming up for this cross-Montana tour to explore connections between sexuality, race and faith.
Rev. Caldwell has a long history with the civil rights movement. He's been an active participant in it since the 1960s, standing side-by-side with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
His involvement in LGBT issues began with correspondence with Marilyn, a white lesbian woman from Montana. For the past 10 years they have been learning about each other, about their similarities and differences and about how they can work together to promote understanding.
In Gil's Letters to Montana, he talks about how much he looks forward to the Fair is Fair Tour.
"Most of us have been wounded by others for a variety of reasons. Some persons and some systems have hurt us because of our race, gender, sexual orientation, economic and educational poverty, religion, politics, same sex partnered relationship, physical characteristics, etc," Gil says. "I look forward to talking about the ‘solidarity of our woundedness' and how we who have been hurt for a multiplicity of reasons, can discover healing for ourselves as we seek to enable the healing of others."
