The Rev. Harry Stock, who is currently affiliated with D.C.’s LGBTQ-supportive Westminster Presbyterian Church, has invited friends, colleagues, and members of the community to “witness a miracle” on Oct. 26 by attending a ceremony at an Episcopal church in Alexandria, Va., where he will be officially reinstated as an Episcopal priest.

In a Sept. 12 invitation to the ceremony that Stock sent by email, he states that the ceremony will take place 43 years after he was ordained as an Episcopal priest by a bishop in Charleston, W.Va., and 40 years after the same bishop defrocked him from the priesthood because he “declared his love for another man at the altar” in a holy union ceremony.

“As a result of our Holy Union I received a letter from Bishop [Robert] Atkinson informing me that as a result of me declaring my love for another man at the altar he was revoking my Holy Orders and stripping me from the sacred order of priest and that I would no longer be permitted to function as a priest in the Episcopal Church,” Stock says in his message. “My world fell apart,” he wrote.

Stock notes that the Holy Union that led to his being defrocked was with his life partner Mark Kristofik. He said the two have been a couple for 45 years since 1979 and are now married.  

Biographical information that Stock provided shows that he received a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University in 1969 and completed a study program at the West Virginia Episcopal Diocese School of Religion before receiving a Master in Divinity Degree in 1978 from Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va., in 1978.

In the years since being defrocked Stock became known as an esteemed theologian. Beginning a short time after being defrocked, he became pastor in D.C. of a newly formed branch of the LGBTQ-supportive Metropolitan Community Church called  the MCC Church of the Disciples, where he served for 21 years. Biographical information he sent to the Washington Blade says in 1991 the nationwide Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches ordained him as a minister.

The biographical write up says Stock later became the founder and president of Scrolls Revealed Ministries for which he traveled over a period of 20 years across the country to churches, colleges, retreats, and conferences facilitating a seminar he created called “Biblical Translation for Gay Liberation: How the Bible Does Not Condemn Homosexuality, An in-Depth Study.”

Stock said Scrolls Revealed Ministries is still active and he currently travels to churches as a guest preacher delivering a teaching sermon called “Homophobia and the Bible: A Deadly Combination.”  

With that as a backdrop, Stock tells of the recent developments that brought about his upcoming reinstatement as an Episcopal priest in his email message inviting friends and colleagues to the Oct. 26 ceremony beginning at 10 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 228 South Pitt St. in Alexandria. 

“Upon learning of my story, The Rt. Reverend Matthew Cowden, VIII, current Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia, requested a meeting with me via Zoom and on July 25 of last year we met,” according to Stock’s email message. He said that was followed by an in-person meeting in October of 2023.

“During our meeting Bishop Cowden said something that in my wildest dreams I never expected to hear, by saying, ‘On Behalf of the Episcopal Church, I apologize to you for what the church did to you back in 1984.’”

Stock adds in his message, “I found myself unable to speak and felt liberated, for the first time, from a pain that had plagued me for years. But, Bishiop Cowden didn’t stop there, he went on to say, ‘I also want to make right the mistake that was made those many years ago.’”

According to Stock’s message, “After a year of endeavoring through the Canons of the Episcopal Church and completing Canonical requirements and the joyous consent of the Bishops, and other committees and bodies responsible” – his reinstatement was approved, and the reinstatement ceremony was scheduled for Oct. 26.

“Miracles happen through moments of great beauty, prayer, faith, hope and especially through acts of great love,” Stock’s message continues. “They happen through us and to us, and for me, one is about to manifest itself and turn what I thought was the greatest disappointment in my life into a blessing,” he says in his message.

“I am delighted to share this incredible blessing with you,” his message continues. “And if you are nearby, I would be honored to have you join me for this momentous occasion.” His message says a Champagne reception will take place after the ceremony.

In recent years, Stock has preached and presided over communion services at Westminster Presbyterian Church.

In Southwest D.C. in the role of Parish Partner, a title given to ministers who are not officially ordained as Presbyterian ministers. Stock said that upon his reinstatement as an Episcopal priest on Oct. 26, he will continue his role as Parish Partner at Westminster since he still will not be an ordained Presbyterian minister.   

He nevertheless said his service at Westminster is important to him and he plans to remain there. He told the Blade that at the age of 83, he considers the West Virginia bishop’s decision to reinstate him as an Episcopal priest to be an act of correcting an injustice.

“What the bishop is doing on Oct. 26 is doing what he calls making right the mistake that was made 40 years ago and validating my ministry,” Stock said.  

Editor’s Note: This article is part of our 2024 contribution to the D.C. Homeless Crisis Reporting Project in collaboration with other local newsrooms. The collective works will be published throughout the week at bit.ly/DCHCRP.

The LGBTQ operated and LGBTQ supportive homeless shelters and transitional housing facilities in D.C. are operating at full capacity this year as the number of homeless city residents, including LGBTQ homeless residents, continues to increase, according to the latest information available.

The annual 2024 Point-In-Time (PIT) count of homeless people in the District of Columbia conducted in January, shows that 12 percent of the homeless adults and 28 percent of homeless youth between the age of 18 and 24 identify as LGBTQ.

The PIT count shows an overall 14 percent increase in homelessness in the city compared to 2023. This year’s count of a total of 527 LGBTQ homeless people marks an increase over the 349 LGBTQ homeless people counted in 2023 in D.C. and 347 LGBTQ homeless counted in 2022.

Representatives of the LGBTQ organizations that provide services for homeless LGBTQ people have said the actual number of LGBTQ homeless people, especially LGBTQ youth, are most likely significantly higher than the annual PIT counts.

Liz Jaramillo, director of Youth Housing for the D.C. LGBTQ youth advocacy group SMYAL, which provides transitional housing for at least 55 homeless LGBTQ youth through four housing programs, said SMYAL staff members have observed a clear increase in the number of LGBTQ youth facing homelessness or housing insecurity.

She said the increase has been a topic of discussion with other groups providing homeless services for LGBTQ youth as well as with officials from the D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS), which provides support and funding for LGBTQ homeless related programs.

“So, I do think there has been an increase,” Jaramillo said. “We see it during our meetings when we are talking with DHS and talking about the need for what the next steps will be for growing LGBTQ housing in general across the city.”

Among other things, Jaramillo and officials with other LGBTQ organizations, including the D.C. LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition, are calling on the city to expand its funding for LGBTQ homeless programs to keep up with the need to address the increasing number of LGBTQ homeless people in the city.

SMYAL began its housing program for LGBTQ youth in 2017. It was preceded by D.C.’s Wanda Alston Foundation, which opened the city’s first transitional housing program solely dedicated to LGBTQ youth facing homelessness between the ages of 18 and 24 in 2008. As of 2022, the Alston Foundation had opened two more LGBTQ youth homeless facilities.

Both SMYAL and the Alston Foundation provide a wide range of services for their LGBTQ youth residents in addition to a safe and stable shelter, including food and nutrition services, case management services, mental health counseling, crisis intervention, and employment related skills development and education services.

The two groups also have designated at least one of their housing facilities to offer their LGBTQ residents extended transitional housing for up to six years.

In September of 2021, at the time when the LGBTQ community services center Casa Ruby lost its city funding for its own longstanding LGBTQ youth homeless shelter, the Department of Human Services awarded a grant for the opening of a new LGBTQ youth homeless shelter to Covenant House, a nonprofit group that provides homeless youth services nationwide. In 2022, Casa Ruby closed all its operations.

At the time, Covenant House announced the facility would serve as a 24-bed LGBTQ youth shelter called Shine in the city’s Deanwood neighborhood. In response to a request by the Washington Blade for an update on the status of the Shine facility, DHS released a statement saying the facility has been expanded to 30 beds and continues to receive DHS funding.

With most of the LGBTQ-specific homeless facilities in D.C. focusing on youth, the DHS opened the city’s first official shelter for LGBTQ adults in August of 2022 following a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser. The 40-person shelter is located at 400 50th St., S.E.

“DHS continues to support LGBTQ adults through its low-barrier shelter, Living Life Alternative,” DHS said this week in its statement to the Blade. The statement says the facility is operated by The Community Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness, which refers to itself as TCP, through a DHS Sole Source grant. According to the statement, TCP “sub awards the grant funding” to a company called KBEC Group, Inc., which specializes in providing comprehensive social services and residential living for youth and adults. 

“KBEC proactively offers intensive care management services allowing residents to overcome long-standing obstacles preventing them from obtaining and maintaining permanent housing,” the DHS statement says in describing KBEC’s involvement in the LGBTQ adult housing facility.

“These include connections to Behavioral Health Services, Substance Use Disorder (SUD) resources, Supportive Employment Job Training Programs, direct access to health care within the shelter at least once a month, and a comprehensive curriculum of Life Skills to include Financial Literacy Classes, Music Therapy, Art Therapy Classes, and Group Therapy sessions,” the statement says. 

It says the goal of the program associated with the LGBTQ adult shelter is to enable its residents to be able to leave the facility within six months through assistance from programs leading to self-sufficiency. 

“KBEC has successfully connected more than 50% of residents to some type of housing subsidy, whether through the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Affairs, DHS Housing Vouchers, or Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH),” the statement says.  

A least two other non-LGBTQ locally based organizations – the Latin American Youth Center and Sasha Bruce Youthwork – also provide services for homeless LGBTQ youth, including housing services, the two groups state on their website.

Jaramillo, of SMYAL, and Hancie Stokes, SMYAL’s communications director, told the Blade this week that SMYAL and other local LGBTQ organizations continue to advocate for LGBTQ cultural competency training for the staff at non-LGBTQ organizations or private companies that provide LGBTQ-related homeless services.

“We work closely with our community partners to make sure that when a queer young person is matched into their program or placed into their program that they are equipped with basic cultural competency to be able to provide those supportive services to folks,” Stokes said. 

“But there is a great need for increased funding for programs like SMYAL and Wanda Alston, which is why we partner with the LGBTQ+ Budget Coalition to advocate for more funding on behalf of all LGBTQ+ housing programs,” she told the Blade.

One example of a possible consequence of inadequate cultural competency training surfaced in April of this year when a transgender woman filed a discrimination complaint against a D.C. homeless shelter after it refused to allow her to stay in the women’s section of the shelter, forcing her to stay in the men’s sleeping section.

The complaint was filed against the shelter operated by the Community for Creative Nonviolence at 245 2nd St., N.W., which is one of the city’s largest privately operated shelters. A spokesperson for the shelter did not respond to a phone and email message left by the Blade asking for a response to the complaint.

Transgender rights advocates have said the denial of the placement of a transgender woman in the female section of a place of public accommodation such as a homeless shelter is a violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act’s ban on gender identity discrimination. 

Jaramillo and Stokes said SMYAL has responded to yet another growing need for homeless and housing services related to the city’s immigrant community. Shortly after the shutdown of Casa Ruby, Stokes said SMYAL created an LGBTQ youth street outreach program that focuses on Spanish-speaking LGBTQ youth.

“A lot of folks are experiencing homelessness,” Stokes said. “But this is particularly working with queer and trans Spanish-speaking youth who are experiencing homelessness to either get them connected to housing services, health care, legal documentation or legal support, and education,” she said.

“And so, our team goes out to areas like Columbia Heights and other areas where we know a lot of these migrant populations are setting up communities. And this is an outreach directly to them and it builds rapport in the community.”

Edafe Okporo, an author and immigrant rights activist, on Sept. 26 headlined the 25th anniversary celebration of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a nonprofit providing legal services to immigrants facing detention and deportation, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

Before taking the stage to read from his book “Asylum: A Memoir and Manifesto,” Okporo spoke to the Washington Blade about his experiences as an asylum seeker and the challenges faced by LGBTQ refugees in the U.S.

“Immigration detention centers are jails, but special jails for migrants,” Okporo, who is running for New York City Council, said. 

In 2016, he was detained in an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., for more than five months. He had fled to the U.S. from his home country of Nigeria — which in 2014 criminalized same-sex relationships with penalties of up to 14 years in prison — after being beaten unconscious by a group of people who broke into his apartment and dragged him out onto the street. They had targeted him for helping found an LGBTQ rights organization. 

He had imagined the U.S. as a place of safety and refuge, but after informing immigration officers he was seeking asylum, he was detained in a cell with 44 other inmates while officials evaluated his asylum plea.

He eventually won asylum with the help of immigration attorneys, but once he was released from detention, he initially experienced homelessness and a deep sense of isolation. 

“In detention centers,” Okporo explained, “it’s hard for you to be able to have a sense of connection to American society.”

Today, he is the executive director of Refuge America, a nonprofit that aims to limit the time LGBTQ refugees like himself spend in detention centers by organizing Americans sponsors to secure housing and other needs before their arrival. Prior to founding the organization, he was the director of the RDJ shelter, New York City’s only full-time refuge for asylum-seekers and refugees. 

Okporo noted that integrating into life in America can be especially challenging for LGBTQ refugees, many of whom come from countries where they had to hide their sexual orientation or gender identity. This often makes it difficult for them to open up and seek the services they need.

“They are thinking within the hierarchy of needs. ‘Can I tell the service provider that I’m gay?’ Then, ‘Can I tell them I’m HIV positive?’ Then, ‘Can I tell them that I need testosterone hormones?’” Okporo said.

He explained that the immigrant communities refugees might seek out for support might not be accepting of LGBTQ people. At the same time, however, the LGBTQ community in the U.S. “is very white-centric, especially in the coastal areas,” he said, contributing to a broader sense of isolation for some LGBTQ immigrants.

Through his work at the RDJ shelter and Refuge America, Okporo has been helping LGBTQ immigrants integrate into U.S. society. However, he noted that the scale of these organizations’ efforts is limited due to the fact that the “political narrative in America frowns upon immigration.”

“The narrative on immigrants is very toxic,” he said. “We have a presidential candidate who is anti-immigrant, and even the mayor of New York City is using ‘migrants versus New Yorkers.’”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges last week, called for the rollback of some of the city’s “sanctuary” policies that protect migrants accused of crimes from being turned over to federal authorities, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, in February. 

Okporo is running to represent District 7, which includes the Manhattan neighborhoods of Washington Heights and West Harlem — where the RDJ shelter is located — in the 2025 New York City Council elections. He aims to make housing more affordable and address the needs of New York City’s significant immigrant population in the council.

“They say representation is one of the best ways to lift up issues. We don’t have anyone in city hall right now who has an understanding of what it is to come to America and build a life in New York City. I hope to bring that diversity and perspective to city council,” he said. 

In the section of the book he read from at the Amica Center’s celebration, he reflects on feeling “utterly alone in America,” when he first arrived. 

But eight years later, following protests by advocacy groups against the detention center where Okporo was held, the facility is poised to close. And Okporo has found his community in New York City, sharing dinner with fellow gay immigrants and playing soccer with others on Sunday mornings. 

“As a foreigner who came to America, I was able to build a life here, and people see me, people support me — people want me to succeed. That gives me a sense of like, there is a reason to continually go on,” he said. “And that is what I try to do with my work, to show others that they too, should go on.”