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As an
activist Monroe have received numerous awards for her continued
commitment to the community. Monroe has received the Boston
Certificate of Recognition for continued leadership and
dedication to Boston’s Gay and Lesbian Community, and in 1998
Monroe was the first African American lesbian to be bestowed the
honor of being grand marshall in the Boston Pride Celebration.
In 1997 Boston Magazine cited Monroe as one of Boston’s 50
Most Intriguing Women, and was profiled twice in the Boston
Globe, In the Living Arts and The Spiritual Life sections for
her LGBT activism.
Because most male ministers in Boston do not open their doors to
their African American LGBTQ community Monroe with the help of
other local LGBTQ activists in Boston convinced the then African
American minister the Rev. Theodore Lockhart of Union United
Methodist Church in the South End of Boston to become an
affirming parish to its LGBTQ community/ (see enclosed
BayWindows article “African - American church in Boston votes
to welcome gays and lesbian)
As a board member of the Cambridge Family YMCA, and an activist
in the LGBT life of the City of Cambridge Monroe have received
The Cambridge Peace and Justice Award. Monroe has received the
Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching while
being the head teaching fellow of the Rev. Peter Gomes, the
Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard who is the
author of the best seller, THE GOOD BOOK. In 1990 Monroe
received the Unitarian Universalist Feminist Theology Award
Boston for her project of an African American queer community.
Monroe just received a commendation from Cambridge Councilor
Brain Murphy for receiving the 2004 Sistah Summit Gay Pride
Spirituality Award.
.
Monroe has also been profiled in the September 2001 issue of O,
Oprah magazine. In 1998 in the national queer magazine Out
Magazine Monroe was profiled in Out 100: The People Who Rocked
1998’s, and in June 1999 Monroe was profiled in the Gay Pride
Episode of “In the Life TV” were the segment on me was
nominated for an educational Emmy.
Monroe’s writings on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
communities in Boston and beyond serve as a vehicle to inform
and inspire the community. Monroe writes a spirituality column
for ARISE Magazine, a magazine for people of African descent in
the life and was Open Hands guest columnist for the year 2002, a
religious queer magazine, and Venus magazine, a magazine for
people of African descent in the life. Her writings have also
appeared in The Advocate - “A Garden of Homophobia” in the
December 9, 1997 issue, and in the Boston Globe-“The
Unacknowledged Roots of American Slavery” in the March 15,
1998 issue.
Monroe has written extensively on African American gay and
lesbian history, African American sexuality, and anti-Semitism
in both the black Christian and black Muslim communities. Her
award-winning essay, “Louis Farrakhan's Ministry of Misogyny
and
Homophobia”, was greeted with critical acclaim.
Because of her training in religion and ethics much of her
journalism has been as a religion writer. However, the way she
reports religion in the news she is informed on a wide range of
current issues and beyond. (see enclosed Boston Globe op-ed
piece “The unacknowledged roots of American slavery)
As a public theologian and religion writer Monroe is presently a
contributing editor for THE OTHER SIDE, and a former contributor
to CHRISTIANITY AND CRISIS.
Monroe specialize in news features, profiles, coverage, book
reviews, animal rights, and social justice issues. For several
years now Monroe writes a biweekly column here in Boston called
“The Religion Thang” for In Newsweekly, the largest lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender newspaper in New England States,
and Monroe also write an online column “Queer Take”
from a black lesbian issue base standpoint for The
Witness, a progressive Episcopalian journal.
Here is the link to it:
http://www.thewitness.org/agw/agw-monroe.html
Monroe says
her “ column is an integration of African American, gender,
queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to
inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination
against LGBT people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the
other and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of
religion,” by reporting religion in the news I am to highlight
how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters
the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating
other forms of oppressions such as racism, sexism, classism and
anti- Semitism. My audience is not only LGBT people, because as
a theologian I also write outside of that hermeneutical
standpoint.
Monroe has given talks on women’s issues such as “ Opening
Communication: Talking Across our Differences as Women” at the
National Association for Women in Education, “When Women Move
to Connect, We Find Ourselves in a Dominant Culture of
Disconnection” at the Theological Opportunities Program at
Harvard Divinity School, and “Women’s Ways of Reading
Biblical Text: Subversive and Empowering Strategies for
Marginalized and Oppressed People at University of Massachusetts
in Boston. She has also written, taught and spoken on women’s
topics such as women’s healing, bodies, and spirituality.
Monroe’s workshops "Debunking the Notion of a Hierarchy
of Oppressions," “ Justice Begins in the Bedroom, and
"The Conceptual Trap of Whiteness" have been well
received on college campuses, and at national conferences. She
taught a course in “Christian Sexual Ethics” at Andover
Newton Theological School.
Monroe has been invited to speak or appear on panels at dozens
of universities, events and conferences, including at Harvard
with David Gergen, former White House adviser to four
presidents, and former editor of U.S. News and World Report on
the topic of “Moral Leadership in the 21st Century,” MIT,
Brandeis, the American Academy of Religion, Penn State, Brown ,
Yale, John Hopkins, and the National Conference of Christians
and Jews, and at Vassar she gave the baccalaureate address. In
addition, she has preached in many churches, including Harvard's
Memorial Church, The Riverside Church in New York City, and San
Francisco's Metropolitan Community Church.
Also, Monroe was a board member for the Millennium March on
Washington 2000, which took place on April 30, 2000, and she is
presently a board member for the Center for Lesbian and Gay
Studies in Religion at the Pacific School of Religion in
Berkeley. California, Equal Partners of Faith, Cambridge Family
YMCA, National Black Justice Coalition.
Monroe is a national speaker for the American Program Bureau.
Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe
College’s research library on the history of women in America.
A native of Brooklyn, NY, Monroe graduated from Wellesley
College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University,
and served as a pastor at an African American church in New
Jersey before coming to Harvard. She lives in Cambridge, Mass.
You can find
out more about Monroe at www.google.com,
or www.yahoo.com. |
