Love in Action UCC Feature

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By Rick Woelfel

The holidays can be a difficult time for those without families. They can be particularly daunting for members of the LGBTQIA community who may be estranged from loved ones.

With that in mind the SAGA Community Center in Hatboro will hold a Holiday Safe Space event on Christmas Night at the Love in Action United Church of Christ on South York Road in Hatboro, beginning at 7 p.m.

The event will offer an environment where members of the community can celebrate Christmas in a comfortable, safe environment.

The SAGA (Sexuality And Gender Acceptance) organization held a similar event at Thanksgiving.

Jennifer Petro is a transsexual woman who began attending services at the church not quite three years ago. She says the Safe Space event is invaluable to people who have no other place to go at Christmas.

“There are no places really aside from the city where there is a safe, drug-free, no-drinking place for LGBT people to come.” she said, “and be safe and be accepted. We serve people who have been kicked out of their house, aren’t accepted by their families.

“We get a lot of younger people, as well as older, (but) the younger people and the senior queer people are one who are most marginalized. They can come and they can play air hockey, watch a movie, eat play Dungeons and Dragons, draw, write.”

SAGA also offers support services for those in need of them.

The organization works closely with the church, although they are not formally linked. The Rev. Josh Blakesley has been the pastor at the Love in Action United Church of Christ since 2011.

He says SAGA’s efforts fill a vital community need. “I think it’s critically important during the holiday season,” he said. “This time of year people are stressed, sometimes they don’t have a place to go, and so they’re reminded constantly by TV or media that you’re supposed to be joyful, you’re supposed to have family. And those who don’t, who have been marginalized, are people who come into our community center who can’t celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas because their families won’t accept them as they are. These are human beings just looking for that type of community.

“So, to open this space, and to say ‘No matter what, you’re welcome to come here and have a holiday, to build a community you can call your own, I think is essential.”

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