Knox United Church is being intimidated: Minister

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This article was published 04/02/2025 (276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon’s Knox United Church has been experiencing increasing intimidation during the last few months because of its inclusivity of the 2SLGTBQIA+ community, says the congregation’s minister, Craig Miller.

“It’s terrible, there’s still a lot of intolerance, fear and ignorance. We’ve consistently had pushback since becoming an affirming ministry. But we’re not going to be deterred from our message of love and affirmation,” Miller said.

Knox United has been an affirming church — officially welcoming the 2SLGTBQIA+ community since 2010. But in the last three months, Miller said, there have been specific incidents of harassment targeting the congregation and attacking his ministry.

That’s one of the reasons why, the church now keeps its doors locked on Sundays, he added. It now also has a designated safety liaison — someone who “greets folks at the door, just keeping an eye on things.”

“We want to be open and inclusive, but we also want to be safe and smart, and protect the folks who are here with us,” said Miller.

On Christmas Eve, someone left a phone message that said, “Pastor, you’re a pedophile, Jesus says. It would be better if you had a rope hung around your neck and drown in the sea,” Miller recounted.

“It’s also emails like, ‘John Knox would be rolling in his grave, how can you be a Christian church, you’re leading people to hell, you’re a false teacher,’” Miller said.

“And it happens with people driving by and yelling homophobic slurs when we’re putting out Pride signs. It just manifests itself in multiple ways,” he added.

In November, a violent threat was made in the comments section of the SERC Winnipeg Facebook page, Miller said, in reaction to Knox United Church holding a Transgender Day of Remembrance service in Brandon. The post has since been deleted.

SERC stands for Sexuality Education Resource Centre, which offers education and prevention around sexuality and reproductive health, including those who identify as 2SLGTBQIA+ — an acronym for two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or questioning, intersex and asexual. The plus reflects the additional ways that people choose to self-identify.

An additional concern that Miller said he has is for “gender-diverse folks,” who may have been threatened and harassed.

The re-election of Donald Trump as president of the United States has “emboldened” others who share anti-trans views, Miller added.

“We’re concerned that people may be pressured back into the closet, particularly youth and young adults, who may be exploring their identity and having questions. They may look at what’s happening in the larger culture and say, ‘I’m not going to take the risk to be my authentic self. So, I think it’s important for us to stand with those folks,” said Miller.

On Sunday evening, a supportive community gathering was held at the Knox United Church for gender diverse people and their allies to come together and talk about their experiences.

It was Wendy Friesen’s idea to plan the event, said her wife, Anastasia Gibson. Both are trans women who were married on June 15 last year, during Pride celebrations in Brandon.

“The political climate” in the United States, Friesen said, has “hammered the 2SLGTBQIA+ community in a bad way, and there are people who don’t have a lot of support.”

“So, we decided to create an event for people in our community to come by, decompress, learn a few things, speak with others, realize that there’s strength in numbers, and to tell them they’re not alone,” said Friesen.

It was a positive meeting with a “really good turnout,” said Brandon’s Leila Praznik one of the 40 or so who attended. Praznik is a transgender woman, and director of the Westman Empowerment Fund.

The non-profit’s goal is to break down barriers to transition for trans and gender-diverse people in Westman, by helping people with basic needs and supplies like chest binders, compression underwear and other gender-affirming apparel.

“The first few days of Trump’s second administration was a heavy blow emotionally. It seems like he’s trying to do the most damage possible in the shortest amount of time,” Praznik said.

“So, it was really beneficial to just get together and share strategies for self-care, to tell each other how we’re going to take care of ourselves to make weathering this storm a little bit easier,” she said.

Gibson said having allies is important, but she added they have “a strong one in Knox United Church.”

“There has been a lot of focused attack on us as a community, so it was nice to have the church open its doors at a moment’s notice. A lot of our folks feel safe there,” Gibson said.

Miller said he wanted to remind people that Knox United Church will host PIE Day again this year on March 15.

The name of the event — “PIE” — is an acronym for public, intentional and explicit, and is not to be confused with another event called Pi Day, which is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14.

The Brandon event will feature information booths and Westman’s House of Hex drag performances, said Miller.

“Flora Hex will be here to educate us about the history of drag, and there will be a workshop for folks to engage their inner performer.”

“So, we’re in solidarity with the community, and we’re going to continue to be authentic to our mandate and our mission.”

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