This bishop just preached LGBTQ rights to Trump's face but it wasn't the first time she stood up for our rights when it mattered the most.
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This past week, Convicted Felon Donald Trump went to a National Prayer service as part of his inauguration week where the pastor of the church said this in her monumental sermon:
Bishop Budde:
Immediately after church, Trump wrote on Truth Social, "The so-called bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart...Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!"
But you should know Bishop Budde has long been an advocate for gay and trans rights. So, when Trump's team was choosing where to hold his National Prayer service last week, it was painfully obvious Trump knew she was going to say something about his anti-LGBTQ or anti-immigration policies.
Secondly, to say she is a so-called bishop is ridiculous. She's a real bishop. She's allowed to speak about the World of politics just like Trump is. It's called freedom of speech. No one has to kiss your feet and be gracious of you after you come after their basic human rights. Her message was a plea for mercy and I don't really think Trump of all people should be judging someone else's brilliance.
The national prayer service is normally a time for a pastor to ask the president to bring the country together after a dividing election season. So, her comments were very appropriate and have parallelled many other pastor's sermons at past National Prayer services.
To say her comments were boring or uninspiring means you weren't even listening. To say she's not good at her job is objectionable but an opinion you're allowed to have. But to say she owes you any sort of apology for asking you to be nice to those who fear for their lives because of your actions is insane. Trump came after LGBTQ rights hundreds of times. We asked for an apology hundreds of times and yet we haven't gotten one and he keeps coming for gay marriage and trans rights to this day.
But this is far from the first time Bishop Budde has been an incredible hero to the LGBTQ community. To learn about that, we have to take you back to the University of Wyoming in 1998. On October 6, 1998 a 21-year old named Matthew Shepard went to the Fireside Lounge on his college campus to hopefully meet another boy he could start a relationship with.
There, he was approached by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson who offered to ride Matthew home. They instead drove him to a remote rural area, robbed him, pistol-whipped him, tortured him, and tied him to a slit-rail fence in the deserted area, leaving him to die alone. Reports describe how Matthew was beaten so brutally that his face was completely covered in blood, except where it had been partially cleansed by his tears.
Eighteen hours after the attack, Matthew was still tied to the fence, left in freezing cold temperatures overnight when he was discovered by a cyclist named Aaron Kreifels who initially mistook Matthew for a scarecrow.
Matthew was then taken to the local hospital before being moved to a more advanced hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado where he was on full life support for six days before being pronounced dead at 12:53 AM on October 12, 1998. After his death, the two boys were charged with murder where investigators learned they lured Matthew at the bar by pretending to be gay and liking him back. They testified how their actions were caused by Matthew touching one of their knees in their truck and they were 'triggered' by how they felt 'about gays.' They were both sentenced to jail for life without the possibility of parole.
The case gained international media attention and at his funeral, members of hate groups protested outside with homophobic slurs and slogans written on picketing signs. But Matthew wasn't buried at his funeral.
His parents chose to cremate him and knew their son would have liked his ashes scattered in places he loved to go. But they wanted a place where they could visit him and remember him. Sadly, everyone in Matthew's family knew if they buried him anywhere, his grave would be vandalized so they chose to keep his ashes and wait for a time to bury them.
On the 20 year anniversary of his death in 2018, Bishop Budde, the same woman who pleaded with Donald Trump this week, and Reverand V. Gene Robinson who we talked about before on this show as the first openly gay pastor in the Episcopal Church, both held a private ceremony for Matthew Shepard's family at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.
Bishop Budde got the family's permission to inter Matthew Shepard's ashes inside the cathedral in Washington so there would be a final resting place for Matthew to finally be at peace, a place they could visit anytime they wanted, and a place guarded from vandals who might want to desecrate his gravesite.
To this day, Matthew Shepard's ashes are interred in the National Cathedral where Trump sat through this plea from the same Bishop who helped Matthew Shepard finally have a peaceful resting place there. Trump had an opportunity to take the moment and reflect on his bad actions. Pray for the soul of Matthew Shepard and other gay people who have been hurt by homophobic actions in the past. Realize his actions as president coming after gay rights have deadly consequences.
Take the moment to realize the severity of the office he is going into and pray to whatever god he believes in for guidance and strength as all presidents in the past have done at this service. Instead, Trump chose to not pay attention and call her boring. He chose to attack a hero for having the audacity of asking him to be human. Trump unbelievably wants her to apologize to him after he sent his MAGA mob to kill her.
So, thank you to Bishop Budde for not only standing up and pleading with Trump to be a human for the first time in his life. But thank you for giving Matthew Shepard a peaceful resting place and for years of hard work fighting for LGBTQ people. In our work, we don't often get to see religious people act politely to our community but Bishop Budde is one of the heroes that make our community great.
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