Bridge of Light

LGBT Community Celebrates New Year’s Eve with Bridge of Light, a 3rd Annual World Spirituality Day Event

FOR RELEASE ON DEC. 14, 2006

Members of the worldwide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community are among those creating a more spiritual and reflective transition to 2007. The Bridge of Light celebration on December 31 marks the arrival of the New Year by honoring the full equality and dignity of all people. This celebration marks the 3rd annual celebration of the cultural tradition, founded in 2004. Today, the Bridge of Light is a part of World Spirituality Day, a non denominational global spiritual tradition modelled after Earth Day.

Seattle, WA -- Members of the worldwide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community are among those creating a more spiritual and reflective transition to 2007. The Bridge of Light celebration on December 31 marks the arrival of the New Year by honoring the full equality and dignity of all people. This celebration marks the 3rd annual celebration of the cultural tradition, founded in 2004 by participants of the Gay Spirit Culture Summit (GSCS) held in Garrison, New York.

Although the Bridge of Light idea was the fruit of the GSCS, a gathering of over 100 spiritual leaders and luminaries in the international gay and bisexual men's community, now the event belongs to anyone. All are invited to celebrate a tradition to affirm the full equality of all persons, setting visions for the year ahead, and symbolize their shared hope, unity, and spiritual heritages and principles.

The Bridge of Light tradition is part of the 4th annual World Spirituality Day, an event sponsored by Integrative Spirituality, a not-for-profit omni-denominational spiritual organization based in San Francisco, CA. World Spirituality Day is regarded as "The Earth Day for the Spirit." Just as Earth Day is celebrated worldwide now, in many different ways, World Spirituality Day allows for a kaleidoscope of worldwide gatherings and events, big and small, year after year. Bridge of Light is one such type of event, celebrated by members of the LGBT community.

The nondenominational World Spirituality Day is simple to participate in and can be celebrated either alone or in a group. Bridge of Light's distinctive contribution to this global tradition is to symbolize the many distinctive contributions of gay and queer-identified women and men from throughout history and in many cultures. Specifically, the Rainbow is offered as the focal symbol for Bridge of Light celebrations because it is the symbol most widely recognized as identifiable with the worldwide gay and lesbian community. The Rainbow is honored not only for its diversity but also for its underlying Unity behind the multiplicity of colors.

Joe Perez, founder of the Bridge of Light tradition and founder/editor of the Gay Spirituality & Culture Weblog, says: "The first two years of Bridge of Light celebrations have seen only small, private celebrations in homes. But I hope that soon larger group and community-wide parties will emerge. Social, religious, and civic groups are welcome to add Bridge of Light ceremonies to their list of winter activities. What makes this tradition unique is its focus on spiritual principles that are the common heritage of all people ... and the vision that these principles can provide the basis for affirming universal human dignity, rights, and justice for the gay community and all people."

Like Kwaanza, the holiday honoring African-American heritage first celebrated in 1966, Bridge of Light is a cultural celebration not requiring any particular set of religious beliefs. The central ritual of Bridge of Light is a candle-lighting ceremony intended to honor the distinctive contribution of men who love men and women who love women and others whose ways of loving mirror the beauty of the Divine ways of loving. As part of the Bridge of Light, six candles are lit on New Year's Eve, one candle for each color of the rainbow.

Universal values and spiritual principles are honored with each lit candle: Creativity (by lighting a purple candle), Freedom (a red candle), Integrity (a blue candle), Self-Reliance (an orange candle), Harmony (a green candle), and Love (a yellow candle). Some celebrants of Bridge of Light also light additional candles to highlight additional traditions, values, and principles from their own distinct traditions.

Timeline

Nov. 24, 2004--Joe Perez proposes a new queer winter holiday (called "Yuletide") via a blog post on Gay Spirituality & Culture and in an op-ed to later appear in several regional GLBT newspapers.

Dec. 20, 2004--First celebrations of the new holiday begin. Although the holiday did not have the current name, it is regarded as the first celebration.

Jan. 7, 2005--The name of the holiday is changed to "Bridge of Light" and a new website launched. About 20 public endorsements are received in the following six months.

Jan. 1, 2006--Celebrations of a holiday named Bridge of Light reported. This is the second year for recognized celebrations.

Nov. 20, 2006--The date of the Bridge of Light holiday is revised. Instead of celebrating the holiday on January 1, the new proposal is to celebrate the holiday on December 31.

Bridge of Light: Dec. 31, 2006

By Joe Perez

At this time of year, major religions from throughout the world celebrate holidays designed to signal the warmth of family and community amid the winter gloom. These celebrations often use the symbol of Light to represent hope, unity, and spirituality. Other seasonal holidays mark the arrival of the new year and provide an opportunity for introspection and setting visions for the year ahead.

Until recently there have only been two sorts of winter holidays: on the one hand, traditional religious ceremonies grounded in one particular faith; on the other hand, secular traditions devoid of any recognition of common spiritual bonds capable of uniting people in a higher purpose. However, three years ago a new twist emerged: Bridge of Light (BOL), a new winter celebration intended to stress the shared threads that unite people of all faiths and philosophies.

New subtitle for this website

I've changed the subtitle for this website, and thought I'd briefly mention what I'm thinking. Gone is "a celebration of the spiritual equality of all people" and up is "a celebration of the full equality and dignity of all people."

Reason: I've responded to feedback that the term "spiritual equality" is potentially vague and confusing. Some people wonder if it means that all spiritualities are equal, or all spiritual beliefs are equal. Yet nothing like that was ever intended.

The inspiration behind Bridge of Light is to honor both the beautiful diversity and uniqueness of the GLBT community and the fundamental unity, dignity, and equality of all people. If the message of many Pride celebrations this year is Diversity, the message of Bridge of Light is Unity in Diversity.

Founder's Statement

Dear Guest,

I have founded Bridge of Light because of my passionate belief that full equality for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) community cannot be achieved without directly addressing the widespread denial of the deepest humanity and fullest dignity of gay persons. The most radical message for the world to hear is that gays are made in the image of Spirit and our ways of  loving are Spirit's ways of loving.

Since the late fifties and the Stonewall riots of 1969, the American gay movement has evolved into a powerful cultural, social, and political force. Today, however, the gay/queer/GLBT movement has many goals remaining unfulfilled. There is a widespread recognition of the need for more comprehensive visions and new strategies for attacking homophobia in all its manifestations. I believe that gays must directly confront the inner, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of our fight for equality ... or we will not rise to our highest potential. We have an opportunity to take the battle for equality to the next level.

Bridge of Light Vision Statement

Bridge of Light is a new cultural tradition for celebrating both the beautiful uniqueness of the GLBT community and our fullest humanity. The festival is not a religious holiday in the traditional sense, but a cultural tradition intended to address the social and spiritual needs of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community ... and of all people.

We, the holiday’s endorsers, encourage celebration of the festival not only within the GLBT community, but by all who want to join us in honoring the deepest humanity and full spiritual equality of all people. Endorsers include members of the GLBT community, plus our allies and friends from all sexual and gender identities.

The holiday’s name describes the secret, higher Unity hidden behind the spectrum of colors in the rainbow, the symbol most closely identified with the international GLBT movement. The metaphor of the bridge simultaneously describes the rainbow, the transition to the New Year, and the interconnectedness of all things. The celebrations will include candle-lighting ceremonies on December 31 of each year.

Among ancient peoples from cultures throughout the world, the beginning of the year has been recognized as an opportunity to affirm the goodness of life and strengthen the bonds of fellowship. We are giving ancient traditions a contemporary expression.

The central ritual of the holiday shall be the lighting of six candles, one for each day. The candles shall not be arranged flatly, as with the Rainbow Flag, but elevated in the shape of a bridge. The lighting of the candles shall be done in the order of the following six core principles:

1. Creativity (light a purple candle)
2. Freedom (light a red candle)
3. Integrity (light a blue candle)
4. Self-Reliance (light an orange candle)
5. Harmony (light a green candle)
6. Love (light a yellow candle)

The particular elements for Bridge of Light derive from traditional GLBT cultural symbols in the USA. Persons from religious and secular traditions of every culture in the world are warmly encouraged to bring their own unique contributions and insights to their festivities. For example, non-English speakers are welcome to translate the name of the holiday into their own languages.

There is no one official way to hold Bridge of Light celebrations, no orthodox interpretation of the six principles, and no proprietary ownership of any of the traditions. During the celebration, all people are invited to come together in their families and communities to share and discuss what the six core principles mean to them.

We hope that everyone in the GLBT community will join us in embracing Bridge of Light and in bringing this exciting new cultural tradition to your own families, neighborhoods, and community. And we invite our friends and allies from throughout the world to join with us in endorsing and celebrating the Bridge of Light.

Note: This vision statement is authored by Joe Perez. It is the "final" version of an idea that involved the contributions of many people through an evolving process beginning at the Gay Spirit Culture Summit in April/May 2004.