The Month of Liberation
Reverend Janet Parsons
Gloucester UU Church
June 21, 2026
I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing about the Ultimate Fighting Championship event, the cage fights, that took place last Sunday on the lawn of the White House to celebrate the president’s 80th birthday.
But at the end of the event, one of the participants offered a post-fight speech that ended with these words: “And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?” (https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/15/politics/michelle-obama-ufc-white-house)
We need to talk about this today. We need to talk about this because of course, June is Pride Month. Let me begin by saying that if Michelle Obama in fact identified as a transwoman, there would be no shame in that, and nothing to hide or criticize. We believe, as Unitarian Universalists, that all people should be able to live out and proud as their authentic selves.
But as I discovered after these remarks were publicized, there has been a longstanding effort on social media to portray Mrs. Obama as a man. In many postings, she is referred to as ‘Big Mike’. It is petty, and cruel, and says far more about the people making those comments than about her.
I kept reading. And we need to talk about this today because last Friday was Juneteenth. And in my reading, I found that in fact this isn’t really about Michelle Obama, or not just about her. In fact there is a longstanding effort to deny the humanity of Black women by creating a narrative that they are not feminine. This is nothing new. Sometimes this takes the form of claims that women of African origin have higher levels of testosterone. Tennis great Serena Williams has also been targeted for not being ‘feminine enough’. I guess it’s not ladylike to win so much.
This narrative has served the interests of white supremacy throughout the years by insisting that Black women were stronger, more able to bear the terrible burdens of enslavement, and therefore, did not need to be treated with kindness or compassion or forbearance.
And so, what we heard in those ignorant and racist remarks last Sunday night, in the presence of the president of the United States, was just the latest attempt to undermine the reality of Black women, to express contempt for them, to make them objects of ridicule. And of course, it’s the latest attempt to focus our attention on them in negative ways to help keep the spotlight off of people who are quietly doing untold damage to our economy, our environment, and our social fabric, all while pointing at Black women, or at LGBTQ+ people, and getting us all riled up about which bathrooms people are using.
As I keep saying, one of the most annoying things about this country and our halting efforts to widen our welcome to everyone is that it always seems to come down to bathrooms and bedrooms. We waste so much time and energy on the policing of our daily living.
I learned the other day that the Idaho legislature passed a law that criminalizes the use of a public restroom that conforms to a person’s gender identity. According to this law, a person could be imprisoned for up to five years. A judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the bill, which is supposed to go into effect on July 1.
The practice of focusing a spotlight on one group or individual in order to distract from the actions of others has a name. It’s called ‘scapegoating’.
In the Book of Leviticus, in the Hebrew Bible, an elaborate ritual of atonement for sin is spelled out: instructions from God to Aaron, who was Moses’ brother. Following a ritual slaughter of a bull and a ram, instructions were given for a ritual using a live goat. The text reads, “Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness… The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free into the wilderness.” (Leviticus 16:21-22)
By the laying on of hands, all the people’s sins for the year were transferred onto the head of the goat, and the goat carried them far away into the wilderness.
“The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities…”
And somehow the term ‘scapegoat’ has been with us ever since. The actual practice of scapegoating has been a part of life even longer. Last month we talked about creation myths, and the stories of the first women in Hebrew and Greek mythology, of how Eve and Pandora were blamed for setting loose all the evils into the world.
The author of our reading a few minutes ago wrote:
“For totalitarianism to thrive there must be an enemy created.
We have watched as queers, as trans and non-binary folk,
and our Black and brown neighbors, workers,
have been made into the wanted poster…”. (“America, are we free yet?” by Julian Jamaica Soto)
This month, our theme has been Flourishing Together. And so the question before us today, and should be before us every day, is this: how can those people who must feel as though their faces are printed on a wanted poster, truly flourish? How can they truly grow into the fullness of their lives? And as we heard in our story earlier, people also absorb the message that they are unequal, unworthy, and end up trapped in a cage of lies and blame and shame. How can they flourish?
When we think about the scapegoats, all those who our society treats as less than, including immigrants, we begin to grasp the importance of all the activities during the month of June. Truly, June is unique for offering us all the opportunity to tell many stories of many people. There’s the story of the final chapter of freedom from enslavement, begun with the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and finally communicated to enslaved people in Texas on June 19, 1865. And we tell the story of the uprising begun at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City, on June 28, 1969. On both of those June days, the world began to change.
What we celebrate now in June are these two stories of liberation, and the further stories that have emerged in the years since these seminal events. We Americans are conditioned to think of Independence Day, July 4, as our celebration of freedom, but in fact, June represents now a full month’s worth of celebration of liberation from bondage, and the beginning of liberation from life in shadows, life spent hiding.
In order to flourish, all people must be liberated from whatever prevents them from living full lives. There are many such cages constructed around people: racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia. But perhaps what really must be fought against, every single day, in order to enable all people to be truly liberated, is scapegoating. Blaming immigrants for taking our jobs. Blaming poor people for taking too many resources and our tax money. Pointing fingers at others to deflect attention away from our own mistakes and greedy impulses.
There’s a joke, a not-so-funny joke, that’s been circulating for some years now, and it goes like this:
A rich man, a poor white person, and an immigrant of color are sitting around a table with a plate of 20 cookies. The rich man helps himself to 19 of the cookies, and says to the poorer white person, “Careful, that immigrant is going to steal your cookie.” In other words, ‘watch out for that other guy – he’s the threat. The two of you can fight over what little is left while I make off with 19 cookies.’
Meanwhile, people often point out, it was probably the immigrant that made the cookies.
The examples are so numerous. We focus so much attention on safety in women’s public restrooms, in case a transwoman enters. It’s likely to be the transwoman who feels much more at risk. And yet, we are surrounded by stories of people in power who are deeply enmeshed in a system that is rewarding exploitation of women and children with no accountability. “But look, over there! Someone is walking into the wrong restroom!”
My friends, in order to begin to live into our founding words seeking liberty and justice for all, as we approach the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, let’s remember that human freedom goes far beyond its original meaning of releasing ourselves from control by another country. True freedom, liberation, must mean freedom from bigotry, and freedom from blame for all the wrongs of a society. It must mean liberation, freedom to flourish, opening the cages.
We can achieve true liberation, if we know what we are fighting for. Our work is to be aware, to see who is being left locked in a cage of blame, of shame, of bigotry and oppression, and to fight for them as well as ourselves. The author Toni Morrison said that our work is to use our freedom to create freedom for others.
Last Thursday the new Obama Presidential Center opened in the South Side of Chicago. The opening was timed perfectly to enable people to visit it the next day, Friday, which was Juneteenth, and a holiday. And it’s been pointed out that the opening celebration was the real celebration of America’s 250th birthday, not whatever scaled-down presidential rally might take place in Washington, D.C. It was an afternoon of great music and inspiring words.
Michelle Obama deserves to finish this sermon today. Here is an excerpt from her speech:
“…deep down in our hearts and souls, we all know right from wrong. We know selflessness from greed, righteousness from injustice. We understand that we all rise and fall together, that every last one of us is an invaluable contributor to the greatness of America. And I’m talking about the workers living paycheck to paycheck, hoping to give their kids a better future.
These folks are America. They are the beating heart of this country. They are us and we are them.
Failing to see the humanity in all people puts us all on a slippery slope. And once that slide starts, there’s no telling where it stops. (It is) a dangerous precedent that flies in the very face of our faith. And of the founding promise of this democracy that all of us, all of us are created equal, that each of us is a child of God with inherent value.” (https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/hope-is-all-we-have-read-michelle-obamas-full-speech-at-obama-center-grand-opening/3950620/)
May we celebrate our freedom in these next weeks. And may we be more aware than ever that those of us who live our lives without hiding, without being scapegoated for who we are, are called to work for the liberation of those who would be punished for their identities, who feel caged, who feel that their faces are on wanted posters.
“May we understand that we all rise and fall together.”
Blessed Be.
Amen.
