Yes! I think it's wonderful that the homophobic bigots have declared themselves. Now we know who they are.

One point I'd like to make as a gay man and LGBTQ advocate is that the congregations that voted to leave were under no compulsion to do anything. Nobody was requiring them to have queer ministers, to conduct same-sex weddings, or anything.

The departing congregations that left (for the most part) had already voted down the One Church plan that would have allowed each congregation freedom to act on their consciences.

The people who left did so because they couldn't stand sharing a denomination with people who affirmed queer folks like me. That's the kind of extraordinary bigots they are. That's the kind of extraordinarily evil people they are.

They left because they can't stand the idea that people like me are morally upright and decent, and they refuse to associate with congregations who aren't bigoted like they are.

They left because they are homophobic monsters. (Understanding that some individuals in those congregations stayed but don't approve of the homophobic bigotry of there fellow congregants.)

You know, I had a really horrible but illustratice interaction with a North Texas UMC Conference just last year.

I had done some investigative reporting, after being contacted by several families whose children went to a school where a United Methodist minister was also a teacher. They contacted me because that teacher had been calling children fags to discipline them, and had other children to call children fags. He went so far as to organize games of "tag the fag" on the playground!

I spoke to one set of parents at length, and they put their 11-year-old son on the phone for a moment. He told me personally how the teacher had called him a fag in class and urged other boys to call him a fag.

I spent a couple of weeks contacting administrators at the school district, phoning the UMC church where the teacher is a pastor, and contacting the conference.

Nobody would take my calls until a parent managed to dig up and give me the direct phone number of the conference's spokesperson.

I got her on the phone and pinned her down. I asked her repeatedly to tell me if it was morally acceptable to call children fags. I asked her repeatedly if this was acceptable conduct for a UMC pastor.

She refused to answer me, so I took it to email. She never got back to me.

So I started tagging the North Texas UMC Conference and the Conference bishop on Twitter, demanding that he respond.

Finally, (after many days!) the spokesperson replied on Twitter that the conference believes that calling a child a fag is wrong. But it was like pulling teeth to get even that simple, obvious statement out of them.

Eventually, the Conference reprimanded the pastor. But they took no other action. He's clearly a depraved homophobic bigot who is not safe around children.

But you know what the ultimate outcome was? Nothing. He's still teaching children at school, and he's still pastoring his church.

Most of the churches in that conference are leaving. Because the people in those churches are as despicable and revolting as that pastor and that depraved spokesperson who couldn't even admit that calling a child a fag is wrong.

So yes, it's very very good to know who the departing congregations are. It's good to know who the foul, abusive homophobes are.