Mobley-izing for Change

Woody Blue prepared this narrative in 2022 from Lorraine Fontana’s interview with Carolyn Mobley-Bowie on December 2, 2015.

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie: The Early Years

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie, born in Sanford, Florida, December 17, 1948, never doubted from the beginning that she belonged in the lesbian world. By the time she was through high school, she was sure she was a lesbian.

In the 1970s, throughout the United States, lesbians were figuring it out. They may have started slowly and tentatively; but once out of the closet, lesbians formed their own societies, organizations, and social clubs. There were sports clubs for the jocks, speakeasies for the discreet professionals, and bars for meet-ups and dancing. Also, bridge clubs, bowling leagues, groups that tangoed, and the Girl Scouts. LOL. There was a lot of adventure to be had. Having crushes on gym teachers was prevalent. So were sleepovers… and kissing girls “to practice for kissing boys”– that kind of thing.

Accomplishing the Dream

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie fell in love with a white woman when they were both doing missionary work in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and that didn’t deter her perseverance in her career. She went from the Bahamas to Orlando, Florida, to the Shiloh Baptist Church, as youth director and minister of education. She was accomplishing her dream: not preaching, but working in a Black church, interacting with her community, finding her way. That path included a couple of exciting lesbian affairs along the way, which gave her some real-life experience.

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie left Orlando for Atlanta, Georgia, in 1973, to attend seminary, which offered a master’s degree attainable in two to three years. Most churches required a master’s degree for holding higher positions in their hierarchy or for an ordained preacher. This level of schooling has been a stumbling block for many Blacks who have a calling. The Black traditions didn’t require graduate school. They believed that God could select whomever God wanted, and that one didn’t need formal education for ordination. However, Carolyn Mobley-Bowie had her sights set on creating inclusivity and diversity in the Christian Church. She was willing to spend the time it took to reach ordination.

Atlanta, Georgia: A Wider Awakening and Renewed Dedication

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie was ready to meet her challenges in the big city of Atlanta. She “grew up as a lesbian” during her days at seminary there, exploring the gay lifestyle outside the classroom. Upon graduation in 1976, she was involved as a lay person with the MCC (Metropolitan Community Church, which ministers to a mainly gay congregation).

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie got a paying job at the same time as a career missionary with the conservative, Southern Baptist Convention. After five years of exemplary work with them, they approached her about whether she was gay. She refused to answer. They told her she’d have to answer or resign. She agreed to resign. She told them, “I’d rather leave than stay in a church that believes a person has to be either (thought of as) a whore or a homosexual… nothing in between, if someone is single.”

They could kick Carolyn Mobley-Bowie out of the church, but they couldn’t kick the church out of her. She went out the Baptist Church door in 1981 to immediately commit as a formal member of the MCC. Later that year, she attended her first Gay Pride March. She persisted in her calling, from which bigotry and hatred would not deter her. She also got an easy job as a courier, working for Central Delivery through a former Baptist professor who was her friend; he had also been thrown out of his job at a Baptist university. Until the late 1980s, she worked her way through the ranks of courier: driver, foot carrier, then customer service rep, making more money than she was being paid working for the church.

The Gay Climate of Atlanta, Georgia in the 1970s and 1980s

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie plunged enthusiastically into the gay and lesbian social activities that were blossoming in the Atlanta area in the 1970s and ‘80s. Having always loved to sing, she became a soloist with the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus, a mostly lesbian chorus. She also sang with Lambda Choral, the coed gay and lesbian chorus. She went to every Gay Pride March, playing her guitar and singing community songs at LGBT rallies and gatherings.

In 1981, Carolyn Mobley-Bowie met met the ugly specter of AIDS head-on, getting trained as an AIDS educator. As a volunteer of the Gay Community Center, she advocated for people living with AIDS. As a deacon for the MCC, she conducted funerals for those that died.

This was a time when gay women were redefining themselves, identifying as lesbian, separatist, and/or radical as they struggling to live in a patriarchal society that wanted to shut them all out. A feminist perspective was adopted by many, but many feminist doctrines were found lacking as to the concerns of women of color.

An alternative analysis, called “womanism,” found ground in the South. As Alice Walker describes it, “Womanism is to feminist as purple is to lavender.” Womanism was born primarily from the Black women theologians who were infiltrating the Christian churches. Womanism contended that The African-American woman’s experience could not be described by Black male theologians or white feminists – a valid point.

Finding Her Place

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie struggled to define her own place between these two paradigms concerning her needs as a Black woman and her presence among the largely white, lesbian feminists. She found community in the LGBT social groups that catered to a mostly white population. She visited the Atlanta Lesbian Feminist Alliance (ALFA) house to experience a feminist environment and to learn more, but there weren’t many women of color in ALFA. She also leaned towards a womanist perspective which felt true to her Black experience. However, the womanist perspective also included men. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie, as a lesbian, liked the idea of women’s space without men. As a Black lesbian, she couldn’t separate the two identities in herself. In the end she embraced both philosophies, blending them in ways that made sense to her as she struggled to advance in the Church and participate in her social circles.

Everywhere, Black gays active in the white-dominated movement, and notoriously in the South, where Civil Right issues had come to a head in recent history, sometimes struggled to be heard. The movement was deeply entrenched in the racist beliefs and upbringings that were the very fabric of our society. Though proclaiming inclusive values, and trying but bungling it, newly-formed LGBT communities were often unaware that white privilege policies still dictated. Carolyn describes a time in Atlanta when gay bars were double ID-ing Black men [asking for more than one official identification] in an effort to keep them out.

Even when white lesbians organized events, issues that affected Blacks and people of color were too often pushed to the side. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie understood that racism underlay the LGBT movement. Instead of turning away, she worked within to make concrete change. This was the motivation that steered her in all her communities and clarified the struggle as a female preacher in the Southern Christian churches; as a Black lesbian in a white, gay community; and as a lesbian in the Black community.

In Carolyn Mobley-Bowie’s determination to connect the predominantly whiter, gay community with the Black community, she helped to start a group called the African American Lesbian & Gay Alliance (AALGA) with Marque Walker, a well-known, gay activist from Morehouse College in Atlanta. This group celebrated Blacks of all spiritual backgrounds, including those outside Christianity, providing faith-based services. Carolyn stayed active in this group the entire time she lived in Atlanta.

Towards the late 1980s, Carolyn Mobley-Bowie quit her job as a courier. She worked for a time at Charis Books and More, a lesbian-owned bookstore, entertaining the idea of eventually becoming one of four part-owners. That didn’t materialize, and she yearned for a life where she could use her education and experience.

Houston, Texas, 1990 to 2005

The pull of the church was strong. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie decided to leave Atlanta in 1990, when she accepted a position with the Resurrection MCC in Houston, Texas. Bringing all her skills, life experience, and enthusiasm with her, she was welcomed with open arms. After only two years, she was elected to be the grand marshal in the Houston Gay Pride Parade.

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie was interviewed on the occasion of serving as the Grand Marshal in the Houston Gay Pride Parade in 1992. She was asked who were her people. She replied, “Well… lately, all people. But I have three groups that I identify with as ‘my people.’ First of all, Black people are my people. You know, that’s how I grew up. That was the first way that I understood myself in the world, as a Black person. Black folk are my people. And I add: gay folk are my people. All gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people are my people because I also identify as lesbian. And I said, church people are my people. I love the folk outside the church, too; but I’ve chosen to train, live, and work through the church. And so, those are my people: Black folk, gay folk, and Christian folk.”

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie continued, “Even the bad ones among them. I know Christianity has some serious problems with the right-wing side. But there’s enough pull the left side to bring us closer to the center, and that’s where I am in MCC. The MCC is where I am theologically about inclusion, too. I stay with MCC because I believe in the dream. The dream is multicultural, multiracial, everybody on the same, level, playing field. It’s not there, but we’re moving in that direction. We have from day one. That’s been the intention; that’s been the goal.”

From 1990 to 2005, Carolyn Mobley-Bowie worked as a leader in the MCC of Houston, Texas, her new home where she fit in well. She continued to assist in the AIDS-torn community, providing a sympathetic ear to those seeking help. Her singing in the choir was inspirational, and her exuberance was contagious.

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie became one of the longest-serving clergy at Resurrection MCC in Houston. She was the first and only Black woman when she started; when she left, there were paid, African-Americans on staff, and more African-Americans had joined the congregation. When she left, her congregation honored her by hosting a “Sing the Love” concert for her.

Rev. Carolyn Mobley-Bowie’s Legacy

The Black lesbian experience in the South, as well as the rest of the country, is quite different from that of white women. Black lesbians have had to constantly fight for their right to have an equal footing in the larger society. That hasn’t been well documented. The tragedies, disappointments, and internal conflicts of individuals are still buried, hidden from the public.

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie struggled throughout her life to incorporate into society her vision to create a better world. From a young age, she had realized she wanted to work in the church, to serve God. Putting the dream into action required a strong backbone. Living in the South, in an environment that was hesitantly moving forward to integrate its Black and white populations, meant that Carolyn Mobley-Bowie would call into play all of her “people” skills: mediator, spiritual leader, and role model for those who shared her vision of inclusion, of all those working toward the main goal of women’s rights, lesbians rights, gay rights, and of ending all discrimination.

See also:

Carolyn Mobley-Bowie: Spiritual Warrior-Singer