DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
When Gov. Greg Abbott threatened cities that helped make Texas’ gayborhoods more joyful places with rainbow crosswalks, a variety of voices stood up and shouted, “Discrimination!”
But one person in The Gayborhood reclaimed the rainbow and made sure it wouldn’t be erased.
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church Senior Pastor Rachel Griffin-Allison decided that, if the rainbow couldn’t adorn the street in front of her church, she could make sure it welcomed people into her church. So she had the steps leading from Cedar Springs Road into the main sanctuary painted in the rainbow colors, and photos of the building, sparkling with sunlight, were published in newspapers around the world.
As Griffin-Allison and a group of volunteers painted the steps in an inclusive rainbow that included brown and black stripes, as well as blue, pink and white stripes representing the transgender community, she was making a statement that the LGBTQ+ community in Dallas will not be erased.
As she told Dallas Voice in October as the painting of the steps began, even though it was a response to Abbott’s anti-rainbow edit, “This is not a political act. It’s a pastoral one. It’s an expression of our faith in a God whose covenant love is wider than fear and whose grace refuses to be painted over.”
In recognition of her being a light and leader of the LGBTQ+ community in Dallas, across Texas and around the world, Dallas Voice names the Rev. Rachel Griffin-Allison our LGBTQ+ Texan of the Year.
The pastor
Griffin-Allison has been a minister for 28 years and has served at Oak Lawn UMC since 2017. She’s a mother of four and is married to Cheryl Griffin-Allison.
“Rev. Rachel leads with a theology of radical hospitality — creating a church where LGBTQ+ people, immigrants and unsheltered neighbors know they belong,” said OLUMC Associate Pastor Ryan Wager.
In 2024, she was named Peacemaker of the Year by the Dallas Peace and Justice Center.
And as director of congregational engagement for the Horizon Texas Care and Healing Commission, Griffin-Allison works to equip and nurture congregations across the new Texas Horizon Conference.
“Under her leadership, Oak Lawn UMC has become a vital hub of care for Dallas, from sheltering neighbors in winter storms to welcoming refugees year-round,” Wager said.
Griffin-Allison also serves on the board of directors of the Reconciling Ministries Network, co-convening the national Reconciling Clergy Cohort where she helped lead the effort to remove harmful language from the UMC Book of Discipline, thereby enabling openly LGBTQ+ and married clergy to serve in ministry.
Removing that harmful language allowed Griffin-Allison to come out and serve her church and community openly without threats of charges being brought against her by members of the Dallas diocese.
Of course, Griffin-Allison kind of jumped the gun. The United Methodist Church changed its position on same-sex marriages at its general conference in 2024, with the new rules going into effect on the first of this year. But the Griffin-Allisons married in the fall of 2023 with the blessing of the local bishop at a time when she could have been brought up on charges, disciplined and dismissed.
So, officially, Oak Lawn’s pastor has been out barely two years. But not everyone makes such a splash coming out.
Since getting her bishop’s blessing for her marriage, Griffin-Allison and her wife have ridden on the hood of the church’s float in two Pride parades.
Now, pictures of her newly painted entryway to her church have appeared in publications around the world.
Wager said that currently all clergy at the church are queer, which brings the level of pastoral care to a different level.
“She understands what it was like to be in the closet,” he said.
And the church is receiving support for painting its steps from other Dallas Methodist churches.
“Thank you for standing up for our gay siblings,” has been the message they heard most often from those within the diocese. Even the bishop has talked about the steps in a positive way. Of course, they’ve received some threats, but nothing serious, Wager said.
The church
The current church building was constructed between 1911 and 1915 and was designated a Texas Historic Landmark in 1974, a Dallas Historic Landmark in 1984 and a National Historic Landmark in 1988.
Historic landmark status enhances the value of a building, and rules are quite strict about altering the appearance of a building with that designation.
So, would painting the steps out front in colors and a pattern that wouldn’t have been used 100 years ago present a problem?
The church’s board doesn’t think so. The steps had always been painted. Now, they’re just a different color — well, a lot of colors.
Still, the church submitted paperwork to the city’s landmark commission with support from Preservation Dallas.
Where did the idea of painting the steps come from? Wager said it was something they’ve batted around before. But after attending the rally at the Legacy of Love monument earlier this fall, the church’s pastors knew it was something they could do to make a statement to the governor and to members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The board quickly approved the idea. Money in the church’s maintenance budget would pay for the paint and brushes. Robert Garcia, on the facilities staff, and Kipp Nelson, an unsheltered neighbor and volunteer, began two weeks of work priming and painting the steps.
Money spent on supplies was quickly replenished as donations toward the project poured in.
How have members of the church reacted.
“It’s increased our visibility,” Wager said. Attendance on Sunday mornings is up.
That follows a trend for the church. Last year, OLUMC hosted eight same-sex weddings. This year, following new rules that came in at the beginning of the year, they performed 18 same-sex weddings.
“Marriage means we can welcome same-sex couples in the Gayborhood,” Wager said.
“People who’ve wanted to celebrate in the neighborhood — the Warwick Melrose is right across the street.”
Plans are to keep the rainbow steps in place. A sealer was applied to protect the paint. And to protect the steps from any intentional damage, cameras monitor the church’s colorful entrance.
But the fact that security is in place, doesn’t make Griffin-Allison’s church unwelcoming.
When she arrived in 2017, she counted the number of locked doors in the church’s facilities; there were nine. And all doors were locked before a service started.
Not anymore.
“She’s swung the doors open for our queer community,” Wager said.
Griffin-Allison has said that her church’s rainbow steps are “a bold statement of sacred resistance” created to send a message to her congregation and everyone who passes by that “You will not be erased,” and that “God calls love to be visible.
“Our rainbow steps are more than paint,” Griffin-Allison said as the project began. “They’re a prayer of sacred resistance, declaring that God’s love will not be silenced, [that] God’s love can’t be erased.”
“We’re painting our steps because we want every person who approaches our doors or passes through the neighborhood to know: There’s a place for you here, and the love of God meets you exactly as you are,” she said.
We named Griffin-Allison our LGBTQ+ North Texan of the year for her bold defiance of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to banish the rainbow. But she’ll be remembered for opening Oak Lawn United Methodist Church to the neighborhood and caring for its neighbors.