Harmony’s Kansas City roots trace back to a gay bar bulletin board

Harmony is an inclusive network of Latter Day Saint movement churches affiliated with the Community of Christ. Its origins are in Kansas City, where an informal effort to connect LGBTQ people within a church setting developed into an organization with an international reach.

The story began with Antonio Feliz, whose Park College business card was placed on a public bulletin board at a Kansas City gay bar. Bob Swoffer responded to the card, establishing the connection that led to the group’s formation. The first gathering took place in 1982 at Park College, in Feliz’s home.

The organization was initially known as Gay and Lesbian Acceptance, commonly identified as GALA. Arthur Butler and Ginger Farley were among its founding members, and Allan Fiscus served as GALA’s first president. The group’s early history reflects a local, person-to-person start: a posted card, a response from another member of the community and a gathering that created a foundation for ongoing religious and LGBTQ organizing.

GALA later expanded its work through a relationship with the Welcoming Community Network, a nonprofit serving Community of Christ congregations that were seeking to become welcoming and affirming. In 2019, the two organizations legally merged, and the combined organization adopted the name Harmony.

Harmony’s stated beliefs include support for blessings of same-sex marriage. That position places the network among religious organizations working to affirm LGBTQ people and relationships within a Latter Day Saint movement context.

The organization’s structure has grown beyond its Kansas City beginnings. The supplied account lists Harmony as having 32 churches in three countries in 2025. The available history does not identify those congregations individually, but it links the network’s broader presence to an organization that started with a Kansas City gathering more than four decades earlier.

For Kansas City’s LGBTQ history, Harmony offers an example of how community organizing and religious life intersected locally. Its founding did not begin with a large institution or a formal national campaign. Instead, it emerged through an individual invitation in a gay bar and a small gathering at a local college. The later merger and name change mark an institutional evolution, while the organization’s stated support for same-sex marriage remains central to its role as an affirming church network.

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Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.harmony.lgbt/news/gala-announces-new-name-brand-and-mission - https://www.harmony.lgbt/news/honoring-the-gala-legacy - https://www.harmony.lgbt/affirming-ministries.html - https://www.harmony.lgbt/info/new-resource-inclusive-marriage-materials Image rights Photograph description: The Riverfront Community Center, 123 Esplanade St., in Leavenworth, Kansas, is a City of Leavenworth, Kansas building. Creator: Melissa Bower. License: CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ALeavenworth_Riverfront_Community_Center_(front).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.