Individual | Inducted 2026
Rev. Dr. L. Bernard Jakes promotes acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQIA people through his ministry at West Point Missionary Baptist Church. He welcomes LGBTQIA congregants openly, honoring them from the pulpit, embracing them publicly, and recognizing their gifts and talents within the church community. Under his pastoral leadership, the church provides a place where LGBTQIA people are welcomed as they are and supported in expressing their faith.
Jakes has also addressed HIV/AIDS stigma, particularly within the Black community. Through West Point’s HIV/AIDS Ministry, he volunteers to be tested every year, encouraging others to know their status. He approaches HIV/AIDS as a matter requiring compassion and support rather than shame or exclusion. The church prays with people living with HIV/AIDS and works to ensure that they do not feel isolated or rejected from the faith community.
His community service includes support for displaced and unhoused LGBTQIA youth. West Point Missionary Baptist Church has conducted clothing drives to assist people seeking services, and its food pantry is available to displaced LGBTQIA teens and adults. Jakes has emphasized that meeting basic needs is part of the church’s responsibility, stating, “If any person in our community is hungry, we are not doing what God called us to do.”
The nomination credits Jakes’s example with shaping the broader congregation’s response to LGBTQIA people. Church members, it states, work to ensure that LGBTQIA people are loved, welcomed, and celebrated openly. Through worship, HIV/AIDS outreach, food assistance, and clothing drives, Jakes has helped make West Point Missionary Baptist Church a supportive faith community for LGBTQIA people, including those facing housing instability and the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.