Black bags and green lanyards are making Mennonites highly recognizable around downtown Columbus this week. Elsewhere, however, Mennonites aren’t making themselves stand out — at least not in outward appearance .

“The funny thing is that they’re disappointed that we don’t look much different from them,” said Kerry Strayer, media liaison for the convention. “They ask: ‘Will there be bonnets?’ And I say: ‘I might be able to find you two or three.’”

But local reporters aren’t interested only in Menno clothing: they are especially curious about issues of homosexuality and the church — a lightening rod topic for numerous Christian denominations in the U.S.

“I think the local press is trying to figure out where Mennonites are on the issue of homosexuality,” Strayer said. “A lot of congregations are dealing with this but each one draws the line differently. The fact that a congregation can be disciplined for being open and welcoming to LGBT is interesting to them … that’s been a tricky one to explain.”

The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press and Fox News 28 were present at the Pink Menno press conference and are filing stories. The AP story was even picked up by The Guardian newspaper in Great Britain.

As the media spokesperson for Mennonite Church USA, Strayer said that representing Mennonites to the press can be difficult “without making huge blanket generalzations.” After all, she continued, “there is diversity among Mennonites, even within Mennonite Church USA, without making huge blanket generalizations.”

Strayer, who is an associate professor of communications at Otterbein College (Westerville, Ohio), prepared local media for the convention by sending out packets of information with descriptions of Mennonite Church USA and its people and an overview of what would happen at the gathering. While representing Mennonites to the world can be daunting, this isn’t Strayer’s first dance: she did the same work at the Charlotte, Atlanta and Nashville aseesmblies, drawing on her doctoral dissertation about the General Conference and Mennonite Church merger to help her explain the history of the Mennonite Church to media.

Along with interest in important topics within the church, media is also drawn to the interaction of Mennonites with Columbus-area communities. “There’s a real interest in why we are doing so much service and trying to understand the motivation for all of that,” Strayer said.