Profiles Gallery
Identifying leaders in religious movements for justice for LGBT persons.
All –
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Rev. Paul Abels
The Rev. Paul Abels (1937-1992) was the first openly gay minister with a congregation in a major Christian denomination in America (from New York Times obituary on 3/14/92). Paul was the pastor of the Washington... Read More
Rev. Arlene Ackerman
Arlene Ackerman became a member of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches in 1974 and was credentialed as clergy in 1977. Since that time she has pastored small, medium and large... Read More
Faisal Alam
Faisal Alam is a 24-year old queer-identified, Muslim activist of Pakistani descent. He is the Founder & Director of Al-Fatiha, an international organization dedicated to Muslims who are lesbian, gay,... Read More
Rebecca Anne Allison, M.D.
Becky Allison was born in the little Mississippi Delta town of Greenwood in December of 1946. She completed high school in Greenwood and attended the University of Mississippi, receiving her undergraduate degree from... Read More
Dr. Rebecca T. Alpert
Dr. Rebecca T. Alpert is Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies at Temple University. She is a graduate of Barnard College. She was ordained as a rabbi at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in... Read More
Dr. Marcella Althaus-Reid
Dr. Marcella Althaus-Reid was born in 1952 in Rosario, Argentina, to Alberto and Ada Althaus. She studied liberation theology and earned a Bachelor of Theology degree at the renowned Instituto Superior Evangelico de... Read More
Dr. James D. Anderson
James D. Anderson served as national Communications Secretary for Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns from 1980-1999, when PLGC merged with the More Light Churches Network to form More Light... Read More
Elizabeth Andrew
Elizabeth Andrew is a writing instructor and spiritual director living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is the author of Swinging on the Garden Gate: A Spiritual Memoir (Skinner House Books, 2000)... Read More
Rev. Dr. Charlie Arehart
The Rev. Elder Dr. Charlie Arehart was born in Kansas City, Missouri, October 23, 1946. He was educated in the Kansas City public school system. He graduated from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1968,... Read More
Jim Bailey
Jim Bailey is founder of Second Stone, a pioneering national newspaper for LGBT Christians which began publication in 1988. He served as editor and publisher until 1998. Bailey was born in 1954... Read More
Jeanne Barnett
Velma Jeanne Barnett was born on May 28, 1930, into a longtime Methodist family in Waynoka, Oklahoma. She was vice-president of her high school Methodist Youth Fellowship and led the Sunday evening worship and... Read More
Rev. Ellen Barrett
The Rev. Ellen M. Barrett, an Episcopal priest and monastic, was the first openly gay person and one of the earliest women to be ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. She was born on February 10, 1946 in Lawrence,... Read More
Ruth Barrett
Ruth Barrett was born in 1954 in Los Angeles to a devout Jewish family deeply involved in the founding of the Reconstructionist movement in Judaism. This creative religious environment launched Ruth in her... Read More
Bob Barzan
Robert John Barzan, writer, publisher, activist, and founder of White Crane Press and White Crane Newsletter , the first journal devoted exclusively to exploring gay men's spirituality,... Read More
Dr. Evelyn Torton Beck
Evelyn Torton Beck, Women’s Studies and Jewish Studies Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland, holds Ph.D.s in both Comparative Literature (University of Wisconsin, 1969) and Clinical Psychology (The... Read More
Jay Bell
Jay Bell was born on September 4, 1948, in the small town of Trona, California, in the Mojave Desert, to a Latter-Day Saint (Mormon) family. After graduating from high school, Jay served an LDS mission that... Read More
Rabbi Allen Bennett
Rabbi Allen Bennett was born Allen Blumenstein in 1946 in Akron, Ohio. Shortly thereafter his father legally changed the family name to Bennett. From a young age, Allen was identified by his peers as a prospective... Read More
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner
Rabbi Leila Gal Berner was born in San Francisco in 1950. Raised in a Labor Zionist household, Berner understood the need to support the people and the State of Israel and immigrated to Israel in 1967, on the eve of... Read More
Rev. Larry Bernier
Laurence Gerald Bernier was born October 7, 1947 in Danielson Connecticut, and raised in a poor family with two siblings. He was a member of St. James Parish (Roman Catholic). He was slightly mischievous in his youth... Read More
Rev. Delores Berry
The Rev. Delores Berry answered her call to ministry at the age of 19. She is a former Christian Methodist Episcopal Minister (CME). She began her ministry at the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community... Read More
Roy Birchard
Roy Birchard was born in July, 1943, in Middlebury, Vermont, to Adrian Birchard and Winifred Killoran. He graduated from Berea College in Kentucky in 1965 with an English major and earned a B.D. (M.Div.)... Read More
Andrew Blair
Andrew James Blair was born Anne Bennett on 20th January 1954 and is a female to male transsexual. Andrew & his wife Jessica (male to female transsexual) are actively involved in a parish of the United... Read More
Rabbi Lionel Blue
Rabbi Lionel Blue was born in the East End of London on 6 February, 1930, the only son of a master tailor. Blue was discharged from the army after a nervous breakdown brought on by anxiety over his homosexuality.... Read More
Mary V. Borhek
Mary V. Borhek was a member of the New Testament Church, an independent charismatic congregation in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, when she discovered that her son Steve Lenius was gay. This was in 1975. In... Read More
Dr. John Boswell
John Eastburn Boswell (1947-1994) ranks as one of the most significant scholars in gay and lesbian studies. His career as an historian at Yale University spanned 20 years and he profoundly influenced a generation... Read More
Mark Bowman
Mark Bowman, co-founder and long-time leader of the Reconciling Congregation Program in the United Methodist Church, was born on December 12, 1951, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. He earned a B.A. degree in social... Read More
Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd
The Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd is poet/writer-in-residence at Los Angeles' Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul. Born in Manhattan in 1923, Boyd worked in the motion picture industry and became a partner of film pioneer... Read More
Perry Brass
Born in 1947 in Savannah, Georgia, Perry Brass grew up in the 1950s and 60s in equal parts Southern, Jewish, economically impoverished, and very much gay. To escape the South’s violent homophobia, he hitchhiked... Read More
Rev. Paul Breton
Joseph Eugene Paul Breton was born in December 1940 in Manchester, New Hampshire. He was baptized Roman Catholic at the Parish Church of St. Jean Batiste. He was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, where he attended... Read More
Rev. Elder Lillie Brock
Born in L.A.--Lower Alabama, that is--Lillie Brock took the country road to the city, studying psychology and education as an undergraduate and graduate student before devoting herself full time to corporate... Read More
Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown
The Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown is a United Methodist minister currently serving in the Pacific Northwest Conference. Combining ministry and academics, she has a BA degree from Mount Holyoke College (1975),... Read More
John Burnside
John Burnside was born on November 2, 1916 in Seattle, an only child. He joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 16 and married Edith Sinclair soon after his discharge. He graduated from UCLA where he studied mathematics... Read More
Kim Byham
Kim Byham, long-time Integrity (Episcopal) leader, was born in 1948 in Parkersburg, West Virginia, where he grew up as an active member of Trinity Episcopal Church. After college (Marietta College) and law school... Read More
Hal Call
Harold L. Call was born in Trenton, Missouri, on September 20, 1917, and earned a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Upon graduation he took a job with the Kansas City ... Read More
Justin Cannon
Justin R. Cannon, born July 9, 1984, in Detroit, Michigan, is the founder of www.TruthSetsFree.net, an affirming outreach ministry to gay and lesbian Christians centered... Read More
Brother Richard Jonathan Cardarelli
Brother Richard Jonathan Cardarelli, SSF, was born in Connecticut. At an early age he knew two things about himself: that he was attracted to members of his own sex and that he was called to be a priest. While... Read More
Rev. William H. Carey
Rev. William H. Carey was born in New York City in May of 1958. His family was Catholic, and he was taught to attend Mass regularly. He remembers being aware of his orientation as early as 1962. Of course, he... Read More
Rev. Dr. Robert Carter, SJ
Robert Carter, a Jesuit and early leader of Dignity and the National Gay Task Force, was born in Chicago on July 27, 1927, the son of Earl and Ila Grace Smith Carter. His father managed several music stores. The... Read More
Right Rev. Otis Charles, DD, STD
Originally from New Jersey, the Right Reverend Otis Charles was ordained in 1951. In the course of his ministry Charles served variously as a parish priest; executive secretary of Associated Parishes, a national... Read More
Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge
The Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge, the last of five children born to a Southern Baptist minister and his wife, felt God's call on her life from as early as she can remember. The Greensboro, North Carolina, native... Read More
Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng
The Rev. Dr. Patrick S. Cheng is a theologian, seminary professor, and ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Church. He is also the founder and coordinator of Queer Asian Spirit, ... Read More
Kittredge Cherry
Rev. Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author, minister and art historian who offers gay-friendly spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org. She blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love... Read More
Rev. Richard W. Clark
The Rev. Richard W. Clark was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and received his Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. In 1979, he received the M. Div. degree from... Read More
Rev. Robert Mary Clement
The Most Reverend Robert Mary Clement, Archbishop of North America of the original American Catholic Church and the original Eucharistic Catholic Church; founder of The Church of the Beloved Disciple in Manhattan... Read More
Rev. Michael Cole
The Rev. Michael Cole, founder of Christ Chapel in Long Beach, California, was raised in Roseburg and Medford, Oregon, in the religious traditions of Foursquare Gospel and Assemblies of God. He recalled that when... Read More
Michael L. Collins
Michael Collins was born in October, 1947. He graduated from David Douglas High School in Portland, Oregon, in 1965 and enrolled at Portland State University. He graduated with a B.S. in sociology in 1969. During his... Read More
Rev. Clay Colwell
Clarence Albert Colwell (1923-1999) was born in Waterloo, Iowa, on October 13th. As a teenager he joined the U.S. Navy and was stationed in the Aleutian Islands as CB (construction battalion). He received a Bachelors... Read More
Very Rev. Ian D. Corbett
Ian Deighton Corbett was born in Birmingham, England, in 1942, and graduated from the University of Cambridge, where he returned to complete ordination training. He worked in the Diocese of Manchester for 18... Read More
Dr. Roger Corless
Dr. Roger J. Corless was born in Merseyside, England, in 1938. He exhibited interest in both religion and science at any early age. His family attended church infrequently during his childhood, partly because Brits... Read More
Jim Cotter
Jim Cotter was a founder member of the Gay (later the Lesbian and Gay) Christian Movement in the UK in April, 1976. He served as Honorary Secretary for the first two years and was the co-ordinator of... Read More
T. Thorn Coyle
T. Thorn Coyle has a strong commitment to developing queer spirit and bringing our edges into the center. A Witch for more than 20 years, Thorn holds the Black Wand of Master and Sorcerer in the Anderson Feri... Read More
Jimmy Creech
Jimmy Creech, a native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, is a former ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He holds a BA degree in Biblical Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a... Read More
Dr. Louie Crew
Dr. Louie Crew was born in the deep South in 1936. He received his B.A. degree from Baylor University, his M.A. degree in 1959 from Auburn and his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama in 1971. His dissertation was... Read More
Rev. Robert Cromey
The Rev. Robert Warren Cromey, retired Episcopal priest, was born in 1931, raised in New York City and lived in San Francisco since 1962. Cromey is married and has three daughters and six grandchildren. Even... Read More
Rev. Carol Cureton
Rev. Carol Cureton, a native of Missouri, became founder of the St. Louis MCC by a roundabout route. After graduating from Southeast Missouri State Teachers College with a B.S. Degree in Biology and... Read More
Mary Daly
Mary Daly is one of the leading voices of modern feminist theology and a self-described "radical lesbian feminist." Daly was born October 16, 1928, the only child in a working class Irish Catholic family in... Read More
Rev. Judy Davenport
Judy Davenport was born in Cleburne, Texas on May 6, 1942. The only child of a single parent, Judy was raised by her loving maternal grandmother while her mother provided their income as a hairdresser. Judy... Read More
Virginia West Davidson
Virginia West Davidson, known as Ginny to her family and friends, was born August 28, 1916, in Rochester, New York. Her parents were James H. West and Beatrice K. West. She grew up in Irondequoit along with her older... Read More
Rev. Ann B. Day
Baptized in the United Methodist Church, influenced by the Church of the Brethren, and raised in the Southern Presbyterian Church, it is little wonder that the Rev. Ann B. Day found a spiritual home in the... Read More
Christian de la Huerta
Christian de la Huerta is the author of the best-selling and critically-acclaimed Coming Out Spiritually. Chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the ten best religion books of 1999, the book was... Read More
Robert G. De Santis
Robert G. De Santis was born in 1939 in Cold Spring, New York, was raised his first five years in Glenham, and then lived in Beacon, New York, until age 30. He served in the U.S. Air Force and received an... Read More
Rev. Gregory Dell
The Rev. Gregory Dell became pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church in Chicago in 1995. At the time, approximately 40% of the congregation's members were gay or lesbian. Since the 1980s, he had included holy... Read More
David-Edward Desmond
In 1966, 26-year-old David-Edward Desmond founded a break-off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in Denver, Colorado. The United Order Family of Christ was for young gay men only, ages... Read More
Swami Dhumavati
Swami Dhumavati was born in England as Lucy Horne. Her family attended a Brethren Church and during school years she attended Anglican services. As a young adult, she traveled and worked around the world. She studied... Read More
Charlotte Doclar
Charlotte Doclar was born in New Orleans on April 2, 1934. She attended the School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Canal Street, operated by the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) for all twelve... Read More
Karen Doherty
Karen Doherty was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on July 6, 1952. She was baptized at the same church where her father served as an altar boy, and her mother and father were married: St. Genevieve’s in Elmora. Her... Read More
Stephen Donaldson
Writer and activist Stephen Donaldson was born Robert A. Martin, Jr. on July 27, 1946 in Norfolk, Virginia. The son of a career naval officer, his childhood was spent in numerous seaport cities of the eastern ... Read More
John P. Doner
John Doner founded the first church for gays and lesbians in Latin America, Iglesia de la Comunidad Metropolitana Reconciliación (MCC), in Mexico City in 1981. In 1992 he and the Rev. Dr. Tom Hanks, along... Read More
Issan Dorsey
Issan Dorsey, founder of the Hartford Street Zen Center in San Francisco, was born Tommy Dorsey in Santa Barbara, California, in 1933. The oldest of ten children in a Catholic family, he contemplated studying for... Read More
Joseph Doucé
Joseph Doucé, gay Baptist pastor and pyschologist who ran the Centre du Christ Libérateur in Paris, was born into a poor, Catholic peasant family on April 13, 1945, in Sint-Truiden, Belgium. He demonstrated passions... Read More
Rev. Lewis Durham
The Rev. Lewis E. Durham was director of the Glide Urban Center in the 1960s from which grew the Council on Religion and the Homosexual and other early gay ministries. Durham’s father was a pastor who worked in... Read More
Rev. Elder Don Eastman
The Rev. Elder Don Eastman was formerly an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. He received his theological training at Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. Following graduation in 1966, he... Read More
Susan B. Echo
Susan B. Echo was a mover and shaker and brainstormer on the United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns Council during the 1980s, remaining active into the 1990s. She was born and baptized into the... Read More
Lisa A. Edwards, Ph.D.
Lisa A. Edwards has been the rabbi of Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC) since August 1994, but her connections to BCC predate that. While a rabbinic student studying in Los Angeles, Rabbi Edwards was first a BCC member... Read More
Denise L. Eger
Denise L. Eger was raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of Southern California with a bachelor's degree in religion in 1982. She received her master's degree from Hebrew... Read More
Fred H. Ellis
Fred Ellis, a member of Integrity (Episcopal) since 1991, was born in 1952 in Lufkin, Texas. He grew up as an active member of the Methodist Church, attended college at the University of Texas at Austin, and... Read More
Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell
Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell has been teaching and writing about Jewish women's history and feminist spirituality for the past twenty years. The founding director of the American Jewish Congress Feminist Center in Los... Read More
Rev. Alejandro Escoto
The Rev. Alejandro Escoto is the Minister of Spanish Speaking Ministries and Pastor of La Iglesia de la Comunidad Metropolitana Los Ángeles (ICMLA), which is Spanish for Metropolitan Community Church Los Angeles... Read More
Rev. Elder Diane Fisher
Rev. Elder Diane Fisher is the regional elder for Region 5 of the Metropolitan Community Churches which includes eastern Canada, the northeastern U.S. and eastern Europe. Diane has been an MCC member for... Read More
Rev. Flo Fleischman
The Rev. Florine L. Fleischman was a student at the University of Tampa in the late 1940s where she connected with other lesbians and gay men, particularly through Literati, a student writers group. She also... Read More
Rev. Sarah Flynn
Sarah Jean Flynn was assigned male gender at birth as James D. Flynn in 1938 in Chicago, Illinois. She was nine years old when the family relocated to a small college town in the panhandle of Texas. At thirteen... Read More
Clark Friesen
Elder Clark Friesen hails from the farmlands of Kansas where he was reared in the Mennonite Church. He was sent out as a missionary in 1969 to serve at the Mennonite Church of the Sermon on the Mount, a church... Read More
Prof. Dr. R. Ruard Ganzevoort
Ruard Ganzevoort was born in 1965 in a liberal reformed family in the Netherlands. With his parents, siblings, and occasional foster children, he lived in several places in his home country and Surinam, South... Read More
Rev. Darlene Garner
Darlene Garner has been a long-time leader in the Metropolitan Community Churches, the first Christian denomination created to serve the spiritual needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community.... Read More
Dr. Sally Miller Gearhart
Dr. Sally Miller Gearhart worked in the ivy halls of academia for forty years as a teacher of Theatre, Communication, Rhetoric, English, and Women Studies. She was probably the first open lesbian in higher... Read More
Rev. Joseph H. Gilbert
Joseph H. Gilbert was born in Philadelphia on October 4, 1930, the eldest of five siblings. His father, Joseph Henry Gilbert, was an engineer and his mother, M. Lovedy Gilbert, had worked as a nurse. When... Read More
Rev. Elder John Gill
John Gill was born in 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the steel city, known as the Birmingham of the North. Both his parents were native western Pennsylvanians, and for the first eight years of Gill’s... Read More
David R. Gillespie
David R. Gillespie has been writing for most of his life, from the age of 10 when he talked his father into letting him use the construction company's mimeograph to run off a one-page neighborhood newspaper... Read More
Chris Glaser
Chris Glaser received his M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School in 1977 and earlier, his B.A. in English Honors and Religious Studies from California State University, Northridge, in 1973. While in college he... Read More
Augustus Graham
Augustus Graham and his camerado John Bell Graham were founding fathers of Unitarianism in Brooklyn, as well as the founders of many critical arts and social welfare organizations, in the generation just before... Read More
Dr. Judy Grahn
Judy Grahn’s mother told her that she began exhibiting interest in religion at the age of three, and by the age of eleven she was writing prayers for Sunday School. Judy has been on a lifelong quest for... Read More
Jeannine Gramick
Jeannine Gramick, a Roman Catholic nun, was born in 1942 and educated in Catholic grade and high schools in Philadelphia. She moved to Baltimore in 1960 to join the School Sisters of Notre Dame, until her... Read More
Rabbi Julie Greenberg
Rabbi Julie Greenberg is the spiritual leader of Congregation Leyv Ha-Ir, Heart of the City, in Philadelphia and a therapist in her practice, Counseling with Soul. She entered the Reconstructionist Rabbinical... Read More
Rabbi Steven Greenberg
Rabbi Steven Greenberg received his B.A. in philosophy from Yeshiva University and his rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. He is a Senior Teaching Fellow at CLAL (National Jewish... Read More
Rev. Jan Griesinger
The Rev. Jan Griesinger was ordained in the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1970. She has worked in the field of campus ministry since that time, first for the World Student Christian Federation and then as the... Read More
Dr. Alfred A. Gross
Alfred A. Gross was born in 1895 into a New England family of some financial means. He received educational degrees from Amherst College (1915), Yale Divinity School (1917) and Oxford and received a doctorate in... Read More
Clyde Hall
Clyde Hall is an internationally recognized and acknowledged authority of Native American culture, dance ritual and folkways. Clyde was born and raised in Fort Hall, Idaho and is a Native American of... Read More
Nicole Hamel
Nicole Hamel est née à Cap-rouge près de Québec. En 1968, après avoir obtenu un Baccalauréat en Catéchèse à l’Université Laval, Québec, elle s’est mariée à un homme qu’elle a... Read More
Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford
Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford may be America's earliest certifiable lesbian minister. According to Lisa M. Tetrault (see below), Phebe Ann (Coffin) Hanaford was born in Siasconset on Nantucket Island on May 6, 1829,... Read More
Rev. Dr. Tom Hanks
The Rev. Dr. Tom Hanks has served as a missionary in Latin America since 1963, first with the Latin American Mission as professor of Hebrew Bible at the Latin America Biblical Seminary in San Jose, Costa Rica... Read More
Most Rev. Stan Harris
The Most Rev. Stan Harris, D.D. was born in in Glenelg/Adelaide, South Australia on April 8, 1944. Born of Presbyterian parents, he converted to Catholicism in 1956, realizing he was gay about six months later!... Read More
Brenda Harrison
Brenda Harrison has been an active member of the Evangelical Fellowship for Lesbian and Gay Christians (www.eflgc.org.uk) since 1987, serving as co-convenor for several... Read More
Rev. Dr. Rodger D. Harrison
The Rev. Dr. Rodger DeLong Harrison was born in the Mary Imogene Bassett hospital, Cooperstown, New York, on June 16, 1928. His mother, Marion DeLong Rose Harrison, was a stay-at-home-mother in their Mount Vision,... Read More
Rev. Elder Jeri Ann Harvey
Rev. Elder Jeri Ann Harvey was born January 3, 1934, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (USA) into a Cherokee nation family. This heritage was an important aspecet of Jeri Ann's identity. She graduated from high school... Read More
Rev. Vin Harwell
The Rev. Vin Harwell (1947 - 2000) was born in York, Alabama. He graduated from Eckerd College in St. Peterburg, Florida, and later from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Before becoming a... Read More
Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes C.M.
The Rev. Dr. Brent Hawkes grew up in Bath, in rural New Brunswick, Canada, in a strict fundamentalist Baptist family. He recalls knowing at a very early age that he was “different” but didn't have words to... Read More
Harry Hay
Harry Hay (1912-2002) is best known as the founder of the U.S. gay movement but is increasingly known as a pioneer of gay spirituality. He started the Mattachine Society in 1950 and launched the Radical Faerie... Read More
Wilhelmina Hein
Wilhelmina Hein was born Willem Hein in the Netherlands in 1947 and emigrated to Australia in 1958 with his family. Discovering a difference about his sexuality and identity at an early age, he grew up in a strict... Read More
Lee Frances Heller
Leo F. Heller, Jr. was born on April 5, 1919, in Youngstown, Ohio, in humble circumstances. He led a singularly undistinguished life finally becoming a resident at the Good Shepherd Mission in Paterson, New... Read More
Mitzi Henderson
Mitzi Henderson was raised in the Presbyterian Church, the child of parents who were devout religious leaders and activists for social justice. Married immediately after college, she was the mother of four young... Read More
Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward
The Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward is an Episcopal priest, professor, theologian, activist, and writer. A pioneer in the areas of feminist liberation theology and the theology of sexuality. Heyward was born August 22,... Read More
Rev. Anita Hill
Anita Carol Hill was ordained to the Lutheran Ministry of Word and Sacrament in an extra ordinem service on April 28, 2001. One currently seated bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)... Read More
Malcolm Himschoot
Rev. Malcolm Himschoot completed his undergraduate study at Amherst College and then went on to get his Masters of Divinity from Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. Malcolm was ordained into the... Read More
Rabbi Linda Holtzman
Rabbi Linda Holtzman is the Director of Practical Rabbinics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Temple University, her bachelor... Read More
Rev. Daniel Hooper
The Rev. Daniel M. Hooper was born in Bakersfield, California, in 1947. Hooper was educated at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, California, and studied for his M. Div. at Pacific... Read More
Rev. Elder John Hose
The Rev. Elder John H. Hose was a native Ohioan who held an A.B. degree from Elmhurst College, a Master of Divinity degree from Eden Theological Seminary, and a Master of Science in Education from the University... Read More
Rev. Dr. Laud Humphreys
Laud Humphreys was born Robert Allan Humphreys on October 16, 1930, in Chickasha, Oklahoma. His parents were Ira Denver and Stella Bernice Humphreys. His brother Howard was twenty years older and brother William... Read More
Dr. Mary E. Hunt
Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D., is a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA. A Catholic active in the women-church... Read More
Dr. Rick Huskey
Dr. Rick Huskey, M.D., D.Min., M.Div., a co-founder of Affirmation: United Methodists for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns, was born May 19, 1950 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rick grew up in... Read More
Loraine Hutchins
Loraine Hutchins, Ph.D., is a founder and leader of the U.S. bisexual rights and liberation movement who has increasingly integrated issues of spirituality into her sexuality education work. She co-edited Bi... Read More
Rev. George Augustine Hyde
George Augustine Hyde (1923), who led the first known church to openly minister to and with homosexuals in the U.S., attended a Roman Catholic seminary, though he left before achieving priestly ordination. He ... Read More
Rev. Jack Isbell
The Rev. Jack Isbell was born in 1943 in Nashville, Tennessee where he lived for his first 11 years. His father, Noel, was a chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy. His mother, Naomi, came from a strong Baptist... Read More
Christopher Isherwood
Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood (1904-1986) was born in Cheshire, England, on August 26, 1904, to Kathleen Machell-Smith and Frank Bradshaw-Isherwood. Frank was in the British military and was killed in... Read More
Bishop Michael Francis Augustine Itkin
Bishop Michael Francis Augustine Itkin was one of the seminal figures in the ""gay church"" movement in the 1950's and 60's. Later known by his religious name of Mar Mikhael, Itkin was... Read More
Rev. Dr. Jay Johnson
Jay Emerson Johnson is an Episcopal priest and theologian and has served the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion (PSR) in a number of capacities since 2003, most... Read More
Rev. Jeff R. Johnson
The Rev. Jeff R. Johnson was installed as Pastor of University Lutheran Chapel and the Lutheran Campus Pastor at the University of California, Berkeley, on November 7, 1999. Prior to this call to the Chapel,... Read More
Rev. Kevin Johnson
The Rev. Kevin A. Johnson is an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church (UMC), in good standing, but has not been able to be the pastor of a church within the UMC since 1982 because of the general church's... Read More
Rev. Malcolm Johnson
The Rev. Malcolm A. Johnson was born on 8 September, 1936, in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. At the outbreak of the Second World War his parents were evacuated to a small village, Acle. It was an idyllic, rural five... Read More
Mel Johnson
Elder Mel Johnson joined the Metropolitan Community Church in 1987 and has been a member of Sunrise MCC in Palmdale, California; MCC of the Redwoods in Marin County, California and MCC-San Francisco,... Read More
Toby Johnson
Edwin Clark (Toby) Johnson, Ph.D., Catholic monk turned activist, psychotherapist and spiritual writer, was born in 1945 in San Antonio Texas. Johnson has been partners with Clifton D. (Kip) Dollar since 1984.... Read More
Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson
The Rev. Dr. William R. Johnson (born June 12, 1946 in Houston, Texas) was the first openly gay person ordained in the United Church of Christ and the first such person ordained in the Christian Church in... Read More
Canon Clinton Jones
Clinton Robert Jones, Jr., was born November 8, 1916, in Brookfield, Connecticut, the only child of Clinton Robert Jones and Henriette Elizabeth (Morehouse). Clinton, Jr., was raised on a large farm managed by... Read More
Victor K. Jordan
Victor K. Jordan is volunteer archivist at both The Riverside Church and the National History Archive at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center in New York City. Victor was born February 27,... Read More
Raven Kaldera
Raven Kaldera is a queer northern-tradition shaman and a pansexual FTM transgendered intersexual. That complicated string of titles translates to someone who was born with an intersex condition, raised female,... Read More
Michael Kelly
Michael Bernard Kelly is known internationally for his work in integrating Christian spirituality and gay experience. Born in Australia in 1954 into a devout Catholic family, he joined the Franciscans after finishing... Read More
El-Farouk Khaki
El-Farouk Khaki was born in Tanzania in 1963 and raised in London, England and Vancouver. He is a graduate of University of British Columbia Law School (1986), a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada (and British... Read More
Rev. Richard Kirker
The Rev. Richard Kirker was a founder member and first General Secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, based in London, U.K. In twenty-five years, Richard has taken the Lesbian and Gay Christian... Read More
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum has been the Senior Rabbi of New York City's Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (CBST) since 1992. Under her leadership, CBST has become an important voice in Judaism, in the world-wide... Read More
Debra Kolodny
Debra Kolodny has been a volunteer and professional activist in the faith; labor; social justice; women's; and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered communities for twenty-four years. Her good works... Read More
Nancy E. Krody
Nancy E. Krody was born in 1939 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received a B.A. in political science and sociology from Ohio State University in 1960. She subsequently completed two years of course work toward an M.A.... Read More
Richard LaFortune
Richard LaFortune (also known as "Anguksuar," or "Little Man"), Native Two Spirit and GLBT organizer, was born into the Yupik (Eskimo) tribe in 1960 in a small fishing village in southwest Alaska. His mother’s... Read More
Archbishop Alfred Lankenau
Archbishop Alfred Louis Lankenau, retired Primate of the Orthodox-Catholic Church of America, died on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had suffered a lengthy struggle with cancer. ... Read More
Gene Leggett
Franklin Gene Leggett, an early openly gay Methodist clergy, was born in 1935 in Edinburg, Texas. He graduated from Pan American College in 1956. Raised in the church, he was destined for ministry and enrolled in... Read More
Rev. Chuck Lewis
The Rev. Charles Lewis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1931. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, leaving to spend two years in the U.S. Army from 1953-1955. He graduated from... Read More
John M. Linscheid
Although John Linscheid works as an office manager at the University of Pennsylvania’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, his biography is here because he is a writer, speaker, and an activist in... Read More
Pastor Jim Lokken
Jim Lokken was born into a Norwegian Lutheran family from Minnesota, in the old Evangelical Lutheran Church. His parents moved to Pasadena, California, where they raised Jim and his brother Stan. Jim... Read More
Rev. Dr. Cindi Love
Rev. Dr. Cynthia "Cindi" Love is an ordained minister and human rights activist and advocate, author and award-winning entrepreneur. She has also served as Executive Dean in one of the largest community... Read More
Rev. Elder Louis Loynes
Rev. Louis Loynes was born in 1928 and raised in San Jose, California where he lived with his family until entering college at Vallejo, California. After his graduation from college, he entered the U.S. Navy where... Read More
Donald Stewart Lucas
Donald Stewart Lucas was born in rural Colorado in 1926, but moved to San Francisco in 1949, performing in local theater until the middle 1950s. There he was introduced to the Mattachine Society and the idea of... Read More
Del Martin & Phyllis Lyon
Phyllis Lyon was born on November 10, 1924, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and raised primarily in northern California. She graduated from Sacramento High School in 1943 and went on to the University of... Read More
Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, spiritual teacher, AIDS activist, author and artist, was born Joyce Green in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940. She grew up in poverty in a Jewish family and claims that "the streets and... Read More
Diarmaid MacCulloch
Diarmaid MacCulloch was born 31 October 1951, in Kent, England; the only child of Rev. Nigel J.H. MacCulloch T.D. and Mrs. Jennie MacCulloch (née Chappell). Rev. MacCulloch was an army chaplain until 1956... Read More
Iain MacDonald
Iain McDonald was born in 1953 in Dundee, Scotland, where his father Norman was one of the youngest elders of the Church of Scotland. Iain moved with his parents to England in 1958 and, after a conventional... Read More
Bishop S.F. Ma-Hee
Bishop S.F. Ma-Hee is the eldest child of an evangelist/minister of music. She was the founder and first pastor of the Redefined Faith Worship Center (formerly Redefined Faith Unity Fellowship Church), the first... Read More
Jeremy Marks
Jeremy Marks was born in London, UK in 1952, the oldest of three children. He was brought up in the Anglican Church, a tradition he rejected for a time after witnessing the hypocrisy and spiteful judgement meted out... Read More
Rev. Elder Debbie Martin
The Rev. Elder Debbie Martin retired from a 19-year career as a law enforcement officer in Santa Rosa, California, and heard the call to ministry in the Metropolitan Community Church. She was ordained as a minister... Read More
Rev. Ken Martin
Rev. Ken Martin was appointed Elder of Metropolitan Community Church’s Region One in 2006. At that time he shared his journey that led to that moment. “I came into this world knowing why I am here. My... Read More
Phyllis Lyon & Del Martin
Del Martin was born Dorothy L. Taliaferro in San Francisco, California, on May 5, 1921, to Jones and Mary Taliaferro. She was salutatorian of the first graduating class of George Washington High School in San... Read More
Allan Masur
Allan Masur, founder of Congregation B'nai Olam on Fire Island and one of the early leaders of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in New York City, was a native New Yorker. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from City College... Read More
Jay McCarty
Several hundred persons filled the sanctuary of Trinity U.M. Church in Kansas City on July 6, 1994, for "A Service of Joy and Thanksgiving for the Life of James 'Jay' McCarty," long-time Reconciling Congregation... Read More
Rev. Dr. Don McGaw
Don McGaw moved to Boston in 1964 to attend Boston University School of Theology. While at seminary he began his activism by choosing to focus on religious and homosexuality. He found good support from... Read More
Dr. Ted McIlvenna
The Rev. Dr. Robert Theodore McIlvenna was born on March 15, 1932, in Epping, New Hampshire. At an early age, he moved with his family to the Pacific Northwest where his father, an itinerant Methodist minister,... Read More
Brian McNaught
As a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam, Brian McNaught began his alternative service in 1970 at The Michigan Catholic, weekly newspaper of the Archdiocese of Detroit. He worked there as a... Read More
John J. McNeill
For more than twenty-five years, John J. McNeill, an ordained priest and psychotherapist, has been devoting his life to spreading the good news of God's love for lesbian and gay Christians. One year after the... Read More
Robert I. McQueen
Robert I. McQueen was a prominent gay Mormon missionary, editor and activist. With the help of the Affirmation Los Angeles Chapter (organized on 28 January 1978), the first major publication... Read More
Dr. Michael Mendiola
Michael Manuel Mendiola was associate professor of Christian ethics at Pacific School of Religion (PSR) from 1994 to 2008. He was born in Globe, Arizona, in 1952. In the Roman Catholic tradition, he received received... Read More
Abbott Richard Mickley, O.S.Ae., Ph.D.
Richard Raymond Mickley, oldest of 10 children of Raymond and Clara Mickley, knew that he was called to be a priest by the time he was 13. He had grown up on the farm in what he calls "the beautiful rolling hills of... Read More
Rev. Rick Mixon
Randle R. "Rick" Mixon boarded a train in Boise, Idaho, in September 1965, bound for New York City and Columbia College. He rode with a half-dozen other boys recruited from Idaho. Along with the new metal trunk that... Read More
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn
Rev. Dr. Sid L. Mohn was ordained as a clergyperson with the United Church of Christ in 1976, the first openly gay person ordained in the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ and the second openly... Read More
Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Ph.D.
In the mid-1970's, while still closeted personally, Mollenkott began to advocate at church conferences in behalf of lesbian and gay Christians. In l978, with Letha Dawson Scanzoni, she published Is the... Read More
Rev. Irene Monroe
The Rev. Irene Monroe is a religion columnist, public theologian, and motivational speaker. Monroe was recently featured on the Caroline Myss's Show "The Journey" (February 2002) as women you "got the power", and in... Read More
Paul Mortensen
Lowell Paul Mortensen was born in 1941 as a fourth generation Mormon and was raised in Riverton, Utah. In 1960, he went on a Mormon mission to the Eastern Atlantic States, an experience that he would later... Read More
Andre Musskopf
André S. Musskopf is a lay theologian, raised in the Lutheran tradition in Brazil from Sunday school to seminary. He has been denied ordination by the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil. He has... Read More
Rev. Richard Lee Nash
The Rev. Richard Lee Nash (August 5, 1935 - August 30, 1997) was a founder of the Unitarian Universalist Gay Caucus (now called Interweave) at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association held... Read More
Dr, James B. Nelson
Dr. James B. Nelson was born on May 28, 1930, in Windom, Minnesota. He received a B.A. degree from Macalester College and B.D. (1957), M.A.(1959), and Ph.D. (1962) degrees from Yale University. He was ordained as... Read More
Jack Nichols
Jack Nichols co-founded The Mattachine Society of Washington (1961) and The Mattachine Society of Florida (1965). Starting in 1963, he chaired the Washington Society's Committee on Religious Concerns and ... Read More
Canon Richard T. Nolan & Robert C. Pingpank
Born three days and 120 miles apart, Dick Nolan and Bob Pingpank celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2005. Both cradle Episcopalians, Bob is a Connecticut native, and Dick is from Massachusetts. Their life... Read More
Rev. June Norris
June Norris was born in Colorado on June 30, 1922, and raised in the Baptist Church in southern Illinois. She was married at 15 and had three children by age 20. “Back in those days, kids did get... Read More
Rev. David K. North
Rev. David K. North was born on July 4, 1955, the fifth of six children, into a devout, Christian family in Alton, Illinois. His family was very active in St. John Baptist Church. He was licensed to preach the... Read More
Father Robert Nugent
Father Robert Nugent is a Roman Catholic priest and a member of the Religious Order, the Society of the Divine Savior. He was born, educated in Norristown, Pennsylvania, and ordained for the Archdiocese... Read More
Connell Hill O'Donovan
Connell Hill O'Donovan was born in Syracuse, Utah in 1961, son of Claude Hill O'Donovan (of Paso Robles, Calif.) and Patsy Kaye Beazer (of Syracuse, Utah). Raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, where his father was a... Read More
Chris Paige
Chris Paige is a transgender identified lesbian who seeks justice through her work as a writer, organizer, and educator. Baptized in a Christian Reformed Church in Lansing, Michigan, in 1971, Chris was confirmed... Read More
Stephen Parelli
Stephen Richard Parelli (born 1953) is a 1976 graduate of Baptist Bible College of Pennsylvania (B.R.E. and Th.B. degrees) and a 1982 graduate of Grand Rapids Theological Seminary (M.Div. degree). For more than... Read More
Armando Pastor
Angel Armando Pastor Nolasco is coordinator of the social action and HIV/AIDS ministry among the Latino community, operated by St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Union City, New Jersey. Armando grew up in a... Read More
Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik
Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik is the first person to acknowledge, compile and comment on Queer ideas in Hindu metaphysics and mythology. Devdutt (born 1970) was the third child of Prafulla and Sabitri Pattanaik,... Read More
Rev. Fred Pattison
Fred Pattison, founder of The Evangelical Network (T-E-N), has written this first-person account of his life journey and the history of T-E-N. I came into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as... Read More
Rev. Sylvia Pennington
The Rev. Sylvia Pennington was an early pioneer in the Christian GLBT community as an ordained heterosexual woman sharing God’s all-inclusive love with "whosoevers" all over the world. Sylvia began life... Read More
Rev. Elder Troy Perry
The Rev. Elder Dr. Troy D. Perry founded Metropolitan Community Churches with 12 people in his living room in Los Angeles on October 6, 1968. Since that time, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community... Read More
Rev. Michael Piazza
Michael S. Piazza is a spiritual visionary, author and social justice advocate who currently serves as Dean of the Cathedral of Hope, the world’s largest liberal Christian church with a primary... Read More
Rev. Dr. Stephen Pieters
The Rev. Dr. A. Stephen Pieters was born on August 2, 1952, and was raised in Andover, Massachusetts, where his father chaired the Mathematics Department at Phillips Academy. Steve attended Phillips Andover in... Read More
Rev. Ronnie Pigg
Rev. Ronnie Pigg was born third of five children and raised in a small rural southeastern Oklahoma town. There, at the age of 12, he surrendered his life to Christ and, at age 14, accepted the call to the... Read More
Robert C. Pingpank & Canon Richard T. Nolan
Born three days and 120 miles apart, Dick Nolan and Bob Pingpank celebrated their 50th Anniversary in 2005. Both cradle Episcopalians, Bob is a Connecticut native, and Dick is from Massachusetts. Their life... Read More
Dr. W. Norman Pittenger
(William) Norman Pittenger (July 23, 1905 - June 19, 1997) was a foremost 20th century pioneer in the exploration of human sexuality within a Christian context. His 1967 Time for Consent: A Christian's... Read More
Rev. Richard Ploen
The Rev. Richard Ploen was the first ordained minister to offer help to Rev.Troy Perry when he started Metropolitan Community Church. Ploen grew up in southern California. From childhood he attended the Culver City... Read More
Rev. Loey Powell
The Rev. Loey Powell has been out and in active ordained ministry for more than 25 years. She earned her M.Div. degree at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, in 1977 and was called to serve... Read More
Rev. Martin Preston
Martin Preston was one of the founding members of the Gay Christian Movement (now Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement) in the U.K. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Regent's Park College, Oxford,... Read More
Emery Prickett
Emery Lee Prickett was born August 23, 1948 in Torrance, Los Angeles County, California, to Leroy and Norma Prickett. He committed suicide on January 14, 1985 in Covina, California. Emery lived much of... Read More
Rev. Dusty Pruitt
Rev. Dusty Pruitt was born on July 19, 1946, in Ballinger, Texas, the firstborn of three sisters, one 15 months younger and the other 12 years younger. Dusty grew up in Bronte, Texas, a town of just under 1,000... Read More
Chris Purdom
Christopher William Purdom is an amateur Philadelphia poet, graphic artist, and self-proclaimed heretic who was a steering committee member of the Fight the Right Network from 1994 to 1997, co-coordinator of the... Read More
John Rash
John P. Rash was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in May 1942. He was an only child in an academic family--his father, with a Ph.D. in petroleum geology from Yale, was VP of research at Esso Corporation (now Exxon... Read More
Rev. Adrian Ravarour, Ph.D.
Adrian Ravarour, Ph.D., is a priest, spiritual artist, and social activist who co-founded Vanguard in San Francisco with Billy Garrison in 1966. His early ministries were with Bishop Mikhail Itkin and the Reverend... Read More
Mark Rees
Mark (nee Brenda) Rees, the sole survivor of premature twins, was born in December 1942 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. A sister was born in 1946. Although their parents were not active church members, the children were... Read More
Edgar Richards
Edgar G. Richards was born January 25, 1962, in Kingston, Jamaica, to Estelle Richards and Edgar Richards, Sr. At the age of five, after the death of his father, his mother moved Edgar and his brother... Read More
Falcon River
Falcon River was born in 1952, and lived in Columbus, Ohio, until the early 1960s, when her family moved back to the rural mountain country of West Virginia. During this interview, she described her family... Read More
Jade River
Samantha Jade River was born in 1950 in Bellefountaine, Ohio. Her family moved to Louisville, Kentucky in 1952 where they owned and managed businesses and were devoted Presbyterians. Until she graduated... Read More
Rev. Frank Edson Robertson
The Rev. Frank Edson Robertson may be the first religious educator to be hired as an openly gay person to a position in a church as Minister of Religious Education. He was open about his sexual orientation to... Read More
Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson
Vicki Gene Robinson was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, on May 29, 1947. His name honors his parents Victor and Imogene, and he has refused to make it more elegantly masculine by changing it. His parents worked as... Read More
Rev. Elder Nori Rost
The Rev. Elder Nori Rost was elected to serve on Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Church’s Board of Elders at the 1999 General Conference in Los Angeles. She became a licensed clergyperson in UFMCC in... Read More
Rev. Armando Sanchez
Rev. Dr. Armando Sanchez Bermudez was born in Nicaragua (Central America) in 1966. He has theological and humanistic formation--since entering formation for clergy and religious consecration in the Roman... Read More
Rev. Elder James E. Sandmire
James Sandmire was raised in northeastern Oklahoma. His family, descended from Mormon pioneers, and most of his relatives are still devout, active Mormons. His family was a close and loving one, and during his... Read More
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah is a radical feminist and writer/editor, who was active in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain during the late 1970s and early 80s. She was a member of the Lesbian Line... Read More
Rev. James Schexnayder
The Rev. James Schexnayder was born in 1937 in south central Louisiana to Leon & Ethel Schexnayder. He was the youngest of four children, having a sister and two brothers. The Southern Cajun culture of Lafayette,... Read More
Rev. John L. Selders, Jr.
The Right Rev. John L. Selders, Jr., is an ordained minister serving the United Church of Christ (UCC) as the organizing pastor of Amistad UCC in Hartford, Connecticut. John was born and raised in an extended... Read More
Vanessa Sheridan
Vanessa Sheridan is a pioneering author in the field of transgender Christian theology. Since 1991 she has been speaking, writing, researching, consulting, and providing training on transgender issues for... Read More
Rev. Jeffrey Michael Shirilau
Deacon Jeffery Shirilau (1953-1993) was the co-founder of the Ecumenical Catholic Church along with his husband Mark. The ECC is a Christian denomination combining the theology and liturgy of the Church Universal... Read More
Archbishop Mark Steven Shirilau
Archbishop Mark Shirilau is the founder of the Ecumenical Catholic Church, a Christian denomination combining the theology and liturgy of the Church Universal with a liberal approach to social issues. ... Read More
Rev. Dr. Robert E. Shore-Goss
Robert E. Goss was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1976, and he resigned the Society of Jesus as an unlaicized priest in 1978. He served as a chaplain for Dignity Boston until 1982. Goss was co-founder of Food... Read More
Rabbi Sheila Shulman
Rabbi Sheila Shulman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936 into a largely Yiddish-speaking environment, though many folk in her parents’ generation were so anxious to become "American" that they ended up in a... Read More
Rev. James Siefkes
James Siefkes was born in Iowa into a fourth generation Lutheran clergy family. His early childhood was spent in a parsonage in Ohio. His teen years, secondary and college education were completed in San Antonio,... Read More
Bill Silver
Bill Silver (September 8, 1947- May 26, 2007) was the first openly gay candidate for the ministry of word and sacrament in the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (now the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)). When his... Read More
Archbishop Bruce Simpson
Bruce Simpson was born and raised in Audubon, New Jersey. At the age 18, he enlisted in the United States Air Force during Vietnam and was assigned to nuclear security. Upon receiving an honorable discharge,... Read More
David Sindt
David Bailey Sindt (1940-1986), founder of the major Presbyterian lesbian and gay organization, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 8, 1940, and grew up in the Twin Cities area. As a youth,... Read More
Rev. Elder Freda Smith
The Rev. Elder Freda Smith is the former Vice-Moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches; a political activist in California; and an advocate for women's and minority concerns. She... Read More
Rev. Willie Smith
Willie Smith was born in Yuma, Arizona, where he was raised as a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He was a part of the technical department as a teenager at the Seventh Day Adventist General... Read More
Rev. Matthew Smucker
The Rev. Matthew J. Smucker was the first openly gay person ordained in the Church of the Brethren. In April 2002, the Michigan District Board recognized his call to ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary,... Read More
Rev. Jorge Sosa
The Rev. Elder Jorge Sosa was the second of a three children family, the only son with two wonderful sisters. Sosa received a ministry call early in life and wanted to join the Missionaries of Our Lady of... Read More
Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr
The Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr, Janie, as she prefers to be called, describes herself as a lesbian, feminist, Presbyterian minister committed to justice issues for the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community,... Read More
Rabbi Julie Spitzer
Rabbi Julie Ringold Spitzer was born in Jacksonville, Florida, graduated from Wolfson High School, the University of Florida (Alpha Epsilon Phi) and received her Masters of Hebrew Letters and Masters of Jewish... Read More
The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong
John Shelby (Jack) Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1931. He was raised in a working-class household in the segregated South. His father passed away when he was twelve years old, and... Read More
Kevin R. Steen
Kevin Russell Steen attended Abbey Prep School in Richardton, North Dakota, a Benedictine boarding school. He graduated from there in 1957 and joined the religious community, making temporary vows as a Benedictine in... Read More
Marsha Stevens-Pino
Marsha Stevens-Pino was born Marsha Carter in Pomona, California, in 1952. She grew up in a troubled household that was impacted by alcoholism. At age 16, she found solace and new life at a beachside evangelistic... Read More
Rev. Canon Janine Stock
Reverend Canon Janine Stock, the daughter of a Hispanic immigrant and a Mohawk Indian, was raised to be the “non-traditional traditionalist” that most of her friends know her to be. Adamant that everyone has a place... Read More
Beth Stroud
Beth Stroud served as an ordained United Methodist pastor for six years before losing her clergy credentials in a 2004 church trial. In the trial, Beth was found guilty of “practices declared by the United Methodist... Read More
Dr. Elizabeth Stuart
Dr. Elizabeth Stuart, was the first theologian in the United Kingdom specialising in lesbian/gay/queer theology to be appointed to a professorial chair. She is Professor of Christian Theology at King Alfred’s... Read More
Dr. Diana Swancutt
Diana Swancutt, a Society of Biblical Literature Regional Scholar and winner of the Lilly/ATS Faculty Sabbatical Grant, is a historian of Pauline Christian Judaism. Recently appointed Associate Professor of New... Read More
Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson
Erin Swenson broke new ground within mainstream Christian Protestant faith groups on October 22, 1996, when the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, by a vote of 186 to 161, sustained her ordination as a Presbyterian... Read More
Rev. Hong Tan
The Rev. Hong K. Tan was elected to the Board of Elders of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches in 1993 during his term as District Coordinator of the European North Sea District. Rev.... Read More
Rev. Neil Thomas
Rev. Neil Thomas is currently the Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church, Los Angeles, the founding church of Metropolitan Community Churches. As a native of Bournemouth, England, Thomas grew up in... Read More
Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson, author and editor, was born and raised on the Monterey Peninsula, California, during the 1950s and '60s. In 1973, Thompson helped found the Gay Students Coalition at San Francisco State University,... Read More
Rev. Leanne McCall Tigert
The Rev. Dr. Leanne McCall Tigert is a fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, licensed pastoral psychotherapist, adjunct faculty in pastoral care and counseling at Andover Newton Theological... Read More
Dr. James S. Tinney
Dr. James S. Tinney was a leading authority on the history of the Black press and on Black Pentecostalism. When he identified himself publicly as a gay man and founded a church for Black lesbians and gays, he was... Read More
Dr. Mary A. Tolbert
Mary A. Tolbert is the George H. Atkinson Professor of Biblical Studies at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California (since 1994). Since the Fall of 2000, she is also the Founding Executive Director of... Read More
Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes
The Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes is an American Baptist minister and womanist ethicist. A native of Durham, North Carolina, she earned her doctorate in the joint Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and... Read More
Jim Toy
Jim Toy was the first TBLG person in Michigan to come out of the closet publicly, during his speech at an anti-Vietnam War rally in Kennedy Square, Detroit, in April, 1970. At the rally Jim was representing the... Read More
Leo Treadway
Leo Treadway is most well-known for his leadership of Lutherans Concerned/North America; the development of the Wingspan Ministry at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and through that ... Read More
Dr. Rembert Truluck
Rembert S. Truluck was born in 1934 and grew up in Clinton, South Carolina, a rural county seat with a Presbyterian college. His family was much involved in the Baptist Church and he followed their example. He... Read More
Rev. Elias Tseng
Rev. Elias Tseng graduated from the Taiwan Theological College and Seminary with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Religion in 1995. He is recognized as the first openly gay pastor in Taiwan. In June, 1999, Rev.... Read More
Yvo Manuel Vas Dias
Yvo Manuel Vas Dias was born on 11 June 1960 in Amsterdam. He is a transsexual man, a Buddhist with a Portuguese-Jewish background. A student of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and a member of the... Read More
Dan Vera
Dan Vera is the managing editor of White Crane Journal and a founding director of White Crane Institute. White Crane Institute promotes the study of the role of unconventional or queer sexualities and... Read More
Aasmund Vik
Aasmund Robert Vik was born April 17, 1947, on a farm in Fyresdal, a remote part of Telemark, Norway. He was raised in a strict Lutheran village in Setesdal. He studied college at Bø, also in Telemark. During... Read More
Richard Vincent
Richard Vincent was born January 29, 1924, in Kirksville, Missouri. Growing up and going to school there, he later moved to Los Angeles for a year and then joined the Marine Corps during World War II, serving in... Read More
Rev. Rebecca Voelkel
Rebecca Mary MacKenzie Voelkel was born in 1969 into a very Protestant and very politically-active family. At the time, her father, William R. Voelkel (Bill) was a United Church of Christ minister (the... Read More
Joan Wakeford
Joan Wakeford was born in East London, South Africa, in 1928. Her mother had complications with her pregnancy so came to East London to be with her mother who was a midwife for Joan's birth. Joan's father went to... Read More
Rev. Bernd Wangerin
The Rev. Bernd Herman Wangerin was born on August 5, 1940, in Hamburg, Germany. His parents were Fritz Wangerin and Hildegard born Ronnau. Life in Germany was difficult during the wartime and its aftermath: baby... Read More
Rev. Howard Warren
The Rev. Howard B. Warren, Jr., affectionately known as "God's Glorious Gadfly," was born September 7, 1934, in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a graduate of McCormick Theological Seminary; and he held degrees from... Read More
Dr. Mona West
The Rev. Mona West was ordained in the Southern Baptist denomination in 1987 and transferred her ordination credentials to the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches (MCC) in 1992. Mona earned her... Read More
Rev. Melvin E. Wheatley
Bishop Melvin E. Wheatley, Jr. a champion of equal rights in the United Methodist Church, died March 1, 2009,after a prolonged illness. He was 93 years old. Recognized in 2000 with a proclamation by the City... Read More
Rev. Robert P. Wheatly
The Rev. Robert P. Wheatly (born 1919, died October 31, 2002) was the second Director of the Office of Gay and Lesbian Concerns of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1977 to 1986. He established the... Read More
Carol A. White
Carol A. White was born in December 1939 in Alexandria, Louisiana. Her parents enrolled her in Methodist Sunday School the day she was born and First Methodist Church was a huge part of her life until she left home... Read More
Rev. Elder Jean White
Rev. Elder Jean White is a native of and resides in London, England. She received her training as a State Registered Nurse at the London Teaching Hospital, Whitechapel, London. Later she received training as a... Read More
Rev. Dr. Mel White
The Rev. Dr. Mel White has been a Christian minister, author, and filmmaker all his adult life. Raised as a evangelical Christian, taught that homosexuality was a sin, he fought to overcome his own homosexual... Read More
Rev. Paul Whiting
Paul was born into the Pentecostal Mafia in 1955 in Great Britain. As a child he remembers Donald Gee, a Pentecostal pioneer, as a visitor to the family home and as a student he became friends with Pentecostal... Read More
Kay Whitlock
Kay Whitlock is the National Representative for LGBT Issues for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization working for peace and demilitarization, human rights, social justice, economic... Read More
Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) biography written by Mitchell Santine Gould. As Reverend Troy Perry recently pointed out, “Yes, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass is beloved by all people and speaks to all people --... Read More
Amara Das Wilhelm
Amara Das is a disciple of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada in the Madhva-Gaudiya line of Vaishnava Hinduism. He joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness in 1974 and received... Read More
Rev. Dr. D. Mark Wilson
Rev. Dr. Doniel Mark Wilson was born the youngest of six children on September 27, 1960, to the proud parentage of a single mother, from whom he learned strong faith in God to dream beyond life’s apparent... Read More
Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson
Rev. Elder Nancy L. Wilson has been a part of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches since 1972 when, at age 22 and in her third week of seminary at Boston University School of Theology, she... Read More
Rev. Robert W. Wood
The Rev. Robert W. Wood, author of the first book published in the U.S. on Christianity and homosexuality, was born May 21, 1923, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Edith and Harold Wood. Robert enlisted in the army after... Read More
Rev. Dr. Judith Hoch Wray
Rev. Dr. Judith Hoch Wray is a biblical scholar, a teacher, a homiletician, a writer and a carpenter. Coming out as lesbian in 1969, she has remained committed to integrating her own sexuality and spirituality,... Read More
John R. Yoakam, Ph.D.
John (Jack) Yoakam was born on January 11, 1947, in Toledo, Ohio. He and his family attended Monroe Street United Methodist Church, where he was baptized and confirmed, sang in the Boys Choir, and participated in... Read More
Bo Young
Bo Young is the publisher and editorial director of White Crane Journal, the Journal of Gay Spirit, Wisdom and Culture. Formerly the poetry editor and associate editor for White Crane ... Read More
Frank Zerilli
Frank Zerilli was born on December 2, 1944, in the Bronx, New York. His family moved to Queens when he was three years old and to East Meadow, New York, when he was eight. He was raised in the Lutheran Church. Frank... Read More