Pose is a TV drama series about New York City’s ball culture, an LGBTQ subculture in the African American and Latino communities throughout the 1980s and 1990s. One of the characters is Pray Tell (a gay Black man). He cries, “Ronald Reagan will not say the word AIDS….
After decade of debate, Whitworth University welcomes LGBTQ faculty
The Presbyterian Church (USA) approved ordaining practicing homosexuals in 2010. Now, the PCUSA-affiliated Whitworth University has joined the small number of Christian colleges welcoming gay faculty and adding “sexual orientation” to its nondiscrimination policy. “Aligning our hiring policy language with…
An interview with Kelsey Morrison, evangelical academia’s latest homophobia victim
On June 2, soccer coach Kelsey Morrison was fired and immediately escorted from the campus of Geneva College, an evangelical school near Pittsburgh. Her offense was two posts on Instagram. In this exclusive interview with me for Baptist News Global,…
Semler’s new song ‘Faith’ tops Christian music charts on iTunes
In a tweet on June 29, queer Christian artist Grace Aldridge, known professionally by their stage name “Semler,” shared a screenshot of the iTunes music charts for that day. Their new single, “Faith” was the No. 1 song on Christian…
Embracing a queer spirituality would have freed me from years of anguish, self-doubt and self-loathing
I was a junior in college, studying religion and serving as a youth minister when I first encountered the Southern Baptist Convention’s vitriol against women. Although a Southern Baptist church employed me, a not-yet-out queer woman, as a youth minister…
Supreme Court says evangelical web designer doesn’t have to serve same-sex couples
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of Lorie Smith, an evangelical graphic artist who says she wants to create wedding websites and is “willing to work with all people” but not same-sex couples. Her free-speech case was based…
10 reasons your church should be welcoming and affirming
It’s Pride month, and here at Williamsburg Baptist Church we are wearing rainbow stoles in worship, hanging our usual rainbow banner out front and have rainbow origami butterflies hanging all about our sanctuary. It is a delightfully colorful season in…
The Bible says nothing about queer people
For far too long the LGBTQ community has conceded Christianity to traditionalists and conservatives, allowing them to perpetuate the narrative that the Bible is clearly anti-LGBTQ and that being queer is a sin. But the truth is that most of…
Amid an already difficult immigration system, LGBTQ asylum seekers are in ‘grave danger’
The Biden administration’s asylum restrictions place LGBTQ migrants in grave danger by exposing them to longer waits in nations hostile to those with alternative sexual orientations and gender identities, immigration rights advocates said during a June 22 webinar. “It will…