Attorney, historian, and novelist R. W. Holmen brings a unique voice to the conversation of gay clergy in the pulpits. "Queer Clergy: A History of Gay and Lesbian Ministry in American Protestantism" provides a detailed history of the ways in which the following denominations have dealt with the issue of ordaining gay clergy: United Church of Christ; Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; United Methodist Church; and Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) It provides an important historical reference for continuing dialogue.

A queer minister, politician and staunch activist for LGBTQ rights, Cheri DiNovo went from living on the streets as a teenager to performing the first legalized same-sex marriage registered in Canada in 2001. From rights for queer parents to banning conversion therapy, her story will inspire people (queer or ally) to not only resist the system—but change it. In The Queer Evangelist, Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo (CM) shares her origins as a young socialist activist in the 1960s, and her rise to ordained minister in the ‘90s and New Democratic member of provincial parliament. During her tenure representing Parkdale-High Park in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2006 to 2017, DiNovo passed more LGBTQ bills than anyone in Canadian history. She describes the behind-the-scenes details of major changes to Canadian law, including Toby’s Law: the first Transgender Rights legislation in North America. She also passed bills banning conversion therapy, proclaiming parent equality for LGBTQ parents, and for enshrining Trans Day of Remembrance into Ontario law. Every year on November 20th in the legislature, the provincial government is mandated to observe a minute of silence while Trans murders and suicides are detailed. Interspersed with her political work, DiNovo describes her conversion to religious life with radical intimacy, including her theological work and her ongoing struggle with the Christian Right. Cheri DiNovo's story shows how queer people can be both people of faith and critics of religion, illustrating how one can resist and change repressive systems from within. “Living on the street, using drugs, abandoned by the adults in her life, all while identifying as ‘queer’ in a hostile world—any one of these things could have unravelled many of us. Cheri hauled herself up and not only survived but thrived. I love that this strong, brilliant, competent woman has told her story so honestly.” —Kathleen Wynne, former premier of Ontario

From the first game of the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs on April 22, 1876, tens of thousands of men have played professional sports in the Big Four—baseball, basketball, football, and hockey—major professional sports leagues in the United States. Until April 29, 2013, however, when National Basketball Association center Jason Collins came out publicly as gay, not one of those tens of thousands of men had ever come out to the public as gay while an active player on a major league roster. Is it because gay men can't jump (or throw, or catch, or skate)? Or is it more likely that the costs of coming out are too high? In Antigay Bias in Role-Model Occupations, E. Gary Spitko argues that in the case of athletes, and others in role-model occupations, a record of widespread and frequently systematic employment discrimination has been excluding gay people from the public social spaces that identify and teach whom society respects and whom members of society should seek to emulate. Creating a typology of role models—lawyers/judges, soldiers, teachers, politicians, athletes, and clergy—and the positive values and character traits associated with them, Spitko demonstrates how employment discrimination has been used for the purpose of perpetuating the generally accepted notion that gay people are inferior because they do not possess the requisite qualities—integrity, masculinity, morality, representativeness, all-American-ness, and blessedness—associated with employment in these occupations. Combining the inspirational stories of LGBT trailblazers with analysis of historical data, anecdotal evidence, research, and literature, Antigay Bias in Role-Model Occupations is the first book to explore in a comprehensive fashion the broad effects of sexual orientation discrimination in role-model occupations well beyond its individual victims.

Our Lives Matter uses the tenor of the 2014 national protests that emerged as a response to excessive police force against Black people to frame the book as following the discursive tradition of liberation theologies broadly speaking and womanist theology specifically. Using a womanist methodological approach, Pamela R. Lightsey helps readers explore the impact of oppression against Black LBTQ women while introducing them to the emergent intellectual movement known as queer theology. The author privileges their narratives and experiences as she reviews several doctrines and dogma of the Christian church. Theological reflection on contemporary debates such as same-sex marriage and ordination rights make this book a valuable resource to clergy, students of theology, LGBTQ persons and allies. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Reinterpretations of key Bible texts related to sexual orientation, written by a Harvard student, present an accessible case for a modern Christian conservative acceptance of sexual diversity.

The United Methodist Church has been in conflict over lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender inclusion issues since 1972. In this groundbreaking book, Udis-Kessler examines this struggle, analyzing both sides of this divisive debate among one of the most prominent religious organizations in the United States.

“Why did it take 30 years for American bishops to listen to the victims of Catholic clerical abuse?” Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct: Breaking the Silence is a compelling indictment of Roman Catholic teachings on homosexuality and sexuality. Inspired by The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism, Mark Jordan’s controversial examination of homoeroticism in American Catholic culture, this groundbreaking book examines how the current crisis of clerical abuse affects and stigmatizes gay priests living in a climate of hysteria and condemnation. The book’s contributors, an eclectic mix of scholars and clerics, question whether the church can survive centuries of secrets and scandals. In the wake of very real concerns about a possible inquisition launched by the Catholic Church against its gay members, Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct continues the efforts of the Gay Men’s Issues in Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion to honor the work of Mark Jordan, who contributes his thoughts on the issues raised by the book. A panel of former Jesuits, a former seminarian with the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, a Dominican, a Franciscan, and several feminist authors present different perspectives on gay priests, clerical/ecclesial misogyny, games of power and abuse, and religious scapegoating, writing with eloquence and pain, a great deal of pride, and a touch of justifiable divine righteousness. Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct includes:“Celibate Men, Ambivalent Saints, and Games of Desire”, “A Call to Liberation of Gay Catholic Clergy”, “Speaking Loud or Shutting Up: The Homosexual-type Problem”, “Those Troubling Gay Priests”, “Catholicism and a Crisis of Intimate Relations” and much more! Gay Catholic Priests and Clerical Sexual Misconduct: Breaking the Silence is an invaluable resource for academics, members of the clergy, seminarians, chaplains and counselors, and anyone interested in homosexuality and religion.