Scholars long believed that there was once a Gospel attributed to Lebbaeus, “a friend” of the Apostle Thaddeus (aka Jude or Judas NOT Iscariot, or just “The Snarky One”) but scholars could never prove its existence. From the few First and Second Century references we have to t… Read full post »

The 1% of the Church (aka the clergy) gathered for some Prophet Sharing while the 99% sat down, shut up, and listened. An offering was taken.

As someone who spent many many years stuck in a pew, sitting, listening to a man elevated on a platform telling me what God… Read full post »

Like most Americans, I confess, at one time I had no idea where to find Malta on a map. I knew it was European and it was not a Greek island and it was not off the English coast, but for me it remained in the murky regions of “down there.”… Read full post »

Recently I received an email from a student at a major divinity school asking the following question,

I would like to do a queer reading of the fourth gospel (John). As the foremost – that is, only – person I know of who works extensively with gender non-conformity in Biblical texts,

… Read full post »

Peterson and Zack are back to have a conversation about the intersection of faiths. Peterson is getting ready to head to Europe, where he’ll be speaking and performing before the British Humanist Association. (You’ll also find him at the Greenbelt Festival.) Unsure of how a room full of n… Read full post »

Recently married, I join award-winning Zack Ford for an intimate conversation about the outing of people who use the closet to hold anti-gay positions, an extension of a conversation from way back in Episode 3. The conversation focuses on a very specific outing, that of Jonathan Merritt, an e… Read full post »

Seems I am no longer a blogger. Ah, crap, I just blogged that, so I guess technically I am still blogging. Bother!

I have not written in this blog for many months. In part it is because I experienced a significant shift in the focus of my work. Since 2003,… Read full post »

Back in 2007 when Christine Bakke and I founded Beyond Ex-Gay we discussed how those of us who have been through reparative therapies and ex-gay ministries need an opportunity to put on the record what we did, why we did it, what were the outcomes. So many other people have told… Read full post »

Lately I have been faced with the opportunity to extend forgiveness to someone responsible for harming me, some of my loved ones, and many other people–some I know–most I do not. One thing I have concluded is I can offer  private, personal forgiveness for someone who directly harmed me (… Read full post »

Darlene Bogle, Michael Bussee, Jeremy Marks

Back in June 2007 I had the privilege to work with three former ex-gay leaders as they prepared to issue public apologies concerning their roles in providing and promoting reparative therapy. At the LGBT community center in LA, I witnessed this histo/… Read full post »

According to the Love in Action Website the Memphis-based ex-gay group no longer operates it residential program:

Love In Action’s Residential program has been suspended indefinitely. Simply put, there is a significant need to bring all of LIA under one location for it to be more cost effective

… Read full post »

Yesterday I heard from a friend from the New York area, who like me survived “treatments” to de-gay us. As he prepared for the storm, he reflected on Hurricane Irene, and used it as a metaphor to explore homophobia and the religious-based anti-gay therapies he endured.

Hey I was

… Read full post »

Organizers of LGBTQ programming at the Greenbelt Festival this weekend in England asked me to write a short piece to be read aloud at a service. The theme is hospitality. I immediately thought of the famous story in Luke 24 about friends walking and the stranger who walks beside them on… Read full post »

Thanks to Michelle Bachmann and her family business that offers Christian counseling, including “therapy” to help sort the gays, the media has once again highlighted ex-gay treatments and theories that say people can be “de-gayed.” Spokespeople for the anti-LGBTQ cause get on… Read full post »

My friend, Anarchist Reverend, sent out a call with others at Sanctuary Collective for bloggers to share creative queer theology. I grow weary of defensive theology where one has to counter passages that seem to clobber queer folk. That’s why I love performing my Transfigurations play, a piece… Read full post »

I wish I could write a long blog post about the NPR Morning Edition piece I was featured on this past Monday. You can see the link to the segment here The piece ran for under nine minutes, so lots got left unsaid from the 80 minute interview I had with… Read full post »

I’m siting in Charlotte airport heading home after the TransFaith in Color Conference. 200 folks gathered. Many have had “transgender experiences” (language used at conference) and most were people of color. I was honored with an invitation to present Transfigurations–Transgre… Read full post »

Have you noticed an uptick in stories about ex-gay ministries, reparative therapies, and the slogan “Pray Away the Gay?” You have Republican presidential primary candidate, Michelle Bachmann to thank for that. The family business she liked to talk about in her early speeches is actually a… Read full post »

Coming to the end of my week with Quakers at the Friends General Conference held in Grinnell College in Iowa, I have been wondering about the experiences of Quakers who currently or have ever identified as female. I know that for a long time Quakers have aspired to gender equality,… Read full post »

This week I have the privilege and pleasure of attending the Friends General Conference (FGC) at Grinnell College in Iowa. This is the annual gathering of unprogrammed Quakers in North America. We are the Quakers who sit in silence when we worship (well until someone shares something they feel… Read full post »

This is the third in a series of posts about the Wild Goose Festival. Part One highlights the “good stuff” I experienced at this progressive Christian Festival held at a campsite in the hills outside of Durham, NC. Part Two reveals the anger I felt as I entered the weekend, not… Read full post »

Yesterday I wrote about the wonderful experiences I had at Wild Goose–the good stuff. It was so good in so many ways, but I arrived troubled and even in the midst of all the “good stuff” I wrestled with difficult feelings during the Festival.

In the four months of preparatio… Read full post »

goosed–past participle, past tense of goose (Verb)
1. Poke (someone) between the buttocks.
2. Give (something) a boost; invigorate; increase: “goosing up ticket sales”.

This past weekend my partner, Glen Retief, and I attended the Wild Goose Festival not far from Durham NC. We set… Read full post »

This week on the Queer and Queerer podcast we dive head first into the Anthony Weiner “scandal.†So he showed some saucy pics on Twitter, but what did he actually do wrong? Listen as Peterson and Zack consider the matter from a perspective of sexual liberation.

And then, we offer some… Read full post »

Kirk Andrew Murphy

Last night Anderson Cooper 360 featured the story of Kirk Andrew Murphy, who as a young boy exhibited gender non-conforming behavior. Kirk did not act like the other boys, and after seeing a therapist on TV, his parents turned for help to  who they thought were experts. See/… Read full post »