Books exploring the intersection of Christianity and queerness
LGBTQ+ Christians of color write about their faith
Not an exhaustive list but more than enough reading for the holiday season ;-)
Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng is a visiting Professor of Anglican Studies at the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. Cheng received a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. His 2011 book Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Rev. Dr. Patrick Cheng, who migrated from Hong Kong to the U.S. as a one-year-old, experienced life at the intersections of multiple identities. In his 2013 book Rainbow Theology: Bridging Race, Sexuality, and Spirit, he explores the theological writings of LGBT people of color.
Rev. Dr. Brandon Thomas Crowley grew up attending a Baptist church in Georgia. He sensed since his childhood that the anti-gay sermons he heard there were aimed at people like him. Although he was accepted by Harvard Divinity School, Crowley felt alienated by the church and considered abandoning his plans for a preaching career. But a friend encouraged him to apply for an open position at the famous Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts. Crowley was accepted and served as a pastor there for 6 years before coming out to the congregation. Myrtle Baptist Church is now an open and affirming historically Black church. Rev. Dr. Brandon Thomas Crowley is the author of Queering Black Churches: Dismantling Heteronormativity in African American Congregations (2024), which offers proposals for moving congregations beyond surface-level allyship toward systemic structural changes.
Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth , daughter of Bishop Desmond Tutu, entered Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1999. Tutu was ordained as a priest in 2003.Mpho Tutu married Marceline van Furth with the blessing of Tutu’s parents in 2015. Both women had children from previous marriages. In response, the Diocese of Saldanha Bay in South Africa asked a bishop to revoke her license. But in 2018, Saldanha Bay became the first diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa to bless same-sex civil unions. Rev. Mpho Tutu van Furth is one of the contributors to The Book of Queer Prophets (2021), an anthology of 24 LGBTQIA+ writers reflecting on their religious identities.
Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza, PhD, was born into a bicultural Hispanic/Anglo household in Texas and grew up in the Southern Baptist church. Although they had an interest in theology, they were alienated by the church’s exclusion of LGBTQIA+ members. While studying for their master’s degree at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Espinoza came out as non-binary and began their gender transition. After finishing their masters’ program in 2006, Espinoza worked for the Illinois Attorney General’s office. Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza received a Ph.D. in Theology from University of Denver in 2015. An advocate for social justice in the church and in academia, they wrote the books Activist Theology (2019) and Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation (2022).
Rev. Karmen Michael Smith was raised in small-town Texas, where society offered limited opportunities for an out gay man. Smith said, “The world told me that to serve as a leader meant that I would have to do so from the background. I could never aspire to be like MLK Jr., but I could be like Bayard Rustin.” But Smith’s mother resisted these limiting messages about her child’s potential. Karmen Michael Smith acquired a varied skillset, working in the finance industry before starting a second career as a singer/songwriter/producer. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary with a master’s degree in 2019 and became Union’s first Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Social Justice. He is the author of Holy Queer: The Coming Out of Christ (2023).
Rev. Dr. Mihee Kim-Kort (she/they) was born in Korea and migrated to the U.S. with her parents as an infant. They settled in Colorado where her family joined the local Korean Presbyterian (PCUSA) church. A 2004 Master of Divinity graduate from Princeton Theological Seminary, Kim-Kort came out as queer after ordination, marriage and motherhood. The author of Making Paper Cranes: Toward an Asian American Feminist Theology (2012) and Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith (2018), Kim-Kort co-pastors First Presbyterian Church in Annapolis, Maryland with her spouse Andrew Kort. She received her PhD in Religious Studies from Indiana University.