LGBTQ+ experiences within religious spaces

Of the narrators in this collection, some shared their experiences of religious leadership and supporting or belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. Mary Wilson – who has also contributed to this archive as an interviewer – reflected on her ordaining process saying: “I never expected, as an openly gay woman, to have a pastorate.” Wilson “always wanted to go to seminary,” but in the 80s, women ministers were “unicorns from another world” – so to have lesbian ministers was unthinkable. But those who made it inspired many others to follow their call. Karen Thompson, for example, recalls having, “experiences in seminary that convinced me that yes, absolutely, I wanted to be a pastor, felt called to be a pastor. […] [But] the Presbyterian Church was not ordaining out gay people.” While Lee Ann Bryce recounts the three-year-long lawsuit that followed being fired by the rector “for being a lesbian.” A draining experience which nonetheless helped shape her current role as a pastor: “I’m particularly attuned to the way the church, as an institution, can be painful to the people, […] I go to great lengths to not have that happen to people who come to the church, not just gay and lesbian people, across the board. It's also really important to me to be very out. […] As I think about that idea of, ‘Is this going to keep me out of heaven because I'm gay?’ All of those experiences have led me to have a super, super progressive theology.”