LGBTQ Saints, Queer Saints
Q Spirit presents profiles of traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, theologians, authors, activists, spiritual and religious leaders, mystics, humanitarians, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people of faith and allies.
Profiles come from the LGBTQ Saints Series by Kittredge Cherry at the Q Spirit / Jesus in Love Blog. Visit the calendar page to see them listed by date according to their feast days. This list is a work in progress that will continue to grow and change.
Best-known traditional Christian saints and Biblical figures
Aelred: Gay saint of friendship
Brigid and Darlughdach: Celtic saint loved her female soulmate
David and Jonathan: Love between men in the Bible
Francis of Assisi: Queer side revealed for saint who loved creation, peace and the poor
Hildegard of Bingen and Richardis: Medieval mystic and the woman she loved
Joan of Arc: Cross-dressing warrior-saint and LGBTQ role model
John the Evangelist: Beloved Disciple of Jesus
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Nun who loved a countess in 17th-century Mexico City
Julian of Norwich: Celebrating Mother Jesus
John Henry Newman and Ambrose St. John: Gay saint and his “earthly light” share romantic friendship
Paul the Apostle: Did his homosexuality shape Christianity?
Perpetua and Felicity: Patron saints of same-sex couples
Saint Sebastian: History’s first gay icon
Sergius and Bacchus: Paired male saints loved each other in ancient Roman army
Best-known alternative saints and martyrs
Marsha P. Johnson: African American transwoman at Stonewall Uprising
Mychal Judge: Gay saint of 9/11 and chaplain to New York firefighters
Harvey Milk: LGBTQ rights pioneer stood for equality
Pauli Murray: Queer saint who stood for racial and gender equality
Henri Nouwen: Author-priest who struggled with his homosexuality
Bayard Rustin: Gay saint of civil rights and non-violence
Matthew Shepard: Modern gay martyr and hate-crime victim
Saints of Stonewall inspire LGBTQ justice and art (Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Stormé DeLarverie)
Other traditional Christian saints, blesseds, etc
Alcuin of York: Medieval scholar and abbot who wrote homoerotic texts
Apollinaria / Dorotheos: Queer saint crossed gender line to become a monk in 5th-century Egypt
Augustine of Hippo: Saint who rejected his bisexual past, defended intersex people
Avertanus and Romeo: Monks shown as AIDS patrons
Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus: “Two bodies with a single spirit”
Black Madonna of Czestochowa becomes lesbian defender Erzuli Dantor
Bernard of Clairvaux and Malachy: Abbot and the archbishop he loved
Bernardo de Hoyos: Mystical same-sex marriage with Jesus
Boris and George: United in love and death
Charles de Foucauld: Saint of the Sahara had gay connections
Euphrosyne/Smaragdus of Alexandria: Queer saint crossed gender divide in 5th-century Egypt
Galla and Benedicta: Bearded woman saint and the nun she loved
Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon
John of the Cross: Dark Night of a Gay Soul
John of La Verna: Kissed by Jesus
Lazarus: Jesus’ beloved disciple?
Madre Juana de la Cruz: Transgender saint of 16th-century Spain?
Malachy of Armagh: Same-sex soulmate to Bernard of Clairvaux
Marinos / Marina the Monk: Transgender role model and patron saint
Martha and Mary of Bethany: Sisters or lesbian couple?
Rainbow Mary: LGBTQ-affirming rainbow Mary art sparks protests and celebrations
Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots
Mary Magdalene’s many faces: Undeserved reputation for sexual sins
Matrona / Babylas of Perge founded 4th-century convent of nuns who dressed as men
Maurice and Theofredus: Same-sex paired saints and martyrs of Thebes
Madonna of Montevergine: Patron of LGBTQ people since medieval times
Walatta Petros: Ethiopian nun and saint shared a lifetime bond with a female partner
Polyeuct and Nearchus: Brothers by affection
Symeon and John: Holy fool and hermit who loved each other
Symeon the New Theologian wrote queer spiritual imagery
Trans Saints? Early cross-dressing monks and martyrs
Uganda Martyrs raise questions on religion and LGBTQ rights
Saint Valentine: Marriage equality role model
Vivaldo and Bartolo: Love stronger than death for AIDS patron saints
Wenceslas and Podiven: Good (gay) King Wenceslas loved his page
Saint Wilgefortis: Bearded woman
Xenia / Andrei of St. Petersburg: Widow adopted husband’s identity and became a queer saint
More people in the Bible
Gay centurion: Jesus heals a soldier’s boyfriend in the Bible
Esther, Vashti and eunuchs on Purim: Queer models for such a time as this
Ethiopian eunuch: Early church welcomed queers in Bible story
Good Samaritan: LGBTQ views of Bible story on helping strangers
Jacob and the angel: Wrestling to reconcile sexuality and spirituality
Joseph and the gender-nonconforming Biblical princess coat
Prodigal Son: “Prodigal Son and his husband receive a blessing” and other LGBTQ resources
Ruth and Naomi: “Whither thou goest” (Love between women in the Bible)
Queer water carrier led disciples to Upper Room for Last Supper
Shulamite in Song of Songs: Gay, lesbian or queer Biblical love poem?
LGBTQ martyrs
Ash Wednesday: Queer martyrs executed for homosexuality rise from the ashes
Anonymous Priest of Sachsenhausen and others: Holocaust Remembrance
Chriton Atuhwera (Trinidad Jerry): LGBTQ Ugandan activist killed by homophobic attack
Bangladesh LGBTQ martyrs: Xulhaz Mannan and Tanay Mojumdar
Mark Bingham: Gay hero of 9/11 died fighting hijackers
Tyler Clementi: Gay teen driven to suicide by bullies
Club Q martyrs: Five killed in shooting at LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs
FannyAnn Eddy: Lesbian martyr in Africa
Marielle Franco: Brazilian Afro-Latina LGBTQ activist fought for human rights
David Kato: Ugandan LGBT rights activist (1964-2011)
Holocaust Remembrance: We all wear the triangle (Anonymous priest of Sachsenhausen and others)
Pulse Orlando massacre: 49 shot dead at gay nightclub
Allen Schindler: LGBTQ role the military highlighted by murder of gay sailor
Tibira do Maranhão: First indigenous gay martyr of Brazil
Transwomen asylum seekers: Detention led to death for Roxsana Hernandez and Johana Medina
Trinidad Jerry / Chriton Atuhwera: LGBTQ Ugandan activist killed by homophobic attack
Alan Turing: Codebreaker honored in queer spiritual art
UpStairs Lounge fire: 32 killed in deadly attack on LGBTQ people
Yook Woo-Dang: Gay Catholic South Korean poet who died to protest anti-LGBTQ discrimination
Theologians, writers, and church leaders
Marcella Althaus-Reid: Queer theology pioneer
Carl Bean: Black LGBTQ church founder who sang “I Was Born This Way”
Jeremy Bentham: Homosexuality of Jesus explored by 18th-century philosopher
Delores Berry: Black lesbian evangelist blessed many with music
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Eberhard Bethge: Anti-Nazi theologians and soulmates
Donald Boisvert: Gay theologian, religion professor, author and Canadian Anglican priest
John Boswell: Historian of gays and lesbians in Christianity
Malcolm Boyd: Pioneering gay Episcopal priest
Louie Clay: LGBTQ church activist, founder of Integrity, Rutgers professor
Mary Daly: Lesbian philosopher who went Beyond God the Father
Ibrahim Farajaje: Queer theologian, AIDS activist, interfaith scholar, spiritual leader
Grant-Michael Fitzgerald: Pioneering black gay Catholic brother advocated LGBTQ rights in 1970s
Pavel Florensky and Sergei Troitsky: Russian theologian of same-sex love and his soulmate
Sally Miller Gearhart: Lesbian educator and activist who challenged the church
Peter Gomes: Gay black Harvard minister preached “scandalous gospel”
Roberto Gonzalez: Gay pastor brought LGBTQ rights to Argentina
John T. Graves: Black gay clergyman was founding president of nation’s first LGBTQ group in 1924
Sally Gross: Intersex South African priest led legal reform after being defrocked
Michael B. Kelly: Queer theologian, author and “Erotic Contemplative” teacher
Radclyffe Hall: Queer Christian themes mark banned book “Well of Loneliness”
Theodore “Ted” Jennings: LGBTQ-affirming Biblical theologian
Nancy Ledins (William Griglak) became first transgender Roman Catholic priest in 1979
Anne Lister: Historic lesbian church wedding, new TV series and book
Patrick Leuben Mukajanga (Mleuben Maccarthy): Ugandan pastor and LGBTQ activist
John McNeill: Pioneering gay priest who inspired LGBTQ people of faith
Virginia Mollenkott: Trailblazing queer theologian and Christian feminist scholar
Mary Oliver: Lesbian poet, mystic of nature
Rebecca Cox Jackson and Rebecca Perot: Queer black pair founded Shaker religious community in 1800s
Steve Pieters: Gay minister, longtime AIDS survivor, LGBTQ activist and friend
Adrienne Rich: lesbian poet with spiritual impulses
Sandra Robinson: Black lesbian MCC clergywoman educated and inspired
Christina Rossetti: Queer writer of Christmas carols and lesbian poetry
Rumi: Poet and Sufi mystic inspired by same-sex love
Vida Dutton Scudder: Lesbian saint, teacher and reformer
Richard Sibbes: Queer Puritan theologian for the LGBTQ community?
Freda Smith: LGBTQ activist, first woman ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches
James S. Tinney: Black gay professor who founded LGBTQ church in 1982
Desmond Tutu: Anti-apartheid Archbishop who stood for LGBTQ equality
Oscar Wilde: Gay martyr with complex Christian journey recalled in new art
Jemima Wilkinson: Queer preacher reborn in 1776 as “Publick Universal Friend”
LGBTQ activists
Gloria Anzaldúa: Queer feminist Chicana scholar of spiritual activism
Jeanne Cordova: Lesbian nun who “kicked the habit” to become an activist
Stormé DeLarverie: Butch lesbian at Stonewall Uprising
Jeanne Manford: PFLAG founder loved her gay son
Sylvia Rivera: Latina transwoman at Stonewall Uprising
Adele Starr and others: Patron saints for straight allies of LGBTQ people
William Dorsey Swann: Ex-slave fought for queer freedom in 1880s as America’s first drag queen
Pioneers in LGBTQ history
Dance of the 41 Queers: Police raid on Mexican drag ball remembered
Thomas(ine) Hall: Intersex in colonial America
We’wha of Zuni: Two-spirit Native American bridged genders
Artists and others
Rosa Bonheur: Cross-dressing painter honored “androgyne Christ”
Artemisia Gentileschi paints strong Biblical women
Abraham Lincoln: Same-sex marriage of liberators Lincoln and Jesus imagined by artist
Andy Warhol: Pop artist inspired by hidden Catholic faith and queer sexuality
David Wojnarowicz: Controversial artist mixed gay and Christian imagery
Deities
Krishna: What if Christ and Krishna made love?
Kuan Yin: A queer Buddhist Christ figure?
Patrons of Q Spirit and its founder Kittredge Cherry
Resources
Why we need LGBT saints (A queer theology of sainthood by Kittredge Cherry)
Litany of Queer Saints from Q Spirit
Calendar of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Saints (Paul Halsall)
LGBTQ Saints Facebook group by Q Spirit
LGBT-friendly memorial for All Saints, All Souls and Day of the Dead
Santos Queer (Spanish translations of Kittredge Cherry’s articles on LGBTQ saints)