by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Grant-Michael Fitzgerald was an openly gay African American Roman Catholic brother who advocated for LGBTQ rights in the 1970s and ‘80s. He was diagnosed with AIDS and died in a Wisconsin hospice on Nov. 10, 1986 at age 39. Renowned black gay professor and minister...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Carl Bean was founding archbishop of the Unity Fellowship Church Movement in the black LGBTQ community, early AIDS activist and Motown singer of the 1977 gay-liberation anthem “I Was Born This Way.” He died Sept. 7, 2021 at age 77 after a long illness. Bean (May 26,...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
The Black Madonna of Czestochowa, one of the most famous Catholic icons, is the model for a Haitian Vodou goddess who protects lesbians. Traditional images of Erzulie Dantor, the Vodou defender of lesbians, are based on the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, whose feast...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Jan 1-15, Saints
Bayard Rustin was a black gay activist and the genius behind the civil rights movement. He became the chief organizer of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington where where Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have a Dream Speech.” A follower of the Quaker faith...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Human rights champion and queer saint Pauli Murray is a renowned civil rights pioneer, feminist, author, Episcopal priest and lawyer whose legal arguments were used in landmark Supreme Court decisions outlawing racism and sexism. Murray’s feast day is July 1. [Update:...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Marsha P. Johnson was an African American transgender woman activist and one of those credited with starting the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the modern LGBTQ liberation movement. A lifelong Christian, she was nicknamed “the Saint of Christopher Street” during...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, Saints
LGBTQ Pride celebrations are rooted in sacred resistance — when queer people fought back against harassment at New York City’s Stonewall Inn, they launched the modern LGBTQ liberation movement on June 28, 1969. Their bold rebellion against government...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Tough questions about homosexuality, religion and LGBTQ rights are raised by the 45 Uganda Martyrs whose feast day is June 3. In 2023 their feast day falls less than a week after Uganda’s president signed one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints
Born into slavery, William Dorsey Swann became the first American to lead a queer resistance group, first to self-identify as a “queen of drag,” and first to use the U.S. legal system to defend the queer community. He battled police in a cream satin gown when they...
by Kittredge Cherry | | Artists, Calendar, March 16-31, Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision
Liberating visions of Jesus as black, Latinx, Native American or female join with the gay Passion of Christ series to help people experience God more fully. “All people are made in God’s image, so it is important to envision Jesus as queer, black, brown, female and...