Saint Francis rejoiced when all-female Trinity called him “Lady Poverty”
Francis of Assisi, one of the world’s best loved saints, rejoiced when an all-female Trinity greeted him as “Lady Poverty” in a queer experience that has been buried. The subversive vision has been ignored, sanitized and perhaps suppressed for centuries, even though...
Joan of Arc: Cross-dressing warrior-saint and LGBTQ role model
Joan of Arc was a tough cross-dressing teenage warrior who led the medieval French army to victory when at age 17. Joan is a queer icon, girl-power hero and patron saint of France. Her belief that God was the source of her -- or their or his -- gender-bending...
Rosa Bonheur: Cross-dressing painter honored “androgyne Christ”
Rosa Bonheur, the most famous female painter of the 19th century, was a queer cross-dresser who honored what she called the “androgyne Christ.” She had two consecutive long-term relationships with women. Her 200th birthday is March 16, 2022. She died on May 25, 1899....
The Two Rebeccas: Queer black pair founded Shaker religious community in 1800s
Preacher Rebecca Cox Jackson and her longtime companion Rebecca Perot were queer African American women who founded a Shaker religious community in Philadelphia in the 1800s. Known as “the two Rebeccas,” they lived together as ministry partners for more than 30 years...
Stormé DeLarverie: Butch lesbian at Stonewall Uprising
Stormé DeLarverie was a biracial butch lesbian “drag king” entertainer and one of those credited with starting the Stonewall Rebellion that launched the modern LGBTQ liberation movement. She died on May 24, 2014 at age 93. The LGBTQ people who resisted police at the...
Harvey Milk: LGBTQ rights pioneer stood for equality
Pioneering LGBTQ rights activist Harvey Milk is the first and most famous openly gay male elected official in California. His birthday (May 22) is a state holiday. He has been called a martyr for LGBTQ rights -- and for all human rights. “If a bullet should enter my...
Alcuin: Medieval scholar and abbot who wrote homoerotic texts
Alcuin of York was an 8th-century English scholar and abbot who served as advisor to Emperor Charlemagne and wrote homoerotic poetry and letters. His feast day is May 20 in Episcopal and other Anglican churches. Called “the most learned man anywhere to be found,”...
Ascension Day: Jesus Returns to God (Gay Passion of Christ series)
Celebrate Ascension Day with a painting of Christ embraced by a winged man in “Jesus Returns to God,” the most controversial image in Doug Blanchard’s gay Passion of Christ series. This year Ascension Day is May 29, 2025. Christian tradition emphasizes that the...
Prayer for International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia
Q Spirit presents a prayer for International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia on May 17. The prayer was written by Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry. Founded in 2004, IDAHOBIT celebrates sexual and gender diversities and raises awareness of LGBTQ...
Happy Easter from Kittredge Cherry and Q Spirit! See “Ascension of Queer Christ”
Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Rejoice! May the Risen Rainbow Christ light up your life! Ribbons of the LGBTQ and transgender communities swirl around Jesus as he rises in “The Ascension of Queer Christ” by queer Australian artist Guy James Whitworth. Please give now...
2025 brings new LGBTQ Christian books
New LGBTQ Christian books are being published in 2025, including theology, Bible, history, memoir, church life and spirituality by diverse authors. Q Spirit presents summaries of LGBTQ Christian books released this year, plus lists of titles that are coming soon or...
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Nun who loved a countess in 17th-century Mexico City
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th-century Mexican nun whose critically acclaimed writings include lesbian love poetry. She is considered one of the greatest Latin American poets, an early advocate of women’s rights, and some say, North America's first lesbian...
Ethiopian eunuch and Philip: Early church welcomed queers in Bible story
A queer black man was welcomed as an early Christian convert in Biblical times, according to progressive Bible scholars. He was a triple outsider -- a gender-variant foreigner from a racial minority -- and his story shows that the early Christians welcomed all kinds...
Christina Rossetti: Queer writer of Christmas carols and lesbian poetry
Christina Georgina Rossetti was a 19th-century English poet whose work ranged from Christmas carols to sensuous lesbian love poetry. A devout Christian who never married, she has been called a “queer virgin” and “gay mystic.” Her feast day is April 27 on the Church of...
Yook Woo-Dang: Gay Catholic South Korean poet who died to protest anti-LGBTQ discrimination
Yook Woo-Dang was a gay South Korean poet, activist and devout Catholic who took his own life to protest discrimination against LGBTQ people by church and society. He died April 26, 2003, at age 18. “If they send me to hell, Jesus will rescue me,” he wrote in his...
Lesbian Visibility Week celebrated with Christian saints, art, books and resources
Lesbian visibility is celebrated at Q Spirit with lesbian Christian saints, books, art and other spiritual resources for Lesbian Visibility Day (April 26) and Lesbian Visibility Week (April 21-27, 2025). These events were created to recognize the contributions of...
Bangladesh LGBTQ martyrs: Xulhaz Mannan and Tanay Mojumdar
LGBTQ activists Xulhaz Mannan and Tanay Mojumdar were hacked to death for being "pioneers of practicing and promoting homosexuality in Bangladesh" on April 25, 2016 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The militant Islamist militant group Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for murder...
Earth Day: LGBTQ spirituality affirms the Earth
On Earth Day queer spirituality affirms that God’s all-inclusive love extends to the Earth itself. Many LGBTQ people join with others to care for creation on Earth Day (April 22). LGBTQ people have been involved in the environmental movement from the start, including...
Day 8: Jesus rises, appears to Mary and friends, and more (Gay Passion of Christ series)
“I am the resurrection and the life.” -- John 11:25 (RSV) A handsome young Christ in blue jeans leads a joyous jailbreak in “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” a series of 24 paintings by Douglas Blanchard. He holds hands with a prisoner as he steps upward, leading...
Celebrate 38th anniversary of “beautiful couple” Kittredge and Audrey’s same-sex wedding
Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry and her spouse Audrey Lockwood are celebrating 38 years since their same-sex church wedding in 1987. They invite you to view pictures from throughout their decades together, listen to the song about them as a “Beautiful Couple,” and...
Mychal Judge, gay saint of 9/11 and chaplain to New York firefighters
Mychal Judge, chaplain to New York firefighters and unofficial “gay saint,” died helping others in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He was the first recorded victim of 9/11. A popular Franciscan priest during his lifetime, he rose to...
Gloria Anzaldúa: Queer feminist Chicana scholar of spiritual activism
Gloria Anzaldúa is an influential queer Latina feminist scholar whose spirituality often gets overlooked. She died on May 15, 2004 at age 61. One of the first openly lesbian Chicana writers, she grew up in Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border. In school she was punished...
Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzus: “Two bodies with a single spirit”
Influential fourth-century saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzus were so close that Gregory said they were like “two bodies with a single spirit.” Their example of love between men can be an inspiration for LGBTQ people and allies today. The pair is...
Julian of Norwich: Celebrating Mother Jesus
Julian of Norwich is a medieval English mystic who celebrated “Mother Jesus” and had important relationships with women. Her feast day, May 8, always falls near Mother’s Day in the United States. She had some queer ideas about God, shared her hermit's cell with a...
Madre Juana de la Cruz: Queer saint of 16th-century Spain
Madre Juana de la Cruz Vázquez Gutiérrez was an abbess in 16th-century Spain who insisted that God changed her gender in the womb, transforming her from male to female. She dressed as a man to escape her family and join a community of religious women. Her feast day...
Medieval holy men Vivaldo and Bartolo: Love stronger than death for AIDS patrons
A pair of medieval holy men faced disease together with a love that speaks across the centuries to the LGBTQ community and all people in the age of COVID-19, AIDS and Ebola. Thirteenth-century Franciscans Blessed Bartolo and Blessed Vivaldo ministered in an Italian...
All-time favorites at Q Spirit
Top 24 LGBTQ Christian books of 2024 named
Check out the top 24 LGBTQ Christian books of 2024 — including theology, Bible, memoir, church life and history by diverse authors. The list was announced today by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry, founder of Qspirit.net. “Literary books were this year’s...
Trans Saints? Early cross-dressing monks and martyrs share similar lives
Early Christian cross-dressing monks are being reclaimed as possible transgender or LGBTQ saints. More than 20 saints share a similar story: They escaped their lives as women and lived as men, joining monasteries or becoming religious hermits. Often they were...
Litany of Queer Saints
LGBTQ saints and martyrs are remembered in the Litany of Queer Saints from Q Spirit. The prayer was created by Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry. She also wrote a major essay on why we need LGBTQ saints. Both traditional and alternative saints are featured. It is a...
Why we need LGBTQ saints: A queer theology of sainthood
It’s time to welcome the queer saints. Many believe that saints and other souls will visit for Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos). The LGBTQ saints are important because people are searching for alternative ways to lead...
Kittredge Cherry: Christianity inspired me to come out as a lesbian
I am celebrating my birthday on Oct. 21 by re-posting this reflection on my coming-out story and life journey as a lesbian Christian. During my birthday month, I try to appreciate my own accomplishments and reflect on my dreams for the future. My 2024 birthday wish:...
Rainbow Christ Prayer: LGBTQ flag reveals the queer Christ
Colors of the LGBTQ rainbow flag reveal the many faces of the queer Christ in the following Rainbow Christ Prayer by lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry and gay theologian Patrick S. Cheng. The Rainbow Christ Prayer honors the spiritual values of the LGBTQ...
Gay Passion of Christ blog series starts Palm Sunday at Q Spirit
A gay vision of Christ’s Passion will run during Holy Week here at Q Spirit. Reflections and art will be shared online daily from Palm Sunday through Easter (April 13-20, 2025). All 24 paintings in the original version of Douglas Blanchard’s “The Passion of Christ: A...
Black Jesus, Latinx Jesus, Asian Jesus, female Christ and other liberating visions join the gay Passion of Christ
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...
Queer Nativity scenes show love makes a family
I create my own queer Nativity scenes for the Christmas season. One has two Marys at the manger with the baby Jesus, and the other features two Josephs with the Christ child. I put Mary with Mary and Joseph with Joseph—just like putting two brides or two grooms on top...
Sign up: Free newsletter on LGBTQ spirituality and the arts
You are invited to sign up for a free subscription to the monthly Q Spirit newsletter on LGBTQ spirituality and the arts from Jesus in Love. The e-newsletter covers LGBTQ saints and the queer Christ, with an...
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Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision
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| The Passion of Christ:
A Gay Vision
Meet Jesus as a gay man in a modern city "Accessible but profound" |
Art That Dares
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| Art That Dares:
Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, And More
By Kittredge Cherry Packed with color art by 11 contemporary artists "An amazing, disconcerting, and sacred book" |
This month’s most popular posts
Augustine of Hippo: Saint who rejected his bisexual…- Henri Nouwen: Priest and author who struggled with…
- Paul the Apostle: Did his homosexuality shape Christianity?
- John the Evangelist: Beloved Disciple of Jesus…
- David and Jonathan: Same-sex love between men in the Bible
- Gay centurion: Jesus heals a soldier’s boyfriend in…
Francis of Assisi: Queer side revealed for saint who…
Trans Saints? Early cross-dressing monks and martyrs…- Rumi: Poet and Sufi mystic inspired by same-sex love
Julian of Norwich: Celebrating Mother Jesus