March 16-31 Archives

Trans Saints? Early cross-dressing monks and martyrs share similar lives

by Kittredge Cherry | | Featured, March 16-31, Nov 16-30, Saints

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...

Bayard Rustin: Gay saint of racial justice and non-violence

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Jan 1-15, March 16-31, 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...

Day of (No) Silence Prayer: Stop bullying God’s LGBTQ youth

by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, March 16-31

A prayer by Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry is one of the few religious voices supporting Day (No) of Silence, a global student-led protest of anti-LGBTQ bullying and harassment on April 4, 2025. The annual Day of Silence protest was renamed Day of (No) Silence in...

Transgender Day of Visibility celebrated with Christian art, books and resources

by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, March 16-31

Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31) is celebrated at Q Spirit with transgender Christian books, art and other resources. They include trans Christ figures in art and books such as “Trans Biblical,” “Transfaith,” “Transforming” and “Transfigured.” International...

Anne Lister had historic lesbian church wedding in 1834

by Kittredge Cherry | | March 16-31, Saints

Historical lesbian Anne Lister married Ann Walker on March 30, 1834 at Holy Trinity Church in York, England. It is considered the first recorded lesbian wedding in the history of Britain and perhaps even the world. Her wedding anniversary falls right before the...

Adrienne Rich: lesbian poet with spiritual impulses

by Kittredge Cherry | | March 16-31, Saints

Adrienne Rich was a lesbian feminist with spiritual impulses and one of the most influential poets of the 20th century. She died on March 27, 2012 at age 82. Her writing was a guiding light to me and countless others, both people of faith and secular readers. The...

Theodore “Ted” Jennings: LGBTQ-affirming Biblical theologian

by Kittredge Cherry | | March 16-31, Saints

Theodore “Ted” Jennings is a Chicago Theological Seminary professor who wrote “The Man Jesus Loved” and other landmark books affirming queer people the Bible. He died on March 25, 2020, at age 77 after suffering a stroke. Theodore Wesley Jennings Jr. was born Oct. 24,...

“Prodigal Son and his husband,” “Prodigal Transgender Daughter” and other LGBTQ resources on the Prodigal

by Kittredge Cherry | | Artists, March 16-31, Saints

“Prodigal Son and His Husband Receive a Blessing” and “The Prodigal Transgender Daughter” are among new resources that reveal LGBTQ-positive meanings in the well-known Bible story. The parable of the Prodigal child from Luke 15 will be read at many churches worldwide...

Sandra Robinson: Black lesbian MCC clergywoman educated and inspired

by Kittredge Cherry | | March 16-31, Saints

I celebrate the life of my mentor and friend Rev. Dr. Sandra Robinson of Denton, Texas. She passed away March 19, 2023, from COVID at age 74. She is survived by her wife of 30 years, Janai Buentello. As a clergywoman in Metropolitan Community Churches, Robinson headed...

John Boswell: Historian of gays and lesbians in Christianity

by Kittredge Cherry | | March 16-31, Saints

John Boswell was a Yale professor who revealed centuries of LGBTQ Christian history in groundbreaking books such as “Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality” and “Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe.” John Eastburn “Jeb” Boswell was born on March 20, 1947,...