About Kittredge Cherry

Kittredge Cherry is a lesbian Christian author, minister and historian who writes regularly about LGBTQ spirituality and the arts at Q Spirit. She was ordained by Metropolitan Community Churches, ministered at MCC San Francisco during the AIDS crisis and advocated for LGBTQ rights at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches as MCC’s National Ecumenical Officer.

Kitt was born and raised in Iowa in a mostly secular family. Her mother was an art teacher and her father was a businessman and musician. She is the oldest of two children, and enjoyed many fun adventures growing up with her brother, Craig. They loved playing with rubber animal erasers, real live toads and the family dogs. Kitt met her spouse, Audrey Lockwood, in 1975 when they were both freshmen at the University of Iowa. After earning degrees in journalism and art history, Kitt worked as a daily newspaper reporter covering business and the arts at the Quincy Herald-Whig in Quincy, Illinois, from 1979-82.

She went on to study in Japan on a Rotary International Scholarship for Journalists and lived there for three years. She studied at International Christian University in Tokyo and Kobe College (Kobe Jogakuin Daigaku). That experience led to her first book, “Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women,” which became a bestseller. As a freelance writer in Japan, she wrote for the Asian editions of Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal, plus many other publications, including Audrey’s “Feminist Forum” magazine.

Her father’s sudden, unexpected death in 1983 led to a spiritual crisis and religious conversion experience. Kitt was baptized at age 26 at Kobe Union church, an interdenominational church in Kobe, Japan. In 1985 she and Audrey came out as a lesbian couple, moved to San Francisco and began attending Metropolitan Community Church. Kitt followed a call to ministry, earning a Master of Divinity degree from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California.

Her ministry began at MCC San Francisco during the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s. With Jim Mitulski as her supervising pastor and mentor, she served as program director and organized the church’s first annual women’s retreat. Women’s participation tripled under her leadership. She co-authored the landmark 1988 article “We are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS” in Christian Century magazine.

In 1991 Kitt became an executive at MCC’s international headquarters in Los Angeles. She worked closely with MCC founder Troy Perry and Nancy Wilson, who succeeded him as moderator. Kitt was on the forefront of the homosexuality debates at the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches as MCC’s National Ecumenical Officer. In addition she organized dramatic demonstrations for LGBTQ rights in the church, including Hands Around the God-Box at the offices of the National Council of Churches as part of Stonewall 25 and the take-over of the 1993 NCC meeting when members voted to deny observer status to MCC.

She handled media relations for The Wedding, a spectacular group blessing of 6,000 lesbian and gay couples at the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Rights. Kitt also made an impact at many other conferences, including Christian Lesbians Out Together (CLOUT) and Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women: For Men and Women. She co-founded a worship service at MCC Los Angeles in the style of Taize, an international ecumenical community in France known for its meditative chants. The MCC denominational newsletter “Keeping in Touch” was voted the most valuable MCC program while she was editor.

Kitt turned to online ministry after Chronic Fatigue Syndrome forced her into a more contemplative life. She launched JesusInLove.org in 2005 to promote artistic and religious freedom and show God’s love for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. Since then it has grown to include Qspirit.net, plus a popular blog and newsletter. Readers call it inspiring, informative and “always fabulous.” The blog surpassed 3 million page views in its first 15 years. Her most frequently cited blog posts include her LGBTQ Saints series, her gay Passion of Christ series, and the Rainbow Christ Prayer, co-authored with Patrick Cheng. She started the Santos Queer blog in 2012 to share her work in Spanish. In 2018-19 she expanded on social media by launching the LGBTQ Saints group on Facebook and became administrator of the Queer Biblical Studies and Theologies group.

Kitt’s best-known books are Lambda Literary Award finalist “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More” (AndroGyne Press, 2007), “Equal Rites: Lesbian and Gay Worship, Ceremonies, and Celebrations” (co-edited with Zalmon Sherwood; Westminster/John Knox Press, 1995), and “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” (AndroGyne Press, 2014). Kitt is also the author of “Hide and Speak: A Coming Out Guide” (HarperSanFrancisco, 1991; AndroGyne Press, 2006), “Jesus in Love: A Novel” (AndroGyne Press, 2006) and its sequel “Jesus in Love: At the Cross” (AndroGyne Press, 2008). The 30th-anniversary edition of “Womansword” was published by Stone Bridge Press in 2016.

The book has been used as a teaching tool in a variety of seminaries and universities, including courses on Christologies (Episcopal Divinity School), AIDS (Dartmouth), and queer theology (Pacific School of Religion). Her work is frequented quoted and footnoted in academia.  “Every footnote counts and I enjoy being on the margins,” she notes.

The New York Times Book Review praised Kitt’s “very graceful, erudite” writing style and her poetry has won several awards. Her books have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, German, and Polish. The German edition of her novel “Jesus in Love” was published by EuQor in 2007. The Polish edition of “Hide and Speak” was published by Sensus, a subsidiary of Helion Publishing Group in 2008. Major translations of her Q Spirit blog articles were published on Italian, Russian and Spanish websites.

A wide variety of books discuss Q Spirit founder Kittredge Cherry’s work as an LGBTQ minister, activist and author. A bibliography covers eight books that address her work in the context of history, theology and worship. They were published from 1995 to 2024 by a broad spectrum of publishers, religious and secular, Protestant and Catholic, large and small, from both the USA and UK, ranging from academic to mainstream.

The Washington National Cathedral included one of her prayers in worship services for gay martyr Matthew Shepard in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Kitt and her college sweetheart, Audrey Lockwood, were united in a Holy Union church wedding on April 11, 1987 at MCC San Francisco and legally married on May 4, 2016 at the Beverly Hills Courthouse. Audrey has worked as an out lesbian in the corporate world since the 1980s. Kitt and Audrey live in Los Angeles with their animal companions.

For a more personal reflection on her whole life, read the essay “Christianity inspired me to come out as a lesbian” by Kittredge Cherry.

“My Whole Life is Queer: An Interview with Rev. Kittredge Cherry” by Cassidy Hall was posted online in 2023 and appears in her book Queering Contemplation: Finding Queerness in the Roots and Future of Contemplative Spirituality.”

 

Articles and resources by and about Kittredge Cherry

“We are the Church Alive, the Church with AIDS” by Kittredge Cherry and James Mitulski, Christian Century magazine 1988

“UFMCC’s First Quarter Century” by Kittredge Cherry, 1993

“Christianity inspired me to come out as a lesbian” by Kittredge Cherry

Historical articles document Kittredge Cherry’s LGBTQ ministry and activism

“Kittredge Cherry and Audrey Lockwood: A Love Story” (University of Iowa Libraries News, March 16, 2022)

Bibliography of books that discuss Kittredge Cherry’s work

Kittredge Cherry: Una autora Cristiana-lesbiana y sacerdotisa (bio in Spanish)

Kittredge Cherry’s prayer at the Washington National Cathedral appears in the 2021 service leaflet and 2022 service leaflet online, plus the 2021 video and 2022 video of the worship services. The 2023 service leaflet and video are available online too.

Read “Kittredge Cherry interview” by Bethany Fenton at Hidden Perspectives

Read the Houston Chronicle’s “7 questions for lesbian Christian author Kittredge Cherry”

Read Kitt’s Tikkun Magazine article “Take Back Jesus: The Queer Christ Arises for the Good of All”

Learn about Kitt on Wikipedia

See photos of Kitt’s ministry in Metropolitan Community Churches

View Kitt’s profile at the LGBT Religious Archives Network

Visit the Jesus in Love Blog page in the Collections Catalog on the LGBTQ Religious Archives Network

Read the New York Times review of Kitt’s book

Read the Los Angeles Times interview with Kitt about same-sex marriage

Listen to “Choose Life: An Easter Anthem” with lyrics by Kittredge Cherry

Click here for books by Kittredge Cherry

Her papers are preserved at the Iowa Women’s Archives.

Kitt and Audrey reveal their love-letter postal art from the 1970s

See Kitt’s OCLC WorldCat Identity

See Kitt’s VIAF (Virtual International Authority File)

Watch her video interview with Sunshine Cathedral from June 24, 2020

Kittredge Cherry’s name in other languages

Arabic: كيتريدج شيرى

Chinese: 櫻傑靈

Hindi: किटट्रेज चेरी

Japanese: チェリー, キトレッジ

Korean: 키트리지 체리

Russian: Киттридж Черри

More info on Wikidata