Last Updated on September 9, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Rainbow icons of Mary highlight her compassionate connection to the LGBTQ community — evoking both controversy and celebration. Various rainbow Mary images by contemporary artists and activists are posted today at Q Spirit in honor of her birthday, which is celebrated on Sept. 8 as Marymas or the Nativity of Mary.
As the mother of Jesus, Mary is a central figure in Christianity. She is often portrayed as a virgin or a mother, but progressives and feminists also emphasize her self-determination and her solidarity with the poor. Mary expressed it in her famous prayer, known as the Magnificat. It includes these lines (Luke 1:52-53):
God, you have deposed the mighty from their seats of power,
and have raised the lowly to high places.
Those who suffer hunger, you have filled with good things.
Those who are privileged, you have turned away empty-handed.
When Mary gave consent, God became flesh. It was a total, shocking identification with all people, including the whole rainbow spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities.
While this article focuses on contemporary rainbow Mary images, it’s important to remember that other artists have used different imagery to show Mary’s queer side. Icons of the Madonna of Montevergine show how she rescued a queer medieval couple. There is a lesbian vibe to some images of the Visitation, when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth when they were both pregnant. Historical paintings of the Visitation scene invite a queer interpretation by showing the loving touch between two women, an intrinsic challenge to patriarchal systems. Some medieval nuns such as Hildegard of Bingen expressed devotion to Mary in ways that were tinged with homoeroticism. Mary has been syncretized with goddesses who have lesbian and/or queer aspects, including Artemis, Kuan Yin and Erzulie Dantor.
New in 2024: Our Lady of Queers
Rainbow rays shine from the open hands of Mary in “Our Lady of Queers” (Notre Dame des Queers) by French artist Gabian Spirit. This queer Mary “loves and blesses all of God’s children in their wonderful diversity,” she explains on the GabianSpiritArt Etsy page.
“Our Lady of Queers” (Notre Dame des Queers) by Gabian Spirit of the GabianSpiritArt Etsy shop
New in 2023: More rainbow Mary images emerge
A variety of new rainbow Mary images emerged recently, perhaps even indicating a movement of the spirit in this area.
Mary welcomes her rainbow children in an image by Laura Haynes from a vision gifted by grace to Clifford Hall
An image of Mother Mary standing on a rainbow to welcome her LGBTQ children was created in 2023 as a collaboration between Clifford Hall, an Anglican priest on the Caribbean island of Barbados, and artist Laura Haynes.
The idea came to Hall in a vision of Mary with arms outstretched to all LGBTQ people in the world, affirming that they are indeed children of Mary.
“Our Lady of the Faithful LGBT+” from MadonnaLGBT.com
An icon named “Our Lady of the Faithful LGBT+” was unveiled on April 29, 2023, during an LGBT Mass at the Notre-Dame basilica in Geneva, Switzerland. The image is posted with background info and prayers on a new website, MadonnaLGBT.com, which launched in 2023.
Mary is shown surrounded by a multiracial group of eight LGBT+ community members, all praying on their knees with hands folded. The website identifies them as “a drag queen, a daddy, a trans, a lesbian, a muscle bear, an otter, a twink, and a bear.” It was created by a Filipino artist based on traditional Madonna of the Mantle iconography,
“The Immaculate (Gay) Heart of Mary” by Matthew of Queer Catholic Icons
The Immaculate Heart of Mary is a devotional image that is intended to express her interior life. There’s usually a flame to show that her heart is burning with intense love. And roses encircle her heart to symbolize her purity.
That purity takes on new meaning from a queer perspective in “The Immaculate (Gay) Heart of Mary” by Matthew of Queer Catholic Icons. He is a practicing Roman Catholic and a queer, trans, disabled creator of icons. Here’s what he wrote about this icon:
“Mary’s heart is called “immaculate” because, according to Catholic doctrine, she was born without sin. Here, I chose to color that heart rainbow, to show that LGBT relationships are anything but sinful. And as a way of connecting to the obvious queerness of Mary’s story. A woman, conceiving without the aid of a human man? Doesn’t seem very straight to me!”
“Our Lady of Pride” by K Kriesel
A pastel rainbow of heart-shaped beads encircles the Virgin of Guadalupe in “Our Lady of Pride” by K Kriesel. “I embroidered and beaded this Our Lady of Guadalupe fabric with rainbows for Pride month,” Kriesel explained when posting it on the KKrieselArt shop at Etsy in 2023.
“Madonna Afrique” by Andrea Noel
Colors of the LGBTQ rainbow flag and pan-African colors of green, yellow and red surround a black Mary in “Madonna Afrique” by Andrea Noel, an Afro-Caribbean artist based in Baltimore.
She is surrounded by dynamic patterns inspired by Noel’s Trinidadian roots. She is a self-taught artist, born in Selma, Alabama, but raised in Trinidad and Tobago. Her art is available as prints on her website and at her Etsy shop: A Noel Creates.
10,000 rainbow Marys rise in Polish protest
A huge international controversy erupted in Poland in 2019 and continues in 2022 over an icon that adds a rainbow halo to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, the most revered icon in Poland and a symbol of national identity as well as religious faith.
Elżbieta Podleśna, Anna Prus and Joanna Gzyra-Iskandar were arrested in 2019 for “offending religious sentiments” on charges that they put up posters of this rainbow Mary as a protest against anti-LGBTQ church policies.
This Rainbow Madonna of Częstochowa image sparked international controversy
The arrest got major international news coverage and support from Amnesty International. Hundreds of people carried the icon in protest marches called the “10,000 Rainbow Marys” in Warsaw. They could have gone to jail for two years, but after a long legal battle, they were acquitted.
Prosecutors appealed the decision, and the three women activists were acquitted again in January 2022 when the court dismissed the appeal. As of September 2022, opponents were appealing to the Supreme Court so the case was still not finished.
Attacks on the Polish rainbow Mary did not end there however. More than 30 Member of the European Parliament from Hungary, Poland, Italy, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, and Germany wrote an open letter to the director of the House of European History (HEH) in June 2022 demanding that the image be removed the House of European History museum in Brussels.
The continuing impact of the rainbow Madonna protest reaches far beyond Poland. GayChurch Berlin in Germany uses rainbow Madonna of Czestochowa in its logo.
A church in Oklahoma got permission from Podleśna to use her rainbow Mary icon in a worship service in June 2021. The church is part of Enid Faith Ways, a welcoming interfaith community in Enid, Oklahoma.
Polish rainbow Madonna at a church that is part of Enid Faith Ways in Enid, Oklahoma in 2021 (Photo by Tammy Neal).
Here are Podleśna’s own words: “I still wonder how the rainbow–a symbol of diversity and tolerance–offends these feelings. I cannot understand it, especially since I am a believer. I wanted to show that Mary will not allow harm to a rainbow child who was born non-heteronormative, to a child with a different gender identity.” For more info, see Support Polish LGBTQ activist arrested for rainbow Virgin Mary posters.
Poland’s Rainbow Mary helped inspire this Rainbow Madonna that was at the Queerhaven shop at Etsy.
Poland’s Rainbow Mary helped inspire this Rainbow Madonna from the Queerhaven shop at Etsy. “It’s very hard for me to see other queer people suffer, creating this artwork and thereby spreading awareness is my way to try and do my part, no matter how small the impact,” the German artist explained on Etsy.
Rainbow Mary protested in Kentucky
Another significant protest against rainbow Mary was on Aug. 28, 2021, when conservatives gathered to denounce an image at St. Paul Catholic Church in Lexington, Kentucky. A WTVQ television news report shows them carrying signs such as “Honk to end blasphemy.”
Screenshot from a WTVQ-TV news report about Kentucky conservatives protesting church use of a rainbow Madonna image by Richard Stott.
The protest was organized by the ultra-conservative group American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property. More than 23,000 people signed TFP’s online petition “Tell St. Paul’s Parish to REMOVE the Image of Mary with a Rainbow Flag Mantle.”
They are upset because the church is displaying the rainbow Mary image on the LGBTQ ministry page of its website. A prayer below the artwork reads, “Mother, the rainbow is the last sign of God’s covenant; as God’s love wrapped you in grace, may it also wrap your LGBTQ+ children and assure them of God’s love.” The page also includes “Prayer to Our Mother of Pride,” which is posted at the end of this article.
Rainbow Mary gives birth, lives and grieves
The rainbow Mary at the heart of the Kentucky protest was created by Richard Stott, a gay Methodist minister and artist in Britain. He has portrayed rainbow Mary at two important milestones in her life. He shows her both as a young mother with the baby Jesus, and 33 years later mourning his death as she cradles the body of her crucified son. Both of his rainbow Mary images were shown in the 2014 exhibit “Sacred Stories of the Body: Gender, Sexuality and Spirituality” in the United Kingdom.
A rainbow flag wraps an androgynous Madonna and Christ child in the drawing that drew protests in Kentucky. The dignity and tenderness of the image express the holiness of LGBTQ families.
Rainbow Madonna and child by Richard Stott. His work is on his website and Instagram.
Stott was inspired to create this image in 2013 when he saw rainbow flags hanging at a conference organized by Changing Attitude, an Anglican LGBTI group. He was invited to create art while the conference met at a Victorian church in Stockport. In a reflection about the image on his blog, Stott writes:
“The church had been festooned in rainbow flags and the way the fabric curved as it hung beguiled me. They echoed the folds of cloth on a statue of the Virgin Mary with her child at the opposite side of the church to me. So I brought them together and this image emerged.
It was only at the end, when I stepped back to look at what I’d done that I began to reflect on the meaning of the picture. What started as a study of a very material and ordinary thing, the shadows in hanging fabric, became an image laden with significance…”
Queer Pieta by Richard Stott
Stott also painted a companion piece showing Mary wrapped in a rainbow flag as she mourns her dead son after he was removed from the cross. Paint drips down in long lines like rainbow tears. This scene is not found in the Bible, but it is a traditional subject in art history known as the Pieta. Stott had been commissioned by the Canterbury diocese to do a series of paintings, but the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury cancelled it in 2016 after seeing some of his gay spirituality artwork.
Rainbow Mary appears with rainbow Christ child
A dark-skinned Mary and her baby appear with rainbow halos in “Rainbow Madonna and Christ-Sophia, the Never Empty Cup” by North Carolina artist Jeremy Whitner. This rainbow Mary is the great cosmic mother, surrounded by stars as she emerges from the Milky Way galaxy. The baby Jesus pops out of a chalice in front of her, affirming the universal and infinite welcome of communion. This rainbow Madonna and child are continually incarnated in creation.
“Rainbow Madonna and Christ-Sophia, the Never Empty Cup” by Jeremy Whitner
It is part of his 2022 “Rainbow Christ-Sophia” series of paintings that were inspired by Rainbow Christ Prayer. More images from the series, including a grieving rainbow Mary in “La Pieta,” are included in the previous post Black Jesus, Latinx Jesus and other liberating visions join the gay Passion of Christ.
Whitner is a queer Christian iconographer in process for ministry with the Disciples of Christ while attending Union Presbyterian Seminary in Charlotte. Prints and other items with his artwork are available through his shops at Fine Art America and Pixels.
Rainbow Our Lady of Guadalupe honors Mexican heritage
Rainbow visions of Mary are a cross-cultural phenomenon. “Rainbow Pride Guadalupe” appears on T-shirts from the Modern Maya Design on Etsy. Our Lady of Guadalupe is an Aztec version of the Virgin Mary that appeared to indigenous peasant Juan Diego outside Mexico City on Dec. 12, 1531. Although Spanish colonizers ruled Mexico, the dark-skinned Virgin of Guadalupe spoke to him in Nahuatl, his native Aztec language, addressing him as if he were a prince. Guadalupe has become a powerful symbol, associated with everything from Mexican pride to motherhood, feminism and social justice. She shines with rainbow rays in the pride image.
“Rainbow Pride Guadalupe” by the Modern Maya Design Etsy shop
The symbolism of the rainbow resonates far beyond the LGBTQ flag. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the rainbow stands for God’s promise to support all life on earth. It plays an important role in the story of Noah’s Ark. After the flood, God places a rainbow in the sky, saying, “Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” (Genesis 9:15-16). In the Book of Revelation, a rainbow encircles the throne of Christ in heaven.
Prayers: “Our Mother of Pride” and “Mary, Queer Liberator”
Q Spirit’s Litany of Queer Saints includes this line:
Our Lady of the Rainbow, Mother of Diversity, we your LGBTQ children call on you. Comfort, guide, inspire, liberate and protect us. Wrap us in your rainbow mantle as Our Mother of Pride.
LGBTQ-affirming prayers to “Our Mother of Pride” and “Mary, Queer Liberator” are posted here in full, with permission from their authors.
Prayer to Our Mother of Pride
The following “Prayer to Our Mother of Pride” was composed by Stan “JR” Zerkowski, executive director of Fortunate Families. In August 2021, conservatives protested its appearance on the the LGBTQ ministry page of St. Paul Catholic Church in Lexington, Kentucky.
__________________________________________
Mother,
accompany your daughters and sons
who are on the peripheries:
exiled and banished children.
Comfort those whose hearts are broken
because they have been rejected
and dwell in the Valley of Tears.
Turn, then, most gracious advocate,
your eyes of mercy toward us
and all who wait
to be included, accepted, loved,
and treated with
respect, compassion, and sensitivity.
Wrap us in the mantle
of your love and maternal pride,
and lead us to Jesus.
Amen.
Mary, Queer Liberator prayer
Mary is a queer liberator in the following prayer from Vine and Fig, a queer Catholic community that seeks to elevate the lives of queer Catholics as they find beauty and power at the intersection of our faith and sexuality.
__________________________________________
Mary, our Mother, we your Queer children call on you.
Help us to see ourselves as wholly good
and made in God’s image and likeness.
Protect us from harm so that we may
be safe from hatred and fear, especially
for our other Queer family, regardless
of color or gender identity.
Inspire our church to see the goodness
of our lives and our love, and for our allies
to advocate along with us.
Liberate us from a world that sees us as
inherently disordered and into one where
our lives and relationships are fully
affirmed.
And above all, convert us to your Son that
we may love with a heart like His, and
work to see God’s Reign in our midst for
all God’s people
Amen.
Rainbow Mary LGBTQ statues are available from the Her Holiness shop on Etsy
Links related to rainbow Mary on Q Spirit
Madonna of Montevergine: Patron of LGBTQ people since medieval times
Black Madonna of Czestochowa becomes lesbian defender Erzuli Dantor
Queer Lady of Guadalupe: Artists re-imagine an icon
Advent: Lesbian Mary’s virgin birth
Queer Nativity scenes show love makes a family
Support Polish LGBTQ activist arrested for rainbow Virgin Mary posters
Mary, Diana and Artemis: Feast of Assumption has lesbian goddess roots
Links related to rainbow Mary on other sites
Mary, Mother of God, Help Me Find Queer Joy by Emma Cieslik (Sojourners)
“Madonna of the Homosexuals” by Raffaele Ciotola
Mary, Mother of Equality, Pray For Us (Holy Irritant blog)
Books with liberating views of Mary
“The Feasting Virgin” by Georgia Kolias is a queer novel featuring the Virgin Mary. Xeni is a lesbian and first-generation Greek American, raised in the Greek Orthodox faith, who is praying for a virgin birth. Then she falls in love with free-spirited Callie, who ended up with a baby conceived during a one-night stand. Published in 2020 by Bywater Books.
“Unlocking Orthodoxies for Inclusive Theologies: Queer Alternatives” includes the chapter “Nahum Zenil: ‘the Virgin Mary became my mother’” by Justin Sabia-Tanis. It discusses Mary in the radically queer Catholic piety of gay Mexican artist Nahum Zenil.
“Mother of God Similar to Fire” with icons by William Hart McNichols and reflections by Mirabai Starr presents a wide of variety of liberating icons of Mary, including a black Madonna. McNichols is a New Mexico artist and Catholic priest who has been rebuked by church leaders for making icons of LGBTQ-affirming martyrs and saints not approved by the church.
“Sing of Mary: Giving Voice to Marian Theology and Devotion” by Stephanie Budwey. The focus of the book is about hymns to Mary but the last chapter includes a discussion of how Mary can be liberating, including to LGBTQ people.
“Goddess and God in the World: Conversations in Embodied Theology” by Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow. Two pioneering leaders in the study of women and religion discuss the nature of God / Goddess.
“Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary”
“Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie,” edited by Susan Perry, includes many black Madonnas in an art book to nourish devotion to Mary with reflections by diverse women.
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Top image credit:
Collage of rainbow Mary artwork includes, left to right: Detail from Queer Pieta by Richard Stott, Rainbow Madonna of Częstochowa, and “Rainbow Madonna and Christ-Sophia, the Never Empty Cup” by Jeremy Whitner.
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBT and queer martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit on Oct. 4, 2021, was expanded with new material over time, and was most recently updated on Sept. 9, 2024.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
The reason these “rainbow Mary” icons offend people is simply because you guys deliberately use the rainbow symbol to conflate 1) homosexual sex acts and 2) people who have homosexual temptations through no fault of their own; then you use the second issue to try to browbeat people into accepting the first by claiming that “tolerance for people” requires acceptance of the sin as well despite the patent fact that there are numerous people with homosexual inclinations who nonetheless abstain from the act (just like anyone else who has sinful temptations while choosing to abstain from the act). These icons are part of the attempt to change Christian moral theology by dabbling in the above process.
That is a simply wonderful article. I could not find anything possibly objectionable in that essay.
The Article on the Assumption/Dormition is challenging, but with nuancing it is acceptable. Christianity has welcomed pagan figures and seen in them a prefigure of the Theotokos, just as the Hebrew Scriptures lead us the New, just as the Medieval Church saw in the writings such as the Sibylline Oracles, so female figures in Haitian and Mayan can lead us to God.
Syncretism in religion can be controversial but God and the saints also manifest themselves in the unfamiliar.
There has been 2 approaches to pre-Christianity (at least) There is the approach that takes the good and makes it better. Many of the churches in The British Isles were built over remodelled or reconstucted pagan temples. the Celtic monks appear like Christian Druids. Then there is the approach that destroys the old and starts completely anew. Does God want destruction or ReCreation. If the Resurection reconsitutes the Universe, what does it do individual creation?