black Archives - Q Spirit

RIP: La Paula Turner: Black lesbian clergy pioneer opened doors

La Paula Turner was a pioneering Black lesbian clergy and mother of six who supported LGBTQ Christians since the 1970s. She passed away on Aug. 4, 2025, at age 88. She was one of the first African Americans ordained by the LGBTQ-affirming Metropolitan Community...

John T. Graves: Black gay clergyman was founding president of nation’s first LGBTQ group in 1924 (Society for Human Rights)

by Kittredge Cherry | | Dec 1-15, Saints

John T. Graves was a black gay clergyman and first president of the Society for Human Rights, the oldest documented LGBTQ-rights organization in the United States. It was founded more than 100 years ago in 1924 in Chicago. Graves’ historic role proves that the...

Grant-Michael Fitzgerald: Pioneering black gay Catholic brother advocated LGBTQ rights in 1970s

by Kittredge Cherry | | Nov. 1-15, 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...

Carl Bean: Black LGBTQ church founder who sang “I Was Born This Way”

by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints, Sept 1-15

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,...

Black Madonna of Czestochowa becomes lesbian defender Erzuli Dantor

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, 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...

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...

Pauli Murray: Queer saint who stood for racial and gender equality

by Kittredge Cherry | | July 1-15, Nov 16-30, Saints, Top saints

Human rights champion and queer African American saint Pauli Murray is a civil rights pioneer, women’s rights advocate, author, Episcopal priest and lawyer whose legal arguments were used in landmark Supreme Court decisions outlawing discrimination. The gender...

Marsha P. Johnson: African American transgender woman at Stonewall Uprising

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, June 1-15, 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 bold black trans street activist and lifelong Christian, she was nicknamed “the...

Saints of Stonewall inspire LGBTQ justice — and artists, authors and film makers

by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, June 16-30, 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...

Uganda Martyrs raise questions on religion and LGBTQ rights

by Kittredge Cherry | | June 1-15, Saints

Tough questions about homosexuality, religion and LGBTQ rights are raised by the 45 Uganda Martyrs whose feast day is June 3. In 2024 Uganda’s Constitutional Court upheld one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated...