Well, here you are! You’re gay or bi or lesbian or transgender or intersex or queer in some way or other. You may be or agender or pansexual. Or you may not yet be sure what the heck is going on! I understand. I really do. You may even be in a straight marriage and now you realize you’re not straight. Believe me I’ve heard that dilemma many times in private conversation. Wherever you are, I am here for you—to... Read more
November 20th was the Transgender Day of Remembrance. A day to remember the beautiful lives of precious, courageous, brave people. I was honored to be a speaker at the Austin TDOR event and wanted to share with you my talk at this special, emotional event. If you prefer to watch the video, you can just click here. Freeing Hearts to Love and Be Love. By Susan Cottrell I’m a mom of 2 queer kids and 3 straight/cis kids. But tonight... Read more
Well here we are, caught in a maelstrom. The fear has never felt so intense, the fracture never so deep. Stephen Colbert said 50% of people on both sides feel terror of what the other side might do. Abject terror. Those who fervently voted for their candidate, and those who merely voted against the other candidate. Everyone believes “their side” is right, “the other side” is wrong—and they believe it with all their heart. My daughter said, “I just don’t... Read more
Beloveds, it’s a strange day, isn’t it? I don’t even mean the outcome of the election, I mean the aftermath. Regardless of whether or not your candidate won, it is likely that the whole thing feels vaguely gross. Like waking up someplace you should never have been, and now you just want to get home and take a shower. Uck. But we need to take a little pause here. A big pause. Let’s take a big pause. We need to... Read more
“Mom, I’m Gay!” You want to shove those words back in and put the lid on. But you can’t. Having a gay or trans child may may go against everything you’ve been taught. It was not what you had in mind, and you instantly wonder where you went wrong. When you become a parent, you know to expect the unexpected. But for many Christian parents, nothing can prepare them to hear that their beloved child is gay. How could this... Read more
If you are LGBTQI, coming out to your Christian parents and family can be overwhelming. You don’t know their response until you tell them… and then it’s too late. I hope this article, written with a gay friend, will help. Be honest This is the most fundamental piece of advice, and also the most important. It is so easy to water down the truth of what you are saying out of fear, but this will never work out well in the... Read more
“If the you of five years ago doesn’t consider the you of today a heretic, you are not growing spiritually.” — Thomas Merton My delightful daughter Hannah, whose AMAZING coming out post we ran last year, has written another great post on her Facebook page. She is always thought-provoking and I just had to share this with you (with permission). I hope you enjoy it too. Story time! A while back, I received a note from someone I’ve known for... Read more
I love how Elizabeth Gilbert – the bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love – came out today about her relationship with Rayya: she just came out. Not gigantic fanfare, just a Facebook post saying, this is our relationship. She came out now because Rayya has cancer, and they want to be able to walk in a room arm in arm and, as Liz says, “feel relaxed enough to stand comfortably in simple openness about who we actually are to each... Read more
Rejection, shunning, condemnation, ridicule, bullying, all in the name of God. If you are LGBTQ, or the parent of an LGBTQ child, or anyone who is affirming and including, you have likely been on the receiving end of this kind of treatment. And worse. Does such treatment have anything to do with God? No, not really. It is about fear. Does it have to do with the Bible? Not at all. Those who use Christian Scripture to stand against same-sex... Read more
“My son wears tutus. It was fine… until yesterday!” This is the story of the innocence of a child, the love of a Mom, and the scary, hurtful words of a stranger. Unfortunately, it is a situation repeated on a tragically frequent basis. Is it hate? Ignorance? Misguided interference? You decide. I will let Jen, the Mom, tell you what happened… My three-and-a-half-year-old son likes to play trucks. He likes to do jigsaw puzzles. He likes to eat plums. And... Read more
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