Coming Out
Towards the end of 2019, Believe Out Loud had the opportunity to view Coming Out Muslim, a performance by the creative duo Terna Hamida Tilley-Gyado and Wazina Zondon. Chatter from the packed-in crowd produces a hum in the air of the performance space. Tangles of legs line the aisles in an effort to get comfortable…
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We each have our own “nativity story.” Mine is that it was a difficult birth, a prolonged labor, my mother turned blue, my father told the doctor she needed oxygen, I was born feet first, my legs were crooked and doctors wanted to put braces on them, but my mother resisted, choosing another therapy: massaging…
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MLP News Please pray for the friends and family of 14-year-old Kenneth James Weishuhn of Primghar, Iowa. Kenneth took his life on Saturday after being bullied for coming out as a gay teen a few months ago. Kenneth’s friends and family describe him as a happy young man, handsome and full of life. After coming…
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Nearly all of our best and most important transformations are prompted by personal connections, when what was once theoretical becomes achingly personal and powerful enough to blast through our preconceived, long-held beliefs. It’s why, with fewer and fewer gay people staying in the closet, more and more of us are being transformed by those personal connections,…
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In 1988, LGBT activists Robert Eichberg and Jean O’Leary established National Coming Out Day (NCOD), to be observed on October 11—the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. According to his New York Times obituary in 1995, Eichberg explained the motivation behind NCOD as this: “Most people think they…
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Ten years ago if someone asked me to predict my future, I would have said that I expected to married with kids, and involved in some sort of Christian ministry. Ironically, that isn’t far from the truth, except that the specific confines of that prediction had a drastically different outcome than I (or any of…
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“Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends, if indeed they are your friends.” -Harvey Milk Harvey Milk’s historic call to LGBTQ+ people in the 1970s to come out of the closet was predicated on the…
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Click here to find a welcoming church! Affirming pastors can have an immeasurably positive impact in the lives of their LGBTQIA congregants. Hannah Soldner, a Believe Out Loud blogger, is lucky to have three affirming pastors who accompany her on her faith journey. Rev. Mieke Vandersall, the second openly gay minister to be ordained in…
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As a young girl I grew up believing God had created humans perfectly in His image (Genesis 1:27). God made me with brown eyes, olive skin, small hands and feet, a soft heart and a quirky personality. I grew up believing that God saw me, his creation, as good. And therefore, so did I. I…
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Coming out is a powerful experience. It is a story that many people in the LGBTQ community have in common. Whether subtle or dramatic, disclosing one’s sexual orientation or gender identity is often met with celebration and praise. With the advent of inclusive religious institutions, scholars, and others who make a strong case of God’s…
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