Profiles Gallery
Identifying leaders in religious movements for justice for LGBT persons.
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Rev. Armando Sanchez
Rev. Dr. Armando Sanchez Bermudez was born in Nicaragua (Central America) in 1966. He has theological and humanistic formation--since entering formation for clergy and religious consecration in the Roman... Read More
Rev. Elder James E. Sandmire
James Sandmire was raised in northeastern Oklahoma. His family, descended from Mormon pioneers, and most of his relatives are still devout, active Mormons. His family was a close and loving one, and during his... Read More
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah is a radical feminist and writer/editor, who was active in the Women’s Liberation Movement in Britain during the late 1970s and early 80s. She was a member of the Lesbian Line... Read More
Rev. James Schexnayder
The Rev. James Schexnayder was born in 1937 in south central Louisiana to Leon & Ethel Schexnayder. He was the youngest of four children, having a sister and two brothers. The Southern Cajun culture of Lafayette,... Read More
Pastor Bradley Schmeling
Pastor Bradley Schmeling is a Lutheran minister who led the push for acceptance of LGBT clergy with partners in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He was a native of Ohio and attended undergraduate... Read More
John Schott
John H. Schott III, long-time leader of Dignity USA in Philadelphia and nationally, was born on June 25, 1938, in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania into a family with two sisters and two brothers. He was active with Boy... Read More
Rev. John L. Selders, Jr.
The Right Rev. John L. Selders, Jr., is an ordained minister serving the United Church of Christ (UCC) as the organizing pastor of Amistad UCC in Hartford, Connecticut. John was born and raised in an extended... Read More
Vanessa Sheridan
Vanessa Sheridan is a pioneering author in the field of transgender Christian theology. Since 1991 she has been speaking, writing, researching, consulting, and providing training on transgender issues for... Read More
Rev. Jeffrey Michael Shirilau
Deacon Jeffery Shirilau (1953-1993) was the co-founder of the Ecumenical Catholic Church along with his husband Mark. The ECC is a Christian denomination combining the theology and liturgy of the Church Universal... Read More
Archbishop Mark Steven Shirilau
Archbishop Mark Shirilau is the founder of the Ecumenical Catholic Church, a Christian denomination combining the theology and liturgy of the Church Universal with a liberal approach to social issues. ... Read More
Fr. Zachary Shore
Fr. Zachary Shore was born Joseph Michael Shore in 1937 to William and Birdie Shore, along with his two brothers in an observant Catholic household. His involvement with the church began early on in attendance to... Read More
Rev. Dr. Robert E. Shore-Goss
Robert E. Goss was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1976, and he resigned the Society of Jesus as an unlaicized priest in 1978. He served as a chaplain for Dignity Boston until 1982. Goss was co-founder of Food... Read More
Rabbi Sheila Shulman
Rabbi Sheila Shulman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1936 into a largely Yiddish-speaking environment, though many folk in her parents’ generation were so anxious to become "American" that they ended up in a... Read More
Rev. James Siefkes
James Siefkes was born in Iowa into a fourth generation Lutheran clergy family. His early childhood was spent in a parsonage in Ohio. His teen years, secondary and college education were completed in San Antonio,... Read More
Bill Silver
Bill Silver (September 8, 1947- May 26, 2007) was the first openly gay candidate for the ministry of word and sacrament in the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (now the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)). When his... Read More
Archbishop Bruce Simpson
Bruce Simpson was born and raised in Audubon, New Jersey. At the age 18, he enlisted in the United States Air Force during Vietnam and was assigned to nuclear security. Upon receiving an honorable discharge,... Read More
David Sindt
David Bailey Sindt (1940-1986), founder of the major Presbyterian lesbian and gay organization, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 8, 1940, and grew up in the Twin Cities area. As a youth,... Read More
Rev. Elder Freda Smith
The Rev. Elder Freda Smith is the former Vice-Moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches; a political activist in California; and an advocate for women's and minority concerns. She... Read More
Richard Smith
Rev. Dr. Richard Smith, openly gay priest serving at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco, was asked by a parishioner to relate his life journey. This is what Richard wrote: ... Read More
Dr. Sharon Smith
Dr. Sharon Smith (1962-2011) passed away on 13 March 2011, following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. A dear and trusted colleague, Sharon was the author of an outstanding PhD thesis entitled Buddhism,... Read More
Rev. Willie Smith
Willie Smith was born in Yuma, Arizona, where he was raised as a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He was a part of the technical department as a teenager at the Seventh Day Adventist General... Read More
Rev. Matthew Smucker
The Rev. Matthew J. Smucker was the first openly gay person ordained in the Church of the Brethren. In April 2002, the Michigan District Board recognized his call to ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary, where... Read More
Randi Solberg
Randi Oklevik Solberg was born in September, 1963. She grew up by her loving parents in the town of Halden in southeast Norway, near the border with Sweden. Randi's childhood and adolescent years were... Read More
Rev. Jorge Sosa
The Rev. Elder Jorge Sosa was the second of a three children family, the only son with two wonderful sisters. Sosa received a ministry call early in life and wanted to join the Missionaries of Our Lady of... Read More
Ken South
Ken South considers himself one of the first of the Baby Boomers; he was born in December of 1945, shortly before the official start date of 1/1/1946 for that generation.
His childhood years were... Read More
Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr
The Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr, Janie, as she prefers to be called, describes herself as a lesbian, feminist, Presbyterian minister committed to justice issues for the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community,... Read More
Rabbi Julie Spitzer
Rabbi Julie Ringold Spitzer was born in Jacksonville, Florida, graduated from Wolfson High School, the University of Florida (Alpha Epsilon Phi) and received her Masters of Hebrew Letters and Masters of Jewish... Read More
The Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong
John Shelby (Jack) Spong was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1931. He was raised in a working-class household in the segregated South. His father passed away when he was twelve years old, and... Read More
Kevin R. Steen
Kevin Russell Steen attended Abbey Prep School in Richardton, North Dakota, a Benedictine boarding school. He graduated from there in 1957 and joined the religious community, making temporary vows as a Benedictine in... Read More
Virginia Stephenson
Virginia Stephenson was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1951. She was named William at birth and adopted at six months of age by a Southern Baptist minister and his wife. The family lived in Salisbury,... Read More
Marsha Stevens-Pino
Marsha Stevens-Pino was born Marsha Carter in Pomona, California, in 1952. She grew up in a troubled household that was impacted by alcoholism. At age 16, she found solace and new life at a beachside evangelistic... Read More
Rev. Canon Janine Stock
Reverend Canon Janine Stock, the daughter of a Hispanic immigrant and a Mohawk Indian, was raised to be the “non-traditional traditionalist” that most of her friends know her to be. Adamant that everyone has a place... Read More
Rev. James Stoll
The Rev. James Stoll was born in 1936 in Connecticut. He studied at the Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, at San Francisco State University and at the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley,... Read More
Rev. Sheikh Jamshed Ken Storer
Kenneth Mark Storer was born into a hard-working Mormon family of A & W Root Beer stand proprietors on March 19, 1940, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Some of the very first sweetness he served came in a mug. His first... Read More
Bishop David Strong
Bishop David C. Strong is a native of Cairo, Illinois. He was born to the family of the Rev. Elder Melvin & Mrs. Bertha Strong. He is the grandson of Ida Julius and Mattie Julius Brown, who raised him and... Read More
Beth Stroud
Beth Stroud served as an ordained United Methodist pastor for six years before losing her clergy credentials in a 2004 church trial. In the trial, Beth was found guilty of “practices declared by the United... Read More
Dr. Elizabeth Stuart
Dr. Elizabeth Stuart, was the first theologian in the United Kingdom specialising in lesbian/gay/queer theology to be appointed to a professorial chair when she was appointed Professor of Christian Theology at... Read More
Dr. Diana Swancutt
Diana Swancutt is an award- and grant-winning author, teacher, and scholar who served as faculty in New Testament and Christian origins at Yale Divinity School for twelve years, from 2000-2012. She earned the... Read More
Rev. Dr. Erin Swenson
Erin Swenson broke new ground within mainstream Christian Protestant faith groups on October 22, 1996, when the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, by a vote of 186 to 161, sustained her ordination as a Presbyterian... Read More
The Rt. Rev. William Swing
Bishop William Swing was born in Huntington, West Virginia in 1936. He grew up involved with a sense of awe towards the outdoors, and his appreciation of the majesty of nature would inform his faith in the coming... Read More