I am proud to be an Eagle Scout. I am equally proud to be an openly gay man. In fact, I attribute my many years in Scouting -- first as a Webelos, then as a Boy Scout, and finally as a camp counselor -- as helping me to come out,...

When I came out of the closet in college in the late 1980s, I thought I was a unicorn. That is, I believed that I was a mythical creature. Surely I was the only gay Asian-American person in the universe. All the gay spaces that I belonged to were white,...

What is the strongest theological argument in favor of same-sex marriage? The answer, I contend, is that such relationships are visible signs of God's grace -- an amazing kind of one-way love that is a pure gift and cannot be earned. I've come to this realization based upon over 20...

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." That's what the priest says when marking our foreheads with ashes on Ash Wednesday. It's a fitting beginning for the forty-day penitential season that we Christians call Lent. We're called to remember that we are finite creatures -- that...

Recently almost all the major Republican presidential candidates attended the 2011 Values Voter Summit, sponsored by the Family Research Council and the American Family Association. Both the FRC and AFA have been officially designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center for bearing false...

Gay people love to talk about the diversity of our "community." But sometimes our actions fail to measure up to our words.

Recently, the queer Asian community in New York City was outraged by plans for a new gay party to be called "Mr. Wong's Dong Emporium." The...

Lady Gaga -- the queer icon and pop sensation -- is setting off the Christian right again. In her new song and video, "Judas," Lady Gaga sings over and over, "I'm in love with Judas," referring to the reviled disciple who betrays Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Is...

There are many people, both on the right and on the left, who claim that Christianity is incompatible with queerness. I strongly disagree. In fact, I am convinced that Christianity, at its very core, is a queer religion.

Why? I believe Christianity...

The recent censorship by the Smithsonian Institution of a controversial video clip by the late gay artist David Wojnarowicz - which contained images of ants crawling on a crucifix - has ignited an uproar in the art world. This incident calls to mind other controversial works of art...

Anti-gay Christians love to quote John 8:32, which says that "the truth will make you free." According to them, if only lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people would simply accept the truths of the Christian faith, we would discover the error of our ways, repent of our sins and...

I have been simultaneously horrified, saddened, and enraged at the spate of suicides in the last month by teenagers and young adults who were bullied for being, or being perceived to be, gay. Billy Lucas, 15, hung himself on September 9 from the rafters of a barn. Seth Walsh, 13,...

Much ink will be spilled over the next few days -- and, most likely, over the next few years -- about the legal correctness of Judge Vaughn Walker's Proposition 8 ruling. That ruling struck down the referendum passed in 2008 that stripped same-sex couples in California of their...

What is the spiritual significance of pride?

June is Pride Month for millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people across the country. During this time each year, we commemorate the weekend of June 27-29, 1969, when the patrons of the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village, fed up...

Who are the worst sinners of all? The answer may surprise you. According to the fourteenth-century writer Dante Alighieri, the most egregious sinners are traitors, or those people who have betrayed their families, nations, guests, and leaders. As punishment, these individuals are frozen in ice and are condemned to the...

Why can't Christian evangelicals and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people seem to get along? As an openly-gay theologian and minister, I've been troubled by the increasingly polarized discourse and the apparent lack of compassion and respect that each side has shown for the other. Neither side is blameless;...

To many anti-gay Christians, I'm nothing more than a "sodomite" who is damned for all eternity. It doesn't matter that I've spent the last decade immersed in the Bible, ancient biblical languages, and the Christian theological tradition. It doesn't matter that I've dedicated my life to preaching, teaching, and ministering...

"Love the sinner, hate the sin." Anti-gay Christians often use this slogan to force lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people to change their sexual orientations and gender identities. Popular methods of "change" include mandatory celibacy, reparative therapy, expulsion from homes and churches, and even acts of physical violence, up...

Sinners. That's what a lot of Christians call lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. As an openly-gay theologian and ordained minister with the Metropolitan Community Churches -- an LGBT-affirming Christian denomination that is open to all -- I unfortunately know all too well what it means to be labeled...