While homosexuals continue gaining acceptance in other arenas of American culture, only a tiny minority of religious groups accept gays and lesbians as full members and potential clergy. Serious conflicts over homosexuality threaten to break apart several large U.S. denominations. Yet these heated theological debates can often obscure what religious gays and lesbians are actually doing. Gay Religion is the first book to objectively present the spiritual lives, practices and expressions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered. Drawing from a wide range of religious traditions, new and established scholars explore the range of gay religious expression in denominations, sects, and in areas outside recognized religious institutions. And these scholars ask what these religious innovations mean to the continually evolving religious environment of North America. With its helpful section introductions and an appendix providing profiles of organizations involved, Gay Religion is a useful and a compelling resource for anyone interested in homosexuality and American religion.

Conflicts over homosexuality and gay rights threaten to break apart denominations, if not North American society. These heated theological and political debates have, as well, obscured the fact that many gays and lesbians are religiously active individuals. Gay Religion is the first book to give a straightforward presentation of the spiritual lives, practices and expressions of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender. Drawing from a wide range of religious traditions, new and established scholars explore the range of gay religious expression in denominations, sects, and even outside recognized religious institutions. The essays ask what these religious innovations mean to the continually evolving religious environment of North America. With its helpful section introductions and an appendix providing profiles of organizations involved, Gay Religion is a unique and compelling resource for anyone interested in homosexuality and American religion.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3
Chapter I: Denominational Heritage Expressions
Chapter 4
Chapter I Introduction
Chapter 5 Gay Gods of the City: The Emergence of the Gay and Lesbian Ethnic Parish
Chapter 6 Reconciling Congregations Bridging Gay and Straight Communities
Chapter 7 No Longer an Oxymoron: Integrating Gay and Lesbian Seventh-day Adventist Identities
Chapter 8 Negotiating a Religious Identity: The Case of the Gay Evangelical
Chapter 9 Why Join A Gay Synagogue?
Chapter 10 Latter-Day Saint Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Spirituality
Chapter 11 Sexuality and Gender in Santería: LGBT Identities at the Crossroads of Santería Religious Practices and Beliefs
Chapter 12 Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Buddhist Practitioners
Chapter 13 Shades of Grey or Back to Nature? The Enduring Qualities of Ex-Gay Ministries
Chapter 14
Chapter II: Subaltern / Sectarian Expressions
Chapter 17
Chapter Introduction
Chapter 17 Pluralism and Diversity: Music as Discourse and Information in a Gay and Lesbian Congregation
Chapter 18 St Gerard Teaches Him That Love Cancels That Out: Devotion to St. Gerard Maiella Among Italian American Catholic Gay Men in Newark, New Jersey
Chapter 19 A Religion of One's Own: Gender and LGBT Religiosities
Chapter 20 Liberation in Truth: African American Lesbians Reflect on Religion, Spirituality, and Their Church
Chapter 21 Utopian Imaginaries and Faerie Practice:Mapping Routes of Relational Agency
Chapter 22 Queering the Dragonfest: Changing Sexualities in a Post- Patriarchal Religion
Chapter 23
Chapter III: Popular Expressions
Chapter 24
Chapter III Introduction
Chapter 25 The Gospel Hour: Liminality, Identity, & Religion in a Gay Bar
Chapter 26 Intermediaries: Spirit and Transcendence in a Sample of Third Gendered North Americans
Chapter 27 Rite to Party: Circuit Parties and Religious Experience
Chapter 30 The Harvey Milk Show: Violence, Desire, and Gay Popular Culture
Chapter 30 Gay Men's Spiritual Experience in the Leather Community
Chapter 31 The Spirit Within: Gay Male Culture as a Spiritual Venue
Chapter 31 Conclusion: Gay Religion as a Cultural Production
Chapter 32 Appendix: LGBT Religious Support and Advocacy Group Information
Chapter 33 Index