I am a reluctant mystic with a call to end religious abuse of our queer family. No theology degrees, ordinations, or any career as a minister.
It was a long and dark journey to embrace this calling. I knew I was gay from a young age and grew up in a time and place where being gay meant “going to hell” according to Christian theology.
The trauma I experienced impacted everything in my life as a struggled to be “normal”. However, the trauma and shame was too much. It developed into a toxic combination of untreated mental illness, addictions, unhealthy relationships, and spiritual despair until age 48.
Everything changed on September 30, 2012, when I had an unplanned and unexpected call to sobriety. Early on I began the process of reclaiming my own divinity and along the way I started writing as I was processing the religious trauma while reclaiming my divinity and unintentionally creating a personal faith system. Years later my writings evolved into my Framework of Faith; which is now a model for anyone who has been harmed by religious institutions to create a faith practice that works for them.
I created a stirring keynote, “Broken No More” tells my story with seminaries, divinity schools, spaces of worship, LGBTQ+ organizations, and any other spaces where faith, queer folx, and our allies who love us intersect. '
In late 2023, I founded DIVINE All Along Foundation, Inc., a 501(c))(3) Human Rights Defender organization whose mission is to end religious abuse of our queer family, where I serve as the Executive Director. DIVINE All Along (DAA) is taking on this mission in three ways: 1) Provide support and resources to those abused by religion 2) Confront the flawed theology that led to the abuse and 3) Partner with individuals and organizations around the world who share our vision of ending religious abuse. Find out more at DIVINEAllAlong.org
I am currently work on my forthcoming book, Fermenting Faith: Queer Divinity, Radical Love, and the Movement for Social Justice. Fermenting Faith is a manifesto of radical love, inclusivity, and justice that calls for an end to doctrines rooted in shame, condemnation, and religious authority used to control and harm. Grounded in The DIVINE Soul’s Bill of Rights™, this book reclaims faith from those who wield it as a weapon, affirming that every soul is sacred, every love is worthy, and every identity is divine. The manifesto presents a reimagined, inclusive theology that urgently confronts religiously inflicted trauma—particularly harm done to LGBTQIA+ youth—and envisions a Queer Kin-dom, a spiritual community where every expression of identity is honored as sacred.
I live in NYC with my wonderful husband and best friend, Roy.