LGBT people reconciling sexuality and spirituality make headlines now, but the struggle dates way back. The banned 1928 queer classic "The Well of Loneliness" tells us we are not alone.

A queer Christ figure is the main character in the world's best known lesbian novel, "The Well of Loneliness" by Radclyffe Hall.

The book was banned for obscenity in England in 1928, not just because it portrayed same-sex love, but also for using religious arguments to support "inverts" -- a 1920s term for LGBTQ people. Hall, a devoutly Catholic British lesbian, was herself pictured being nailed to the cross in a satirical cartoon from the era.  More info

Soulforce founder Mel White is famous for confronting the religious right, but he also challenged what he called the "unsure middle" that enables them to attack LGBTQ people.

Jesus in Love founder Kittredge Cherry recalls his speech 20 years ago at a forum that she organized at the 1994 National Council of Churches meeting. More info 

Blessed John Henry Newman, a 19th-century British scholar-cardinal, had a "romantic friendship" with Ambrose St. John. The two priests lived together for 32 years and share the same grave.    

After converting together to Catholicism, they both studied in Rome, where they were ordained at the same time. "From the first he loved me with an intensity of love, which was unaccountable," Newman recalled. More info  

(Credit: Left: Black Madonna of Czestochowa from Wikimedia. Right: Ezili Dantor prayer card from the Vodou Store.) 

(Left: "Christ Embracing St. Bernard of Clairvaux" by Francisco Ribalta. Right: "Bernard of Clairvaux" by Rowan Lewgalon.)

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