Atlanta church first lady's hband and son e out as gay

Contents:

• GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY
• CHURCH MEMBERS WALK OUT AS GAY PASTOR SAYS HIS HBAND IS PREGNANT
• CHURCH MEMBERS WALK OUT AS GAY PASTOR SAYS HIS HBAND IS PREGNANT
• ATLANTA CHURCH FIRST LADY’S HBAND AND SON E OUT AS GAY
• ATLANTA GAY PASTORS BACK ON LUTHERAN CLERGY ROSTER

GEIA MEGACHURCH PASTOR REVEALS HE'S GAY

2, 2010— -- The pastor of a Geia megachurch wh thoands of followers, who was twice married and is a father of four, is speakg out about his recent cisn to publicly clare he is gay. I want to tell you that is not, " Jim Swilley said a vio shot the nonnomatnal megachuch Swilley found 25 years Swilley said g out was a cisn he's stggled wh sce childhood, he ma the announcement last month not for personal reasons -- he said he hop to save 52-year-old founr of Church the Now Conyers, Ga., said he's g out to help stem the recent ti of gay suicis Ameri and won't be swayed by some hateful msag that have been wrten about him onle. ""Hearg about the kids who are mtg suici, the reactn as a gay adult is, 'I wish I uld have jt talked to them for 15 mut or five mut and told them gets better, '" Savage said.

"Officials, Celebri Jo 'It Gets Better'Three weeks later, a cy uncil meetg Fort Worth, Texas, gay cy uncilman Joel Burns was moved to share his own emotnal story about how close he me to killg himself at age 13. ATLANTA (CBS/AP) New pictur have surfaced of Bishop Eddie Long, proment pastor of a 25, 000-member megachurch outsi Atlanta, as a third man has e forward accg the anti-gay advote of ercg him to sex. Long's church was among those named 2007 a Senate mtee's vtigatn to a half-dozen Christian mistri over their has lled for a natnal ban on same-sex marriage and his church unsels gay members to bee straight.

CHURCH MEMBERS WALK OUT AS GAY PASTOR SAYS HIS HBAND IS PREGNANT

She recently penned a eply personal memoir, The Gay Preacher’s Wife: How My Gay Hband Denstcted My Life and Renstcted My Fah. Meredh, who is now an openly gay pastor and leadg a ngregatn of over 1K members —predomantly lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr.

When asked if she missed all the signs that her former hband is gay, she said, “Y, I miss[ed] them.

While she was livg her life, she also missed the signs that her middle son, who is now the mister of mic at the church where his father misters, is also gay. Atlanta gay pastor’s ex-wife on healg after he left her for a man.

CHURCH MEMBERS WALK OUT AS GAY PASTOR SAYS HIS HBAND IS PREGNANT

But those lears, he said, were often surround by LGBTQ members who ma the church’s choirs livelier, helped wh llectns and filled the Oliver Cly Allen Weatherspoon for TODAYThose ​​dynamics, bed wh sermons that cried non-heterosexuali as abomatns, are part of the reason Allen se himself as more than a lear of a Black or gay than a preacher, Allen scrib himself as an abolnist whose job is to spread a msage of eedom and acceptance, two elements that he argu are the fundamentals of Christian belief.

ATLANTA CHURCH FIRST LADY’S HBAND AND SON E OUT AS GAY

“J Christ didn’t say anythg about gay people and said everythg about liberatg people.

ATLANTA GAY PASTORS BACK ON LUTHERAN CLERGY ROSTER

I didn’t know a way out, bee I hated myself, bee that’s what I was tght, to hate a person who was gay. Asadi said his fay ti to the church did not shelter him om stigmas as people began to realize he was gay.

” McKney said that although the majory of church members are LGBTQ, Allen’s sermons have “nothg to do wh whether or not you’re gay or straight. “People n get the love and re that they would normally get om their grandmother or their ntie, ” Allen Allen put , Visn mols a fay dynamic the same way unrground ballroom muni, gay dive bars and gay villag beme surrogate spac for those who were shunned for g out s past. Both men also said they were grateful for the support om the Atlanta lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny and will always nsir servg as grand marshals of the Atlanta Pri Para 2007 as a signifint moment their liv.