Gays, God and Gospel Mic | HuffPost Relign

Contents:

• WHO'S GAY GOSPEL MIC?
• SOUTHERN GOSPEL SGER KENNY BISHOP IS NOW A GAY UNED CHURCH OF CHRIST PASTOR
• GAYS, GOD AND GOSPEL MIC
• NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC
• GAYS GOSPEL MIC: AN OXYMORON?
• BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP
• NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC
• THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985
• FOR COMG OUT DAY, ‘GAYS AND GOSPEL’ CELEBRAT LGBTQ+ FLUENCE ON CHURCH MIC

WHO'S GAY GOSPEL MIC?

About 54% of practicg Christians said homosexualy should be accepted, acrdg to a recent Pew Rearch Center study. Whe southern gospel mic seems like a strange source of pleasure for a "gay, secular humanist amic, " as Douglas Harrison intifi himself (17).

Guid by theologil fundamentalism and social nservatism, southern gospel's performers and fans tend to take a dim view of homosexualy. In 2003, gospel sger Kirk Talley was "outed" when the FBI arrted a man who attempted to blackmail Talley wh suggtive photographs he shared on a gay web se.

First, how n a homosexual nonbeliever like Harrison, who as a youth was a "Southern Baptist sissy, " who dreamed of beg a southern gospel star until he me out and suffered the nsequenc for dog so by a reprsive relig culture, still fd ecstatic "glory-rollg joy" southern gospel mic? Dpe his clear disda for the homophobia, fundamentalism, and, at tim, racism lurkg beneath the surface of whe southern gospel, he do not bee polemil or "substute one set of moral dogmas for another. If racism and distct unrstandgs of gospel mic's meang and purpose have rerced s separatn as genr, whe and black gospel n, neverthels, fd mon ground wh their shared tradns of homophobia.

SOUTHERN GOSPEL SGER KENNY BISHOP IS NOW A GAY UNED CHURCH OF CHRIST PASTOR

Then Sgs My Soul was released jt one month before Anthony Heilbut's The Fan Who Knew Too Much, portns of which open a door to what he lls the "secret closet" of gays black gospel mic. The tend dienc of each book may not overlap but they both expose the hypocrisy of the gay-gospel paradox nservative Christian culture and, hopefully, will force broar bate.

His immersn the gospel world exposed him to the genre's "fay secret": gay people formed the heart and soul of black gospel mic while the fundamentalism of church and clergy kept them the closet. "Arch-homophob" the gospel muny, Heilbut wr, equently sg "the mic of gay people, acknowledgg wh every breath and step that if you banished the sissi and the bull daggers [gospel sger Shirley Caar's homophobic aspersns], the tabernacle might cmble. " Harrison's gay-gospel paradox transcends race and uld be applied to any homophobic area of Amerin life, but the hypocrisy seems all the more glarg, as Heilbut emphasiz, a mil and relig culture that played such a pivotal role the civil rights movement.

Freedman, "Usg Gospel Mic's Secrets to Conont Black Homophobia, " The New York Tim, June 1, 2012, accsed Augt 4, 2012, ; Louis Bayard, "Review of Anthony Heilbut's 'The Fan Who Knew Too Much, '" The Washgton Post, Augt 3, 2012, accsed Augt 5, 2012,.

GAYS, GOD AND GOSPEL MIC

For more on the difficulti faced by black gospel sgers who e out as gay see, Kelefah Sanneh, "Revelatns: A Gospel Sger Com Out, " The New Yorker, Febary 8, 2010, 48–57,. Ironilly, Harrison tak Heilbut to task Then Sgs My Soul for his ial discsn of homosexualy gospel culture The Gospel Sound.

NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC

In this olr work, Heilbut argued that black gospel appealed to gay people bee of the mic's "theatril" quali. Goodman has been imated by other sgers, cludg mal, while also beg a character habed by drag queens gay bars throughout the South.

For an dience a gay bar, wr Harrison, gospel drag "transmutat the gospel classic to a ll for actn on the part of the dience" (144).

GAYS GOSPEL MIC: AN OXYMORON?

"If orthodox evangelil popular culture has a vted tert portrayg the gay-gospel nnectn as a sful paradox, " Harrison persuasively argu, " is no small part an attempt to efface the fact that sner and sat alike e to the mic as nonnformists—real or imaged, gay or straight, and everythg between—drawn to southern gospel's dramatic renrg of spirual margaly and social misftedns" (148). It is a ncln that would ronate wh equal power Heilbut's discsn of homosexualy and hypocrisy black gospel culture.

There is a crilly important distctn between the outsir inty of the nservative evangelil and the gay gospel fan. In celebratn of Natnal Comg Out Day, the special event “Gays and Gospel” will take place on Tuday, Oct.

“The choir the Black church has always been a place where gay men uld show off their virtuosy while explorg their sexualy, ” said E.

BLACKS, GAYS AND THE CHURCH: A COMPLEX RELATNSHIP

“For me and so many others like me, the church was a place where we uld safely exprs our queerns vert ways while takg pleasure phg the lims of genr, ” Johnson Natnal Comg Out Day, a day tablished 1988 by a psychologist and femist as a form of gay liberatn, Johnson is teamg wh longtime iend and Northwtern lleague, Kent R.

Brooks, director of special projects for the partment of relig and spirual life, to lead a special lecture and performance lled “Gays and Gospel” on Tuday, Oct. Brooks have teamed up on a special lecture and performance lled “Gays and Gospel” to explore the tensns, challeng and triumphs of the LGBTQ+ muny gospel mic.

NOT ON FAH: IT’S TIME TO TELL THE TTH ABOUT GOD, GAYS, AND GOSPEL MIC

Johnson and Brooks talked to Northwtern Now recently about the event and why is important to highlight this often overlooked part of gay most people surprised to learn about the history of gays gospel? But, he was fact gay — although he wasn’t open about are some of the other queer performers you will talk about the lecture who fluenced gospel mic?

It’s not unual to have people still sgg the church who are still stgglg, and ’s not unmon to have people who are very famo now, who are still there be sgg durg “Gays and Gospel? Ltle did I know that Kenny had strayed far om his Fundamentalist Christian roots and was now a married gay man and a bivotnal pastor at Bluegrass Uned Church of Christ  Lexgton, Kentucky!

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

Throughout the middle s of the 20th century, a signifint number of gay or "queer" artists left their mark on gospel mic, a cultural form that many nsir to be Ameri's most origal. Ined, the ntributn of gays and lbians to gospel mic has been so large as to be absolutely "ccial and fundamental.

The say on "the children, " the faial appellatn ed to refer to gays the church, is siar ntent and theme to "The Gospel Sound" that Heilbut is keen on revealg the gospel world all s plexy, paradox and ntradictn.

It may not do much for Mahalia Jackson's "satly image" to know that she was notorly stgy and uld cs like a sailor, but fills out her human portra jt say on "the children, " however, is more a medatn on homosexualy and black church.

FOR COMG OUT DAY, ‘GAYS AND GOSPEL’ CELEBRAT LGBTQ+ FLUENCE ON CHURCH MIC

Heilbut gets beyond simply acknowledgg the prence of gays black church and the fact that gospel artists such as Sam Cooke, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Alex Bradford and Jam Cleveland (to name only a few) were known to be gay or "queer. " He intifi a time when black church were safe spac for "the children, " a time when gays and lbians sought and found refuge church that not only acknowledged their prence but also their value.

For this reason, many black gays and lbians once were among "the most fahful members" of black church and "the most avid celebrants" of s worship culture. There was a time when a gospel song about beg "livered" wasn't for beg "livered om homosexualy. When he surveys the current world of gospel, seeg (wh some exceptns) so far om s glor past and so nial of s gay roots, the anger and the grief nearly overtake is soberg to regnize that what Heilbut ultimately acplish the say is an acuntg of gospel mic's fall om grace to near irrelevance.