Other Sheep - Multicultural Ministries with Sexual Minorities

Annotated
Bibliography

on this page...

Relationships
/Friendship
and
Communities

Relationships/ Friendship, and Communities

John Boswell, Rediscovering Gay History : Archetypes of Gay Love in Christian History, London :
Gay Christian Movement, 1982.
Anticipates his book on same-sex unions.

John Boswell, Same-sex Unions in Premodern Europe, New York, Villard Press, 1994.
Controversial but erudite work that discovered early Christian rituals blessing same-sex unions.

Becky Butler (ed), Ceremonies of the Heart : Celebrating Lesbian Unions, Publishers Group
West/Seal Press/Feminist Press, 1990.
A good collection of lesbian commitment ceremonies.

Sidney Callahan, "Why I Changed My Mind: Thinking about Gay Marriage", Commonweal Apr 22,
1994; 121:8 p. 6-8.
A Catholic, who once opposed gay marriage, discusses what led him to change his mind to accept it.

Kitredge Cherry & James Mitulski, "Committed Couples in the Gay Community", The Christian
Century. Feb. 28 1990 v 107:7, p.218
Two pastors report on the long standing practice of "holy unions" that the Universal Fellowship of
Metropolitan Community Churches performs for same-sex couples.

Jim Cotter, Good Fruits: Same-Sex Relationships and Christian Faith, Cairns Publications, 1988.
An anglo-Catholic argument for recognizing same-sex relationships.

Maragaret Farley, "An Ethic for Same-Sex Love" in A Challenge to Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics
in the Church, ed. by Robert Nugent, New York, Crossroad, 1987, pp. 87-99.
Farley, gay/lesbian friendly Catholic ethicist, argues for the morality of same-sex relationships.

Robert E. Goss, "Challenging Procreative Privilege: Equal Rites," Theology & Sexuality, vol. 6, 1997,
pp. 32-54.
Essay challenges the procreative privilege of heterosexism and argues for the procreativity of
same-sex relationships.

Robert E. Goss & Amy Squires Strongheart (ed), Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer
Kinship, New York, Haworth Press, 1997.
This anthology deconstructs the notion of procreative privilege of heterosexual marriage by
exploring the spirituality, procreativity, goodness of translesbigays in diverse relationships and
communities.

Robert E. Goss, Queering Procreative Privilege: Coming Out as Families, " in Our Families, Our
Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New
York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Goss argues that traditional family values have little to do with Jesus' vision of God's reign and that
the strategies for creating families by translesbigays is far closer to that vision.

Richard Hardy, "Spirituality and Gay Male Couples Living in the Context of HIV/AIDS," in Our
Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires
Strongheart, New York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Hardy draws on first hand experiences of gay couples living with HIV and describes their spirituality.

Renee Hill & Mary Foullke, "We Are Not Your Hope for the Future: Being an Interracial Lesbian
Family Living the Present," in Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert
E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Hill and Foulke reject the notion of enforced sameness regarding family structures.

Mary Hunt, Fierce Tenderness: A Feminist Theology of Friendship, New York, Crossroads, 1992.
Hunt probes love, embodiment and empowerment from the relational perspective of friendship.

Mary Hunt, "Variety is the Spice of Life: Doing It Our Ways, " in Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots
of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York, Haworth
Press, 1997.
Hunt challenges the marriage model because women have fared poorly and offers a corrective
model for same-sex relationships in the notion of friendship.

Michael Keeling, "A Christian Basis for Gay Relationships," in Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation,
ed. by Malcolm Marcourt, London, SCM Press, 1977, pp. 100-108.
Suggests that there is no reason to separate gay relationships from heterosexual relationships.

Leng Leroy Lim, "Webs of Betrayal, Webs of Blessings," in Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of
Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York, Haworth Press,
1997.
Lim describes religious abuse among his Christian family and his discovery of blessings within is
queer family.

Daniel McGuire, "The Morality of Homosexual Marriage," in A Challenge to Love: Gay and Lesbian
Catholics in the Church, ed. by Robert Nugent, New York, Crossroad, 1987.
McGuire, a catholic moral theologian, supports homosexual marriage.

Juan Oliver, "Why Gay Marriage?," in The Journal of Men's Studies, vol. 4, # 3, 1996, pp. 209-224.
Oliver maintains that there is no reason for the church to exclude gay/lesbian marriages.

Michael Piazza, Rainbow Family Values, Dallas, Sources of Hope Publishing, 1996.
Piazza, pastor of the Cathedral of Hope, offers a model for lesbian and gay families and relationships.

Eric Rofes, "Dancing Bears, Performing Husbands, and the Tyranny of the Family," in Our Families,
Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart,
New York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Rofes challenges placing queer relationships with a constricting category of family.

Kathy Rudy, "Where Two or More are Gatherred: Using Gay Communities as a Model for Christian
Sexual Ethics," in Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss &
Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Rudy argues against traditional marriage paradigm and suggests using gay community as a model.

Suzanne Sherman, Lesbian and Gay Marriage : Private Commitments, Public Ceremonies,
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992.
Presents a variety of public, private, and non-sectarian rituals for same-sex commitment ceremonies.

Jane Spahr, "Letting Go: A View of Grief in Process (Finding A Way to Me)," in Our Families, Our
Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New
York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Spahr speaks about coming out a relationship, the loss, and the desire to rediscover herself. A very
moving essay.

Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, "The Power to Choose: We're Here; We're Queer; and We Want to
Get Married," in Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss &
Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York, Haworth Press, 1997.
Strongheart offers anecdotal experiences in her call for lavender people to define the social
parameters and realities of their lives.

Elizabeth Stuart, Just Good Friends: Towards a Lesbian and Gay Theology of Relationships,
London, Mowbray, 1995.
Stuart comprehends sexuality, marriage, and communal relationships within a theology of friendship.
Her approches offers much for the development of a relational lesbian and gay theology.

Elizabeth Stuart, "Lesbian and Gay Relationships: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective," in Christian
Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender, ed. by Adrian Thatcher & Elizabeth Stuart, Grand Rapids,
Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1996, pp. 301-317.
Stuart argues for the lesbian perspective of friendship to contextualize relations.

Elizabeth Stuart, "Just a Perfect Blendship: Friendship and Sexuality," in Our Families, Our Values:
Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York,
Haworth Press, 1997.
Stuart challenges the paradigm of marriage and proposes friendship as new model for relationships.

Susan Talve, "With This Ring You are Made Holy unto Me According to the Law of Moses:
Celebrating and Sanctyfing Lesbian and Gay relationships and Families," in Our Families, Our
Values: Snapshots of Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New
York, Haworth Press, 1997.
This is a powerful essay by a heterosexual rabbi who worked with her congregation in arriving at the
decision to bless same-sex unions.

Larry J. Uhrig, The Two of Us: Affirming, Celebrating and Symbolizing Gay and Lesbian
Relationships, Boston, Alyson Publications, 1984.
Uhrig writes one of the Christian tracts affirming gay/lesbian relationships.

Robert Williams, "Toward a Theology for Lesbian and Gay Marriage," in Christian Perspectives on
Sexuality and Gender, ed. by Adrian Thatcher & Elizabeth Stuart, Grand Rapids, Wm. B Eerdmans
Publishing Co, 1996, pp. 279-300.
Williams constructs a good Anglican theology of gay marriages.

Brad Wishon, "The Transforming Power of Queer Love," in Our Families, Our Values: Snapshots of
Queer Kinship, ed. by Robert E. Goss & Amy Adams Squires Strongheart, New York Haworth Press,
1997.
Wishon celebrates explores what it means to be in relationship, building skills, and developing rituals
that affirm queer love.

Andrew Yip, "Gay Christian Couples and Blessing Ceremonies," Theology & Sexuality, # 4, 1996, pp.
100-117.
Survey of gay/lesbian couples on the desirability of blessing their unions.

Nicholas Zymaris, Nicholas, "The Rite of `Spiritual Brotherhood', Homosexuality, and the Orthodox
Church", Axios, May, 1984, pp. 6-8.
In 1993, Zymaris visited an Albanian Orthodox church where same-sex unions were performed.