"But there are also many other stories ... if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." John 21:25
"Feminism has done more to save the lives of women in the last 30 years than Jesus Christ did in the last 2,000 years!" renowned lesbian feminist Sally Gearhart, Ph.D., proudly proclaimed as she opened her sermon one Sunday night in the sanctuary of Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, the proudly LGBTQ church in the Castro district.
It was in the middle of the hardest of the AIDS years and the church was packed for its Sunday night gospel service. The reaction was quick and strong. A congregation of over 200 predominately gay men rose to their feet and gave a spontaneous sustained ovation as Gearhart's words electrified the room. You could feel the moment these worshippers, themselves almost paralyzed by AIDS-related grief, made a life-saving connection between gay liberation and feminism. A few years later, many of these men would contribute over $10,000 to the Lyon-Martin Women's Health Clinic (now Lyon-Martin Health Services) in appreciation of the role women played during AIDS. I shared this memory recently with filmmakers Deborah Craig and Jörg Fockele, who are documenting this feminist icon's life, because it reminds me of how scenes like this are only one example of how queer spirituality changes people's lives, who in turn go on to change the world.