The Volume's Contributors 

Aryana Freya Bates studies and teaches ethics and anthropology of religion, and women's studies.  She is especially interested in elements of identity and the ways in which people negotiate their context.  She tries not to take any situation so seriously as to preclude its inherent humor.

Donald L. Boisvert is Lecturer in the Department of Religion at Concordia University in Montreal, and also involved with its sexuality studies program.  He is the author of Out On Holy Ground: Meditations on Gay Men’s Spirituality (Pilgrim, 2000), and currently serves as co-chair of the Gay Men's Issues in Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion.

Wendy Cadge received her Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University. She is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Bowdoin College. In addition to research about religion and homosexuality, she conducts research about religious pluralism in America. Her first book, Heartwood: Theravada Buddhism in America, is published by The University of Chicago Press.  She is currently at  Harvard University as a Scholar in Heath Policy Research through the Robert Wood Johnson Scholars in Health Policy Research Program.        

Richley H. Crapo is a professor of anthropology at Utah State University.  His areas of specialization are the anthropology of gender, the anthropology of religion, and psychological anthropology.

Rene’ Drumm is an Associate Professor of social work and coordinates the Advanced Interpersonal Practice track of the MSW program at Andrews University.  Dr. Drumm holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from Michigan State University and a PhD in Sociology/family studies from Texas Women’s University.  Dr. Drumm’s practice and research interests include mental health and family issues, feminist perspectives, substance abuse and sexual orientation.

Paul Gorrell is doctoral candidate at Drew University in Social Ethics writing his dissertation on the concept of Erotic conversion.  A former Roman Catholic priest, Paul now works as an executive in a human resource consulting company that specializes in talent management.  

Edward R. Gray is visiting assistant professor of religion at Emory University and the executive director of YouthPride, a community based youth service and advocacy organization in Atlanta.

Jay Hasbrouck received an M.A. in Visual Anthropology, and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology at the University of Southern California. His research interests center around a set of inter-related themes: narrative, networks, and cultural landscape. His work with Radical Faeries also includes a video installation focusing on the Zuni
Mountain Sanctuary.

W. Bernard (Bill) Lukenbill is Professor, School of Information, at the University of Texas at Austin.    He has lectured and published widely in several areas of information organization and use, including youth literature, popular culture, gay and lesbian studies, and HIV-AIDS information delivery within library environments.

Mary Jo Neitz was born and raised in Montana.  She received her  BA degree from New College in Sarasota, Florida and MA and Ph.D from the University of Chicago.  She is interested in gender and sexualities, qualitative methods, and feminist theories. Her research takes American religions as sites for studying cultural change, and she has studied Pentecostal Catholics, contemporary witches, and Missouri rural churches.  She teaches sociology and Women Studies at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Thomas V. Peterson, Professor of Religious Studies at Alfred University, specializes in ritual studies, American religion, and religion and art.  He is author of Ham and Japheth:  The Mythic World of Whites in the Antebellum South (Scarecrow Press, 1977) and Linked Arms: A Rural County Resists Nuclear Waste (SUNY Press, 2002).  He was Chair of the AAR Teaching and Learning Committee and member of the AAR Board of Directors (1997-2002).

Christy M. Ponticelli is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida where she also teaches in the Honors College and the College of Medicine.  She is currently engaged in field research at the College of Medicine, hoping to assess the possibility that medical education may contribute to the health disparities experienced by lesbians.  If warranted, she hopes to contribute to changes in medical education that could result in a lessening of these disparities.  She lives in Tampa with her partner of 20 years and their family: 2 dogs—Cappuccino Antonio and Joshua Nathaniel, and 3 cats—Woody Pines, Chewbhaka Copperfield and Cooper Gumby.

Leonard Norman Primiano is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Cabrini College, Radnor Pennsylvania.  His book length study of Dignity/Philadelphia is forthcoming, as is his documentary film on Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement.  He was a consultant on folk and popular religion for the touring exhibition “Angels from the Vatican: The Invisible Made Visible.”

Peter Savastano earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. His scholarly interests include peoples’ devotional practices within the Roman Catholic, Anglo-Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions and people who hold multiple religious allegiances. His scholarship engages the intersection of religion with sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Seton Hall University.

Ingrid Sell is a psychotherapist currently working with a rural population in a community mental health center in Vermont.  Her prior clinical experience includes hospice and working with LGBT clients.  She teaches in the Global Division of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, CA.  Her doctoral dissertation, from which this articles is derived, received the Sidney Jourard award of Division 32 of the American Psychological Association.  She shares her life on 20 peaceful acres with her spouse Sharon, who the chief inspiration for this work.

Moshe Shokeid, Professor of Anthropology at Tel Aviv University.  Born in Israel. Studied sociology for the B.A. and M.A. in Jerusalem (Hebrew University) and gained a Ph.D. in anthropology from Manchester University, UK.  Among my publications, I mention a few books: The Dual Heritage: Immigrants from the Atlas Mountains in an Israeli Village (Manchester U.P.1971; Transaction 1985); Children of Circumstances: Israeli Emigrants in New York (Cornell U.P. 1988); and A Gay Synagogue in New York (Columbia U.P. 1995; University of Pennsylvania Press 2002).

Scott L. Thumma is a Professor at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT.  He received his Ph.D. from Emory University in 1996.  In addition to teaching and research with the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Scott is the web, distance education and IT director for the Seminary, as well as webmaster for a number of academic websites. His publications include a number of journal articles and chapters in edited volumes. Currently he is working on a book on Megachurches in the United States.  His research at present focuses on homosexuality and conservative Protestantism, megachurches, and the role and impact of the Internet/Web on religious organizations.

Melissa M. Wilcox is the Visiting Johnston Professor of Religion at Whitman College.  Author of Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity, and Community, and co-editor of Sexuality and the World’s Religions, she has also written articles on various aspects of LGBT religiosity and on religious responses to violence.