Additional Resources & Reviews  

RESOURCES: There are many excellent web sites with LGBT resources.  A few of the best sites are listed below.

The Interfaith Working Group www.iwgonline.org/links/  has a superb list of links to LGBT religion web sites. This site also contains online magazines and many articles that have been written on the subject. 

Whosoever: An Online News Journal For Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Christians   www.whosoever.org  is an online magazine dedicated to the spiritual growth of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Christians. This site also contains an excellent resource of links to LGBT religion sites www.whosoever.org/resources.html 

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Religious Archives Network http://www.lgbtran.org  is an innovative venture in developing archives and encouraging historical study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) religious movements. The site has numerous collections of original material made available electronically.

The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance web site has extensive information on all sides of the Homosexuality and Religion issue. www.religioustolerance.org/homosexu.htm  The site contains information on the official stance of denominations and religious organizations, on the sacred scriptural arguments for and against homosexuality and on many other aspects of issue.  

The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry  http://www.clgs.org/  is a research and educational center of Pacific School of Religion whose vision is "to advance the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people and to transform faith communities and the wider society by taking a leading role in shaping a new public discourse on religion and sexuality through education, research, community building and advocacy."  

People with a History http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/pwh/ is an excellent and extensive online collection of historical documents and writings. "People with a History presents the history of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people. It includes hundreds of original texts, discussions, and [soon] images, and addresses LGBT history in all periods, and in all regions of the world." 

This site also has the most extensive listing of bibliographic materials found on the web.

Hartford Institute for Religion Research of Hartford Seminary has additional links and resources on a section of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research web site.  There is also a page of  articles.

Additional Resources and Support for Orthodox Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender People can be found at http://www.tremblingbeforeg-d.com/ This is a fine web site which supports the film Trembling before g-d. 

REVIEWS AND COMMENTS ON THE BOOK CHAPTERS: 

Reviews from the back cover of the Book -

"Putting a human face on what is too often contested as an abstract concept, Thumma and Gray and their contributors do not so much debate the possibility of gay religion as portray its reality. In vivid accounts of Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Santeria, neo-Pagan and other LGBT communities, readers will encounter much that is comfortingly familiar alongside that which is new and startling. The collection and the realities it depicts testify to the inexhaustible adaptability and diversity of American religion. This is an important and timely book."  
—R. Stephen Warner, University of Illinois at Chicago 

"This collection of essays can inform an issue that has too much divided religious folk in recent decades. Perhaps if we knew more about the subject we seem determined to debate so fiercely we might make some progress toward actually hearing one another. Thumma and Gray have given us a source of information which has heretofore been entirely missing. Now, if we will use it the church might return to its more ancient work."  
—Rev. Michael S. Piazza, Dean of the Cathedral of Hope, Dallas 

"Gay Religion, with its valuable and insightful array of articles, maps an uncharted terrain of translesbigay spirituality in contemporary American religious culture. The authors provide insight into the diverse strategies that translesbigays use to negotiate between institutional religion and their sexual orientation identities. It also highlights creative, innovative forms of rainbow spirituality, from queer appropriation of Catholic saints, to reconciling congregations to the spiritual experiences of leather spirituality, evangelical gospel drag, and circuit parties. The volume testifies to the vibrant spirituality of a community, often oppressed by religion. " 
—Robert Goss, MCC Pastor/Theologian and author of Jesus ACTED UP and Queering Christ. 

Review from Publishers Weekly

In their introduction, Gray and Thumma express a desire to steer away from "highlighting debates over the place of gay and lesbian believers in American religious life," preferring to examine "new and inventive forms of religious expression created in support of the diverse gay spiritual life in America." The mostly ethnographic research reported by this volume's contributors sometimes succeeds in this mission. René Drumm's fascinating piece about gay Seventh-Day Adventists chronicles the success of a national support group and the surprisingly accepting response many of them have gotten from the SDA community. And Jay Hasbrouk's essay about Radical Faeries explicates the little-known and even less understood communities of gay men who practice a mix of pagan and animistic rituals. Thumma and Gray separate the book's 21 essays into three categories, "Denominational Heritage Expressions," "Subaltern/Sectarian Expressions" and "Popular Expressions," and include an essay by Marie Griffith that challenges this taxonomy. While the sectioning of the book will probably work for most readers, the use of disappointingly dated research may not. In the first section, for example, Thumma's essay about gay evangelicals and Moshe Shokeid's essay about a gay synagogue both feature field work done between 15 and 25 years ago. In an anthology that does not purport to be a history, the absence of more recent investigations is frustrating. 
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