Biography

I have always believed I came into this world knowing why I am here. My parents and grandparents loved telling everyone that at the age of three I announced I was going to be a preacher, at four I was preaching to the chickens as I fed them and at five I was taking the ones I thought were saved to the water barrel at the corner of the house and baptizing them!

Growing up in a conservative, evangelical Southern Baptist culture in southern Mississippi in the 1950.s, the realization at puberty that I was attracted to other males was devastating. The two most profound experiential realities in my life—that I was meant to be a minister and that I was homosexual—felt irreconcilable. By the time I went to college to begin preparing for ministry, I was a house divided. At times, I loved my spirituality and despised my sexuality. At other times, I embraced my sexuality and resented my spirituality. I was licensed to preach by the Southern Baptist Convention at age 18 and began working in churches to pay for my education. After my sophomore year I married a wonderful woman, hoping my orientation would change or that I could successfully conceal it.

After two years in the military and graduating from college, my young son and I moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where I entered Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the Fall of 1970. While in Seminary I was Assistant to the Pastor of St. Mark's United Church of Christ in New Albany, Indiana. In 1972 the UCC ordained William Johnson, the first gay person ordained by a mainline denomination in modern history. The publicity around that event deepened my own personal crisis, which had been slowly escalating for years. I reached the conclusion I could not preach the truth and live a lie. I became deeply depressed and suicidal. Then, through the only event in my life that I can only explain as a literal miracle, I found a copy of, The Lord Is My Shepherd And He Knows I'm Gay, by Reverend Troy Perry. Shortly thereafter, I traveled To Chicago, Illinois and found Good Shepherd Parish, Metropolitan Community Church. I was 30 years old and for the first time, during that first worship service, the warring realities that were my life were at peace. My sexuality and my spirituality were reconciled and I knew where and how I would spend the rest of my life.

After returning home and coming out to everyone I knew, and with a divorce in process, I arrived in Chicago in the Spring of 1974 broken, lost and feeling totally alone in the world. Good Shepherd Parish gathered me in, loved me and helped me to heal. In November of that year I was elected the church's pastor. After my installation service I was shaking hands with a long line of people and looked up into deep blue eyes that had been distracting me for several weeks. I remember going home that night and praying, “God, I really hope this is your will, because I am making plans for that man's life”.

I have been looking into those same eyes now for 46 years. For all those years, Tom Cole has been my partner, lover, friend, biggest supporter...and is now my husband. From Chicago our journey led us to Los Angeles where I served as Pastor of MCC in the Valley, North Hollywood, California, 1982-1989. After serving as an HIV Educator and Counselor for the HIV.

Healthcare Center in West Hollywood we moved to Austin, Texas in 1993, where I served as pastor of MCC Austin, 1993 - 2006. From 2007 - 2013 served as an MCC Elder, then retired.

Today, Tom and I, along with Reverend Jo Bell, Cheryl Meyer, Barb Crabtree and a dedicated group of supporters, are creating Sanctuary in the Woods, a retreat and event center on our beautiful homestead 20 miles east of Austin, Texas.