He is the author of Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate and Talking Across the Divide: How to Communicate with People You Disagree With and Maybe Even Change the World, and the director of a 2009 documentary, Through My Eyes, which explores the struggles of young gay Christians.[1][2][3]
He is the founder and former executive director of the Gay Christian Network, which he ran from 2001 to 2017, and Nuance Ministries, which he has run since 2017.[4]
Background
Lee grew up in a conservativeChristian home and continued identifying as an evangelical even after coming out as gay. According to The New York Times, "Justin Lee believes that the Virgin birth was real, that there is a heaven and a hell, that salvation comes through Christ alone and that he... is an evangelical Christian."[5]
In 1997, after struggling to reconcile his own faith and sexuality, Lee posted his story online and heard from others who were similarly struggling. This led him to be more outspoken on behalf of LGBT Christians.[6][7]
Involvement with the Gay Christian Network
In August 2001, Lee launched the Gay Christian Network (GCN), first as a small online community of gay Christians, and then as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to provide resources and support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Christians. The organization was notable for its welcoming of "Side B" gay and bi Christians who abstain from same-sex sexual relationships, despite Lee's own "Side A" (affirming) views.[8] In an interview for CNN, Lee explained:
We're just trying to get people together who experience attraction to the same sex, however they have handled that, and who love Jesus and say, OK, you are welcome here, and then let's pray together and figure out where God wants us to take it.[9]
In 2007, Lee discussed the organization's origins as an online community:
The Internet has made a huge difference in creating a movement [...]. What at first might have seemed a little fringe group is then able to gain momentum as people meet others and discover they’re not alone.[10]
By 2016, the organization had grown to the point that its conference was being promoted as "the largest annual LGBT Christian event" with an attendance of "1,500+ LGBT Christians and allies."[11]
In 2017, Lee and the GCN board of directors announced in a joint statement that he would be leaving the organization "due to irreconcilable differences about the direction and future of the organization," and that the organization's name would soon be changing.[4][12][13] The organization later rebranded as Q Christian Fellowship, though Lee has distanced himself from the new incarnation, calling it "an entirely different organization."[14]
After his departure from GCN, Lee said he intended to continue doing LGBT Christian activism and announced the formation of a new nonprofit called Nuance Ministries.[15][12]
In his book Torn, he discussed his own experience with the "ex-gay" movement in the 1990s, writing that "therapy can't make gay people straight...what's typically happening is behavior change, not orientation (that is, attraction) change."[1]
In 2006, he appeared on the Dr. Phil Show to argue that attempting to change someone's orientation does not work.[16]
In 2012, Lee held a public conversation with Alan Chambers, then the president of "ex-gay" organization Exodus International, in which Lee argued that Exodus was hurting people and being dishonest about their results. Chambers then admitted that
The majority of people whom I have met, and I would say the majority meaning 99.9 percent of them, have not experienced a change in their orientation or have gotten to a place where they can say that they could never be tempted or are not tempted in some way, or experience some level of same-sex attraction.[17]
A year later, when Exodus announced that they would be closing, Lee wrote, "As a Christian, I grew up believing groups like Exodus could make me straight. Even years after I realized that didn't work, I continued to hear from friends and family who pushed me to keep trying to change my orientation. Exodus's announcement today is the acknowledgement many of us have been waiting to hear for a long, long time."[18]
"Side A"/"Side B" dialogue
Lee engages in frequent public dialogues with Spiritual Friendship co-founders Ron Belgau and Wesley Hill in which Lee takes a "Side A" position (arguing for monogamous same-sex relationships) and Belgau or Hill takes a "Side B" position (arguing for celibacy).[19][20][21][22]
Other notable details
Lee is recognizable for his baldness and noticeable lack of eyebrows due to alopecia areata, a condition he has had since childhood.[23]
Within Christianity, there are a variety of views on sexual orientation and homosexuality. The view that various Bible passages speak of homosexuality as immoral or sinful emerged through its interpretation and has since become entrenched in many Christian denominations through church doctrine and the wording of various translations of the Bible.
The LGBTQ community is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning individuals united by a common culture and social movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. LGBTQ activists and sociologists see LGBTQ community-building as a counterweight to heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, sexualism, and conformist pressures that exist in the larger society. The term pride or sometimes gay pride expresses the LGBTQ community's identity and collective strength; pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. The LGBTQ community is diverse in political affiliation. Not all people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender consider themselves part of the LGBTQ community.
The ex-gay movement consists of people and organizations that encourage people to refrain from entering or pursuing same-sex relationships, to eliminate homosexual desires and to develop heterosexual desires, or to enter into a heterosexual relationship. Beginning with the founding of Love In Action and Exodus International in the mid-1970s, the movement saw rapid growth in the 1980s and 1990s before declining in the 2000s.
John Paulk is an American activist who, from 1998 to 2003, was an advocate of the ex-gay movement and conversion therapy. In April 2013, Paulk disavowed his belief in gay reparative therapy and issued a formal apology for his role as an advocate of the movement.
Wayne Besen is an American LGBT rights advocate. He is a former investigative journalist for WABI-TV, a former spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, and the founder of Truth Wins Out. Besen came out to his parents before starting his Truth Wins Out Organization. After coming out to his parents, they bought him an ex-gay DVD that could supposedly hypnotize people and turn them straight. It was that and the invitation by President George W. Bush of ex-gay leader Alan Chambers to the White House that led him to start the Truth Wins Out organization.
Exodus International was a non-profit, interdenominational ex-gay Christian umbrella organization connecting organizations that sought to "help people who wished to limit their homosexual desires". Founded in 1976, Exodus International originally asserted that conversion therapy, the reorientation of same-sex attraction, was possible. In 2006, Exodus International had over 250 local ministries in the United States and Canada and over 150 ministries in 17 other countries. Although Exodus was formally an interdenominational Christian entity, it was most closely associated with Protestant and evangelical denominations.
Mission: America is an American Christian right organization based in Columbus, Ohio and founded in 1995 that seeks to "cover the latest cultural and social trends in our country and what they might mean for Christians." The organization publishes articles on its web site about its views on homosexuality and paganism. Mission: America's founder and president, Linda Harvey, is an outspoken critic of LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage.
Ex-ex-gay people are those who formerly participated in the ex-gay movement in an attempt to change their sexual orientation to heterosexual, but who then later went on to publicly state they had a non-heterosexual sexual orientation.
Unitarian Universalism, as practiced by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), and the Canadian Unitarian Council (CUC), is a non-Creedal and Liberal theological tradition and an LGBTQ affirming denomination.
Gay Community News was an American weekly newspaper published in Boston, Massachusetts from 1973 to 1999. Designed as a resource for the LGBT community, the newspaper reported a wide variety of gay and lesbian-related news.
The Q Christian Fellowship (QCF) is an ecumenical Christian ministry focused on serving lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, and straight ally Christians. It was founded in 2001 as the Gay Christian Network (GCN) by Justin Lee and is currently administered from Denver, Colorado. It was re-branded in 2018 to better reflect the diversity of the ministry and community they serve. According to the re-branding documents, the 'Q' does not correlate to any particular word. Instead, it is just the letter 'Q' open for interpretation.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Laos go unreported and unnoticed. While homosexuality is legal in Laos, it is very difficult to assess the current state of acceptance and violence that LGBTQ people face because of government interference. Numerous claims have suggested that Laos is one of the most tolerant communist states. Despite such claims, discrimination still exists. Laos provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people, nor does it prohibit hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for any of the rights that opposite-sex married couples enjoy, as neither same-sex marriage nor civil unions are legal.
In the United States, the Day of Dialogue is the Christian fundamentalist group Focus on the Family's annual event to oppose LGBTQ rights. It was founded by the Alliance Defense Fund in 2005 to oppose the Day of Silence, an annual day of protest against the harassment and bullying of LGBTQ students that was organized by Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network. Since 2018 the Day of Dialogue is not marked on a single date or organized nationally.
The modern South Korean LGBT rights movement arose in the 1990s, with several small organizations seeking to combat sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.
Hoshen is an Israeli non-profit LGBTQ organization which is listed by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association as the largest such organization in Israel. Hoshen is the Hebrew acronym for Education and Change.
The development of LGBT culture in Philadelphia can be traced back to the early 20th century. It exists in current times as a dynamic, diverse, and philanthropically active culture with establishments and events held to promote LGBT culture and rights in Philadelphia and beyond.
Vancouver's LGBT community is centered on Davie Village. Commercial Drive has historically acted as a gayborhood for the Vancouver lesbian community. Historically, LGBT people have also gathered in the Chinatown and Gastown neighborhoods. Former establishments include Dino's Turkish Baths, a gay bathhouse on Hastings, and the city's first drag bar, BJ's, on Pender Street.
Side B Christians are Christians who identify as LGBT or have LGBTQ+ experiences, but take a traditional view of human sexuality and thus commit to celibacy or a mixed-orientation marriage. The term Side B derives from an Internet forum where Side A Christians, with an affirming view of LGBT sexuality, were contrasted with Side B Christians. Prominent Side B Christians include Eve Tushnet, a lesbian Catholic based in Washington, DC, and Bekah Mason, executive director of Revoice. In particular, Side B Christians reject conversion therapy. Side B is also distinct from Side Y, which does not affirm LGBT identification.
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