It’s June 19, 2022, and I’m just now writing my annual Pride Month post. I know, I know… It’s not like me, is it? I haven’t even put the obligatory rainbow filter on my social media profile pictures! I guess it’s just a different kind of Pride Month for me this year. When I first came bursting out of the closet in 2016, I was 44 years old. I had been hiding an integral part of my identity behind a heteronormative facade for my entire life. For an ENFP, Enneagram 7, verbal processor, up front, public, relationship-driven person like me, that had been incredibly difficult. Even though so much o ..read more

Join Common Sanctuary founder and executive director Matt Nightingale as he talks with his friend Natalie Drew. In a recent feature about her, Religion News Service described her as a “43-year-old mother of two [who] lives in a Michigan suburb, drives a 12-year-old minivan, volunteers at her church youth group and unwinds by watching ‘The Office’ with her spouse,” but who defies expectations by also being “a trans woman, veteran and pacifist with a self-described orthodox Christian theology ..read more

I came out of the closet in 2016, nearly seven years ago now. It was an exciting time for me in many ways. After 44 years of living in the closet, I was finally free to live “in congruence with reality” as an openly gay man. And the United States in 2016 seemed to have reached a tipping point. The Supreme Court had just made same-sex marriage the law of the land, and support for LGBTQ+ people was at an all-time high. My first Pride Month was thrilling for me, an opportunity to express myself authentically and to celebrate with new friends. I wrote about my first SF Pride Festival here. Since ..read more

Today is National Coming Out Day. You’ve probably already seen a bunch of posts on Facebook and Instagram by people who are bravely sharing the truth about their sexuality or gender identity for the first time. And I will be the first to cheer these folks on. There is nothing like finally telling the truth about your life, finally living in congruence with reality. I’ve written posts like this before, first in 2018, when I was only two years on this side of the closet door, then again the following year. Then the pandemic happened and I stopped blogging so much, but last year I returned with ..read more

It’s #NationalComingOutDay, and every year I think about how I grateful I am to be on this side of the closet door. It’s been over 6 years now since I decided to live in congruence with reality, and although I can’t say that it’s been all rainbows and unicorns, I’ve learned an awful lot. I was 44 years old when I came out – and for me, coming out meant leaving a 23-year marriage and a long career in evangelical pastoral ministry behind. It was not a decision I took lightly. I’m so grateful for the ways that my children and even my former wife have supported me. Luanne’s and my TEDx talk in 20 ..read more

Faith Uncensored with Don and Tana Schiewer ..read more

The Group Photo on Sunday Morning of the Q Christian Fellowship Conference in Washington, DC. Can you find me? From January 5-8, I spent four days with 500+ LGBTQ+ Christians in Washington, DC, at the Q Christian Fellowship Conference. I heard amazing speakers like Karen Keen; Kai Ngu; William Matthews; Bishop O.C. Allen, III; and Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church Michael Curry. And Friday night we welcomed Semler to the Q Night Live stage. And those were just the main stage experiences. Candice Czubernat, my friend and Christian Closet colleague, and I did a workshop on “Coming Out Lat ..read more

Join Common Sanctuary founder Matt Nightingale as he talks with priest, playwright, theologian, and writer Fr. Shannon T.L. Kearns about his new book In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey with Scripture ..read more