Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens

ALA 2021 Rainbow List Pick

Are you LGBTQ+? Not sure? Whether you're queer or questioning, understanding sexuality and gender identity can be confusing. And if you're a Christian, questions of identity can be even scarier. Is there something wrong with you? Will your friends accept you? When should you tell your family? What about church?

Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens has answers to all these questions and more. You'll get insight and support from an amazing group of LGBTQ+ professionals, as well as testimonies from young adult queer Christians who've recently been exactly where you are. You'll walk away with a lot of answers, prepared with tools to help. But most importantly, you'll hear the good news: God loves you exactly as you are. No matter your identity or where in your journey of self-discovery you find yourself, you got this.

Leigh Finke is a writer, media producer, and editor. Her work focuses on religion and culture, and how both intersect with the lives of queer people in the United States.

Born in the Twin Cities, Finke has lived in Chicago, Missoula, and Los Angeles, and has worked in journalism, politics and policy, magazine editing, blogging, podcasting, advocacy, teaching, and academia. This trajectory represents Finke's lifelong love of learning, gathering new experiences, and interacting with diverse communities.

In addition to her professional endeavors, Finke is passionate about LGBTQ+ advocacy, particularly as it relates to the many ways Christianity in the United States has been used to harm queer youth.

Finke and her two kids live in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jennifer Knapp is a highly acclaimed singer-songwriter who got her start in Christian Contemporary Music (CCM). Knapp exited CCM in 2002 at the height of her professional music career. On her return in 2010, she publicly confirmed that she was gay. Today, she performs and tours extensively and actively engages in advocacy work alongside religious communities and leaders that seek to create an open and affirming spiritual home for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of faith.