Here’s the third installment of Many Voices, a documentary web series created by filmmaker Katina Parker for the Many Voices
organization.

The goal of the series is to feature the personal stories
of African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ)
people who came of age in Black churches. The web campaign profiles not only
lay people, but high-profile clergy as well.

The mission of the organization “is to foster a Black Church
movement for gay and transgender justice. It also offers training, resources,
and relationship-building opportunities for interested church leaders and Black
LGBTQ people.“

This latest episode centers on Ai Elo, a writer, a Cave
Canem Poetry Fellow and youth advocate.

For Ms. Elo it certainly wasn’t easy being gay and a member
of a church:

“My
pastor used to make jokes about homosexuals, and everyone in my congregation
would laugh. I’d sit there thinking ‘you’re laughing at me, you’re laughing at
my friends, you’re laughing at a part of me that I can’t change. I turned away
from church, I turned away from God, I turned away from my own spiritual
practices because I didn’t feel accepted or loved.”

Past and future episodes can be seen on Many Voices’
YouTube channel HERE, and their Facebook page HERE. You can also go to Many Voices’ own website HERE.

Also Katina Parker has her own Vimeo website HERE.