Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith

In this first book from an openly lesbian and celibate Catholic, widely published writer and blogger Eve Tushnet recounts her spiritual and intellectual journey from liberal atheism to faithful Catholicism and shows how gay Catholics can love and be loved while adhering to Church teaching. Eve Tushnet was among the unlikeliest of converts. The only child of two atheist academics, Tushnet was a typical Yale undergraduate until the day she went out to poke fun at a gathering of philosophical debaters, who happened also to be Catholic. Instead of enjoying mocking what she termed the “zoo animals,” she found herself engaged in intellectual conversation with them and, in a move that surprised even her, she soon converted to Catholicism. Already self-identifying as a lesbian, Tushnet searched for a third way in the seeming two-option system available to gay Catholics: reject Church teaching on homosexuality or reject the truth of your sexuality. Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith is the fruit of Tushnet’s searching: what she learned in studying Christian history and theology and her articulation of how gay Catholics can pour their love and need for connection into friendships, community, service, and artistic creation.”A humane, brave, and groundbreaking book.””By turns hilarious, thoughtful, constructive, and searingly honest, Gay and Catholic is a must-read for anyone who believes the terms are mutually exclusive, for anyone who thinks seriously about Catholicism and the pastoral care of the homosexual person, for anyone who thinks they’ve already figured it all out. Eve Tushnet has written a humane, brave, and groundbreaking book that demolishes assumptions. If you think you know what she is going to say, you don’t. So you need to read this.” Elizabeth ScaliaAuthor of Strange Gods: Unmasking the Idols in Everyday Life