Hello again everyone,

This is an interview I did with the editor of an online LGBT spirituality site. The site embraces a wide range of faiths and spiritual beliefs.

Clayton Gibson is a familiar face in LGBT activism, and he has been a member of Soulforce for several years.

Gibson, who is based in Ann Arbor, is the guiding force behind MyOutSpirit.com, a new LGBT spirituality resource available on the Web. The site combines the connectivity of social networking with a wealth of resources for LGBT spirituality in all forms.

Q: How long has the website been in operation, and what led to its creation?

A: MyOutSpirit.com launched a few months ago, and already it has more than 1,000 members. The site had been in development since the Gay Spirit Culture Summit in 2004, when 130 gay male spiritual leaders from around the world gathered to consider how to work together to shift gay culture toward a positive, caring, authentic, safe, and respectful community that supports each individual in being herself or himself and valuing her or his uniqueness, strengths, and inner wisdom.
I was asked by several attendees to create a way to connect LGBT people with the amazing (and often unknown) affirming spiritual resources that exist for them. MyOutSpirit.com makes it easy for spiritual LGBT people to find each other as well as affirming resources to support their health and personal development.

Q: What should we know about MyOutSpirit?

A: MyOutSpirit.com is the only social networking website in the world specifically for LGBT people of all spiritual traditions (or none) who want to find community and support for their integral growth: physical, mental, spiritual, and social.

In addition, LGBT people spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on body/mind/spirit products and services, and MyOutSpirit.com is the only direct way to promote such resources directly to this important community.

Q: What are the demographics of the members, in terms of the religious communities they belong to?

A: MyOutSpirit members and resources come from all different belief systems and backgrounds. I would say most of them have created a spiritual practice and understanding unique to them, like the old saying, “Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

Q: Do you collaborate with other sites or organizations?

A: Any LGBT-affirming resource in the body/mind/spirit field can add itself to MyOutSpirit.com. In fact, we are giving away $1,000,000 in free advertising to resources that do not charge for their services, like churches or blogs!

Q: Has there been a particularly memorable experience for you in being part of the site?

A: A dear friend of mine called me in early January. I hadn't spoken to him in a while and hadn't seen him in six months or so. He told me that he had been using crystal meth constantly for several weeks, and he was suffering from severe paranoia as a result, when he visited MyOutSpirit.com and saw our photo contest slogan “Remember who you want to be.” He says that that was the trigger that helped him quit using meth and start getting his life back together. I was so moved that this project made such a difference in my friend’s life that I started crying on the phone with him.

I guess [that experience] brought home to me just how important MyOutSpirit.com has the potential to be – to the LGBT community, to the body/mind/spirit resources that serve us, and to individual LGBT people struggling with life – wrestling with the angel. I'm proud of what we've done so far and excited about the good we are going to do at MyOutSpirit.