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Meet Brian and Shannon!
Brian G. Murphy (he/him) and Shannon TL Kearns (he/him) are founders of QueerTheology — a website and podcast — and co-authors of the upcoming book Reading The Bible Through Queer Eyes. In 2013, they founded the first explicitly queer Christian movement and what is now the longest-running LGBTQ spirituality podcast. At a time when the conversation was focused on "Is it ok to be LGBTQ," their work boldly and sometimes provactively pushed the conversation to begin with how queerness enriches faith. Together, they have started and broken up conversations around the intersections of religion and purity culture, sex work, polyamory, transgender bodies, activism, and more. Then, in 2022, Brian officially converted to Judaism, completing a journey that was half a lifetime in the making. Together Brian and Shannon run Sanctuary Collective and Spiritual Study Hall, an online community and resource hub with 200 members, and have spoken at college, conferences, churches, and synagogues across the USA (and once in Prague!).
Brian Murphy is a Jewish queer sacred storyteller who works as an activist, educator, and certified relationship coach. He studied film production and religion at the University of Southern California as a Presidential Scholar and was inducted into Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honor society for religious studies and theology. Before turning to activism, Brian worked in Hollywood on a number of film and television projects and produced a pilot for a national broadcast network. He received nonviolence training through Soulforce, media training from GLAAD, and participated in the 2007 Equality Ride, engaging in direct action activism at anti-LGBTQ colleges in the USA. Brian has worked with GLSEN, Athlete Ally, Born This Way Foundation, and the Human Rights Campaign, as well as a number of local, grassroots organizations. His work has been featured in Vice, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, The Advocate, Upworthy, and NBC News. His first solo book, Love Beyond Monogamy, will be published in 2025.
Shannon TL Kearns is a transgender man who believes in the transformative power of story. As an ordained priest, a playwright, a theologian, and a writer all of his work revolves around making meaning through story. Shannon’s first book is entitled In the Margins: A Transgender Man’s Journey With Scripture — more coming in the future! Shannon is a recipient of the Humanitas New Voices Fellowship for 2022, a Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellowship in 20/21 and he was a Lambda Literary Fellow for 2019 in playwriting and in 2022 for screenwriting. He was a Finnovation Fellow for 2019/2020. He is the winner of the ScreenCraft Pitch competition, and finalist for Bull City Film Festival for his pilot Transformed. He was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill and a finalist for the Blue Ink playwriting award.
