He feared coming out. Now this pastor wants to help Black churches become as welcoming as his own
Associated Press
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The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church Sunday, May 5, 2024 in Newton, Mass. In 2015, Crowley, the senior pastor of the church, one of America's oldest Black churches, announced to his congregation, I am a proud, Black, gay Christian male. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, left, speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. Crowley felt he was called to be a Christian pastor a preacher of the social justice gospel. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, center, meets with parishioners, from left, D'Najah Picou, deacon Julie Robinson, and Pennye Williams, after Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley embraces a parishioner after Sunday services at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. Some congregation members decided to leave Myrtle after he announced he was gay, but mostly there was strong support for the pastor. Myrtles pews swelled with new members, many of them gay, and Crowley felt emboldened look beyond Newton and take aim at the broader realm of the Black Church. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church Sunday, May 5, 2024 in Newton, Mass. Crowley has written a book Queering the Black Church that he hopes can serve as a guide for other congregations to be open and affirming to LGBTQ+ people rather than shunning them. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, center, and associate the Rev. Julie Avis Rogers, confer before Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, center, prepares for Sunday service with church staff members at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, left, takes a phone call to deal with a last minute concern as parishioner Mark Kendall, right, looks on in a vestibule just before Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. Myrtle, celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, takes pride in its progressive, inclusive congregation, but many Black churches and denominations in the U.S. remain opposed to celebrating same-sex marriages or ordaining openly LGBTQ+ clergy. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church Sunday, May 5, 2024 in Newton, Mass. His closest mentors were split over whether he should tell Myrtles leaders about his sexuality or stay quiet on that topic while doing a good job as preacher. He chose the latter course and operated that way for six years after his election as Myrtles new senior pastor in 2009. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. In his book, Crowley notes that the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr. crusaded against homosexuality during his 1908-1936 leadership of New Yorks Abyssinian Baptist Church one of the most prominent Black churches in the country. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley, center, leads Sunday services at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton, Mass., on Sunday, May 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
The Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley speaks during Sunday service at Myrtle Baptist Church Sunday, May 5, 2024 in Newton, Mass. In 2015, Crowley, the senior pastor of the church, one of America's oldest Black churches, announced to his congregation, I am a proud, Black, gay Christian male. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)