LGBT bishops
This article largely discusses presence of openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and queer bishops in churches governed under episcopal polities.
This was mainly because there was generally low tolerance for homosexuality across society, and those caught faced severe criminal sanctions (often including death).
[4] Baldric of Dol (c. 1050 – 1130), abbot of Bourgueil and subsequently Bishop of Dol-en-Bretagne in France, wrote passionate letters to a man simply called "Walter": "If you wish to take up lodging with me, I will divide my heart and breast with you.
Poems, such as the one where he sent an urgent demand that his beloved return if he wished the speaker to remain faithful to him, have been interpreted to indicate that more than poetic invention was involved.
In the 16th century in Italy, Pope Julius III (Bishop of Rome) was rumoured to have a romantic relationship with a teenage boy named Innocenzo.
[6] In the 18th century notable examples of emotional and perhaps romantic relationships among bishops include Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart and Archbishop of Genoa Giovanni Lercari.
In the Anglican Communion, John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury in England (1583–1604), formed a close relationship with Andrew Perne while at university in Cambridge.
[7] William Laud (died 1645), also Archbishop of Canterbury, managed homosexual leanings discreetly, but confided his erotic dreams about the Duke of Buckingham and others to a private diary.
[13] Mary Glasspool, who is openly gay and lives with her partner of 20 years, was elected as a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles in December 2009 and was consecrated on 15 May 2010.
In 1993 Peter Ball resigned from his position as Bishop of Gloucester after admitting to an act of gross indecency[clarification needed] with a 19-year-old man.
[22] In October 2015, Ball was sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment for misconduct in public office and indecent assault after admitting the abuse of 18 young men over a period of 15 years from 1977 to 1992.
At the same time, Tatchell began a dialogue with the Bishop of London, David Hope, who had not been named as the group thought that he could be persuaded to come out voluntarily.
[37] Barry Hollowell, who resigned as Bishop of Calgary in the Anglican Church of Canada in 2005, came out publicly in 2008 after the death of his wife, who had been aware of his sexual orientation at the time of his election to the episcopate.
[38] In 2016, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto elected as a suffragan bishop, an openly gay and partnered priest, Kevin Robertson.
[citation needed] In 2020, the Church in Wales consecrated Cherry Vann, who is in a same-sex civil partnership, as the Bishop of Monmouth.
[46] Later, he came into the public eye before the Vatican's Instruction with regard to the ordination of homosexual men was released, arguing against Andrew R. Baker's article on the issue in America.
[47] Francis Spellman, Cardinal Archbishop of New York, was long rumored to have been gay, according to a book by John Cooney, who said that many whom he interviewed took his homosexuality for granted.
[48] In addition, a book published in 1998 claims that during the Second World War, Spellman was carrying on a relationship with a chorus boy in the Broadway revue One Touch of Venus.
[citation needed] Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, retired on 24 May 2002 following the revelation that he had used $450,000 in archdiocesan funds to settle a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment.
In a statement one week later, he admitted the falsity of his previous assertion that income he had earned outside of his priestly occupation (and turned over to the Church) exceeded the $450,000.
Bishop Reginald Cawcutt blamed the scandal on the conservative US organization Roman Catholic Faithful which infiltrated the now closed website, called St. Sebastian's Angels, and traced posting addresses.
[54] In 2003, Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër was removed from office by Pope John Paul II for alleged sexual misconduct with younger men who were students in his care.
This made Groër, who had adamantly refused to ever comment in public on the allegations, one of the highest-ranking Catholic clerics to become caught up in the sexual abuse scandals.
In 2005, Juan Carlos Maccarone, the Bishop of Santiago del Estero in Argentina was forced to resign after images were released of him engaged in sexual activity with another man.
[55] Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, the Bishop of Minas in Uruguay, was forced to resign in July 2009, following a gay sex scandal in which he had faced extortion.
[56][57] In February 2013, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, was forced to resign as archbishop three months ahead of planned retirement because of allegations of inappropriate acts with four priests during the 1980s, but also more recently.
[58] In October 2016, a group in favour of same-sex marriage in Mexico called the Pride National Front (FON) alleged that a number of Catholic leaders were homosexual.
[60] In 2008 the gay German priest Horst Gorski was nominated for election as a bishop in the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church, Germany.
[66] On 8 May 2021, Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) elected the Reverend Doctor Megan Rohrer the first openly transgender bishop, the first in any major Christian denomination.
[71] At the United Methodist Church's General Conference, the delegates voted in favour of a motion to defer the issue of human sexuality to the Council of Bishops to reexamine the Book of Discipline.
