Welcoming and Affirming: A Guide to Supporting and Working with LGBTQ+ Christian Youth

How should I respond when a teen comes out? Do I have to tell their parents? What does it mean to be transgender? And how do I talk to a trans youth?

These are the kinds of tough questions facing Christian communities everywhere. It's not enough for faith leaders to improvise their way through these questions. Leaders need concrete tools to navigate the LGBTQ+ landscape.

Welcoming and Affirming: A Guide to Supporting and Working with LGBTQ+ Christian Youth is one of those tools. A handbook for pastors, youth workers, church leaders, educators, and other adults in Christian settings, the book provides answers to the most pressing questions about sexuality, gender, mental health, safe sex, and more.

Written by a team of LGBTQ+ adults, Welcoming and Affirming features first-hand, personal testimonials from queer young adults who have experienced the joys and hardships of being queer and Christian. You'll walk away with a lot of insight, prepared to love, affirm, and accept the LGBTQ+ teens in your community the way God does--exactly as they are.

Welcoming and Affirming is a companion book to Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens.

Leigh Finke is a writer, media producer, and editor. Her work focuses on religion and culture, and how both intersect with the lives of queer people in the United States.

Born in the Twin Cities, Finke has lived in Chicago, Missoula, and Los Angeles, and has worked in journalism, politics and policy, magazine editing, blogging, podcasting, advocacy, teaching, and academia. This trajectory represents Finke's lifelong love of learning, gathering new experiences, and interacting with diverse communities.

In addition to her professional endeavors, Finke is passionate about LGBTQ+ advocacy, particularly as it relates to the many ways Christianity in the United States has been used to harm queer youth.

Finke and her two kids live in St. Paul, Minnesota.