What gets to count as work for queer and trans people? This is a question illustrator and comic artist Syan Rose's remarkable collection, Our Work is Everywhere: An Illustrated Oral History of Queer and Trans Resistance, explores through illustrations of her interviews with activists. Published this year, Rose provides an energetic source of connection and community. On our Queer Devotions podcast, we got a chance to ask Rose about the process of interviewing and illustrating so many activists across the country. 

Some highlights include: "Queer Muslim Family" with Mirna Haidar,  “Everything You Love About New Orleans is Because of Black People,” a conversation with Phlegm, "Our Brown Divinity" with Dusty Lamay and “Auriga” with Jaye Sablan. This work also comes with naming Black, Indigenous and people of colour as originators of queer cultures, joy, community care, healing, and so much more. 

Bonnie Violet, a trans, gender queer drag queen, has many stories to tell. Growing up in Idaho, Bonnie Violet first found a fulfilling community in church and felt a calling within her to be of service to others. But her queerness and transness didn’t feel compatible, at first, with the church, and she left it for a decade.

But that calling still lived within Bonnie, as she worked in HIV/AIDS advocacy, and she began to reclaim the spiritual thread in her life, undertaking a remarkable process of healing that she shares in our Queer Devotions podcast.

Now Bonnie Violet is “A Queer Chaplain” with a vibrant YouTube page and Facebook group, where she interviews drag queens about their spirituality, hosts multifaith discussions about transness and spirituality, and talks across the religious divide with her conservative aunt in a podcast called, Splintered Grace. Her work provides spiritual and pastoral care to queer and trans folks who are so often denied it.

Standout episodes of her Drag & Spirituality series include her discussion with Ms. Penny Cost, Fonda Coxx, and a multifaith discussion with Mango Lassi, Coco Sho-Nell, LoUis CYfer.

This work is now included in our Resource Portal, launched today with other work focused on the spiritual care of queer and trans people. This includes the memoir of Rev. Dr. Cheri NiNovo, The Queer Evangelist, Beloved Arise’s album, Serenade, Ivan Coyote’s new book Care Of: Letters, Connections, and Cures, and the article from Autrostraddle, “Queering Faith: Reclaiming the Holy of Spirituality.”

In 2013, the queer chaplain Mandi Rice embarked on the ‘Queerituality’ road trip, speaking with nearly 100 people across 17 American cities, asking one very big question: “What is life like for you at the intersection of queerness & spirituality?” On our Queer Devotions podcast, Rice described the incredible organic momentum of the project and its legacy almost ten years later, as well as the ‘Queerituality Guide' she put together which condensed her findings. The Queerituality Road Trip and A Queerituality Guide, are now, excitingly, a part of our Resource Portal.