From www.examiner.com:

Christian star Jennifer Knapp is gay

Christian music star Jennifer Knapp, who went into self-imposed exile seven years ago, is back with a new album and a new revelation - she's a lesbian.

According to CNN, the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter "simply vanished" in 2003 at the height of her career -- leaving fans wondering where she had gone. Her new album will be released in May, and she has revealed that she has been in a same-sex relationship for the past eight years.

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Christan singer Jennifer Knapp comes back and comes out

"I'm aware that the evangelical community has problems with divorce and many other facets of their artists, let alone homosexuality," Knapp said. "I really felt a strong obligation to be able to address that because for many people, it was really clear that they wouldn't participate in buying a record because it was against their beliefs."

"For many people who buy Christian music or have been familiar with me and my writings as a person of faith, I felt like it was the honest thing to do," she added. "The last thing I wanted to do was to have someone go out and buy a record and feel like they had been hoodwinked."

Congratulations, Jennifer, for showing the world that a person can be Christian and gay. And best of luck with your new album!

From ABC News:

Christian Music Star Jennifer Knapp Says She Is a Lesbian

By Dean Goodman
Reuters
LOS ANGELES


A rising star on the Christian music scene is returning to the public eye with a new identity after a mysterious seven-year absence spent mostly on the other side of the world.

Jennifer Knapp is not only coming out with a new album, she is also "coming out," a term the Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter considers "very bizarre" as she nervously relaunches her career.

The 36-year-old Kansas native, who dated men during her college days, is braced for a backlash from religious fans who faithfully shot down whispered rumors about her sexuality over the years. On the other hand, she said in a recent interview with Reuters, "I'm definitely getting a lot more friendly winks from the girls (at her concerts) than I have in the past!"

No other singer of Knapp's renown in the Christian music genre is openly gay. In the past, the industry looked dimly on those who deviated from the straight and narrow. Radio stations and retailers quickly dropped Sandi Patty and Michael English after they admitted to (separate) extra-marital affairs during the 1990s. Amy Grant was also blacklisted when she went through a divorce later that decade. All have since been forgiven to varying degrees.

Knapp is taking a preemptive stand anyway. She has recorded a mainstream album, and is not specifically targeting Christian radio stations and retailers.

"I just wouldn't find it respectful at all to say, 'Hey, this is something that you want in your store next to your Jesus statue,'" she said. "It would just be disingenuous to try and convince someone that they needed to do that."

BORN AGAIN, AGAIN?

Still, Knapp considers herself a "person of faith" and recoils at the suggestion that she is turning her back on the church, an accusation that dogged the likes of Sam Cooke and Aretha Franklin when they left gospel for pop stardom.

As a mainstream act targeting the adult album alternative niche -- alongside the likes of U2 and fellow lesbian Melissa Etheridge -- it is suggested to Knapp that she is now born again, again.

"Maybe that's what I should have called the record," she said. Instead, Knapp opted for the equally forthright "Letting Go," which will be released May 11 through Sony Music-owned independent distributor RED.

It will mark her fourth album and first release since 2001's "The Way I Am," which received a Grammy nomination for best rock gospel album.

Knapp has sold about a million albums since releasing her 1998 debut "Kansas." She toured relentlessly, and was part of the lineup of the 1999 Lilith Fair tour. She also won four Dove Awards, the gospel music industry's top honors.

But increasingly exhausted and dispirited, Knapp lived the fantasy of many working stiffs by dropping out and traveling the world. She ended up in Australia, became a citizen, and now drops the friendly appellation "mate" into the conversation. She plans to spend most of her personal time Down Under.

But Knapp's time in the wilderness was not all about shrimps on the barbie and Vegemite sandwiches. She underwent an early midlife crisis of sorts as she reexamined her faith, sexuality and career. Making music was the furthest thing from her mind.

Before Knapp met her girlfriend in the United States, she was celibate for 10 years, which she says is in line with the general expectation for unmarried members of the evangelical community.

"Anyone who has a decade of celibacy has 'complete loser' written on their back," she joked, although she still respects those who do abstain.

Knapp's new sexual identity is clearly a major talking point, but she does not view herself as a crusader in the gay community. She jealously guards her privacy and that of her girlfriend, who "doesn't want to be famous in any way whatsoever at all."

While fans will inevitably scour the songs for clues about her new love life, Knapp says she never writes songs about specific people. But she pulls no punches in the first line of the track "Inside," singing: "I know they'll bury me before they hear the whole story."

"I hope that the defiance does come across as humble," she explained. "If there's any frustration, it's trying to politely break the yoke of being asked to be something that I just can't be, and with all humility go: 'Just please be kind when you discover the truth.' It's kinda all you can do."

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)

(To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog "Fan Fare" online at http://blogs.reuters.com/fanfare/)


Copyright 2010 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.

I don't even remember her. :confused:

No comment

I am probably going to get flamed for this or banned but right now I don't care.
If you are truly a Christian and have Jesus in your heart then there is no way you can be gay. It's just not possible. When God created man he created woman as well and that's just the way it's supposed to be. It even says in the Bible that "man should not lay with man and woman should not lay with woman, it's an abomination in the eyes of God." It's a sin plain and simple.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not judging, I'm just stating what I know and have been taught. If that's the way she chooses to live her life, that's fine but that doesn't mean that it's right and everyone will accept it. I am a Christian and by no means perfect, nobody is, everyone sins and makes mistakes but to claim to be Christian and a lesbian just doesn't hold water with me. I just can't accept that. It's a free country and everyone has a right to voice their opinion. Sorry that is just how I feel.
I have one of her albums and to find this out now, just devastates me.
What Amy Grant did is nothing compared to revealing you're a lesbian. Divorce is nothing. There are a lot of Christians who get divorces but not very many who admit to being lesbians. Just an observation. Those who turned their back on Amy Grant because she got a divorce are being hypocrites. I am not turning my back on Jennifer because she is a lesbian, I will still listen to her music. I just don't have to like that she's a lesbian, I probably never will like it.
I mean there are a lot of artists out there who are gay and I still enjoy their music, I even have gay friends. Just because I have gay friends and enjoy music by gay artists doesn't mean I approve of their lifestyle. It's their choice. I'm done now.

To say that you can't be Christian and gay is simply asinine. That's all there is to it. Good for her for having the courage to come out.

To say that you can't be Christian and gay is simply asinine. That's all there is to it. Good for her for having the courage to come out.

Whatever you say. I have my opinion and you have yours. Have a nice day. :)

Well, even if you think that being gay is a sin (which I don't), you can hardly disqualify someone from being a Christian because they are a sinner. Aren't we ALL sinners in the eyes of God? To infer that the "sin" of being gay is worse than all the myriad other sins that we all commit every day (coveting, lust, lying, selfishness, gluttony, pride, gossiping, etc.) makes no sense to me. And what scale do we use to measure these things? Are we, as supposedly "non judgmental" mortals, really supposed to judge them at all? Isn't that the province of a Higher Power?

For the record, I don't think being gay is anymore a "lifestyle" than being left-handed is. It's genetic, the vast preponderence of evidence suggests clearly. Who on earth would choose to be gay in a world that is so uniformly against it?

I think what she did shows guts and I'm sure she'll be roundly slammed as a result. But she could have simply continued to rake in the cash as a Christian singer and never reveal this and live a lie. By being honest, she's risking career oblivion so no one can rationally say she's doing this for any reason beyond a simple need to tell the truth.

Whatever you say. I have my opinion and you have yours. Have a nice day. :)

Thanks! :D

For the record, I don't think being gay is anymore a "lifestyle" than being left-handed is. It's genetic, the vast preponderence of evidence suggests clearly. Who on earth would choose to be gay in a world that is so uniformly against it?



So true, but the other side never replies to that. It's just, "because the Bible says so." Reminds me of a time a professor refused to listen to the class about something that was wrong, "because the answer key said so."

I am probably going to get flamed for this or banned but right now I don't care.
If you are truly a Christian and have Jesus in your heart then there is no way you can be gay. It's just not possible. When God created man he created woman as well and that's just the way it's supposed to be. It even says in the Bible that "man should not lay with man and woman should not lay with woman, it's an abomination in the eyes of God." It's a sin plain and simple.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not judging, I'm just stating what I know and have been taught. If that's the way she chooses to live her life, that's fine but that doesn't mean that it's right and everyone will accept it. I am a Christian and by no means perfect, nobody is, everyone sins and makes mistakes but to claim to be Christian and a lesbian just doesn't hold water with me. I just can't accept that. It's a free country and everyone has a right to voice their opinion. Sorry that is just how I feel.
I have one of her albums and to find this out now, just devastates me.
What Amy Grant did is nothing compared to revealing you're a lesbian. Divorce is nothing. There are a lot of Christians who get divorces but not very many who admit to being lesbians. Just an observation. Those who turned their back on Amy Grant because she got a divorce are being hypocrites. I am not turning my back on Jennifer because she is a lesbian, I will still listen to her music. I just don't have to like that she's a lesbian, I probably never will like it.
I mean there are a lot of artists out there who are gay and I still enjoy their music, I even have gay friends. Just because I have gay friends and enjoy music by gay artists doesn't mean I approve of their lifestyle. It's their choice. I'm done now.
The verse you quote about "man shall not lie with man as with a woman" is from Leviticus. The reason why it was written was a command for the Israelites, then a wandrring tribe in the Sinai Desert, to not participate in sexual relationships which would not result in childbirths. Due to the small number of Jews in the wilderness, it was necessary to keep up the birthrate.
The Old Testament contains many texts which are not necessarily applicable today. Such as prohibitions against eating pork and shellfish. Isn't this a bigger deal than people being gay? Jewish people certainly think it is.

But the real question is, why do people become gay? And more importantly, is being a born again Christian necessarily a deterrent from sexual attraction, or sexual thoughts? The stories going on in the past twenty years or so prove otherwise.

Interestingly, there seem to be quite a number of gay performers in Christian music. Ray Boltz is another example.

It's a sticky issue, for sure. Our church still uses Ray Boltz's song "Watch the Lamb" for our annual Good Friday drama.