While many people enter the new year after spending time with families over the holidays, many incarcerated people enter the new year feeling an exacerbated sense of isolation. While outreach ministries, prison chapels, and other forms of spiritual care offer lifelines, many incarcerated LGBTQ+ people—especially Christians—find accessing this care more challenging.
Pastor Que J. Thomas, senior pastor of The REEL Center of Atlanta, and a formerly incarcerated transgender man, spoke to just how significant these obstacles often are.
“Spiritual care is definitely vital, but it was not a safe place,” said Thomas, who was incarcerated in the Georgia state penitentiary system from 1999 through 2015. “If you were a known LGBTQIA person on that compound, the warden and superintendent would not allow you to participate in religious services.”
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